Raithfyre

Hey, I work for Sekai Project. I just wanted to chime in and mention that aside from Sunrider and Fault, we'll be bringing more of our titles to the platform over time. While we probably won't be offering our full catalog on there, we're looking forward to working with them. We actually announced this partnership at AWA last September, so we're excited to finally start selling our games on this platform!

Thanks for the kind words! The demo actually does have some exclusive content (the very first scene, as well as the chibi stuff, although the first scene might be included in the full game from the extras menu or something.) Regarding HRP, we're still working on it, but it's mostly a matter of real-life issues causing a lot of delays and stuff. When we ran the Kickstarter most of us were in college or in one case even high school, so our availability has changed a lot since then. Most of us who have been working on other projects too are ones who do VN stuff full-time as a career (for instance, my day job is working for everyone's favorite localizer, Sekai Project) while some other members are doing dumb, boring stuff like medical research to cure cancer. Also, we were bad at estimating and planning schedules back then, so we dramatically underestimated how much time it would take (for most of us, HRP was our first ever project). So basically, we're still working on it at the same time as our other games, it's just taking longer than initially expected.

I'm Josh, the founder of the Studio Élan. I'm also part of Alienworks, the group that released "Highway Blossoms" and is working on "The Human Reignition Project." With Studio Élan, we just released a demo for our first game, "Heart of the Woods." It's a yuri game through and through, although I primarily consider it to be a fantasy game with romance elements, rather than a romance game with fantasy elements. I've copy/pasted the synopsis for the game below. The demo is available on Steam for PC only, and it's on Itch.io for PC/Mac/Linux. It'll be on Denpasoft probably next week, and we'll also update the Steam version with Mac/Linux versions around then too. There's a free patch to add in the adult content - for the demo, this is just one scene. The character artist for the game is Rosuuri, whom I also worked with on HRP and HB, but who's best known for her gorgeous fanart, especially FGO. This will be her first ever time drawing adult content. Hope you like the game, please let us know any comments or feedback you have here or on the respective store pages. And please, before anyone else asks: no, we're not concerned by the recent Steam takedowns and don't think it'll affect us (backtracking or not). Steam Link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/844660/Heart_of_the_Woods/ Itch.io Link: https://vnstudioelan.itch.io/heart-of-the-woods-demo Adult Patch Link: https://vnstudioelan.com/hotw-r18patch/ This demo is a sample of the full game and contains a selection of scenes from across the whole story. We've hand selected the scenes in order to give a taste of the game without spoiling too many of the major plot points (we figured it's a given that Maddie and Abby end up together). To help fill in some of the blanks though, there are demo-exclusive chibi versions of Maddie and Tara who will help fill you in on what's happening along the way. Heart of the Woods is a fantasy yuri visual novel about paranormal investigation, ancient mysteries, and a love between two girls that transcends life and death. Maddie Raines, manager, editor, and general business-handler for her best friend Tara’s popular paranormal vlog series, is swept up in a dangerous supernatural crisis when she’s dragged against her will to the remote European village of Eysenfeld. A strange young woman named Morgan has promised them undeniable proof of real paranormal phenomena, and what she has to offer eclipses anything they’d ever seen before. However, out of all the strange occurrences the three of them bear witness to, one in particular captivates Maddie in a way she’s never been before: the ghost of a young woman. This woman is Abigail, the victim of a centuries-old injustice now bound eternally to the forest surrounding Eysenfeld. Drawn to Maddie in a way she can’t explain, Abigail reveals herself to another person for the first time in more than 200 years. While Tara and Morgan investigate the mysteries surrounding the village itself, Maddie begins to form a bond with Abigail that grows to be more intense than any bond she’s felt before. As she learns the truth about Abigail’s death and imprisonment, she realizes that it falls to her and her friends to break the curse that has ruled over Eysenfeld for centuries. But more importantly than that, it falls to her to finally free the woman she loves. Features: -Chibi characters to fill in the gaps between scenes -Incredible character and CG art from Rosuuri -Fully original backgrounds and soundtrack -Multiple accessibility options -Extra features including a music room, CG viewer, and guest art gallery -At least one really, really gay ghost

This would be a great point if it wasn't exactly what I was talking about in my initial post though. That is, making these sweeping conclusions that aren't actually accurate. None* of the five games that I listed are "generic high school slice of life" stories, set in Japan or otherwise. -Highway Blossoms is about a roadtrip across the southwestern United States on a treasure hunt, and includes lots of national landmarks like the Grand Canyon, Arches, and more. -Asphyxia is technically about school girls, but very little if any (it's been a while since I've read it) of the story actually takes place in a school. More importantly, the characters are based off of prominent (well, relatively) figures in Western literature. -Menagerie I once again don't want to speak for and misrepresent. -Selenon Rising is an investigative mystery story about an alien invasion, which is pretty far removed from high school drama. -Caramel Mokaccino admittedly focuses on school life, but it's university life as opposed to high school, and deals more with adult struggles (finding a job, establishing independence, etc.) than adolescent ones. At least to my understanding, since the game isn't out yet. And that's only 5 games off the top of my head. There are plenty of others out there - and even some of pretty nice quality. Yeah, at the moment there's no sprawling, multi-part fantasy story with volumes worth of worldbuilding and stuff, but a big part of that is because 99% of EVN devs (and I only leave that 1% open as a margin of error; I don't know of any exceptions) are indie devs or are backed by small-ish companies, and don't really have the budget to make something huge. I've been pretty open about the fact that Highway Blossoms was made on a budget of just about $10k, and that came with a lot of discounts from working with friends and people we know. The reason you're seeing most EVN's be rather short with less branching, as opposed to vast, epic stories, are because that's largely what's affordable to make. VN's in general are a niche market, and EVN's don't have the luxury of being able to charge a premium like popular JVN's can. For most developers, it's not feasible to sink your entire life's savings into a game that will recoup a fraction of the cost. Making shorter games with lower overhead that manage to break even or just barely profit is currently the safest and most stable way to do it. There are some groups/people like Hanako Games that make a living entirely off of VN and dating sim sales, but they're few and far between and are generally individuals or pairs, as opposed to fully-staffed production companies.

Ah, sorry, wasn't trying to say it's a bad thing. I'm all for anime art in EVN's. I was just acknowledging that it is one strong influence from JVN's that's unlikely to change.

As an EVN developer, it's kind of frustrating to see this discussion a lot, with the same points being brought up, even when they're not true anymore (three or four years ago? Yeah, totally). I see the whole "EVN's are just wannabe JVN's and will never get anywhere until they stop copying tropes," as if that's the only thing getting made, but honestly that hasn't really been the case in a long time. Yes, there are still lotsa games like that getting made - I'm even working on one that's similar, myself - but the notion that nothing else exists is outdated. I'll give some examples: Shameless self-mention first - Highway Blossoms, a game that I helped create. It's a GxG kinetic novel set in the American southwest. Asphyxia - Genderbent British Romantic poets. Menagerie (NSFW) - I haven't played this one, so I don't want to misrepresent it in a summary, but click the link and you should see what it's about. Selenon Rising - Sci-fi/mystery/noir Caramel Mokaccino - A dating sim with a female protagonist that lets you pursue men, women, and polyamorous relationships, with various gameplay elements Yeah, most games tend to use anime art rather than "Western" art, I'll give you that. But I think that's to be expected - of course most EVN devs are JVN fans. What else would we be? EVN's haven't been even close to mainstream long enough for there to be a robust community that's never touched a Japanese VN. Even Lemmasoft, which is the largest EVN-specific community, has a long history rooted in JVN fandom. So give it time, and maybe that'll change. But considering that EVN's have only really been something that people took note of since Katawa Shoujo in 2012, I'd say we're doing pretty well for ourselves as it is. And you know what? The reason that there continue to be tons of fanservicey, ecchi games dominating the EVN market is because that's still what sells. People - SO many people - say that they want to see EVN's with a more Western style, and then so few of them follow up on it with their wallet. Success doesn't just come from making good games, it comes from people giving those good games a shot too. I'm not saying that consumers have an obligation to buy bad games to support the cause. I'm saying don't write off an entire subset of games because you haven't tried one in half a decade.

We'd love to, but it's just not something we can afford right now. Love In Space, the devs who made Sunrider and Starnova, are friends of mine so I've heard a bit about the costs and difficulties. Right now, we're using everything we got from the Kickstarter to make the base game itself even better. If by some miracle HRP is a smash hit and makes tens of thousands of dollars then voice acting would probably be the first thing we spring for to add post-release.

I know I forget about this thread a lot, but even I was surprised to see the last post was in February. Whoops. Anyway, not sure how many people might be following along here, but I promise we're much better at updating on Twitter (team is @AlienworksDev, my personal is @Raithfyre) and I hope that we're going to get much better at updating our blog. Though that might depend on whenever we get web stuff figured out. REGARDLESS, we've made lots of progress and improved many things since the last time I posted here. We're up to a couple hundred thousand words and, by our estimates, that's only maybe a quarter or a third of the way through. Naturally, quantity =/= quality when it comes to writing, and we're going to try to not have lots of padding and fluff (at least, not beyond what you'd expect/hope for from a largely-slice-of-life game) but HRP will definitely be on the lengthier side of things. We're hoping to have the game out by this time next year - ideally more like June or July 2017 though. That new demo that we wanted to do will probably be around in the spring, though it's harder for me to estimate which month. The biggest news we have is the premiere of our opening theme, with a coinciding new trailer. The theme song, "REIGNITE," was composed and recorded by the music studio ARTE REFACT (Love Live, IDOLM@STER, and more) and vocals are performed by Sasaki Sayaka (Planetarian anime, Nichijou, Girls und Panzer). Yeah, we're kinda shocked too. Also, we released our first game, the yuri kinetic novel Highway Blossoms, back in June. You can grab it on Steam or itch.io. Bats did a review of it here on Fuwa if you'd like to look at that before (or after!) buying.

'Cause with the story we're telling, it actually makes the most sense to set it in Japan. Social trends like the declining birthrate and how more and more Japanese youth are staying single, coupled with Japan's place in the technology industry, actually make it a more relevant setting than, say, the US. If it would've worked out better to set the game in the West, we definitely would've. Woulda been a hell of a lot easier. But, since it's in Japan, we wanted to work with a Japanese artist for the opening. If we have an ED (which currently, there are no plans) it'll probably be in English.

Sorry it took so long to address this stuff - been busy at Animefest. Anyway, ultimately we (myself and Syon, the other writer) pretty much agree on the Jumbo scene in that it didn't add a whole lot, and that it could've been scrapped without losing anything. To be perfectly honest, I was in favor of scrapping the scene before the game was even out, but it was kept in because some others wanted it.That said, from my obviously biased standpoint, I don't think that it went on so long as to be a major detraction. While it's not crucial to the story, it's ultimately a tiny part of the overall game. When I think of a part of the story overstaying its welcome, my first thought is of Muv Luv and its lacrosse arc. Now, that's not to say that we're definitely in the right or whatever, but that's kinda my take on it. That part aside, overall I agree with most of the rest of Fred's comments on his blog. I'd contest the "weeabooisms" part, but that aside, it's pretty fair. Ultimately, HB was a learning experience for us and I'm glad that most people enjoyed it for the most part. And for those who didn't, thanks for givings us some advice on where we can improve.

Oh whoa hey there, surprised to see a thread about us! I've been bad about keeping our WIP thread here on Fuwa updated orz Anyway, yeah, we're still at it, and pretty steadily, but our progress updates are sometimes a little lacking. I'm gonna try to setup a better/more consistent blog schedule, although we do post on Kickstarter once a month. Our big news from Otakon was the unveiling of our opening theme. It's written/composed by ARTE REFACT (a doujin circle who has done music for Love Live, IDOLM@STER, and much more) and vocals are by Sasaki Sayaka (Nichijou, Planetarian, Girls und Panzer, and more). You have no idea how many times I've typed those credits over the past few days. You can check out the premiere trailer here: If you've got any other questions I'm happy to answer 'em!

Thanks again for the review~ Also, if anyone has any questions or comments about the game I'm happy to answer them! I was one of the writers and the producer.

HB is now on Steam Greenlight! If you're interested in the game, please consider voting "yes" for us =)

Whoops, guess I should've said it's not a nukige. I'm bad at my terminology =( Valmore: Oops sorry ;-; If you wanna resend it to me I'll try to give you some feedback!

My team, Alienworks, is going to be releasing a short yuri VN in a couple months. I'm a little bit late on the whole thread creation thing, since we announced the project back in September, but what can ya do? So first off about us, then I'll get to the good parts. As you might know, Alienworks has another project going on, The Human Reignition Project, which you can see in my signature. That's our main game. HB was a side project started by myself and one of the other writers, and is way smaller in scope. That other writer is Syon, Setsuna's writer for HRP. Then we have Jake Abernathie and Anna Logue composing the soundtrack, with our programmer Kevin Turner putting everything together. Art is handled by Rosuuri, Shiyun and Myuto, who also work on HRP. Badriel is doing the backgrounds, and we also have a number of CG's being completed by Weee/Raemz, best known for her work on Katawa Shoujo. While they're both a little bit lacking, we have a VNDB entry as well as our own website. Here's our little blurb about the project, taken from the Steam Greenlight page, which should be up in the next week or so. Developed by Alienworks, Highway Blossoms is a short lesbian (or "yuri") story set in the American Southwest. After an old gold rush miner's journal is discovered, supposedly detailing where he hid parts of his stash, a nationwide craze begins as would-be prospectors try to solve its clues and strike it rich. Amber couldn't care less. Wandering the desert in a recently-inherited motorhome, she mourns the loss of her grandfather - indifferent and unaware to the hunt happening around her. It's not until she meets Marina, a young hitchhiker lost in New Mexico that the girls get swept up in the rush. A tribute to music and Americana, Highway Blossoms is a linear visual novel experience. With an emphasis on romance and adventure, the game is sometimes somber and sometimes silly. We hope to write a game that both long-time VN fans and newcomers to the medium can enjoy, as well as a fun contribution to the yuri genre. Right now, we're hoping to have the game out in mid-April, though it's still a bit too early to announce a definite release date. We've got a first draft of the script done, as well as all the backgrounds, half the soundtrack, half the CG's and a few of the sprites. All the other things are moving along pretty quickly though. When it's done, it'll be on Steam with a free uncensor patch available, or alternatively you can get the DRM-free adult version on Denpasoft. It's not an eroge or anything like that, but there are a couple sex scenes. The emphasis is on romance and adventure though. Similar to what we did for the HRP demo, we're going to be putting together a guest art gallery for anyone who might want to participate. You can get all the details from the document linked in this tweet. Retweets and shares are much appreciated. As always, thanks for reading!

We posted one of our upcoming CG's, a spoiler-free image of the undisputed best girl in the game and anyone who says other wise is wrong. : |

Wow, was really surprised to see someone post An Autumn for Crippled Children. Thought that was one of those bands that like, no one had heard of. Anyway, he's fairly popular but I haven't seen him mentioned here so: My hero and absolute favorite musician, by far, Devin Townsend.

I had posted this before but then it was lost in the data loss ;-; Anyway, we've finished our new character design upgrades, with an aim of making the style more compatible between the CG and sprite artists, as well as just looking better. There will be a new version of the demo at some point, but probably not for another 6 months or so. Also, if everything goes well, we should have a huge announcement at Anime Expo this year, but I can't really say more than that. Hope you like the girls' new look~

Last week, we posted a big update on the game, with some new character designs and stuff. It also has a bit of info our other game, Highway Blossoms, which I should get around to making a thread for... Hope you'll check it out; you can see it on our blog here!

Hey Fuwa, long time no post. Sorry about that. Here's the state of things: We finished up our Kickstarter back in mid-July. We had a crazy amount of support, reaching over double our funding goal to cruise in at 48k raised. We got about 15k more on Backerkit off of merch sales, so we're doing pretty well budget-wise. We probably won't be able to spring for the opening animation like we wanted to, mostly because we underestimated production costs when devising stretch goals (and also kinda forgot about taxes... Whoops.) That said, we've been in discussion lately about potential options for our opening theme song. Anyone you'd like to hear? General progress updates are probably gonna be a bit less frequent now than they have been (on our blog and KS too, not just here) because we'll be getting into the meat of the project, and there won't be as much stuff to show off or post about, since we don't wanna spoil too much prior to release. I'll try to make some blog posts every now and then, but I'm not entirely sure what to write about. If you've got anything you'd like to know about (the development process, the team itself, certain characters, whatever) I'm open to suggestions. Right now our sprite artist is working on some character design upgrades for a few of the main cast, and we'll show the results of that once it's finished. Should coincide with the cover art for our game being completed as well. Dunno if anyone will be at AWA in Atlanta in a few weeks, but I will be, as well as some of my teammates. You might catch us around Sekai Project's table in the vendor hall, and we'll also be announcing something cool (and not HRP related) during Sekai Project's panel. Cheers!

Our Kickstarter is in its final hours. Please consider checking it out if you're interested in our game.

Hey, thanks for the feedback! We've actually already made plans to incorporate a few of those things you mentioned, like the mirrored sprites. There actually are no pointless choices, though a lot of them probably do seem that way since the scope of the demo doesn't really allow for the results to show quite yet =/ Also, I believe you can hide the text by pressing the H key. Thank you for playing, I hope you enjoy it overall!

Ugh, all these embarrassing typos =/ It's kinda funny; a lot of these only cropped up /during/ our last round of editing, when we were rewording stuff. Who edits the editors, ya know? Anyway, Ken is definitely not dealing nuclear weapons under the table. At least not canonically. Yet I'll take a look into alternate font options, or possibly see if I can find an easy way to allow users to patch in changes like that.

If I have my way, you'll get both versions (or just the all-ages) if you prefer that. Personally, I don't believe in making people pay for the extra content, especially since as far as I'm concerned, it's part of the "base" content - we're just making an all-ages version to follow Steam and Kickstarter's rules. That said, I can't speak with 100% confidence that whatever other distributors we use will make it that easy. If it comes down to it, I'll make sure there's a patch for the Steam version. I don't want to content block people at all.

We'll be on platforms other than Steam, though I don't know exactly what yet. There's a chance we'll have our own webstore, we might use the Humble Store. There's gonna be something that'll allow us to host the adult content though. As for a Steam patch, I don't know the logistics of it, but I'm not opposed if it's easily workable.