Ironstorm

I don't think many people noticed this at all really and it will take a long time for most people to notice. Yes its a step outside of the field of anime content but i'm not sure if largely happened as a result of sakura clicker and a exploration of that. Some of the weird experiments we may see them do with their sakura titles might be related to what they are trying to do with their other studio and their newer brand with less stain of its reputation can stay safer meanwhile. Since they have no real big personal site or anything of that such it feels as like as much as the disconnect that we see from sekai to denpasoft really really trying to separate the brands almost. I guess they could be cashing in on their vns before making a full move to non anime style games.

https://twitter.com/FoxDawn_ This is Winged Cloud's other Studio they have one F2P clicker game on greenlight and are working on something else. A while ago Sekai Tweeted that this was Winged Cloud's new thing. & It went by largely unnoticed. If you search their tweet log hard you should be able to find it. Apparently its mentioned here https://beltravi.wordpress.com/2016/06/12/06122016-e3-begins-sekai-project-announcements/ ctrl f fox dawn.

How many of you know that Winged cloud has another studio ? Also I think that we will get more vn games I'm to blame for at least some of that. Like the tons of indie/doujin releases in japan we have a massive international scale in what we consider the "west" quality might be lower with less well planned out titles due to budget etc but people can make different things work out for them all over the world. For example huniepop which isn't a vn but has some of the same style and anime style characters largely featured indonesian & polish artists. I've seen Indonesian vn teams cropping up latly and Philippines etc. These teams are more likely to be able to make small releases work for them an expand cause of global economy:D Yes some of those might be in it for the money but some might be intrested in doing more thought provoking titles but are avoiding the risk as of yet. Incidentally I made a Kinetic Yaoi/Trap vn published by MangaGamer on a budget of $1300 total without crowdfunding. As an adult only non steam release. With the aid of one of fuwan novel semi regulars Ryechu. There is no Fuwan review because no one reviews Yaoi. Now I've got 2 new artists on top of the 1 already have and am tippling the length of my next title still its not very serious story yet. If i wanted to only make money I would of gone a safe ecchi steam and adult route but we just went adult no hands barred.

Its out on MangaGamer now.

Monetary investment will mean something to some developers and more to those from certain countries. I make a living marketing and do public relations for those with or without publishers and generally non of them would ever discuss publicly what their rates are. Its best to approach developers directly or look for those that are looking for some sort of funding. Whilst my knowledge goes further cause of my previous involvement with at least one of the two named publishing companies I can't really say. I know for some devs they don't like the potential idea of taking $5000 to lose $30,000 or whatever amount they end up earning. But generally you need the money from somewhere.When your self funding sufficient you can then chose to go forward with or without your publisher for some the difference is enough. Not everyone is cut out to do their own PR/Marketing either. In general if your big release next week really is a "big" release then you'l have a easier time garnering attention because you'l be able to show off the success of your own title and convey the potential that you can market a studio as effectively. On an alternative note Mangagamer doesn't publish western Evn's currently with one recent exception that doesn't mean they won't either its just that they are not right now. But they do act as a distribution store for mostly adult titles.

Whilst it can be possible to target specific countries to hire your artists/staff. Look at Huniepop for example most of the artists were from Indonesia or Poland with the exception of one. You still go through the same mindfield to find someone reliable with good enough materiel that people will approve in general. Then they need to be able to produce content reasonably within a timeframe it is very common for even artists that produce great stuff on their own terms to struggle to work towards a deadline. Then who knows if you're able to communicate easily and wherever you want someone you can communicate with easily. There is a fine line between being solely a business or having something with a semblance of a team. With online being the way it is even someone in a country where the exchange rate may look beneficial to you, might infact be earning higher/charging higher then the standard of their economy cause they know they can within a internet climate. This is not globally the case and it easier to pay someone their entire wage if you can afford to do so. A Evn priced at $5 is pretty low even for devs/publishers if we consider that steam nets 30% a publisher nets another % , company taxes take a %(if you are one) then personal taxes if you make enough. By the end there isn't much left. Even if the game theoretically sold 10,000 copies you'd be lucky to make $17-22,000 out of it. If you a 2-3 man team and you took 3-4 months to make that you'd probably ok at the lower end of the average wage. Though not many Vn's sell that many copies on average. If however you were a Japanese Team that also had to get their title translated and it took you a year or two to make it you'd be in a serious state of loss bringing the title over here at least until the title had been on sale for a while. This applies differently to publishers that translate stuff cause the production time is taken out of the equation. Then it becomes about paying your translators sorting out licenses and paying a preamuim on some more voice acting along with possibly resolution changes. Then they have to make a profit somehow in doing so whilst the developers still get some of the money(depending on the deal) Can anyone name any current $5-10 20-30 hour long Visual Novels on sale with voice acting that are Japanese Ip's ? P.S I took so long thinking about this response that what I was saying became erratic.

Its against steam TOS for companies to post links to other sites in which games can be purchased. They can get away withit without steam noticing however steam users can report you especially those with anti eroge vibes. When steam catches you doing it they may take your steam page down without warning and then tell you after why and ask you to correct it as a heavy handed warning. Steam does have a leniency towards big companies though but not to any of the visual novel crowd/publishers. Though users posting links or informing people is ok and almost encouraged especially when someone asks how do I get this uncensored version.

Whilst its not brought up on Kickstarter it was brought up on reddit and I put some information towards that Vn Reddit Its surprising how many people try to vaguely pass it off, along with game backgrounds as you see in a chunk of other vn's I've mentioned this before. In terms of audience between MG & steam users that normally buy Visual novels not many vn's even the slower more methodical ones that are better received. Receive enough money to support themselves. When you hit that barrier you either step up or people leave. We've seen a few studios blow up in the past. Once people have made it their livelihood they do a lot of things to keep going. Then again what your role in events is matters a fair bit also if your a vn programmer their isn't tons to do in comparison the work put into writing and art. What do you do with all that time twiddle your thumbs/review the work. Well Aj doesn't personally post on this forum I do however and have posted 2 other threads but they were eaten alive within the day. By people that didn't like the written work or art style especially of the romance title. Its the least Anime of anything on this forum probably.. All of the titles do however get chewed out on fuwa reviews also. To clarify I did Marketing for Highschool Romance & after this kickstarter hit day 15 I was brought on to help it gain traction. I've done some community stuff for it but in more adult focused communities. We're still working out a deal for month to month work. Romance for that matter did well on launch its not gone into any bundles so if you look at its steamstats you can figure out. I'm also the bugger that keeps sending fuwa review keys and making it misery for people, well maybe one day they'l enjoy it. I've also been hooking Dharker other talent such as /one writer so far/and other artists such as the Huniepop artist you saw with Coterie. Still trying the musician angle and trailer content but its still about affordability. I care a lot about quality content but its not me making them I can only occasionally point out suggestions or other people to possibly work with. Chances are when there is more to post about Coterie & Battle Girls I'l probably post about them. I do similar work for other evn studios helping a few others on this forum & worked with Sekai to promote planetarian. *edit* oh yea one other big the art that is the front of Echo Tokyo was done by the original artist that was mean't to do the whole series they were the one doing most of it during the Original Kickstarter however that artist disappeared after they got paid along with never posting on deviant art again. That caused that whole campaign to become a lot more expensive and eventually refunds were handed out.

Finding a good artist that is reliable and good at meeting deadlines or living up to the time they set is pretty tricky. This is a little of why you don't see more from say the better artists. Dharker Studio has 2 good artists in terms of anime style such as Tonee & Kopi but it could take them up to 5 times as long to produce the same amount of art for a visual novel if not longer. Whilst the artists with their own growing style work faster and can finish in a similar time that the writers finish in. This is still all weighed in on short visual novels also. Generally if someone knows they are a really good anime artist they charge a lot, also putting most evn budgets to shame even post kickstarter. If you find a good one early or know someone great, but the environment for that is not exceptionally centralized:D *edit* added this cause another forum member mentioned something to me. Writers ability to write quickly is a lot more common then artists ability to produce art quickly or reliably. This of course doesn't mean more time can be spent thinking about the process and the plot/story itself. Bare in mind generally with evn's there's a common writing rate(pay) and its determined by word count and not time spent. Generally this is counterd by the writer being in charge of the project or a close friend/collaborate/equal partner of whats going on. In ideal circumstances you'd have a writer/artist working in unison and communicating a lot. Then this falls into the line of needing an artist to be available to communicate frequently/be good at talking or want to engage like that.

£30k Goal Game Characters There are two new writers working on the titles one with more visual novel writing experience not that there is much love for to many evn writers. Dharker studio is able to make more visual novels then other studios because they work with lots of different artists and multiple writers & have those that can work full time rather then part time as most indie teams end up being. Still artist paces are very variable. Still this kinda means that we don't get masterpieces that take a year to make and have a lot of thought put into them. Partly down to visual art expense. Teams that collaborate rather then get paid in commission have a bit more freedom to go at their own pace and take their time.

If you need to see what its like at a glance click these. Steam Link MangaGamer Link Highschool Romance is a some what ero but non adult title among the more recent adult titles of the Ajtilley brand. Its had the most positive reception & sales of any Ajtilley game to date. With an artist & writer that never previously worked with the brand. The reason I call it brand is due to a recent announcement on the Ajtilley website declaring that they are more of a publisher then exclusively production studio. I had assumed this was a thing before I got involved with them and it was truthful so I helped push for the public notion of it. Ultimatly its about the reception of these individual titles that drive the partnerships for future titles. Despite not being of a strict anime art style nature the art has been received as refreshing by many people. The writing whilst not perfect in most eyes is a far side better then previous games. Overall its been a positive release. FuwanNovel will also be reviewing this title or currently are so I guess you can see the outlook on that soon. To avoid any confusion in my role I've been helping VN/Games with Pr/Marketing for a while and have the pleasure of working with/on CursedSight(invertmouse)/Icebound(Fastermind)/The reject demon toko(Lupiesoft),Dharker Studio(ajtilley) & on planetarian(sekai) & so many more. This writer is also involved in Possession that is due to come out next month (9th December) Whilst that is a adult/steam edition game.

The decision to sell those titles on a bundle happened before I got involved in helping them out after I got involved things changed to a degree where DSOL for example has done quite well. Its to late for them to back out of this though. I kinda wish it wasn't on Indiegala as a new release I feel a little sorry for those that bought it at full price so soon. Beach bounce despite critical reception has been doing ok on monthly sales also. But AJ wanted a bundle that was mainly theres so this was how that got started. I just don't think devlaueing on a bundle is a very good idea a vn in general. I don't mind the idea of reducing the price over time thou. As you release new better titles. The newest release highschool romance is priced a little more similar to other evn prices. Let me add that a new writer has been involved in highschool romance and the game has been quite well received though some people have complaint about a lack of raunchy content. Its also a title with no adult patch. Mg have run on Indiegala before with some of their titles that are normally priced at $40 and still are going for this rate.

Just to mention that you can actually back track through up scroll on the middle button or equivalent. This still works on loading saves also if you want to take other choices. Justin579: It used to have a very different name but apparently people suggested it was to strange to work out. Considering its crossdressing scenario that's not very generic in terms of our evn titles.

I know the next couple of titles won't contain voice acting the title "Highschool Romance" is coming out next month(probably). I'l encourage those pointed options for this as well if possible. If I get any confirmations on upcoming additions to DSOL in general I'l mention it to Fuwan.

Beach bounce had a fair amount of third party involvement & Sword of Asumi was effectively their first VN. Some information on this on the main page http://www.ajtilley.com/ With voice acting its like you can't win(only rarely) when its not there people clammer for it when its there its normally mixed opinion except for the very best funded of titles. Wherever through many kickstarters previously or multiple titles that maybe a bit short for many people, this is something that has grown to a degree of stability. From experience the vast majority of evns are struggling for funding/cannot for the life of them afford Voice over without crowdfunding(I can elaborate on this if someone says otherwise as its not a perfect sentence). Some people take years to produce 1 title that can still get mixed reactions at the very least with each new title things become clearer or things change. Btw I've Just started helping the studio as of a couple of days ago to help with them with the patreon/adult games side awareness. You can also poke me about things but I'm not one of the developers. Though in general I help out several visual novels so my words are from experience across the scene. I provided a key to FuwanNovel however they already had one so it wasn't needed. I read the whole review and brought up a few things internally. I'l chase up possibilities on rewind/auto functions as there is also a small content update due for the game soon. Consideration about the price of the games in the future will go on, from a steam point of view the price is to high for the length however from a mg point of view this is different entirely.

Just a bunch of image updates since Its been a while and it serves well enough to show whats new.

Just uploaded the Arcanist/Mage finalized art line up. http://lewdwarfare.tumblr.com/"]http://lewdwarfare.tumblr.com I also updated patreon so that the the Lewd tier was the $25 tier instead. No idea what the $50 tier will be worry about it when someone actually wants to give to it. https://www.patreon.com/LewdWarfare We've made some changes to the way the game start up behaves in selecting a Faction but I'l explain the details about that another day after we make the official patreon post. Also figured out a normalized manner in which lewd like things happen at some point ( not all the time ) though we've added something to tie together the game story better. One component was postponed to accommodate it but the new option should give a more optional approach to dialogue in a theme sense. So there are Lewd(Not Sex) art scene's after someone is defeated. There are optional progression events after battle based on a "pairing" system that lead to sex and pre battle you can go to a tavern/pub to talk to characters possibly having lewd(Sex) scene's as a result. Taverns or such locations are tied to the land themselves so you'l characters in their native lands. Reactions will be different based on wherever its in faction, Enemy faction or neutral and how much experience you've potentially earned with a given character. The xp system linking to the dialogue/expanding discovering system needs some work though. Still aiming for the first version of an playable build in 2-3 weeks time. Though the above mentioned dialogue content probably won't be implemented until August.

Its all a weird female bdsm powerplay not really. Though the strong ruling the weak and the bending of the knee to the superior. It would require some setting normalization or at least sexual act to be considered differently for different reasons and circumstances. Probably to do with lusting after the strongest. Theirs a whole lot of world building to possibility put into effect here. Kinda builds off the desiring money/power of an individual into their raw power. At first you presume yourself to be superior or stronger but once you know your reaction becomes possibly different you adapt. Now I kinda know why two people said " I want her to step on me " in relation to one of the character designs. This really isn't something I can come up with the right answer with straight away and it brings up all sorts of other questions when I think about it. You got me thinking anyway thankyou.

Its more their society doesn't recognise gender then it being what we'd consider genderless in their case they're both or can otherwise be considered transgender in some respect. They are also free to define themselves as either if someone does ask. We're also being a bit careful so that it isn't exactly perceived as rape as our artist is wholly against the concept. Whilst You get a defeat kinda scene that doesn't mean suddenly rape its more of a defeated/conversion and leading onto other things. Technically this all needs some work and having every character turn from being your foe to eventually your lover requires some effort. Though their have been a few titles that pull it off.

Lewd Warfare is a Match 3 RPG fought by units with abilities & spells, over a Nation conquest/risk style map against multiple factions and is also considered a Strategy Game. Set in a fantasy world it includes Factions based on hybrid humanoids, Elves, Amazons and Mages with more to come. Each Faction has 4 unique units(Characters) with one faction leader and all are artistically represented with full body art on screen. You can check out the project on https://www.patreon.com/LewdWarfare I'm not forcing anyone to back us though It'd be a big help and their are many costs that I need to consider during development outside of the core team. I know many people will wait until their is a public demo out also. LewdWarfare 0.2 Alpha Note this is a extreme early Alpha with only combat gameplay components its version 0.21 that will feature the tavern/menu options/reset functions/skilltooltips. With everything but the last part of that done so far. I'l reveal the names of other external help that are getting involved in this project if they wish to be revealed in connection to an eroge project. But their are a few others involved in EVN content helping out currently. Images (Defeated Art- Void Mage) (Latest Match 3 Image) I'l be posting some of the content on Tumblr as it becomes available. How the game play Tree works Pick a Faction You pick from one of 5 factions essentially picking which leader/type of characters you want to be with. Current factions/Descriptions are as follows Mages - Wind/Fire/Void/Ice Amazons Packleader/Barbarian Elves Druid/Herbalist Dragonkin Dragon/Basilisk The fifth faction is genderless or does not denote male or females separately but more on them later. Note these names represent the classes/units on the battlefield map whilst we've given them names and personalities as part of the experience. In terms of faction content we'd like to have more then five but are focusing on five within this year and within our timeline plan. Overviewmap After picking a faction you will get introduced to some flavor text for your factions history & state of current affairs. On the map itself your able to select individual regions and see related stats and economy factors along with the region environment type later on we'l have art associated to each type and that will effect the battle background art. You'l also have access to the Upgrade/Purchase tavern(New idea as of 09/07/2015) The idea is when you upgrade units you'l be able to get different outfits an additional abilities for them. We've already decided how these different abilities will work for each unit already. Once your happy you'l be able to drag and select Unit Icon's to locations you want them to go to initiate battle or just straight up capture unowned pieces of land. Battle/Match3 You can have up to 4 different units in a battle, only one can be active at any given time but you can swap them out. As your character or the foe characters become wounded their will be visual changes from clothing to stance. Along with audio reactions from initial taunting to later grunts/exhaustion. Characters will banter with each other. The match 3 gameplay system we're currently using is very fast paced and you'l have to keep up the tempo of a intense battle. Whilst Managing your active unit positioning. NSFW/Lewd Breakdown Upgrading/discovery (Mutual Sex) scene within your own faction Duel with a 1v1 duel between two characters. Special Art related to two individuals getting together. General Combat Clothes tearing in battle Stance changes/expression changes End Animation on combat Dialogue during combat/Possible voice acting with one person already enlisted. Conquest Defeating a character multiple time and routing them will change their dialogue over 2-3 battles in what I call turning them Tsun or "converting" them. This will result in Lewd Sex Art We are also looking at a challenge/Duel option to allow you to match characters in some way. Nation Conquest Sex Orgy including the opposing Faction Leader in a Harem all Characters Art Piece. Types of character Whilst are characters are currently yuri centric we have various neutrals characters with more to be decided that will be singular characters outside of the core factions with their own special stories. Special pieces of land may be tied to them along with conquest/challenge stories. Extra Comments Their will be more factions later with treefolk,nekomimi(cat) & ghosts planned for later. Visual novel story elements. You interact with your characters/units in various ways from the various taverns to direct confrontation you'l learn more about each of them over time and after earning experience. Their are routed options interwoven into the game design along with designed matches. Not every character's dialogue is going to be as long as the next with a emphasis on more generalized content for all faction characters with some ones getting more attention. Neutral characters will have more specific stories and react to certain characters with more available content. There will be many places in the game for dialogue/information talking to spring up. Some of the unique scenarios that we get because of the game experience is content between your own faction, content from beating opposing factions their reactions and content from losing to those factions and how they react after winning against yours. Along with specific cases/conditions from neutral factions to events content that happen in relation to owning specific territories. Each week we work on this our world and lore expands along with all the little sub stories we add into it. Maybe in a few months with fav favourites known will be driving be able to drive content to places where people want it the most ^-^. We've got two voice actors lined up atm with a third requesting involvement but anything beyond that will be a budget requirement. I was told it'd be fine to post in this section of the site buts its cool if the thread needs moving in anyway. I'd like to post visual information and character info updates along with new designs if that's ok with everyone.

Sometimes the reasons for not allowing youtube/video content for these titles is not to do with the publishers/translators at all but to do with the developers or their parent companies decisions. Its hard to suddenly change the opinion that video content can provide an increase in sales and because their isn't much accurate proof of it accept for a few stand out cases. Convincing devs of more open stream rules will take a bit more time. More good exposure is generally more sales even if its not immediate everyone has different reasons for purchases. From interacting with some youtubers I know that some reactions are like " if this big guy does it its more appealing that I do it also" this can be a pretty big chain reaction. As many want to do videos that people will find entertaining. I'm not entirely sure if Grisaia is the best for that based on its pacing since theirs a lot more thinking and less quick reactions? Its not so much shock and awe factor despite some of the crazy things that ensue. Sometimes projects will blow up in popularity but not for the best reasons. Big press publications are not entirely adverse to covering visual novels its just them seeing it in all the regular stuff they get is pretty hard they need to be sending out 100+(keys) emails instead of 40 or so when trying to promote something like these titles. Also can confirm planetarian not being allowed video content is due to Key. At or before the time of planetarians release Sekai didn't have much of a Marketing strategy or the staff to fulfil it only very near launch was something done but only briefly. From what I understand a lot of the money received on kickstarter really just goes into translation costs/license costs and putting money back into the developer. Sekai's in it for the long haul but promoting visual novels is a tricky challenge that requires some dedication or manpower. I feel that theirs some under advertising for titles atm but I also don't know if that's just major publications choosing not to respond or them not having the right contacts right now.

I agree on a budget level and time input level. Many of the popular titles/teams/circles/studios, we're(evn) compared to have been been producing content from anywhere between 3-11 or more years ago there is a real paying market for talent on various projects in Japan. Where as the EVN scene is a pretty mixed bag of many projects starting and not always finishing. Many of those that have seen some degree of success are actively working on multiple projects rather then just the one to get by. In Lupiesoft's case the original Toko may of been produced in around 1 month, and the remastered version in around 2 and half months but if we think about it. Beyond Taosym himself (The Artist) how much time did our writing team really have to work on it if each one is only free for a little bit of time each day/other day. Does that mean if we had the budget of long running Jp studio that'd we produce the same title in 3 weeks instead ? Well No but it'd probably of mean't we'd of had 3-4x times the amount of time to work on the written experience of the title, been able to afford an additional assistant artist, had the money to do the sfx effect design,voice acting? and then some. Whilst I'm pretty certain that we'd said the price would remain the same that doesn't mean the length will be the same with the future chapters probably having a little more length/development time spent on it. There will also be some more involvement from some of our newer writing staff as 2 current members were not involved in the original Toko so it was a little harder for them to make changes to chapter 0 Having such a varied writing team is probably one of our teams more unique points as most teams normally have one definitive writer and not several. This causes different characters to get some really different flavours though we review things quite actively as a group. We'd love to take a more interactive approach then what we're doing now their are plenty of mixed titles we're interested in, some members of the team including myself having been involved in much different titles. I personally come from a background of 3d action games/side scroller titles & RTS to isometric rpgs. So I'm interested in exploring some of these possibilities in our current universes.

To put it simply the original team has grown since dizzy hearts was originally funded. Lupiesoft has kinda since been looking at ways to better fund the development of its games and make dizzy hearts the best it can be whilst not yet trying to go back to a crowd funding campaign(yet). Whilst we may actually need it this is something we'l address in the near future. Especially with the querying for voice acting material on our games. There have been one or two hiccups along the way namely in loosing writers at awful times. The Menagerie may be looked at a project that hoped to be a shorter project that would draw more attention and better fund dizzy hearts. The reception of the recent demo release is a continued sign of the excellent writing team we've managed to assemble but still we are a team that has to freelance around other projects to keep working. If you want to ask or talk more about this please wait until I start a Lupiesoft general thread.

I'm not sure about a favourite visual novel but my first two were CLANNAD & Kirakira there are many more I'd loved to try. Its exciting to see such an active forum and welcoming community also ^-^

Thanks for the welcomes, I need at least a day to pass out from a night of emails before I start getting into the swing of things. But the first one I'l be hitting up a topic about is The Menagerie since the demo just came out.