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Hey everyone, I'm new to fuwanovel and sort of new to VNs in general. I was first introduced to VNs when I discovered Sono Hanabira a few years ago. But I haven't played that much so far besides Sono Hanabira and a few other VNs that were easy to download and run. A friend keeps trying to get me to play Dramatical Murder and Togainu no Chi, and I'd like to play them, but I've had a hell of a time trying to get them to work on my computer Anyway, I'm interested in a wide range of genres, but when it comes to hentai & eroge, I'm mainly just interested in yaoi and yuri. Overall, I read manga more than I watch anime. I'm hopelessly obsessed with Kuroshitsuji and Love Live (pretty much every part of the franchise). I also collect doujinshi, of the fanzine variety. I have over 50 of them. I hope to learn about some more VNs here...as well as get help for playing some of them on my computer.

More or less this... what I saw of the screenshots and other people playing it was decently accurate... though not literal (of course not, purists). Yes, there were points that I thought could have been done differently, but that was just a matter of style and not a matter of translation. Edit: I'll repeat this again, "Japanese translation is an oxymoron." Edit2: Just to clarify, I thought the word choices were a lot less awkward than in most of the translated VNs I've played from what I saw, and they weren't that far off in even the worst cases, at a glance. It isn't like the Valkyria Chronicles localization by Sega, where the characters were often clearly saying something completely and utterly different from what was written, for instance.

Meanwhile me at Down's camp all this time:

I don't know anyone that talks like that irl tbh. "shrug" irl I tend to be extremely articulate (though likely related to years in my former occupation and surroundings). I found much of TB's dialogue to be very casual/loose, and often filled with slang. Not exactly something you expect from beings millennia old. Despite his lack of personality, I found Setsuna to be the most fitting for the setting itself (and Astaroth) - whereas I found some of Sorami's lines utterly tacky - even way back in highschool I never knew any girls that would say "golly" or "gosh darn" etc. I understand that it's a "school setting" and so they have to try and emulate the typical linguistics of highschoolers - but I felt it didn't really fit with the nature of the characters or setting. Wasn't enough of an issue to make me hate it or give a bad score - but I still felt it hurt the overall flow. The English language can achieve much higher levels of literacy - though at the risk of alienating those with low literacy, or those that do not have a firm grasp on English. I would even take a more literal translation, over dudebro English. (not that TB was even remotely that bad, I'm more just saying that as a clarification of my stance in general) I'd prefer the original meaning to be left as intact as possible, rather than re-imagined for the sake of babying certain English-speakers. Typically it's not something that bothers me in most other VNs I've read (or anime I've watched), for some odd reason - but it stood out in TB. Remember when the first demo for Violet Hills came out a few years back? I recall some people complaining there were too many big words, and that it was linguistically complex - I loved it like that. I was saddened to see them lower the bar (it's still enjoyable, don't get me wrong).

It's not a very solid argument. Basically it boils down to you not liking localisations. 1) Your point about lines being completely different doesn’t mean anything by itself. Because of the differences between the two languages, and the differences in implications and use of context between the two languages, to create a flowing translation liberties will usually have to be taken. You will have to ask Conjueror why he chose to be more specific there, but off the top of my head it could very well be due more to the direct nature of English vs Japanese. I will say that Conjueror is VERY fluent in the Japanese language, as in you'll probably won't find many people in this community who understand Japanese better than he. So the idea that he makes a lot of mistakes isn’t likely. What’s more likely is you don’t approve of his localisation philosophy, and he does lean to the localisation side of things. 2) I'm gonna be mean here, sorry, but your English does suck ... just a little. VNs and LNs typically use shitty language in English, especially if they are fan-translated. I’m not being mean, but think school level English, if that. Sometimes worse. Little character in the voices, generic basic words. Sorry to be mean here, but you aren’t really fluent in English which is probably why you have problems. I see the same sort of stuff raised every time someone uses language that’s a little bit difficult, it has little to do with the 'difficulty' of the language used. I'll further add the point that Conjueror (and Gare) are old fogies, and they love to read a lot of old English literature and writing. The writing in these books are usually FAR more difficult than the language you encounter in VNs. There's also a lot of Biblical references, and other stuff. Whether something is 'easy to understand' is relative. I can tell your English is not good, so something that's 'hard' for you, will be 'easy' for a native English speaker. I'd rather translators not use language usually found in fan translated LNs, though. Because they flat out suck. 3) Literal translations are rare for stories designed to entertain, because the purpose of a ‘story’ isn’t to help someone ‘understand a language’, but rather to entertain the reader. When you combine a ‘literal’ translation with the sort of basic, generic language fan-translations often use, you get something which is borderline ‘Globish’, not ‘English.’ The idea that you want a piece of entertainment translated in a way which prioritises ‘learning’ is farcical. No, there’s no rationalisation for this, your philosophy is wrong. *Sigh* @Conjueror your presence is required.

Er ... no.

My name's Hasa. I'm currently working as one of the translators for Koiseyo Imouto Banchou Translation Project. My favorite VN is Tsuki ni Yorisou Otome no Sahou and my avatar is Luna, one of the heroines from the game. She's my waifu forever xD I hope I get to have great times with you guys here in these wonderful VN forums o/

You should blame Higashide not us, that's how the character voices were written in Japanese. We only translated Japanese casual / quirky slang into English casual / quirky slang.

Disclaimer : This guide is still very rough, I'll try to edit it and improve it gradually. Also keep in mind that I'm not pretending to be holding any universal truth, the advices that you will find below merely comes from my own experience. Hello everyone! So, I finally decided to create this guide about creating a Visual Novel, since I got a fairly decent amount of experience after managing this rather big group that is Fallen Snow Studios after nearly a year of trying to develop the Lucid9 VN. Hopefully it will serve to guide any person that would be interested to create a Visual Novel without knowing how to start!^^ Also, this guide is quite long... But surely, if you're motivated enough to create a Visual Novel, going through this wall of text will be a breeze for you, right? 0°) Introduction 0a°) Should I try to create my own VN? So, you just finished reading what just became your favorite KEY Visual Novel, or got your mind blown by G-senjou, or even Steins;Gate… You’ve also heard of Katawa Shoujo and how it was all started by a bunch of amateurs on 4chan… And a little part of you is whispering : “I want to create a story like that as well!” And it also happens that your resolution for this new year is to try to create a Visual Novel... While many of you might just decide to ignore this little voice, some brave people might be ready to take up the challenge. That’s when you start to wonder “But is it really worth my time?” I’m only talking from my own experience, but the answer is definitely “yes”. It sure takes a lot of free time away from you, but it’s an experience that is both rewarding, and interesting. You will probably make new friends in this big adventure that is the creation of the VN. Feel very proud of being able to overcome all the hurdles that were in the way. And probably very satisfied! Except, successfully manage to release a complete game is a privilege that is reserved to only a few. Only to the most determined, but more importantly, to the people the most organized. And I’m here to give you a guideline about how you should organize, and what steps you should follow to start properly your project. 0b°) Why Visual Novels? You don't need any heavy programming knowledge With only sprites, backgrounds, writing and music, you can create some of the most touching stories ever. You can technically manage to release a VN without any money. If enough effort is made and with the right people, the quality of a VN created by an amateur team can easily get close to professional quality level VN (see Katawa Shoujo) Visual Novels is a growing market in the west, and if you do things correctly, and with a bit of luck, you might be able to get money by selling your VN. It requires less work globally than your regular video game to create, and all the tasks can be handled by different people that have specific knowledge. You can do it as a side thing, while still having a job and other occupations in your life, granted you have enough people working on it and granted that you're organized enough. 1°) Deciding about the scope of your project So, you finally decided to cross the line, and to become a developer / creator. You’re full of hope and ambition, hyped like you’ve never been, and ready to even move mountains! That’s good, but let’s not rush things. You have 2 possibilities at this point : Decide about the scope of your project on your own, and submit those general guidelines you’ll have created to the people you’re going to recruit (meaning that they will have to accept those choices you made before joining). Recruit people first, and decide about the scope of the project together with all those people, probably by voting. I personally strongly advice to go with the first option, the second might make you find people more easily for your project, but it is more likely to create disagreements, and sometimes, it’s better to not use democracy. I will also try to touch a word about paid project and kickstarters, but since I’m less experienced in that, what I will say regarding them might be incomplete. 1a°) Short, Medium, or big project? It’s one of the first aspect you want to decide before any recruitment or creating any content. It will basically decide how much involvement will be required by every member to complete the project. Keep in mind that the longest you want your VN to be, the more you will have to work on it, and that not everyone can work during 2 years or more on their free time until completion of your project. If you plan to create a short VN (2-3 hours for example), expect several months of work on it. If you plan to create a medium length VN (10-15 hours), expect at least a year working on it. If you plan to create a rather lengthy VN (20+hours), expect to work on it for several years, 1.5 or 2 years if you’re lucky, more if you’re not. It’s something important to decide before anything else, and you will have to make the people you recruit aware of that, to make sure that they will and that they can involve until the end. 1b°) Status of your VN Some people will want to write a Visual Novel only by sheer passion, and will just want to be able to share it with the world and spread Visual Novel love (most of the time by releasing a VN for free). That’s perfectly fine. But some people might want as well to try to get some money out of it by selling their creation. that’s perfectly fine as well. Added to that, you have the possibility to try to get crowdfunded or not by a kickstarter. If you do decide to go with a kickstarter, you might want to check section 1c°) before this one. Let me try to summarize the different advantages or issues for each possibility. i°) “I want to release this for free, without kickstarter.” Example : Katawa Shoujo That basically means that you will work by sheer passion, and that no one will get paid or get commission with your work. Keep in mind that the most skilled artist and composers are generally only willing to work with commission, however, it’s still possible to find hidden gems willing to work by pure interest for your project and for free, if your project is interesting enough that is! You will have to look for people as passionate as you, and ready to involve a good chunk of their free time for something that won’t bring them any money. It’s not necessary hard to find, except it might take more time for you to find such people for your team, and most of all, if passion ever runs out, there will be nothing to convince them to stay in the team. However, imo, it’s with this type of project that you are the most likely to meet very interesting new people with the same passion as you, and possibly the same goals, ambitions and mindset, and in the end, they will probably become your friends as time goes on. ii°) “I want to release this game for free, with a kickstarter” Example : Sunrider You already have a few example of Visual Novels released with this system, it’s not a bad idea and can be very beneficial for your project, but only if you manage to handle the kickstarter correctly. It needs a rather huge amount of planning and organization, you need to know how much budget you’ll need, and create a kickstarter page attractive enough so you can get enough funding. Best way to go is generally to recruit the members of your team first, ask for their prices, and calculate a budget from that, and while you’re recruiting your members, ask them to work for free to create enough assets for the kickstarter page. There are several articles on the internet about how to create successful Kickstarter campaigns, so take a look at them, also, my best advice is to go look at successful VN kickstarters and try to see how they did things. On the bright side, having money allows you to aim for a higher quality when it comes to asset as you’ll be able to pay to get more skilled people. iii°) “I want to release a commercial game” Example : pretty much every VN on Steam currently. You have two choices at this point : With kickstarter : it’s basically the same as previously, except the people working for your game might ask you to get a set percentage of the benefits from the sales of the game. This might require further organization and further arrangement / agreements to make, but it’s essentially beneficial if you want to get money for yourself through the creation of your VN, or if you want to create funds for a future game you’ll create (that would mean for your team to become an indie game studios). Without kickstarter : If you have prior funding from the sales of a previous game or personal funding to create this game and that you’re willing to pay people from your own pocket, then, this is probably the easiest way for you to interest people when going for recruitment, as they are sure they will receive money (while in the other case, the kickstarter might fail). If you don’t have funding and that you’re only betting on the sales of your game, you’re basically nearly in the same situation as if you were releasing it for free without paying anyone, some people might not want to wait so much before getting paid, especially since how much they’ll get is completely dependant on how much the game sells (and if the game reaches completion in the first place^^) 1c°) Type of story? i°) Genre So, it is now about time to decide about what kind of story you want to make. that’s where you decide about the genre of your game : Sci-fi, Slice of life, School life, Mystery, Romance, Drama, Comedy, Fantasy, Historical... Bishoujo, Otome, Yaoi, Yuri Charage, Moege, Nakige... H or non-H Kinetic, Choices, Routes, True route, True heroine…? Will it have gameplay elements? Will it be a rpg? Point and click elements? What plot outline do I want? How many heroines? How many routes? It is definitely something you’ll have to put a lof thoughts on, and it will take time for you to decide, but knowing where you want to go is something essential if you don’t want to get lost later on. I will also add this very interesting thread from Clephas here : https://forums.fuwanovel.net/index.php?/topic/7930-thoughts-on-vns/ I’d advise you to read it, as it is very interesting and might give you original ideas for the creation of your Visual Novel. ii°) Prioritize plot or characters? A very interesting question that doesn’t have an absolute answer, since it basically depends on what type of VN you want to create. If your aim is to create a Charage, or a Moege, then it might be better to think about creating your character first, elaborate backgrounds and such, and fit them in a story that works with what you created. But if ever you want to create a plot heavy story, then it might be better to try to create the setting you want to work in first, decide what twist you want to include as your main mind-blowing plot twist, create characters as plot devices first, and after only elaborate on them and create a background and a personality that is convenient for you. 2°) Recruitment and roles I’ll start by talking about recruitment. Depending on how you decide to organize, you might have decided to go with recruitment first, and recruitment is definitely one of the essential part that will determine whether your project will be successful or not. It’s not only finding the people with the right skill, it’s also finding the people with the motivation and the passion! Be warned though, recruitment is a very tedious thing, as the only way to know if someone is really a good fit for the project is trial and error. There will probably be a lot of people you will recruit, and that will either go MIA because of various reasons, or that you will be forced to kick out of the team because they have a bad influence, or because they are not productive… Sometimes, even during the middle of the project, you will have to replace someone and go through the recruitment phase again. It cannot be helped, and you have to be ready for it. The second thing I’ll explain in this section are the different roles, where you can recruit them, what is expected of them and how they should work. 2a°) Define a clear hierarchy Once again, sorry for democracy’s fans, but the best way to get things rolling in a team is to get a clear hierarchy. That means you need a leader. Or at least a core group that will take the final decisions. Careful, I didn’t say that you need to organize like some sort of dictatorship, and have the leader force his decisions upon others all the time. Hell no, that would condemn your project. The best organization is to have the members plan and discuss together, while the final decisions is taken by the leader(s) in case there is a disagreement. It’s easier said than done though, a leader needs to be respected by his members in order to make sure no argument happen and that everyone follows his final decision. Ideally, a leader should be : Responsible Worthy of trust Respectful when talking to the other members Willing to discuss and compromise Organized Good at dialoguing, good speaker Also, the leader is one of the few members that has the duty to know everything about his project, whether it is art, writing, music, programming… He has to know what progress has been done in all the different areas, he is also the one that tries to solve the problems some members might have regarding the project. And ideally, he is also responsible for recruitment. And also firing people. I know, it's a tough job. It is also better if the leader is someone versatile that can understand as much as possible about everything that might be technical about the VN. For example, it's better if he knows at least how sprite drawing process works. It's also better if he knows or can understand how programming works. this way, he can gauge what time it will take to create X feature / Y asset, and can tell the people who asked him (most of the time the writers) if it's doable or not. Note that someone can without any problem accumulate the duty of leader + another role (writer, programmer, artist…). However, I’d strongly recommend against that for bigger projects, as the more people you have to manage in the team, the more work the leader will have. Note also that the leader role can actually be a leader “team”, in which case you can have 2 or 3 people discussing between each other to take the final decisions and guide the ship. It has advantages and defaults, for example, being 2 to decide might bring disagreements, but at the same time you’ll have someone to point out your flaws when you’re doing something wrong. It is strongly advised to team up with people that share the same mindset as you if that’s ever the case. 2b°) About recruitment in general i°) Stay humble and stay honest If I have only one thing to say about this, it would be stay humble, and stay honest. Whenever you try to recruit someone, either on a thread or either on a private message, it’s important to convey those two things. Do not try to promise stuff you’re not sure of to the person you’re talking to (Like, don’t tell him that your game will sell by million copies and that he’ll get rich, or famous). Don’t hide things in your message, try to explain what you want to achieve, what you need, and what you expect from this person. And most of all, be respectful. Try to show what potential your game / ideas have to that person (because at this point, you’ll have probably only ideas and concepts in store). Also be ready to get numerous refusals. Sometimes, the person won’t even answer your message, or no one will reply to your thread. Don’t get discouraged, and keep trying to find people. ii°) Don’t accept anyone Finally, even if you’re the one that contacts the person in the first place, don’t accept everyone that will show interest in your project! I know that it’s very tempting, especially at the beginning when you get started with recruitment, but you need to make sure that this person will be a good fit for the team and that he will fill your expectations. Make sure to have them take test to gauge their skills, and don’t be afraid to refuse the people that you judge not skilled enough. I know that it’s sometimes hard to reject someone’s good will just because of his lack of skill, but it can’t be helped, and accepting such a person might be a disservice for you in the long term. iii°) Be professional It might seem a bit controversial for some people, as professional messages might sometimes seem too "business like" (well, if your VN is a commercial one, it's probably better this way), but sending something that looks professional is definitely a must. It will show the people you are recruiting that you are someone serious, able to organize his posts (and as a result someone who has a sense of organization) : "This guy seems serious. He might be able to succeed!". Also, one important rule is to never neglect the first impression you give when first contacting someone. You most of the time only have one chance : the first message. So you might as well want to take all the precautions to be successful in your recruitment. What do you think is the difference between : "hey, you're really good, I like what you're doing, are you interested in creating a VN with me?" "Hello, I've just seen your message and noticed that you were interested in creating a Visual Novel! I've read what you did, and I think your writing is very clever and agreeable to read, it would be a perfect fit for the VN I'm trying to create with my team. *Add explanations about your project*. Would you be interested in joining? I'm pretty sure someone with your skills would be a great addition to our team, and definitely improve the quality of our VN!" iv°) Where can I find people to recruit? Start a thread on the “Fan Project & Translation Discussion” board. Try to have an explicit topic name and try to give a good description of what’s your goal and what VN you’re trying to create. List the roles you need. Go on http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewforum.php?f=58&sid=3e3d4e1c6075671bec1bf2250f6dd19c and either post a thread, or PM the people that are proposing their services. More generally, Lemmasoft is a very nice place when it comes to OELVN creation, and there is a lot of people willing to give their time in order to create Visual Novels over there, so don’t hesitate to bookmark this site. Keep in mind that some people won’t accept to be recruited if there is not enough apparent progress made on your game. That’s how it is, and sometimes, it’s better to have a script prepared in advance so that the people producing assets are sure they won’t waste their time creating stuff for something that will never come to completion. 2c°) Writers i°) One or several writers? One of the first question you want to ask yourself about writing is : “Do I want only one writer to take care of all the writing, or do I want several writers?” Each has pros and cons. One writer : Writing is more consistent overall No difference in writing styles Only one person to create the plot, which makes it easier to create a coherent and non conflicting plot line. No arguments or debates about how the story should progress. Several writers : The writing gets done much faster than with one writer (you generally use one writer per route) Each route feels more “personal” when it comes to the writing. Easier to brainstorm ideas with other people. More diversity in the characters personalities, ideas related to the story… ii°) What should I expect from writers? The writer is basically the cement of your project. It’s the most vital piece. None of the other area can progress if the writing doesn’t. As a result, your writer(s) will have to be someone trustworthy, passionate, and hard working. It will have someone that can get in touch with the other members to give directions as well (What should this character look like, what music should play during this scene…). Also, someone pretty much organized as the writer will have to plan ahead a lot before starting to write. (You’ll notice that it is pretty much similar to the position of leader, hence why writers, often make good leaders). When I say planning, I’m not necessarily talking about the story. For example, a good writer must plan his story according to the limited number of locations because of the limited number of backgrounds he has at his disposal. In a lesser way, same goes for the sprites. He also has to consider the music that is played during the scene to a lesser extent. You need to recruit writers in priority, since no art or music should be created before the story is settled and the characters cast decided. Even with that, it’s better to have them work on a script right away. The writing should always be the part that shows the most progress, it always has to be ahead of art creation or music creation (ofc, since art and music assets should be based on writing). If you’re working with several writers, it might be good (but not mandatory) to have someone be the “lead writer”, generally the writer that will write the most of your VN, and will be used as a reference for the writing style. Also, you need to have the writers constantly share their ideas and progress with each other, in order to keep the story consistent. It’s not a good idea to have some of the writers work while being isolated from the others. iii°) Where can I recruit writers? Lemmasoft is your best bet, except a lot of the writers here are female. It isn’t a bad thing or anything, but guys and girls most of the time have a different view on how to create a story and characters. You can always try Fuwanovel, even though I have no idea if there are people experienced in writing out there (it would be great if we could have a list somewhere). https://www.fanfiction.net/ is another possibility, however the people you will find in here might be less interested in anime culture, and might not know what a Visual Novel is. Final tip, when recruiting a writer, don’t hesitate to ask both for a sample of their past work (recent if possible), and to give them a writing test. Visual Novel has “novel” in it name, so you’ll have to make sure the writing is of sufficient quality. 2d°) Artists i°) Should the artists get involved with the story making? It’s a very legitimate question to ask, and I don’t really have a definite answer to that. The only thing I can say is that it’s up to the artist to decide whether they want to involve themselves with the story creation process or not, and that you should not force them to do so. Artists behaviors can vary greatly, some of them will just provide you the art asset you need without any question, nor without knowing for which purpose it will be used, some might take a little interest in it, but won’t ask because they want to keep the surprise for themselves (read : they don’t want to be spoiled), and some might just involve themselves heavily with the content of the plot while they create the art. Even though the third type is the type that is likely to be the more passionate about your project, be respectful and don’t force an artist to involve more into the project than what they wish to. One thing that is sure, is that artists won’t be able to get anything done without a character cast being set. I strongly recommand to have part of the script ready when creating the first sprites, so you know in advance which sprite expressions you’ll use. Also, some artist might ask to either provide written a description and details, or a visual reference before creating a character. It’s the role of the writer to provide him with those. It’s also always a good idea to give some freedom to your artists while they are drawing. Finally, the most important piece of advice I can give here is : Know what you want. Whenever you make a request to your artist, you need to have a precise idea of what you want as a result. Approximate directions will give an approximate result that might not please you, and the artist will have to start again the drawing which can be very frustrating for him. That’s also why most artist won’t accept to have free reign over the design of a character : they don’t want to have to redraw until it pleases the writer. Also, it’s always a good idea to ask the artist to share his work during the intermediate steps : don’t wait for when the sprite is done coloring to say that you want the pose to be changed, it’s something that has to be done during sketching phase. i°) Sprite/CG artist For this, you might need one or several artists, depending on how you want to organize. It’s important to know at least the basics of how a sprite or a CG is drawn : First, the artist starts with a sketch, that is often a concept based on the description they received. Once the description is done, they lineart the sketch to create smooth lines that they’ll be able to color after that. After that comes coloring with basic colors the linearted sprite : Once all of that, the artist proceeds with shading the sprite (= adding shades and shadows to the coloring) : After all of that comes all the expressions, ofc. Don't forget also that each new pose for a character is basically redrawing a completely new sprite and might take time. Also, several sets of clothes are also additional work to your artist(s), even though more easier to do if the artist is working with a lot of layers. Based on that, there are two possibilities : One artist draws everything. You divide the different steps among several artists (one for concept art, one for linearting, one for coloring + shading). Take care though, some artists might have preferences about what role they have, and some might just prefer handling the sprites/CG creation from the beginning to the end. I strongly recommend to not split the art between your artists by characters (for example, X characters for artist A, and Y characters for artist B ) unless you are sure the two artists will be able to match each other’s style. ii°) Backgrounds artist This one is tough. There are very few BG artists, and it’s especially true if you’re looking for someone willing to work for free. Expect to spend countless hours skimming through forums and deviantart looking for the hidden gem. Fortunately, that’s not the only option you have : You can try to recruit someone willing to learn how to draw BGs. It will definitely take more time though. There are a bunch of tutorials you can find on the net about that. You can try to get your BGs done through 3D modeling software, such as Blender 3d, Google sketchup, and add effect on photoshop over them to get an anime BG feel. (See the videos and tutorial of Uncle Mugen) You can try to use normal pictures and use a paint over technique in order to make them look like anime backgrounds as well (using this kind of tutorials : http://lemur3s.deviantart.com/art/Anime-Visual-Novel-Backgrounds-from-photos-371395755) Finally, if worst comes to worst, you can use regular pictures and apply to them effect and filters in your favorite image editing software. This time, I strongly recommend to plan your writing in a way that you don’t end up having to produce a tremendous amount of backgrounds for your VN. iii°) GUI artist Not much to say about this one, you will need someone able to create game user interface graphics, meaning a petty menu, nice looking logo, buttons, etc… Sometimes the people that know how to create GUI have also programming knowledge. Take care though, artists that can draw game interfaces, and artists that can draw anime style characters are generally two different type of artists. Sometimes, you'll luckily find an artist able to do both. But don't expect it to be the case most of the time. iv°) Where can I find artists? Lemmasoft is a good bet, and it’s where the artists are the most available. However, the quality of the drawings might not be good enough depending on what you’re looking for. Also the best artists often seek commissions here. As usual, you can always try your luck on Fuwanovel, I know that there are at least some artists lurking in the shadows in here. http://www.deviantart.com/ is also a very good idea, since it’s where you’re the most likely to find hidden gems (= skilled, available and interested). If you’re seeking someone willing to work for free, try to look for the artists with less exposure and less watchers, as it will be less likely that they will be busy with projects. 2e°) Composers i°) Recruit real composers! Music people. What makes Visual Novels so great : being able to listen to emotional music while you read. Not much to say here, except one thing : don’t believe that people playing individual instruments can replace a composer. Having a pianist + a guitarist + a drummer in your team doesn’t mean you can create a soundtrack. First, everyone doesn’t have (good enough) recording equipment. Second, it takes an awful amount of time to create an OST this way, and it might just end up with a “meh” quality. It’s just much easier to have someone that has a synthesizer and that can use music softwares such as FLStudio or GarageBand, and that owns VST effects to simulate instruments. You can have several composers working on your soundtrack if you feel you will need a lot of tracks, but you’ll have to make sure that the VST used by each composers are somewhat similar. ii°) Where can I find composers? Lemmasoft, once again has a good amount of composers willing to work on projects and even for free. Once again, you can try your luck on Fuwanovel, who knows?^^ https://soundcloud.com/ is the place where most composers gather. You might be able to find someone interested in working on your project if you pm composers here. Composers might ask for different types of stimulation to get inspiration. Some need artwork, others need writing, and some just need a musical reference. It’s a good idea to know what does your composer need for inspiration, and plan in consequence. 2f°) Programmers i°) Should I use ren’py, use a custom engine, or…? It mostly depends of what type of VN you want to create, and how much time you have. If you already have skilled programmers ready to participate in the creation of your VN, and if you want your VN to have original gameplay elements, it might be interesting to try to create an engine from scratch. (It’s probably better to pay the programmer for that, since it’s quite a big amount of work) Else, if you’re going for something more simple, it’s better to use ren’py. It uses Python as a language, except the engine has it own specificities. It is very capable, and create very nice things (Katawa Shoujo was made on ren’py, same goes for Sunrider), and allows both the creation of standard VN, or gameplay oriented VN. If you’re aiming for a VN without gameplay elements rpg like, there is another alternative we are using for the project I’m working on, an engine in development that doesn’t require any programming knowledge and that is user friendly, called Cloudnovel (formerly Joilly). It’s very intuitive to use, and allows you to create your VN much faster since you don’t have to write any line of codes (it basically works in the same way as a video editor). The only thing being that it’s still in development, so there are some features and functionalities missing. (If you’re ever interested in using Cloudnovel, feel free to pm me) ii°) Where can I find programmers? Lemmasoft is a forum created for all the VN that were created with Ren’py, so you’ll most likely find a good number of programmers ready to help over there. Learning to use ren’py yourself is possible if you have the motivation and at least some very basic knowledge in programming 2g°) Editors, proofreaders, beta-testers i°) Editors Not very high on the priority list, but essential if you want to save time, editors will be the people who will take a look at the writer’s drafts once it’s written and to suggest corrections and improvements to the flow of the writing (whether it is narration or dialogue). They also try to fix any plot hole they might find that the writer isn’t conscious of. That might require the editor to have a bit of knowledge concerning the plot and the characters though. If needed, the writer himself can serve as a editor as he goes back on his past work and edit it. To a lesser extent, they will be responsible for correcting grammar, syntax and vocabulary issues. Good level in english required. ii°) Proofreaders They will mostly correct typos and orthography / grammar problems that might have slipped past through the eyes of the editor. A good level in english is preferable as well. iii°) Testers Those are required only when the game is out, or at least when a demo is ready. their role is to test the game in every way possible in order to find some potential bugs / typos / issue and report them to the rest of the team. iv°) Where can I find them? You can find plenty of editors / proofreaders / testers on Lemmasoft, and on Fuwanovel. Don’t put too much emphasis on looking for proofreaders and testers though, since it can wait until the later phases of your project. With all of that, your team is now (hopefully) complete! Now in the next section, I’ll try to present some little tools and software that will make communication among the members of the team go smoothly. 3°) Useful things to improve communication among the team members Now that we have all of our members, we have to make sure that they keep interacting between each other. Remember that creating a VN is a collaborative effort and the last thing you want is to have everyone working on his own, without any exchange or discussion. This section will be pretty short, but very practical. 3a°) Skype Make sure that all of the members have a Skype account. If that’s not the case for some of the members, ask them to download and install it. Create a general chat with all the members invited in it, and make sure to tell the members to use the skype command /alertson [keyword] in order to receive a notification only when “[keyword]” is written (where keyword is replaced by the word you want ofc, it’s a good idea to use his own pseudo here). Try to encourage your members to discuss and participate on the skype discussions on a regular basis (if possible, a daily basis). Ofc, don’t expect the discussion to be 100% of the time productive, the Skype discussions are also meant to be chattery and to have people get to know each other. You can also create separate conversations for serious talk and chatter. It’s also actually possible to create moderated chats on skype, just check : https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA10042/what-are-chat-commands-and-roles Also, I recommend to give priority to written chats over voice chats, especially at the beginning, since most people might be uncomfortable with talking with strangers. When you get to know other people well, voice chat has some advantages though, mostly it is faster to share information through voice than writing. 3b°) Trello This one is an awesome tool. It’s called Trello : https://trello.com/ It allows you to create boards where you can create different cards under different sections. Those cards contain a title, a description, and can contain various attachment such as audio file, youtube video, picture that you can upload on the card, and that everyone who has access to it can download. People can also comment about the content of the cards. You can also add checklists to the cards, to know what you need to do and complete it the more you progress. You just need to have all the members of your team to register on the site, to create an organization and add everyone in it. Purposes of trello : Very useful to have recaps and explanations, and it’s a good way to have information accessible to every member of the project at any time. Can allow you to organize all the information concerning the story in a condensed way (our story board for our own project looks like a wiki). An easy way to store and organize assets, whether it is for art or music. A great way to comment other’s people work, and to make one’s opinion visible on the card. A great way to have asynchronous talk if people cannot be free during the same time frames. It will be the primary support for conversation between members working on different aspects of the game (writers can comment about the art, the music…) I cannot stress enough how useful trello is. It might be just the tool that make it that people will want to work for your VN or not. 3c°) Google drive. Google drive is mostly useful for writing. It allows you to share the content of the writing with the other members, in a way where they’ll be able to comment or edit in real time the documents. Extremely useful, especially for editors. It’s also a good way to be able to monitor writing’s progress. 3d°) Have your own development forums I’d recommend that mostly if a lot of people on the team are allergic to Skype and Trello. Basically, most of your exchange will be done on some sort of “private” forums divided in sections where the members will create threads and post in those threads. It has some advantages, mostly : It’s the best for asynchronous talk (especially useful if people live in different timezones) It always keep a written trace of what has been said / made You can add attachments to your posts It is however much slower and reactive than the other options mentioned above (I personally prefer trello over this. 4°) How to be efficient as a team Now that you’re all set, I’ll just give some tips gathered from my personal experience in order to get a better efficiency from your team. 4a°) Importance of communication It feels kinda obvious when I say it, but it’s strongly underrated, communication among the members of the team is the key to success. It is generally the responsibility of the project leader to ensure that everyone on the team communicates. The leader has to coordinate the whole progress of the project, and make sure he’s available to discuss with any member about a problem he/she might have encountered, and if necessary, be the relay / intermediate between the different members of the group. (For example, if an artist encounter a problem with drawing a sprite, the said artist talks about it to the project leader, who will himself question the writer concerned, and if needed will ask the writer to directly talk with the artist. Also, as it’s the project leader role to make sure everyone is okay with what they are doing, and to make sure that no one feels too shy or scared to share their concerns about any topic. He has also to make sure that everyone tells him when someone has to leave for a determined or undetermined period of time. It’s also his duty to make sure that everyone is aware of the latest news concerning the project, whether it is meetings, deadlines, goals, etc... One other issue that you might encounter, is people that are not reactive on Skype, and only send a message every 2 weeks before going back MIA. Generally, it’s not a good sign concerning the involvement of the person on the project, but if ever that’s the case, try to send a nice but firm message explaining how you’d wish that this person would involve more on the project. If no effort is made, it’s your choice to whether kick out this person out of the team, or to keep him. Just remember that having someone slack off on his duties (communicating regularly being one of those duties) can be harmful for the whole team if this person has an important role. Sometimes, it will be necessary for you to set up meetings through Skype in order to share info to several people, or to have them communicate with each others. It’s an important thing to do and is a good way to create teamwork spirit in your team. 4b°) Plan ahead! Be a master of planification , create checklists, try to think of every hurdle in advance, and try to take preemptive measures to counter those possible future problems. As a general rule of thumb, try to avoid putting all your eggs in the same basket, especially if there’s a lot of work to do. Time isn’t your ally, and the more time goes by, the more it is possible that something might happen to one of your member IRL. So try to have several people work on one same thing, so that one can replace the other if ever something happens, and so that progress doesn’t stall. Everyone is not easily replaceable though, so sometimes you might not have a choice. Don’t wait the last moment when you have something to ask to someone. Always try to do things the earliest as possible, but at the same time, don’t ever plan something you’re not sure to use (never ask a composer to make a track you’re not 100% sure you will use for example). Try to always have a plan B and a plan C for every issue that you might foresee in the future. You might prepare yourself for nothing sometimes, but the more you’ll be ready when an issue appears, the more smoothly you’ll be able to deal with it, and the less it will stall your project. Another important thing : get to know who you’re working with. Every member of your team is a human being with different sensibilities, different way of working, different organization, and different work speed. Try to gauge what you can reasonably expect from that person, and plan in consequence. If a composer believes he needs at least two weeks to create a decent soundtrack, don’t expect to have more than 2 tracks per month, and plan in consequence. 4c°) Deadlines Some people find it bothersome, others like them. I have only one thing to say : Set deadlines for your project. They are your bread and butter, what will make that your team will work to reach your common goal. Without a deadline, one's mind will waver, and might succumb to procrastination (your worst enemy). A deadline is meant to positively “pressure” someone to make him do the work, it is meant to be like a reference or a checkpoint for the person working. “Am I late compared to the deadline? Will I make it in time?” A good set deadline is meant to pressure enough the members of your team so that they can have motivation to accomplish their jobs, and at the same time should never feel too overwhelming (which would have the opposite effect). Also, a good deadline is set never too far in the future, but never too close at the same time. If your goal is to release a demo, don’t put the deadline 2 weeks after the current date. Give it at least a month or two. It’s however always a good idea to have an estimated time of release for your full VN, as it gives a good idea of what intermediate deadlines you need to set to reach this goal. For example, if I want my game to be released on Spring 2016, it might be a good idea to consider a release of a demo as an intermediate deadline in Summer 2015. You might also want to micromanage your team, and set individual deadlines for each precise task. It’s definitely doable, but is a lot more work as a project manager. However, it is definitely a good way to make sure work is done at a regular pace. You might even want to set deadline for people even if there is no practical goal for that, and it’s totally okay to set deadlines just for the sake of seeing progress being made. A final word on this topic : sometimes, some people might not be able to respect the date of the deadline. It will definitely happen, and that’s something you should expect to happen. That’s why you should always try to give yourself a margin when setting a deadline. If you want something to be released by June, set the deadline in May. And don’t be harsh on the people that are late, especially if you see that they are hard-working. If the deadline was not respected because of pure laziness from the member, or because of a lack of communication (aka : you only receive a message from this person once every month), that’s another story. 4d°) Have fun! Sometimes, trying to have too much productivity kills productivity. Forcing people to work on something might result in a lack of quality, because your members will be working on something without motivation. It’s just better sometimes to take breaks, or to laugh and joke together. Heck why not even play online games (that’s what we’ve been doing recently)? It’s always better to not force the chat to be serious 100% of the time, try to be a bit lax from time to time. Take some time to have people get to know each other. To create friendship. Don’t underestimate the contribution of bonding to your team’s moral. You’ll be always more motivated to work for friends, than working for “clients” or “strangers”. Also, seeing the people you enjoy being with motivated and giving their best to accomplish your goal is a huge motivating factor. Finally, at some point, it might happen that someone don’t feel like working on the project because he doesn’t find the motivation. Maybe that person will feel that currently, workin gon the project is a burden. It’s something that can happen to anyone and that is perfectly natural. The best I can advice in those cases, is to take a break from the project, a short one, and do something else instead. Play a Visual Novel. Go back playing to the new extension of your favorite MMO. Go spend some time with real life friends. And (hopefully) come back with your spirit renewed and with full motivation! 5°) Create some awareness for your project Well, everything is all good and all set, but let’s not forget our primary goal. You obviously want to create a Visual Novel, but you also want it to get recognition, to be read by people all over the world, and possibly to be sold. So basically, you need to do PR job. Don’t believe that PR and marketing are things should be addressed only once the game is created. It is something that should progress at the same pace as the development of your VN. Here are basic things to do to ensure a solid foundation for the marketing and PR of your future VN. But, what is awareness? It's very simple : it's having people know that your VN exists. Your goal is basically to create a system like this : - At the top, a source : basically you and your team : you are yourself the main advertiser of your own project, and most of the content you release has one goal : create some sort of "fanbase" (see next point) - In the middle, a "fanbase" : people very interested in your project that will do their best to support you and share the word because your project is awesome. Most of the time, it will be them who will retweet your messages, share your facebook posts, create forum threads about your project, create let's play and reviews... They are your most valuable help in advertising your VN, so don't neglect them! - At the bottom, normal fellows : they will be the people that will skim through your website and different pages briefly, without necessarily taking a lot of attention, or without being very interested. It's fine that way, the only thing you want is to make sure thosse people know about the existence of your VN, and that the title will stay in their head. This way, the day when your VN will launch, it is most likely that this person that, at the time, saw your project developing, will say "I think I've heard / I know about this game... Might as well give it a try." Keep in mind that those should be done only once you actually have content to show or tease about, and if you’re sure that your project is going in the right direction, or at least somewhere. Also, don't expect your different advertisement pages to be swarmed with messages and followers as soon as you create them. It's only the beginning, be patient, and have low expectations. Don't try to create the buzz by all cost if nothing tangible has been created yet. Don’t put the cart before the horse 5a) Create forum threads i°) Where do I create forum threads? Fuwanovel : https://forums.fuwanovel.net/index.php?/forum/87-ongoing-projects/ The ongoing project section is where you want to create your thread. Make sure to create an intro post organized with sections, pictures, screenshots, a synopsis about the story, information about the characters, what you’re planning to do and what is the current progress. You can also list any role open for recruitment in this post. Here are some good examples : https://forums.fuwanovel.net/index.php?/topic/2957-violeta-hill-community-based-visual-novel-project-demo-released/ https://forums.fuwanovel.net/index.php?/topic/4543-demo-available-lucid9-project-a-mystery-vn/ Lemmasoft : http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewforum.php?f=43 Same as previously, make sure to take care of the look of your thread. ii°) Tips and advices : Be respectful with all the people that will take the time to read what you wrote on your thread, and take some time to comment it. Some people will support you and encourage you, don’t forget to thank them. Some people might come and try to give their opinion about your project : Sometimes it will be interesting and constructive criticism, and if that’s the case, you should try to open the dialog with that person, and thank him for sharing his opinion. Sometimes, it will merely be someone voicing that the game is not to his liking. Everyone has different things they like and dislike, and I can’t help but share a wise quote about that : “You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”. Assume the choice that you made, and ignore the complains that you might receive. Take care though, if several people complains about the same thing, it has to ring a bell for you and it might be a good idea to question yourself if your decision is a good idea or not. Sometimes, you might meet trolls, or haters. It’s unfortunate, but it happens. Just ignore those people. Or tell them that you read their messages and that you will take what they said into account. In any case, always stay polite, and never start a flame war on your own thread. It would send a very bad image of your project, whoever might be the responsible for starting it. Don’t spam your own thread. When I say spam, it means don’t write post several messages next to each other without a reply from someone else in between (unless you have some juicy news to share, ofc). Don’t post a message only for the purpose of bumping your thread. It is not very well seen in forum communities in general. if you bump your thread, always have a valid reason to do so (relevant information, replying to someone’s question…) 5b°) Get yourself a blog / website It will basically become your public window display for your VN. Make it attracting visually, try to have a visual theme that fits your VN. Also, try to make it so that the name is easy to google. You don’t exactly need a website to start with, a dev’ blog is probably enough to start with. (An example here : http://katawashoujo.blogspot.fr/) What will you be talking about in this blog? The progress being made so far by the team, teasers about features to come, publish assets in exclusivity… If you try to get yourself something more looking like a website, it’s different. You should organize and create section, like what you did in your forum thread. Also, make sure that people can find what is the VN about. An example here : http://lucid9.weebly.com/ Try to update your blog/website regularly (at least bi-monthly), even if you don’t seem to have any follower. Having regular posts and updates show that you’re serious about your project and indicate some professionalism coming from you. 5c°) Social medias They are your best allies, granted you know how to use them correctly and granted you know the different "codes" and specificity of each social network. One thing to realize is that followers will come naturally as your VN progresses, so don't be too obsessed by trying to get the highest number of followers as possible in the beginning. Also, one thing that will make you much more succesful in social networks, is that you need to "give and take". If you want other people to share your messages and to take interest in you, you need to interact with the countless other actors of the social sphere first. Meaning that you need to reply to the messages people send you, and you also need to show interest in other's people projects, to comment their status / tweet, to share yourself other's people posts... A facebook group is always a good idea to have. A twitter account is a must have, since it’s a good way to grab the attention of people if you get re-tweeted. Tumblr is also something you can think about, even though I’m not too familiar about it. deviantArt is surprisingly a very good place to garner attention if you share art assets from your Visual Novel with the artists in there. Having a soundcloud account for your project might be a good idea as well, since it will allow you to embed music in your various twitter / facebook / blog posts. Note that getting more people to follow you and take interest in your project is sometimes tedious, and probably won’t happen before you get content release. 6°) Conclusion Creating a Visual Novel is definitely something that is not easy, and that requires efforts. You will have to be patient, be extremely organized and clever if you want to avoid your project to fail. But in the end, it’s something you won’t regret doing, as it will make you learn how to work in a team, and as it is certainly thrilling to know that you might be able to share one of your creation with the entire world! As for myself, I know that I’d be very proud to be one of those artisans that contributed to spread and share this wonderful thing that is the Visual Novels love.

Last updated : January 20th 2016 NOW AVAILABLE ON STEAM FOR FREE! Staff list Active members : Diamonit : Project lead, Plot supervisor, Character design Luna Chai : Writer (Common route), Graphics, GUI DavidA. : Writer (Heroine route) Clestae : Writer (Heroine route), Beta, editor AnotherPlayer : Writer (Heroine route) Suna : Writer (Heroine route) Mac : Character design, PR Sean : Side writer, Character design, PR Reika : Editor Rains : Proof-reader Dizzyworld2 : Lead artist, Female Sprites, CGs Elphaze: Male sprites, CGs Yuuko : Backgrounds, GUI Breeze : Composer Ziassan : Composer UltraKitsune : Composer, SFX Yunyunsae : Composer Zander : SFX Zuka : GUI programmer Jbonesy : Narrative scripting programmer Ian : Narrative scripting progralmmer Former members / Inactive members : Blue wolfie : Composer , Arranger danpc : Project Lead, programmer, composer, idea bouncer Hooves : Character design, idea boucer We, at Fallen Snow Studios, are all very motivated and excited to take part in this great adventure that is the creation of a Visual Novel, and we hope we'll be able to create something you will enjoy reading! Thanks for your time reading this, and don't hesitate to reply to this thread if you have any question, or if you just want to show your support! It means a lot to us!

Hello ladies and gentlemen of fuwa! Today I will be sharing with you a little writing project I've been working on. Thanks so much to Forgetful Frank for agreeing to edit the book for me! When I started I was editing it myself, which is slow work and I often miss mistakes in my own writing, and so this way it should be a lot better for everyone involved Also, a big thanks to Melowbee for making the illustration for Kitsune! It's a wonderful confidence boost to actually have someone make drawings for my story! On to the book: キツネと私 - Kitsune and me Summary: After spending half a day locked in her clubroom at school, Sakura heads home in the middle of the night, in pouring rain. Taking refuge from the terrible conditions, she stumbles into and old and mysterious shrine. Here she discovers a strange little artifact that she thinks may have been stolen from a museum. Wanting to get it checked out the next day, she brings the artifact home. But as the artifact ends up coming to life in the form of the ditsy, energic and completely stunning Kitsune, Sakura's life will never be the same again... Information on the book: Kitsune and me is primarily a comedy, focusing on the relationship between the main character Sakura, and her new guardian ... fox-girl, Kitsune Mimiko. When writing it I focus primarily on having fun and silly interactions between the two, and purposely try to use clichés from common visual novel, anime, manga and light novel works. It's a fun little project I recently decided to start working on, and it's not meant to be taken too seriously. The story offers elements of comedy, romance (yuri), fantasy and action. The structure is fairly similar to most VNs, in that it starts of fluffy and is riddled with mainly humor, and then it gets more dramatic towards the end. Also, note that this is written in English, though I use certain words and phrases from Japanese. Again, this isn't meant to be taken too seriously. Words such as bentou will be in the book to keep the essence of the "Japanese setting" and words such as "ne" will be left in Kitsune's sentences, as they are a part of her speech pattern and that doesn't translate as well into English in my opinion. I also keep Japanese titles when I see fit, like using Kitsune's name. For these parts, translations are on the side of the Japanese symbols. DIGITAL PDF DOWNLOAD FOR THE BOOK! A sketch of Kitsune made by Melowbee! Art made by Melowbee, thank you x100!! Editing is done by Forgetful Frank, thanks so much for that! Special thanks to Nosebleed for helping me with Kitsune's name!

This has been a known subject in a certain VN community for a while, but I think now is the right time for this place to know about it. Here's the deal: the translator of Angel Beats TL project just posted a video showing proof of that this translation isn't a complete lie, and this has been going on for 2-2,5 moths by my rough estimate. Here's the video The translator also posted a survey on if the audience wants honorifics to be present in the translation, and about a partial patch and on what route it may be on: http://goo.gl/forms/IvT6fM4cpQ Here's the progress thus far, albeit in a little more peculiar form, but it's there nontheless: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hNQ-u36mto5xgYT_zPGikLGbu95XwrF5fx9m0KnGJac/edit#gid=0 I'll try to update this thread always when a new TL update comes around

I've so far read maybe four or five scenes with Aya. God help me, I will now write serious critique of ImoPara. The main conceit here is, obviously, the younger sister taboo. But somehow the way it's played out renders the taboo uninteresting - the fact that literally every character we ever see (or at least that I've seen so far) is 100% on board with subverting the taboo renders it less powerful, and thus less appealing. And it might even be fine if we were just talking two characters, and nobody else was even aware of the situation, but here it's literally everybody, totally cool with incest. All the casual conversations, everything. Incest is ... boring? First time I've had that exact thought. The fact that all the females share insane devotion to the main character, right out of the gate, actually kind of bugs me. Maybe this is normal for a fairly vanilla nukige (again, so far; admittedly I've only seen a little bit of the game)? Even the tsundere is clearly incredibly dere from the moment you see her. This is probably going to sound ridiculous, but there's not enough of a story here. It's a nukige, fine, but that doesn't mean it can't have at least something happening. I'll point to Ultimate Boob Wars as a good example. It has a little story, which is mostly pretty stupid, but it's not ashamed to run with that story, and it's self-aware enough to turn its stupidity to its advantage for humor value. On the other hand, it's definitely possible to go too far with putting a game behind the nukige - I think of Beat Blades Haruka as a nukige, but it wasn't a very successful one for me, because it had too much gameplay under the hood. This one has the opposite problem (not in terms of gameplay, in this case, but in terms of story). Some middle ground between BBH and ImoPara is probably the right place to aim for, at least for it to work better for me; Ultimate Boob Wars is about right. I'm hard-pressed to think of something it does well. Umm. Aya and Michika are kind of cute? The rest of the characters aren't especially interesting to me. I don't especially care for the art, so that's not helping any. I'm probably going to put this one down after grinding my way (so to speak) through Aya's route. All things considered, I'd rather be "reading" Ultimate Boob Wars. It's got a perfectly good imouto - in fact, a way better one than you'll find in ImoPara. I'll take quality over quantity.

Darcs lineart and base color!!! Not finished!!!!

All my expectations for Re Zero are far surpassed in episode 3. Never knew White Fox could be this good after Akame ga Kill. I'm pleasantly surprised. Gorgeously executed action scenes, eye candy designs, well composed soundtrack, perfectly well placed pacing and a good story to wrap it all out. I dare say this anime is probably my AOTS even surpassing Kabaneri. It's time to raise the expectation bar again and hope I don't get disappointed! Best action cinematography I've seen in anime for a while.

Hello, and welcome! If you're just finding your way with VNs, you've found a good place. Another good way to find well-thought-of VNs is to look at VNDB ratings: https://vndb.org/v/all?q=;fil=tagspoil-0;rfil=;o=d;s=rating To offer a single specific recommendation rather than a billion, Steins;Gate, which is rated number 2 there overall and is one of my very favorites, has an officially-licensed English release which you can buy from JBox/JList (either downloadable or boxed edition, whatever you like): https://jbox.com/sg001. If you've already watched the anime, though, be aware that there's very little additional content in the VN, although what's there is actually some of the best stuff - alternate endings. In that case, you might want to go with something else, such as one of the fine recommendations above.

According to the Steam user in question: So he just goofed up. No backers has received their keys yet. SP wouldn't just secretly launch the game like that. I suspect that we will indeed see an April release, although ultimately that is just a guess. I don't really see any reason why it has to be held back any further. Who knows, though, maybe there's some weird business related stuff with Regista/Yeti holding things back? As I said in our latest VNTS update, the FuwaReviews team received a key, which ended up in my hands. We should be able to post a review on the day of release.

I see....I will probably need help figuring out how to do that, considering I can't even get some other games installed and working :/ Thanks for the offer!

Welcome to Fuwa! Hope you like it here! Yaoi is luv, Yuri is laifu~ ;D

> Play HunieCam Studio > Audrey gets AIDS (literally) >

Aizen and his army of hollows and Arrancars welcomes you and hopes that you enjoy your stay here!

Update #3: 177109/434217 (40.79%) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hNQ-u36mto5xgYT_zPGikLGbu95XwrF5fx9m0KnGJac/edit#gid=0

Take it from someone who loves hentai, you don't want an 18+ version of Little Busters, anyone who's read Key's h-scenes knows how awful they are. Neither erotic nor romantic, just pure cringe and awkwardness. And the Perfect edition has more content than the EX edition, you will still get Saya, Kanata and Sasami's route in it, with additional scenes that aren't in the regular EX version. The only thing it won't have are the h-scenes, and good riddance that is. Someone might make a patch for it, but I doubt any translator really wants to put in the effort of translating those atrocities. If you really want to see the 18+ content, you can just read the h-scenes in Japanese, they're just as fulfilling (i.e not fulfilling at all).

The last GM standing Q&A: Link to the thread: Would you rather read the chapters in a PDF document? Click here! Chapter 1: Chapter 2: Chapter 3: (Word count, 4439) The Last GM Standing Chapter 4 (Word count, 3984) The fires of hell The air was scorching hot, making breathing in itself a task. Large amounts of pitch black smoke rose from the inextinguishable fires that raged throughout the battlefield. The ground was stained in fresh blood, and the corpses of several brave warriors were spread around in the burning hot sand. ...... Eclipsed was making his way towards the sound of a woman screaming. Just seconds ago he had been searching for his wounded comrades when he could hear the sound of blades clashing and people shouting. Then, a terrible scream resounded throughout the desert, followed by silence. And there, standing over the corpses of two figures dressed in Nosebleed's robes, stood a member from Team Down. The man was holding a blood stained katana. His green garb was also showered in fresh blood. The dead man at his feet was headless, and the woman lying a few feet away was submerged in a great pool of blood. The man turned his head towards Eclipsed and stared right at him. "Tch..." Eclipsed clicked his tongue over being discovered. It had been such a great opportunity to perform a surprise attack. But it did not matter. Eclipsed did not waver and kept on approaching his enemy, Tiagofvarela. Seeing as the man was a general, he was not an easy opponent. Eclipsed had to attack with all his strength in order to win. He had to use... That. "O keeper of flame, creator of light, thou who maintains life itself, lend me the power to set ablaze a thousand enemies, bestow upon me the strength of thee, O keeper of flame, creator of light." Coming to a sudden stop mere meters away from his target, Eclipsed chanted such words of power and brought his hands together, as if praying. Upon hearing his opponent chanting, Tiago launched an attack, but Eclipsed's body was enveloped in a vortex of fire just as the blade was about to connect. The katana bounced of the flames as if they were solid, and a deep red flame started burning though the metal. The tip of the blade started melting quickly upon being scorched by the immense heat. "W-What the ... You little..." Expressing his irritation and surprise at the sudden turn of events, Tiago took a step back and picked up the spear of the fallen Mitchhamilton. The weapon was stained in wet blood, but otherwise in good condition. A few seconds later, the vortex of flame subsided. In the spot where Eclipsed was standing, a massive sword had appeared out of nowhere. The blade was completely orange, glittering like the coal at the bottom of a fire. The blade was more than two meters long, and looked almost impossible to handle. The hilt was formed like a claw of some monstrous creature, and the entire weapon was shining so brightly it almost hurt Tiago's eyes just looking at it. It was a scary sight indeed. Fighting against such a weapon on his own would be reckless. Eclipsed raised the massive greatsword over his head and brought his arms down. The simple motion created a giant wave of flame that washed over a big area in front of him. Tiago swiftly sidestepped, but a part of his leg was caught in the scorching heat. The energy still left in his barrier withered and faltered, leaving his leg badly burnt. "Kuuh..." Wielding another person's weapon and facing off against an immensely powerful flame incarnation, Tiago was truly in a tough spot. There was no choice. He had to call for help. Bringing his hands to the warm sand below, he quickly drew two symbols with the tips of his fingers. Because the weapon Eclipsed was wielding required such an immense amount of power, he was not able to attack again right away, and Tiago was able to finish creating the two summoning circles. After uttering a few words in order to activate the spell, the two circles erupted into pure light and tore a hole in the earth itself. Tiago's intent was to summon three of his warriors to the battlefield, but right as he started calling for them, Eclipsed was ready to attack once more. Failing to keep his concentration as another wave of flame approached him, the summoning spell went out of control and pulled several unwanted people into the battle... ... "Ahh, what the hell just happened? I was just about to kill some idiot from Nosebleed's army... Ohhh, wait a minute. Looks like I still get that chance after all." Gijimu, Team Kaguya. "... Hey, Tiago, are you the one who called us here?.. And here I was thinking I'd get a day off from this fighting..." Turnip Sensei, Team Down. "Hmm... Well, I have nothing better to do. Might as well join the party." Valmore, Team Nosebleed. Because of the chaotic summoning spell, several people from different teams were pulled into the fight. Looking at the spectacle in front of him with a carefree expression, Valmore lifted up his pickaxe and faced towards the closest enemy. Valmore's weapon of choice was rather peculiar; a miner's pickaxe with two spikes at each end instead of one. "Well then, time to crack some skulls open." Performing a big swing with his pickaxe, Valmore smashed the weapon into the ground where Turnip Sensei from Team Down had just been standing. Barely avoiding the strike, Turnip Sensei retaliated with a hard punch. The attack didn't reach Valmore, so he did not even bother dodging it. But as Turnip Sensei's fist stopped, a powerful shockwave connected with Valmore and threw his body several meters back. The punch had been mixed with magic, and had created a really strong shockwave. "Huh. Now that's a cool trick." Suddenly hearing a voice coming from right behind him, Turnip Sensei brought back his elbows with great force, trying to hit the person who spoke. But both blows hit nothing but air. "Hah. Can't hit me with something so simple I'm afraid." The figure of a person dressed in red appeared before him. It was Gijimu from Team Kaguya. He held no weapons, just like Turnip Sensei, and was standing ready in a battle stance. His left arm was held in front of his body in a guarding position, and his right arm as resting right next to his waist, ready to strike at his opponents. "Now you've done it!!!" Valmore had gotten back on his feet and was once again rushing towards Turnip Sensei. "A free for all huh? This should be fun." As Gijimu commented on the situation, Valmore reached their location. With violent movements, he attacked both Gijimu and Turnip Sensei. The pickaxe moved swiftly through the air, and was actually a little hard to dodge for Turnip Sensei. Gijimu on the other hand, nimbly jumped away from the weapon and brought his fist into Valmore's side. The punch bounced off Valmore's barrier, but cracks started forming in the pink shield, indicating that it was running out of energy. It looked like Gijimu was skilled in hand to hand combat. Valmore was trained in fighting with a weapon and lastly Turnip Sensei used magic in the form of shockwaves. A rather obscure mix. The three clashed once again, and the ground shook as several battles unfolded at the same time in the blazing hot desert. ... Kingdomcome Team Nosebleed vs Flutterz Team Down vs Duyy Team Kaguya. Flutterz was running away from the relentless rain of crossbow bolts. His enemy was positioned nearly 50 meters away, and it was impossible to get close to him. Flutterz used a sword, and although he was fairly well versed in magic, it was difficult to find any openings to cast spells due to the constant onslaught of bolts. His opponent, Kingdomcome from Team Nosebleed, must have been using magic to operate the crossbow, as the bolts were fired nonstop with great accuracy. Also caught in the crossfire was Duyy from Team Kaguya. She was doing a good job of dodging the crossbow bolts, but she was also incapable of getting any closer to the attacker. "Come on .... Is there no way to get an opening?!" Cursing to himself, Flutterz knocked down two oncoming projectiles with his sword. The entire desert was enveloped in a blazing heat, created by both the hot sun and the gigantic sword of fire that Eclipsed from Team Kaguya was using. Eclipsed was quite a distance away, fighting a battle of his own, but the heat still reached all the way over to Flutterz. Suddenly, a loud rumbling made Flutterz' body jump in surprise. As he turned over to see what was happening, a massive wall of solid rock had erupted from the earth, and was blocking the path between himself and Kingdomcome. It seemed that the person who made the wall was none other than Duyy. How did she find the time to summon such a powerful protective spell with the relentless attacks constantly interrupting her? Well, no matter. This was his chance. Firmly grabbing his sword, Flutterz started rushing towards the massive rock wall. Kingdomcome had started moving as well, and leapt up in the air, running up the wall. He must have been using magic to make his feet stick to the surface. "Tch. At this rate, he'll get an even better sniping position." The wall was a good 20 meters tall, and if Kingdomcome got up there, he would have a perfect location to snipe everyone on the ground. Knowing he had to stop him, Flutterz finally had a few seconds to cast a spell. Stopping in his tracks, Flutterz closed his eyes and aimed his arms at the top of the rock wall, where Kingdomcome was headed. Gathering his energy and focusing it into his fingertips, he cast a quick but powerful spell. A big magic circle appeared before him, and hundreds of tiny pellets of pure energy were fired at Kingdomcome with immense speed and power. The perfectly circular pellets were shining brightly in a pink light. A massive cloud of smoke erupted from the stone wall as it broke apart from the attack. Large chunks of rock fell from the wall and crashed into the sand. Focusing on maintaining the spell, Flutterz did not move from his spot, shooting down any rubble that fell towards him with the energy pellets. The spell lasted for a good minute. As nearly nothing was left of the great rock wall, Flutterz let go of the spell, and the magic circle vanished. The feeling of a massive amount of energy leaving his body made Flutterz feel tired. Because of the smoke and rubble, it was impossible to see if Kingdomcome had survived the attack. Before Flutterz had time to scout the area though, Duyy suddenly jumped him. Throwing four great boulders from the rubble at Flutterz, she was trying to use the opportunity to take him out right after he cast a spell. Sneaky move. There was no way he had time to cast another spell, and so he had to use his sword to slice the stones in two. His blade was sharp and imbued with magic, so it was no trouble. Problem was, Duyy was only using the rocks as a distraction, and had been charging a new spell during the time Flutterz used to deflect the boulders. Duyy brought her hands together and chanted a spell, then smashed them both into the sand below. Because she was still quite some distance from Flutterz, he was incapable of hearing her chant and had no idea what kind of spell was coming. Right after, a great deal of big spikes made out of rock sprouted from the ground. The spikes started right in front of her and quickly moved towards Flutterz. There was no way for him to avoid them on the ground. He had to grow wings and fly away to get away from them, something he obviously couldn't do. "... Crap." As the wave of rock spikes reached his feet, the sensation of his own bones being crushed to bits made him want to throw up. An unbearable pain welled up from his legs as the rock smashed through his knees. "GRUAAAAA!" Letting out a feral scream, Flutterz tried to move from the spot but was completely immobilized. The last thing he saw was a blue light; the flickering of a crossbow bolt moving towards his face from a distance. So he did surivive huh? ... With that thought, Flutterz' consciousness faded. .... Duyy was looking at the impaled body of Team Down's flutterz. Her surprise attack after Flutterz cast a spell had been successful, and he had been crushed to death by her spikes. Or so she thought. "Game over sweetheart." As a voice coming from behind made her spin around awkwardly, five crossbow bolts ripped through her barrier and pierced her chest. "Kuuh..." Warm blood was running down her body as her legs gave in under her. "Y-You... B-Bastard..." As she let out her final words through clenched teeth, she collapsed. After confirming that both targets were indeed dead, Kingdomcome sat down in the sand and started treating his wounds. A large amount of the energy pellets had hit his body earlier, and he had broken several ribs, as well as his left arm. He had barely been able to fire his crossbow after. Lucky for him, the two enemies had thought him dead, and he had gotten a chance to shoot them from a distance. "Guah... This hurts more than I thought it would ... Just going to take a quick rest." Talking to himself in a strained voice, Kingdomcome let his body fall backwards into the soft sand and took some time to collect his strength. Team Down, Flutterz- DEAD END. Team Kaguya, Duyy- DEAD END. _________________________________________________________________ Dergonu and Eclipsed Team Kaguya, vs Totodile and Tiagofvarela Team Down. Totodile was standing next to Tiago, creating a shield to protect both himself and his general. Totodile was a great magic user, and had been summoned by Tiago in order to protect him against the scorching hellfire that Eclipsed was wielding. The power inside the blade Eclipsed had summoned went completely out of control, and Eclipsed was no longer capable of containing it, sending massive waves of fire in all directions. Dergonu, Eclipsed's teammate, was also having trouble staying away from the flames due to their chaotic nature. "Totodile, I'm going in for another attack, back me up." "Gotcha." Bringing his hands together and concentrating on his surroundings, Totodile made waves of water appear from magic circles positioned throughout the battlefield. The weapon Eclipsed was using was a truly powerful fire incarnation, meaning mere water wasn't able to extinguish it, but it could at the very least weaken it temporarily. Sending the water in a giant wave towards Eclipsed, Totodile focused his attacks on the massive blade. As the water collided with the flaming weapon, a deafening hissing sound followed by big puffs of smoke were produced. Tiago rushed towards his enemy, spear in hand. He got up close to Eclipsed and jabbed at his chest. The spear made contact with Eclipsed's skin and pierced it, leaving a small hole. Eclipsed jumped backwards just as the spear hit, and because of that he had avoided a lethal hit. Still, the wound was bleeding quite badly. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Totodile prepared another magical attack. He focused on the two nearest magic circles and created large arrows out of water. But ... "Raaaaaawr!" Suddenly, a shout coming from his left made him lose control of the magic. Then, a strong impact to his entire left side made his body scream in pain. His barrier was crushed and several bones were broken as Dergonu's massive mace hit him by surprise. Totodile was thrown backwards, but somehow managed to land on his feet. "Y-You ..." Pointing his still functional hand at Dergonu, Totodile started charging another magical attack. He knew there was no time for something too powerful. Firing a small blade made out of water at his opponent, he tried to push Dergonu back. Sadly, the giant mace knocked the magic out of the air fairly simply, and Dergonu rushed in for another attack. Totodile tried to jump to the side, but his left leg wouldn't budge. The giant mace collided with his head, and the world around him went pitch black... .... Tiago was doing his best keeping Eclipsed in check. The massive weapon of hellish fire was completely out of this world, and every attack sent massive waves of flames towards his body. He had been able to diminish its effect with Totodile's magic, but for some reason it had suddenly stopped. The situation did not look good... Tiago had managed to wound Eclipsed two times, cutting his right arm and his chest, but neither of the wounds were fatal. It was clear that Eclipsed was almost out of energy from using the weapon for so long, but Tiago couldn't let his guard down for a second. One single direct hit, and he would be turned into ashes right then and there. "Kuh..." Trying to fend off the immense heat, Tiago clenched his teeth and focused all his remaining strength on simply staying upright. Eclipsed was moving really slowly... All Tiago needed to do was land one more hit ... Just one ... More... "Damnit..." It was too late. Tiago's barrier had already been broken earlier in the fight, meaning he had essentially no protection against the heat without Totodile there to help. His body was completely burnt, and he was no longer capable of standing. "T-This is how it ends, huh?" Looking up at the sky, a bitter smile spread across Tiago's face. "I-I served you well, right Lord Down?.." As he asked that question, the giant flaming sword moved towards his defenseless body and a massive explosion of fire and smoke enveloped the area. ... Team Down, Tiagofvarela and Totodile- DEAD END .... "Good job Eclipsed. You outdid yourself." Looking up at the source of the sudden voice, Eclipsed slightly raised his head. His entire body was aching. He was unable to move much, and his eyesight was completely blurred. All he saw white haze. "K-Kaguya...Sama?..." Squeezing out those words, Eclipsed felt his consciousness slowly fade away. Kaguya caught Eclipsed as he lost consciousness. "You there, take him back to base." Speaking to Dergonu in an indifferent tone of voice, Kaguya handed Eclipsed's body over. Then, he turned around and gripped the giant greatsword lying a few feet away. Because the summoner had lost control over it, it would soon explode unless someone sent it back to hell form which it came. Gripping the hilt tightly, Kaguya closed his eyes and funneled some of his energy into the blade. The scorching flames meant nothing to him, and soon after, the blade vanished in thin air. Eclipsed had done something extremely reckless, summoning such a might weapon on his own. Even someone like Kaguya would struggle if he wielded it for too long. "Well then... Let's go take a nap." Not caring about the fights still going on around him, Kaguya created a portal in front of him and walked through it, appearing back into his base. _________________________________________________________________ Valmore Team Nosebleed vs Turnip Sensei Team Down vs Gijimu Team Kaguya Turnip Sensei blocked an oncoming fist and retaliated with a shockwave. The magical attack was dodged by the swift melee fighter Gijimu, but the more sluggish Valmore was struck in the chest. With Valmore knocked to the ground for the time being, Gijimu and Turnip Sensei traded blows. Gijimu was much faster, but in return, his attacks did not contain as much strength as Turnip Sensei's. In addition, Turnip Sensei was a magic user, where as Gijimu used only physical attacks. Twisting his body in mid air, Gijimu brought his leg back and hit Turnip Sensei in the face. Gijimu followed up by performing a perfect backflip and landed calmly on his feet. Sadly for him, right after, a pickaxe dug into his foot. "Hahaha! Got you, you stupid ninja!" It seemed Valmore had pretended to be down in order to get a sneak attack in against the swift Gijimu. The pickaxe had gone through his barrier and dug a deep hole his foot. Gijimu said nothing, and simply kicked Valmore's head with his good leg. "OW! What the ... How the hell are you still standing you little..." Before Valmore could finish his sentence, a shockwave approached from the left. Since his leg was caught by the pickaxe, Gijimu was also unable to dodge it. The shockwave blew both Valmore and Gijimu over, making them collapse in the warm sand. Turnip Sensei sprinted towards Valmore and grabbed him by his collar, lifting him up in the air. "L-Let me go you big brute..." "Shut up!" Turnip Sensei shouted as he smashed his own forehead into Valmore's face. A loud crack could be heard, signaling that Valmore's nose broke. "OWW!" As Valmore screamed in pain, Turnip Sensei lifted him above his head and threw him away. Valmore, who was flying through the air, suddenly smiled. There was blood streaming down his face due to the broken nose, making his smile seem even more crazy. Turnip Sensei suddenly realized why he was smiling. As Valmore was tossed, he had brought his hand holding his pickaxe upwards. Because of the velocity of the throw, the arm had moved quickly, and the pickaxe dug into Turnip Sensei's throat. As Valmore flew away, the pickaxe ripped out a chunk of Turnip Sensei's trachea, making large amounts of blood spew out. Valmore hit the ground a few meters back, looking at his blood stained pickaxe. "Well, one down, one to g..." Before he could finish the sentence, a fist approached his face and hit him right in the nose. "AAAAHHH! FOR THE LOVE OF..." Holding his already broken nose, trying to stop the bleeding, Valmore shouted. Gijimu threw three more punches towards Valmore, who was unable to dodge. They hit him hard, and made his feet give in beneath him. But, because Gijimu had a big hole in his foot, he wasn't able to move too fast himself, and Valmore hit him hard in the side with his pickaxe, just as he fell. Blood shot out from the wound. "Nod tho tchough tnow arthe you?" Trying to speak with his beat up face, Valmore looked up at Gijimu. The pickaxe had made a deep wound in his chest, and Gijimu was covering it with his hands, trying to stop the bleeding. Preparing his pickaxe for a finishing blow, Valmore got ready to attack again. As he moved his arm in an arc approaching Gijimu, he felt a strong pain in his chest. As he looked down, he saw a hand covered in blood that had pierced through his rib cage, and was inside his chest. The pain was unbearable and he let out a pained scream. Gijimu pulled his hand out of Valmore's chest and staggered backwards. Unable to speak properly because the attack had destroyed parts of his lungs, Valmore thought to himself... "I'll be back you bastard... Just you wait..." With that, his heart stop beating and darkness enveloped his world. Team Nosebleed, Valmore (CLONE)-DEAD END Team Down, Turnip Sensei- DEAD END _________________________________________________________________ Deaths this week: Team Nosebleed: Valmore (CLONE), Team Down: Tiagofvarela, Totodile, Flutterz, Turnip Sensei Team Kaguya: Duyy ________________________________________________________________ List of currently remaining members!! #Team Nosebleed: Members, Satsuki (-1 life), Valmore (-1 life) , Deep Blue (-1 life) , Nebjula (-1life) , kingdomcome #Team Down: Members, Babiker , Maxel , Fred the Barber, FinalChaos , Kawasumi , #Team Kaguya: Members, Dergonu , Nimbus, Gijimu, Greenshadow622 (- 1 life) , Eclipsed, Jade ___________________________________________________________________________ TO BE CONTINUED!

Someday, someday I'll appear! Beware!

Then all is good I WILL BE WAITING...

I'll be waiting. There's no turning back anymore!

Your writing is getting better, keep at it!

No, ty. Here I thought it's a VN version, good thing VN version is safe for now(probably). I hope they fail KS miserably though. The strange thing is that their Steam version is showing screens from the actual VN? nextninja manages this mobage. EDIT They should state first what they want to bring over. Why the hell are you promoting it as if it's a VISUAL NOVEL?

I didnt mean to promote torrents or anything but I ended up sounding like that, sorry for that. Still people buying old vns should be careful about that issue.

I have concluded my initial playthrough of the VN. As a Visual Novel that promotes itself as being part of the mystery genre, I was quite positive I would enjoy it. The latter trailers advocated a tone shift I had not initially anticipated from the demo, and for me: a most regrettable shift. Yet, it did not deter me from my merriment. There were many segments I appreciated materially, despite, deeply inside, being aware it would finalise the way it did. For context, I would be classified as the average moege player, and as such, not be contained in your immediate target zone. Thusly, I shan't complain. Notwithstanding, here are the various notes I took as I progressed throughout the game, not necessarily in chronological order, presented in their raw, senseless state. At a later date I shall interpret them further:

confession: I have been getting my ass beat by the same boss in DS3 for over 4 hours now and I love it.

Oh hey thanks for helping out!

So, first of all, I think the distinction between "localization" and "translation" is bullshit. Rather, there's more like a continuum of how thoroughly translated a text is. Native English speakers are going to prefer something farther along the thoroughness spectrum for an English translation, and it should be obvious why: you want to read something that is maximally natural to you, because it's easier on your brain. Reading something in your native language that sounds completely bizarre is confusing and upsetting. It takes you out of the story. Probably my only real contribution to this discussion: it creates vastly more cognitive dissonance for us native English speakers to read stilted, unnatural English than it would for somebody who doesn't speak English at a native level. You're already reading something that's a little weird to you, so you notice less of the additional weirdness of a poor translation. We're reading something that should be second nature, but it keeps tripping us up because it's not sufficiently translated.

woh hey im not asking for hookers im just asking for VN help. xD oh so btw atlas needs to be used with another program?

what error is chiitrans lite giving you exactly? what OS are you using right now? here is a tutorial I made a while ago

You and me both

To take this in a less divisive direction... If a project has to translate from an intermediary language (English) rather than the source (Japanese), what type of intermediary translation would serve as the best foundation? A (likely stilted) literal translation, or a well-flowing rewrite that takes many liberties to convey a similar effect?

Confession: DON'T YOU SOMETIMES FEEL LIKE SCREAMING LIKE SOME KIND OF A RETARD? LIKE SCREAMING SO HARD THAT YOU LOSE YOUR VOICE THE NEXT DAY? Yeah don't give in to the urge, it ain't worth it.... my poor voice

Demonstrations like that one are why I kind of shrug at the watchmaker analogy and intelligent design. In the grand scheme of things, the odds are pretty much in favor of literally everything imaginable happening somewhere, sometime. I find it more cool than depressing.

By having the dick of a VN protag.

Well well well, I think I've gathered enough "disagreeing" comments to start a fun thread celebrating the diversity of opinions, and politeness of Key fans. So lets have a little fun shall we? I'll leave images in spoilers. I call this first one the good 'ol "LALALALA MY HANDS ARE IN MY EARS I CANT HEAR YOU!" This just in! Mr.Wilder discovers what everyone already knew, I have no credibility. In other news, water is wet. Contrary to popular belief, Fuwanovel did not die on November 25th, 2015. One more for now. Its one of my personal favorites. There we go, just a sampling of some of the fun, constructive, salty ass comments in my reviews. I have plenty more saved up, so stay tuned!

mods shouldn't sleep at all

I agree with most everything else you say, but I think you overestimate the amount of people who care about this. They don't have to promise 18+ content to make this a success. They just have to do everything else right, which seems like they aren't capable of doing.

Gloczus isn't actually in charge of this campaign(see edit); they were listed only as "localize" in the credits. And now with this new prefundia, Gloczus isn't even listed at all. Next Ninja is now credited with localization, and as far as I know they publish only Japanese mobile games, so as for how they're qualified to localize anything is anyone's guess. The entire campaign is being run by Japan Content, and their existence is dubious at best because they never even existed before this campaign—no social media presence, and only a hastily done website. They now link to japancontent.jp in their prefundia, which I guess is their Japanese branch. But they've never given any indication that they've opened a Western branch, and they don't have a link to their supposed English website for this campaign: http://japacon.us/. I still don't know how they want us to believe that this is real and give them money when their very existence is so nebulous. EDIT: Although, Japan Content did completely copy b2g studio's (who ran the Beastmaster campaign) website, and their credits section reads the same as Beastmaster's, so maybe this is Gloczus in disguise. I have no idea why they keep starting campaigns under a different company name, though, especially when they list themselves as in charge of localization anyway.

According to these tweets and this page, Next Ninja is the Japanese publisher of a mobile version of ChuSinGura46+1. In the prefundia they state, "We want to make an English version of the currently released Japanese Mobage version." So it doesn't look like they're using the PC or PS Vita version—instead they'll be using a PC port of the mobile version? If so, this entire campaign is absolutely absurd...

How about no Translating is hard work, and asking for one very, very, very rarely does anything else than aggravates people. If you truly want to translate or play the game, I'd suggest learning Japanese than to bug those, who even translate at all.

Welcome to the fuwa, enjoy your stay and have fun. Here's some moe.

Hello Xane and welcome to forum, I hope you enjoy staying here. Here have cute picture of katawa shoujo as your welcome presant.