Discussion about the making or playing of English Language Visual Novels.
Do you have a question about a Japanese visual novel or a translation of it?
/vn/ is ready to answer it.
Want to talk about Katawa Shoujo or similar evns? /ksg/ is the place for you.
>Getting Started:
http://pastebin.com/7LsCvtq3
>Recommended Reading:
https://vndb.org/v/all?q=;fil=olang-en.tagspoil-0;o=d;s=rating
For Developers. Huge collection of guides on everything:
http://meganelover.com/post/122965940223/visual-novel-creation-masterlist
Ren'Py Download:
http://www.renpy.org/
Previous Thread >>135240342 →
I guess I'm all alone right now. I hope you're all having a productive day!
No shitposting pls
I am having an awesome day. Working on my eroVN and learning Ren'Py along the way.
>>135892272
That's good to hear, learning new things always gets me in a good mood as well. What made you decide to make a VN?
>>135892272
My day isn't too good, but I'm glad you're having a good one and being productive.
>>135892272
I wish I wasn't so lazy. I could learn how to draw porn and improve my art while doing my game.
>>135893262
It's kind of a long story. I started getting into game development a while back, and I was having trouble choosing what kind of game I wanted to make. I learned all kinds of things like 3D modeling in blender, C# for Unity, a little bit of GML for Game Maker Studio, messed around with UE4, Godot, Fusion, and Love. It was all very frustrating as a beginner just how much you need to learn to get into game dev as a single person, and I thought about giving up multiple times. What I wanted to make was a story based game, and I only had experience with art. My experience with programming was limited at best. One day I was reading a thread on /v/ about a game made in Ren'Py, and I was blown away by just how much could be achieved in what I thought to be a simple Visual Novel engine. It turns out that it's actually very capable of making games that are much more than just clicking through text. I messed around with it a bit, and it feels very intuitive and powerful. Considering that I like making art, and I want a game based around storytelling and interesting characters, this seems like a great way to do it. The downsides are that I'm new to python, and my writing skills are very unpolished. Also, somewhere along the way I decided to turn it into a H-game since I'm a complete pervert.
>>135893416
That's unfortunate, and thanks. Hope it gets better for you.
>>135895279
I'm also very lazy. I'm not sure about you, but some things really helped me out like living a healthy lifestyle, reducing clutter, keeping a schedule, and reducing distractions so that I can stay focused on the task at hand.
Art is like a battle for many people. Even highly skilled artists (which I am not) often have trouble getting into it sometimes. The advice I've gotten is to just do it. Make time in the schedule and just do a bit every day. If you have trouble getting started, just dive into it. I find that after about 5 minutes of drawing, I get absorbed by the act and I'm able to keep doing it as long as I want. Take breaks if you need, or listen to music/silence/white noise. You can do it, but no one can influence you to do it more than yourself. If you really want to get into art, I highly recommend it. It greatly improves my mood when I have a finished piece that I can get feedback on, whether good or bad. Start small, and build up. Don't punish yourself too much for mistakes. Don't spend too much time on a single picture when you're starting out. Learn the fundamentals. I could go on for hours, sorry.
> companies hesitant to pick up otome titles because recent KS have failed
jfc, stupid Beastmaster and their awful campaign ruining things.
What is the Undertale of evns?
>>135897140
Katawa Shoujo
Welp, got banned over the weekend so I wasn't able to postabout my battle framework being released. https://project-rothera.itch.io/sheepstorm-battle-framework.
>>135897738
Nice touch with the 420.
>>135896783
OZMAFIA is the top seller on Mangagamer atm. Anyone basing their decisions solely on Beastmaster is more of an idiot than those devs were.
>>135896783
Their ChuSingura Kickstarter was so shit supporters were telling them to cancel it.
Nobody who knows what they're doing and actually wants to pick up an otome title would use them as reference.
>>135897738
I saw that battle system yesterday when doing my search for a system that would work for my game. It looks pretty good, but unfortunately it won't work for my game.
>>135900326
Ah, is there a bug? Or it just doesn't fit your project's requirements?
>>135900996
Not sure, but it looks pretty cool. The reason I can't use it is because I'm looking to make a pokemon style battle system for my game. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find much for that kind of a system. So I'll probably end up making my own.
Soooo looks like the devs who made panzermadel are going to make a new VN parody about North Korea?
http://forums.fuwanovel.net/topic/13544-go-go-democratic-peoples-republic-of-korea/
>>135902413
>panzermadel
Wow, I just realized that game was made with TyranoBuilder. It sold decently too.
>>135901914
http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=14713
Well, this has a pokemon-esque system. Maybe you can ask for the source and do it from there.
>>135903186
Awesome, haven't seen that before. Thank you.
I'll look into it.
>>135905895
Cute. Is this art from your VN?
>>135906946
I just grab random shit off LSF. I think that may actually be a stock character, I'm not sure
>>135909003
I thought that may be the case. Thanks for always bumping the threads!
So how is everyone doing this Sunday night or early Monday? Did you achieve anything noteworthy this weekend?
I'm personally plugging away doing a lot of dialogue writing, it isn't my specialty so it's a bit painful honestly.
>>135911745
Trying to recover from GDC.
>>135911884
How was your experience? I've never been to something like that, I really hope I can go one day.
>>135912130
Well, there's a lot of free beer on offer.
And discounts on strip club visits.
>>135912407
Oh, I guess I'd have to pass on that. I had a stint as an alcoholic from 2011-2013, just about lost everything, now it's just coffee and green tea for me.
It sounds like it would of been a good time though, welcome back to the grind.
>>135895817
>>135896782
You seem like a long winded version of me. What's your ero VN about?
>>135913249
>What's your ero VN about?
I'm not entirely sure yet. All I know is that it's going to have animated scenes, crazy fetish stuff and exploration. Also lots and lots of characters and a story that only a silly h-game deserves. I'll iron out the details as I start building the framework.
>>135915390
Any art you'd care to show? Doesn't have to be for the game, just curious.
>steal other people's memes for your vn
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/971964998/build-wall-an-interactive-visual-novel
which one of you was this
This thing is kind of buggy. I don't think it's Unity's fault though.
>>135916315
Well, I have no game art yet unfortunately. The art I do have on my computer really isn't worth showing. It's mostly my practice art, which I don't want to show at all. I haven't been doing much art lately, so I'd want to get back into the swing of things before I showed anything to anyone. When I have a chance to make some art, I'll show it off for sure if anyone is still interested by then. For now I'm going to focus mainly on the overall structure of the game, leaving art to be placeholders.
>>135918428
Lol.
>>135918428
>Kenneth Sweet
>Atlanta, GA
>I'm just a young memeologist looking to get my first project off the ground. I'm currently studying psychology as an undergraduate while working to stay afloat.
Good luck, Kenneth
>>135918428
>one person back this for $5
>another person backed it for $6
Nice.
>>135918552
Are you using an asset for that, or did you code it yourself?
>>135918615
God speed bro. The world needs more lewd.
>>135919658
Thanks. I'll try my best. Can't wait to show it off, but I won't really be able to do it here since this is a blue board.
>>135919024
I'm playing it, not writing it.
Entertainingly, the 'exit' button on the main menu does nothing.
>>135920458
Like most VNs that try to roll their own (or TyranoBuilder, which is broken), I get frustrated with the game pretty quickly because of the lack of basic features.
It does at least have a Skip option, but there doesn't seem to be any way to adjust the text speed, or to save during a session.
>>135920598
Did you notice that Panzermadels is made with TyranoBuilder, and being sold on Steam?
I was curious if anyone here had played it and whether or not the game was buggy. The developer of TyranoBuilder is constantly making improvements and bug fixes, so perhaps most of the old bugs have been ironed out. The game seems to have very positive ratings, and if it was buggy it would have bad reviews, I'd imagine. I haven't played it personally, so I have no idea how simple the game actually is, but it's something to keep in mind if TyranoBuilder interests you.
Also, I'm not a shill. Just to throw that out there. I use Ren'Py, but was thinking about using TB before because it supports Live2D, and you can easily put your games into a browser, which seems very cool.
>>135896783
What companies?
>>135921404
The problem is the longer the game the more extra work Tyrano makes for you over using Ren'py.
Ren'Py question time. Yes, I tried to find the answer, but I couldn't figure out how to word it in the search and I have 40 tabs open in chrome.
I know how to do transitions on single characters already, but let's say I wanted to have multiple character sprites transition onto the screen at once and into their normal positions at left, center, and right with no delay in between.
Here's what I tried,
>show char01 and char02 at right with moveinright
However 'and' cannot be used in this case
>show char01 at right with moveinright
>show char02 at left with moveinleft
This almost works, but there is a delay between each character showing up on the screen.
Any help appreciated.
>>135922054
That would make sense I guess. I've never made a long game, but Ren'Py does seem to have the perfect solution for that. I don't have a clue how TyranoBuilder handles it.
>>135922518
>show char01 and char02 at right with moveinright
can be:
>show char01
>show char02
>with moveinright
>>135921404
It's possible TyranoBuilder has gotten better, although in a short meme game played primarily by people not used to VNs the lack of bug reports does not necessarily mean that all the features are working properly.
I have no interest in that title, though, so I'm not going to buy it to find out at this point.
>>135922518
Replace at right and at left with at moveinright and at moveinleft. Transforms can be used that way.
One day I'll draw well enough to make all my lewd dreams come to life!
>>135923164
Thanks! That does work for the most part. I had to keep the at left and at right, though, so they wouldn't overlap each other. Would it be possible to have a different transition for each character happening at the same moment instead of just the moveinright? So one is moveinleft, and one moveinright?
I feel bad for Chief since Hope seems to be selling so poorly. I was planning on waiting until all the parts were out before getting it, but I guess I'll go ahead and take the plunge.
>>135923949
It's nice that you believe that, but just saying it won't help you achieve your dreams. You have to go for it, anon!
>>135924330
That's how the market goes. Doesn't matter if you are brand new or a 10-year veteran. If nobody wants your game, nobody is going to buy it.
>>135924726
I don't even know about that VN, but it'd be nice if the market didn't have such garbage taste in everything.
>>135924726
>If nobody wants your game, nobody is going to buy it.
see also planet stronghold colonial defense
>>135924726
It's episodic, which turns some people away. And the rest of the game is being released in a few weeks anyway, so most people will just likely wait. Many of the people who own Reborn may have just downloaded it because it was free, and wouldn't actually buy a vn. And let's not forget that many /u/ fans are paranoid about how the game will end and are waiting for reviews to see if it has het.
>>135925008
>Many of the people who own Reborn may have just downloaded it because it was free, and wouldn't actually buy a vn.
Also, they likely have no idea a new game came out.
>>135925008
>It's episodic, which turns some people away.
Doesn't stop people from buying AJ Tilley's crap (i wish it would)
What's a hotwash, anyway?
>>135927830
Did they mean hogwash? And it means nonsense.
>>135897140
Frozen Essence
>>135927830
Hotwash is a military term for an immediate post-whatever meeting to talk about strengths and weaknesses. You basically talk about something you just did while it is fresh.
>>135929304
Oh, okay, so it doesn't mean Chief has to wash the blood out of the sheets.
>>135929391
You never know.
i am drastically underselling myself and i will not be rewarded in the end for it
>>135930587
welcome to the creative world.
>>135930587
Shameless shilling, unfounded confidence and insulting your fanbase will get you mass retard audience, but in return /evn/ will hate you.Totally worth it.
Being humble and modest about what you're doing/selling might be the upstanding thing to do, but people want to see that you believe in what you're doing, even if you don't.
What would females like to see in an erotic game, or should I not even attempt to please everyone? Is there some secret to engaging them that I should be aware of? They are a mystery to me.
>>135931343
stomach mussels
>>135931435
It shall be done.
>>135924117
Hmmm I believe there isn't such a thing as the same time since everything is read line by line. But maybe you can make a transform that takes two images and position them almost real time? e.g.
transform movetwo(char01, char02)
oh wait, I'm not sure if it's going to take the same properties twice under the same transform declaration....
>>135931343
If you try too hard to please the fujos you will inevitably displease straight dudes.
>>135931513
Well, It's going to be very non-linear. If I do get any female players, I'd like them to at least offer them something enjoyable.
>>135931343
are you being lol ironic or do you actually think talking about 'females' as an imcomprehensible group entity is a good plan?
anyway. Try the easy approach of naked men. It's sad how many erotic games for straight women are still filled with pictures of naked girls and maybe a tiny hint of manchest.
COCKS
BUTTS
BACKS
MAN PARTS
HOPEFULLY ATTACHED TO MEN AND NOT SEVERED
>>135931504
Maybe you could use parallel.
>>135924117
Easily; use ATL
>>135932484
Wow... Thanks anon. I remember this being used in the imagebuttons demo.
>>135932613
Thanks, I'll have to look into ATL more a bit later. It seems like a pretty in depth topic.
>>135931504
Interesting, I'll look into it. Thanks.
>>135932312
No, I'm just a guy and have no idea what females enjoy in erotic games since I don't play any designed for females. Naked guys, noted.
>>135932905
Just warning you, the feminists freak out if you call women 'females', they think it makes them sound like mindless animalswhich we all are
>>135932905
Anon, I wasn't kidding when I said use
>show char01 at moveinleft
>show char02 at moveinright
Renpy runs at's differently than with's, so these will go off at the same time. I'm feeling generous tonight, so I'll even give you an example of a decent fade in with positions. Change the numbers to fit what you need.
>transform moveinleft:
> alpha 0.0
> xalign 0.00 yalign 1.0
> linear 0.25 xalign 0.05 alpha 0.5
> linear 0.25 xalign 0.1 alpha 1.0
>>135933649
Weird. I wouldn't even notice at all if anyone called me a male or referred to my sex as males. Seems impossible to not make at least a few people angry these days. Thanks for the warning, though.
>>135933982
>Anon, I wasn't kidding when I said use
I tried every suggestion people have told me, since I'm not interested in results, I'm just messing around and learning a bit.
>show char01 at moveinleft
Only returns an error, and I'm not sure if there's a simple fix to make your suggestion work since I just started, i just know at is a position and moveinright is a transition, so it makes sense that it wouldn't work to me. If I'm missing something please let me know.
Also, thanks for the transform, but I'm not quite there yet.
>>135934713
A transformation is basically a more powerful transition. It can change positions, transition affects, and some other nifty stuff. I'd recommend learning it and other ATL stuff.
As for the error, did you include the transformation I gave you? I'd recommend changing the name and then the "at [insert new name]" so it doesn't conflict.
>>135935285
Ahh, now it makes sense. Since it had the same name as the transition, I thought that was the end of it. No, I haven't tried it with the transform, but it seems like it'll be very helpful so thank you. I'll copy it down for later.
>>135935624
No problem. It takes some experimenting, but ATL is where you get the fun toys out of Renpy.
>>135918428
Someone should probably build a wall for the sprite's decapitated legs to stand on.
>>135937921
Vote Trump
Don't know if that KS supports Trump or what.
pity hump
>>135940332
ahn~
How do you guys motivate yourselves to keep going when you're working alone and nobody knows about you or what you're doing?
I'm thinking of joining someone else's project for the experience and to hopefully make myself more efficient moving forward. That way I'd be relied upon and wouldn't want to let anyone down.
>>135942602
I'm fine with it. Maybe some day someone will play my VN and get a kick out of it. If at least one person enjoys it, I'll be happy with the time I spent on it.
That, and I'm also a loner banana.
>>135942602
>That, and I'm also a loner banana.
So am I. I've almost never posted my art online and tend to keep to myself. But I'm just not finding the drive I need to move forward with my VN at a reasonable pace despite how much I want to see it realized. It's brutal and I'm constantly beating myself up over it.
>>135942986
If you're having trouble staying motivated, you might do better finding a small group, or even one other person to work with you. That way you can all motivate each other. That, or make a schedule and force yourself to do something during a certain time. Set an alarm if you need. If you really don't want to do it, you shouldn't force yourself. Only you really know what you want.
>>135942602
>That way I'd be relied upon and wouldn't want to let anyone down.
it never works that way. my only advice is everyone feels this way, making these VN is hard work.
>>135942602
>I'm thinking of joining someone else's project for the experience
Yeah I did that once.
When I wanted to talk with writer about text formatting - he said he doesn't have time to "play wet nurse" with me.
>>135943831
Sounds like a pretentious twat
>>135943291
I'd want to work on someone else's project without taking the lead. I became an unwitting leader on a previous project and had very poor luck with retaining those who joined as they had little reason to actually stick around and work. I don't really have the money to pay for them either.
I've wanted to make my game for ages. I think most of it is that I'm extraordinarily self conscious about the outcome and fearful that it won't live up to my expectations so I find it difficult to complete things. I'm looking for that extra push and the experience so I can be more confident when I come back to it.
>>135943523
In the last project I worked on that helped me immensely. Having other people care about what you're doing and knowing that they're relying on you to get things done really helped push me forward. That and it was someone else's vision, so I had to live up to their expectations and wasn't hampered nearly as much by the fear of it not turning out exactly the way I'd hoped.
>mfw finally found a comrade to assist with me work
>I'll finally get something done
>real life happens
>lost contact
>he isn't returning mail
I hate myself.
>>135944852
Did you at least let them know what was going on and not just vanish?
>>135945147
Yeah.
Senpais, it's me, evn-chan. I feel myself getting weaker by the second. The end is approaching, I can feel it at my heels! Please don't let me die. You wouldn't let me die, right?
Anyone need a proof reader? I don't have a complete mastery of the English language, but basic typos and awkward sentence structure I can catch pretty easily.
>>135946536
When you die, I will get stronger, and do more work.
I will not preserve your life, but I will not end it either. You deserve no pity.
>>135946536
No worries!
Do you guys name each individual scene for future reference?
>>135947068
Yeah, it makes it easier for me to remember, say, "scene bakingcookies_sunset" than "scene 2_1_22"
>>135947118
That sounds like a wonderful scene that I want to be a part of.
>>135947068
Same than >>135947118. I name my scenes instead of giving them numbers. That way, I know that "scene kill_all_niggers" is different than "scene throw_molotov_at_kkk_rally".
>>135947248
That sounds like a not so wonderful scene. I'd hate to be a part of either of those honestly.
Woke up to a guy tried to low-ball me on music rates, got my daily freelance-related rant quote out of the way because of it.
Good morning, /evn/.
>>135947462
There's nothing as romantic as a party around a bonfire while the sun set.
Even if the bonfire of made out of KKK members corpses and the party is actually you torturing slaves.
>>135947248
>>135947523
Equal opportunity hatred,I like you.
>>135947187
Really? Even if it's anon-incest scene with your mom?
>>135947723
>non-incest scene with your mom
Step moms are a boring copout. Go biological or go home.
>>135947661
The basic plot is that you own a cannery where you have slaves working for you.
And you have to choose between giving in to their demands, siding with the KKK and oppress them, or oppress them your way while shooting any white-capped freak trying to sneak your slaves out to hang them. Basically a tower defense, except it's all by text.It will never come out because I suck at coding and just started a new job which reduced my spare time drastically.
>>135947723
is she a kitchen tyrant and keeps telling you you do everything wrong?
>>135947817
but she's not a step mom, she's biological but there's no incest.
>>135947880
no she is anolder lady now and just want you to visit her once in awhile.
>>135947932
Totally. I'd be all over her cookies in an absolute non-incest way.
>>135947932
>she's biological but there's no incest
Even worse!
>>135947932
2realistic4me
Up all night and only wrote 2k words. Why isn't my head working aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
>>135950282
HIT IT AGAINST A WALL
>>135950282
Lack of sleep is a likely suspect.
Has Rising Angels: Hope's sales improved?
Sekai tweeted about it and I saw a thread on reddit about it.
>>135951569
I will give in.
>It’s time we as a community backed an OELVN that is truly a western unique experience.
He has a point, but literally every single time the Black Sands guy opens his mouth I cringe.
also
> several mythologies started by aliens
> realistic
>>135955340
>I'm the only OELVN dev who has western art/setting!
>>135955535
The whole interview reads like
> I'm the only evn dev worth your money!
>>135955340
>black people in positions of power in Ancient Egypt
>realistic
>>135956863
We already were over this, there were black Pharaohs, but Egypt wasn't black.
>>135956863
>black people
Obviously Nyarlathotep.
>>135957543
WUZ
>>135957696
KINGZ
>>135958021
N SHIET
>>135953915
No, but at least they got a Steam review now and they didn't even have to bet for it on Twitter.
When's JP going to review Beach Bounce Remastered? It's complete now and was completely rewritten.
>>135961738
>JP
How low has /evn/ fallen to read that shit?
>>135961936
I read his reviews for entertainment value. I also read negative Steam reviews for fun.
>>135962375
I see. You're one of those who like "funny" lolrandom steam reviews.
>>135962554
Not really, I'm just really into Schadenfreude.
>>135961936
>How low has /evn/ fallen to read that shit?
He's brought up in every single edition. The 'no one reads that bastard in /evn/!' shtick is getting old. Like him or not, he's as much a part of /evn/ as the crazy devs.
>>135962673
Edgy.
>>135962947
>>135961936
literally every other reviewer is dead (except for a couple of normies writing 2 lines about an evn they were paid to shill or a one in a hundred post about a non-jap VN by VN reviewers). I mostly skim it anyway, he's pretty boring.
When you get paid to do sprites do you just get a short summary of how the character is like and then have to design them based on that? Or are you given some sort of sketch and have to draw sprite based on that or...?
>>135965139
>I don't want to read him! I just don't have a choice! I-It's not like I actually like him or a-anything!
>>135965365
you request references, descriptions, range of emotions, dress style etc., style references, BG sample so you can eyeball the colors/style of lines/shading etc
then you draw a bunch of versions and ask customer which one he likes best
>>135965365
I gave my artist a terrible sketch by me, the character description and point out any important the details.
>>135966463
But I don't actually like him. And I read his site like 3 times a year. Also he comes off as slightly autustic or something in his videos and has nerd lisp so I pity him a bit.
>>135967315
>S-Seriously guys! I really hate him! Really!
I hope JP reviews my game someday. Not because I want him to. I just want to laugh at his opinion. I'd love to hear his voice say my name, but only to make fun of that stupid voice of his.
>>135968501
B-baka!
>>135969641
Fill the title of your game with S's, JP is fucked.
>>135969641
>Wants JP to say his name
Hi Taosym
>>135969641
>I'd love to hear his voice say my name
Lewd.
>>135965365
Depends on how important the character is and how picky the dev is.
When I set an artist to something, some characters I've drawn my own sketch of, some I have a pile of references from other things (THIS hairstyle, THIS outfit, THIS pose), and some I just describe the character's personality and list off a few options of things they MIGHT look like and let the artist design it from there.
Some artists charge more depending on how much of the design they have to come up with themselves.
>>135969641
When I started writing VNs I really hoped anonl would review one of my things - it was one of my dreams...
But he hasn't reviewed anything since, like, forever, so I guess that isn't going to happen.
>>135971798
Meh. I got over anonl when he gave Detective Butler a pass. http://www.weeaboo.nl/2013/09/review-detective-butler-ep-1
>>135972742
anonl was not the messiah and was often wrong about things but at least he wrote in detail about stuff and provided some possible avenues for a developer to consider improvement.
too many reiews are only either "it sucks" or "it rocks"
Any of you come up with a company name you're satisfied with?
Are there any evn companies that don't have cringe names?
>>135972948
>For a mystery story there are quite a lot of obvious plot holes. For example, at one point Gilligan finds some extremely incriminating documents just lying in a room somewhere. Another notable oversight is related to solving the ‘closed room’ in which the victim is found. Gilligan happily declares it a closed room, but forgets to check for other ways to enter (there are) and blindly assumes there’s only one key. This misunderstanding is not resolved through deduction, but rather by someone suddenly volunteering critical information.
>Although the character designs are distinctive enough, the executives from Galvano’s company look a lot younger than they’re implied to be. Galvano himself keeps talking about retiring, yet he doesn’t look a day over 40. Blythe has different-colored sleeves that make it look like she has robot arms, although that’s more of a fashion critique than a real problem with the VN. Howard kinda looks like a leprechaun.
Anonl providing 'details' about 'stuff'
>>135972948
I liked him cause even though he was pretty harsh (maybe unfairly in some cases, when he was reviewing somebody's first silly ren'py vn obviously done in 2 days for fun), he wrote in detail and I think he was better at critique than JP...
I feel like JP clearly has 'favorite devs' he loves to gush over, and whenever he tries to do serious analysis it always feels really weird and ranty and not even that related to the VN or its contents. I think he has good points sometimes, but he's not very good at expressing them clearly, and he gets sidetracked too much in his own reviews.
>>135973893
>and whenever he tries to do serious analysis it always feels really weird and ranty
Half the time he's docking points for a VN not being whatever terrible idea he thought it should be. Like, Sakura Swim Club. It's shit, yeah, but not because it has a self insert protag and doesn't focus on bizarre plot lines he made up in his head.
A good percentage of his reviews read like English isn't his first language, which could be excused if he didn't also complain that certain VNs don't have a great grasp on English.
And then there's his "I don't like porn, but I'm going to review this nukige and complain when it's porn" thing which never stops being hilarious.
>>135973642
The design section is details, the first section is "not understanding what a plot hole is"
>>135973893
>Shrine maiden Biyu finds out the cause of the ever-present memory-erasing fog that has been plaguing her village and perhaps gets to romance some local deities in the process. Days of the Divine tries to cram a relatively complex fantasy plot into a two-hour, three-route VN. It has mystery, it has romance, it even has lots of action — frankly, it has too much going on for its length. The romance parts feel very much tacked on, only turning from friendship to romantic feelings during the epilogue, and much of the setting ends up feeling underdeveloped or rushed. It’s still a pleasant read and the characters are lots of fun; particularly crazy drunk grandpa, and a literal god living in Biyu’s basement (yep, he’s romanceable).
>It’s very pretty, especially for a NaNoRenO release. The high screen resolution (1920×1080) is used to the fullest with a coloring style featuring lots of texture paint and visible brush strokes. All the main characters have multiple poses and pose changes combined with small bits of movement which really help bring the characters to life. Backgrounds aren’t quite as good, but any problematic bits are masked with every trick in the book including an ever-present (and plot demanded) animated fog. An unfortunate side-effect of writing in perma-fog is how washed out it makes everything look. Small cut-in graphics take the place of event CG. They’re surprisingly detailed and work quite well as a cheap replacement. Some scenes that could’ve really used a cut-in or CG don’t have one, like for example the ending of each route. The soundtrack is my favorite of any NaNoRenO release so far.
>Disclaimer: Days of the Divine uses my engine and I’m on friendly terms with the dev team.
Anonl not showing favoritism.
>>135974565
>Half the time he's docking points for a VN not being whatever terrible idea he thought it should be. Like, Sakura Swim Club. It's shit, yeah, but not because it has a self insert protag and doesn't focus on bizarre plot lines he made up in his head.
Then why is Sakura Swim Club shit?
>>135974839
well at least he put a disclaimer, I don't think there's anything too disingenuous about that.
>>135975659
There is nothing disingenuous about lavishing praise onto a game so long as you admit you're friendly with the developers? Sure, why not? Works for Kotaku.
>>135975485
Because the characters are paper-thin (personality-wise obviously) and are built around stock tropes rather than being fleshed out characters, the drama is pretty forced, and there's no build-up to the fanservice - it's just FWOOM BOOBS AND BUTT, which isn't very... subtle?
Not that Sakura VNs are meant to be subtle, but I think you could still handle the fanservice better, to make it more appealing.
For a fanservice story, it's just doing what it exists to do, so I can't fault it for that, but... Since the story itself is so weak, I don't think it has much worth beyond the CGs. So if you want cute fanservice girls, it's fine, but if you want a plot, there isn't any, look elsewhere.
>>135975919
Would you rather he just said 'lol it's all shit' even if he didn't actually think that?
It is possible to legitimately like/enjoy things that were made by people you know... But of course, people are going to be skeptical about that and instantly assume favoritism/bias because that's what people do.
But I still think his reviews were, on the whole, pretty decent.
>>135975485
Personally? Because the girls have non existent personalities, which is a terrible thing in a waifu game and the porn is meh.
Complaining that a Sakura game doesn't spent a large amount of time on someone's cancer parent or a subplot with the self insert MC's parents is retarded.
The plot exists for the porn, he knew that going in, so it doesn't make any sense to devote half of the review focusing on that.
>>135976507
His reviews of sakura games are still ridiculous. Despite the shitty writing, the art and music are usually decent, but he proceeds to give them 0/10, because he's so entitled.
>>135976835
I don't even know why he bothers reviewing them - he'll inevitably give them 0/10, even though they don't deserve it (I'm not a fan of the Sakura series, but the art is nice). It's a waste of his time.
Why doesn't he try to review some other EVNs, instead of rehashing the same arguments five or six times...
Well, I think he said he'd stop reviewing the Sakura VNs, but even so... I just don't think his reviews are very good.
>>135976835
He pulled the same shit with Nekopara. Complaining that a nukige had the gall to be a nukige.
He knows he has no interest in the porn, so he reviews games made solely for porn as if they're all trying to be anything but.
>>135977870
Hardly unusual for reviews though. Lots of game reviewers give things shitty scores based on it not being something it was never trying to be in the first place.
>>135978061
Well, that is true. I had one reviewer saying my writing wasn't 'metaphorical' enough, like... What does that even mean? I'm not trying to write searing political allegories, I just want to write cute girls.
>>135978294
Did they bother to give examples? I'm guessing they were just snobby with their expectations of galge.
>>135978863
Nope, no examples at all. Just 'it's not metaphorical enough', which... Doesn't even make sense.
>>135979616
I guess they didn't find your writing sophisticated enough for their tastes. (Though to be honest, I've always been turned off by overly "metaphorical" or otherwise purple prose-ish narrations in VNs with a lighter tone.)
>>135979616
A lot of people have their own agendas and want to push them into the VNs. JP is one of them, he hates nukige and will shit all over anything that doesn't agree to his narrow mindset. You can't expect a lot from someone who claims "America is morally superior."
His reviews are biased and he's a shit reviewer with no real standards. Basically a contemptible blogger who is read because there's no one else around.
And his image essentially is a mirror of any other EVN reviewer. Foul people who are incapable of understanding there's more to VNs than pushing their own, loathsome agenda.
Some VNs are eroge, some are just short slices of life, others are merely a fuel for fantasies. The problem with reviewers is that, they don't understand "VN" isn't a genre. It's a medium. And most often they hate a specific genre and due to lack of any journalist experience, or absence of any professionalism, for that matter, they just use their reviews as cesspools for their own insecurities.
>>135980578
>The problem with reviewers is that, they don't understand "VN" isn't a genre. It's a medium.
Again, it's not really a special problem with VNs, reviews in general are a minefield.
If you assign a reviewer who isn't a detailed and knowledgeable fan of a game's genre, they're likely to dismiss it for reasons that make no sense whatsoever.
If you assign a reviewer who is a fan, you may get a review that only makes sense to other grognards.
It's easier to get a general sense of the biggest AAA titles because both the reviewers and the mainstream gamers have more shared experience and understanding, so the reviews are more likely to be on a shared wavelength with the customers.
And that's what you really need, if you want to find useful reviews. You need a reviewer who is on your wavelength and whose opinion you can trust to make sense. Even supposedly "objective" reviews focusing on technical details that sound very solid and believable can be utter nonsense if the reviewer has misinterpreted the game enough.
How do I get Kickstarters to stop putting Japanese translation as a stretch goal
>>135975919
Except Kotaku writers had to be pulled by the hair before they updated their reviews and articles to say that they were friends with the developers.
Look, I don't disagree with his review, he can't very well shit on a VN just because he's on friendly terms with the developers. For all we know that just means they used his engine and had a few email exchanges, which is nowhere near living with them, having sex with them or sharing hotel rooms with them. It's a silly comparison.
>>135981681
do japanese people even care about english VNs? Outside of the obvious ones like Katawa Shoujo and the like. They must drown in so many of their own VNs monthly that our ones probably don't even register on their radar.
>>135981681
Back them for a buck and whine in the comments?
>>135982225
No. Not only do they have lots of games released by professional companies, they've also got tons of higher quality doujin games. Sakura Spirit did make a bit of a buzz though but that was due to wanaca.
TyranoBuilder has been up on Steam for a year as of March 27th, think they have any special events planned for the anniversary?
>>135982818
Yeah, I can see the Sakura games gaining a bit of attention because of the high quality art.
Sakura Angels had an actual Japanese translation, and I'm assuming Swim Club did too because of the Japanese language track on it. I wonder how those were received.
>>135982225
Being honest with ourselves, Japan didn't really care about Katawa Shoujo either.
>>135984208
Being honest with ourselves, America didn't really care about Katawa Shoujo.
I mean, the percentage of the population that's played it isn't that high.
>>135984472
I think you're trying to make an argument here, but I'm not seeing it.
>>135984472
You could just as easily say "America doesn't care about Call of Duty" or any other really popular title, because I doubt more than 50% of the people who live in America have played it...
If you take a whole country, the % of people overall who have played the certain thing is not going to be high, because the sample size is too large and too disparate.
I'm new to the EVN scene.
Would renpy be okay if I want to make a small game like 999? Basically, being able to examine objects, solve puzzles, having panning backgrounds/changing images and stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap9viVLDKac
What I'm asserting is that, even for the most successful and recognised EVN to date, Japan largely didn't care.
Case in point, Katawa Shoujo has been out for over four years now, and it only has 13 pages of content on Pixiv (including those from western artists):
http://www.pixiv.net/search.php?word=%E3%81%8B%E3%81%9F%E3%82%8F%E5%B0%91%E5%A5%B3&order=date_d&p=13
I'm not saying "EVNs should never be translated" or something, but rather agreeing with >>135981681 in that it's definitely not worth it as a stretch goal. The majority of Japanese VN readers won't even notice.
>>135985509
Obviously.
>>135984656
Point being that "Japanese people don't care about EVNs" is not a meaningful thing to say in itself. It doesn't deliver any useful information, and it may be varying degrees of true or untrue depending on how you interpret it.
To the best of my knowledge, no EVN has been a "big hit" in Japan. But even that requires defining what a hit is, since supposedly most JVNs don't sell very many copies either!
I know there are many EVNs that have at least a few Japanese players, but one or two weirdoes who like the West aren't particularly relevant in most people's opinions.
There are some EVNs with official Japanese translations, there are some EVNs with Japanese fan-translations made by the Japanese, but how do you quantify the level of attention?
>>135986083
Now, see, in terms of a business decision of "is it worthwhile as a financial investment to pay for a Japanese translation", then I'd agree that it's probably not worth it.
Unless you already have someone lined up who wants to do it for free / for profit-share, in which case it makes a nice thing to show off as a goal.
>>135986491
Yeah, I apologise for not clarifying earlier. That is what I was referring to. It's just not a wise pursuit as a financial investment during the KS phase, comparing the expected gains to the costs.
>>135986069
Puzzle-solving is going to require you to know more code than the average RenPy user. It absolutely can be done, but it's going to take much more work and the majority of people won't be able to help you with it.
If you want a large number of complicated puzzles and minigames and you don't have a strong coding background you may want to go for a system with more minigame sample code available. Either Unity or Game Maker would probably be decent options.
If you are a decent programmer and just unsure of RenPy's capabilities, then yes, you can do it.
>>135986069
I wouldn't call 999 a small game, but yes, you could use renpy fairly easily to make that style of game.
EVN wont be big is japan because japanese sales tend to go with being voiced. players will actually buy games just based off VA which is why VA tend to be named in the credits with voice clips.
>>135987492
Yes.
>>135987492
this
Starlight Vega going to be delayed, even though it was supposed to come out tomorrow. Wonder what happened.
>>135953915
From what I've gathered, they are catastrophically low. Time will tell, but I think he might have set the bar for the worst EVN release on steam.
>>135989405
Even lower than that Planet Stronghold card game?
>>135989664
Without access to actual numbers and having to use what I can gather, I'd say yes.
>>135989405
i am a bit confused by the order i'm supposed to read, like if this is a new story, why it's split into episodes mere weeks apart in release. if you confuse consumers it's not good.
>>135989664
there's no way to really tell on WW releases. he does direct releases well before steam to his established fanbase, and for all his comments he could have made 30k or something. we'll never know.
>>135989405
I'd disagree, I think he just doesn't have a wide enough knowledge of all EVNs released on Steam.
It looked pretty impressively awful, but I don't know that it could be the actual worst.
Quite possibly lower than Planet Stronghold, though. And it doesn't help that the /u/ fans are all holding off waiting for someone else to do it.
Changing to a commercial release with fake episodes at the last possible minute doesn't exactly help you hype, and you NEED to build some excitement for your launch.
>>135986284
Who even cares if Japanese people like EVNs or not, I doubt most EVN devs write VNs with the hopes of them being fawned over by glorious nihonjins. Since they're being written in English, shouldn't English-speakers be the primary audience?
>>135990690
>there's no way to really tell on WW releases.
You can usually get some idea of how a steam launch is performing (though not the total sales) by camping the new releases / top seller lists on the VN tag. They're recalculated every hour or two, it's not best-of-all-time, but if a new game comes out it SHOULD feature prominently on the most recent bestsellers for a while.
WW's last game had a weird bug where it never showed up in the VN tag, making it hard to track.
>>135990946
>Who even cares if Japanese people like EVNs or not
People trying to decide whether they should translate into Japanese, and people trying to convince Kickstarter backers to spend their money on something more relevant.
>>135990830
My knowledge is pretty good. Trends analysis is my day job and things carry over to home. I like watching and plotting things out in the EVN industry.
The interesting thing is that even when it was free, there was zero hype. Nobody knew and/or cared about it. I don't even think Sekai realized it despite several announcements leading up to it.
>>135992381
I think I downloaded it once on Android because the art wasn't total dogshit and I wanted a VN to play on my tablet, played it for a couple minutes then uninstalled.
>>135989120
Beta bugs maybe? And I don't think backerkit ever closed yet, and the backers would likely be annoyed if people who didn't back got the game days sooner than they did.
>>135989120
Could be a bug, could be a failure to get the release candidate approved by Valve in time
>>135990690
It's a prequel to Reborn, so if you want to understand the character dynamics in that game more, then it's probably better to read Hope first.
He only split it up to test episodic release sales, since he was planning on making Fates episodic as well if it went well, since that game is still in production.
>>135994554
I doubt we will be seeing another episodic release, assuming we see him releasing something again.
walkerman, starlight vega, and i guess rising angels have all suffered delays this week
at this rate the back half of 2016 is going to see all the evn releases in pretty short order
>>135994964
he's never been the type imo to release for money, so why wouldnt he? i think the issue is these are all sequels prequels and the timeline is confusing now.
>>135995085
Aren't those all Sekai games as well? SuspiciousIt's probably just a coincidence, I know
>>135995731
Because he lost his job and needed Hope to keep going.
>>135997236
there's alwaysboobs.
>>135997554
maybe he should add h-scenes
>>135982225
Did the japs really even care about KS? I don't see how they could've outside of the novelty factor of it being a popular VN made in the west.
>>135995786
Root Double is supposed to release at the end of the month, but I doubt they'd delay just to avoid overlapping launches with that game.
>>136001032
>I don't see how they could've outside of the novelty factor of it being a popular VN made in the west
Well also the factor that it was "inspired" by one of Raita's sketches
>>135986284
>there are some EVNs with Japanese fan-translations made by the Japanese
I wonder if the reigning champion of EVNs, UAB, has received such a translation from the Japanese.
does /evn/ still like mummies?
>>135986284
I know I'm late to this, but I think a lot of it has to do with exposure. There are tons of western weebooboos who love anything Japanese. They go out of their way to follow trends from Japan, websites are dedicated to them, hell even 4chan was built on otaku culture. So any JVN that gets released has massive exposure in the west VN and weebtaku groups. I highly doubt there are many in Japan who are interested in VNs from a foreign country when they already have a utopia of their own. So there would be no reason for them to create exposure within their own online cultures. With Steam gaining popularity in Japan, and Japan stepping outside the limited space of 2ch and the couple of Japanese websites, we might see some changes though. Many of them use Twitter now for instance, you see many Japanese members on Steam. They just get more exposure since they had something the West really wanted (anime, manga, games), but the west doesn't really have anything worth building a massive online subculture around.
>>136002335
It's hard to say since a fan translation made by the japanese without the dev's involvement is less likely to be known about by the people who update VNDB.
LLTQ had a lot more translations than were listed, before the site decided to delist it.
>>136003075
I hope she washes those bandages.
>>136003941
delicious mummy sweat
Name the main setting of your game and anons try and work out the plot.
http://gamasutra.com/blogs/KimberlyCrawley/20160317/268310/The_Risk_of_Trying_Something_Different.php
How do you people feel about Misunderstood Artists™?
>>136008178
>none of the positive comments are about the art
>>136007058
Your house.
>>136008178
I feel that if you're terrible at art you should hire an artist, or work your ass off to find someone who is interested in making art for you. If you release a game with elementary school level art, you should expect negative comments about it. Just like if you make a game with terrible fart music you should expect comments about it.
Can someone with ren'py experience help me out? I've got crazy OCD when it comes to structuring my code correctly. What is the perfect structure for init, start label, declaring variables, etc? I've noticed that you can place some stuff almost anywhere and it will still work. What confuses me is init. Can I have two inits? Can I put that code into the start label?
>>136008178
>"I've played so many visual novels based on romance with anime-style graphics. I love how your visual novel is completely different in every way."
>"Your game's dialogue made me smile."
>>136011717
Also what is the best location to put my variable declarations, and should I put them into init?
XKCD's art might be more minimalistic, but that doesn't make it more amateurish-looking. For what it's for, it works quite well, while the art in that game just looks very amateurish and unpolished.
Take Clove's earlier VNs: the drawings were crappy, but she made them work for what they were intended for (Cellphone Love Letter or whatever it was called was made to look like the drawings of a kid, like the main character - that worked).
It's true that a lot of successful creators also get negative feedback and I certainly don't think you should quit just because people tell you your stuff sucks, but you should read feedback carefully and take what's useful to change if change is needed.
>>136011837
Yeah.
>>136011717
two init blocks is perfectly fine, even multiple ones. Problem is with init blocks is they won't reset unless the game itself is restarted, so there are some variables that are best declared under the start label (or any callable label).
>>136011837
I definitely don't doubt the second statement. It feels very much like a "oh man I don't want to tell them it's shit" comment.
>>136012040
So they smiled awkwardly, thinking "Man, this is shit. LOL."
>>136012040
so basically comments from friends who are trying to be nice
It's clear they've put a lot of time and effort into writing it, and creating the assets--as bad as they are--but getting this defensive when people criticise their game isn't the right way to go. They just have to accept that maybe their art isn't appealing to people, rather than go on a multiple paragraph rant about sushi and XKDC.
But that's not going to happen is it? We'll just be made out to be cisgendered bigots that hate anything remotely different and they'll continue to live in their own world, in their own little safe space.
>>136011987
Awesome, thanks.
>>136008178
>discrepency
don't make VNs when you can't spell
