Veshurik

i take the stance of a modern western vn-customer & say pretty visuals are the most important here, rest doesnt matter at all, if it happens to be blessed with a good story too, then so be it, otherwise its okay and i wont be disappointed :/

It was Propeller... but now it is Light, because Propeller hasn't produced anything decent since Tokyo Babel... and its main writer is retired.  My current top five companies are listed below.  Eushully got knocked off because they haven't produced a masterpiece since Madou Koukaku (story-wise)
1.  Light
2.  Akatsuki Works
3.  Caramel Box (Setting aside the art-style, which some art-bigots have trouble with, they produce excellent games)
4.  Purple Software (high percentage of highest tier games since Mirai Nostalgia)
5.  AXL (because their stuff is always worth reading)

I think that's a bit of an exaggeration. The top main stream brands like Yuzusoft, August, Clochette or Navel still seam to be able to sell about ~40.000 copies initial sales. There were several posts with concrete sales data over the last 1 - 2 years that confirm that.
But what's certainly true is that the market is more 'tight', at least in the mainstream moege market. There's a lot more competition today than let's say a dekade ago. So if you're not one of the established top brands or have something special to offer, then there's certainly the risk to fall through and just end up with a few thousand copies sold or less. Overdrive is probably one of the most prominent examples of recent times. Apparently they'll release one more title and then close down.
There's much less competition on the market for story VN's and that's probably the main reason why the small group of Nitroplus, Light and Innocent Grey still seem to do well. I wouldn't take that as a given though, since Propeller, who were certainly one of the most established story brands a few years ago, are dead now. And newcomers don't have an easy life like Novectacle can surely confirm. Fata morgana no Yakata is a highly praised story title, but apparently didn't sell well, at least at first. I think they recovered since. But there's a reason why most newcomers target the mainstream market. The breadcrumps there are still much fatter than in the niche section. lol
What I've learned from the various post with concrete sales data:
~40.000 initial copies sold => Fantastic (Yuzusoft, August, Clochette, Navel)
~20.000 initial copies sold => Very good (Purple Software, Eushully, AliceSoft)
~10.000 initial copies sold => Good (Circus, Ensemble, Moonstone, Minori)
~5.000 initial copies sold => Average (Lump of Sugar, Whirlpool, AXL)
Depending on how individual titles performed some developers might place higher or lower, but I think the examples aren't too far off from the truth.

This won't "kill" fan translations so long as Japan keeps releasing games exclusively in Japanese, that's just a fact. Even anime still has fansub groups despite being much more widely available nowadays.
You have to understand most fan translators translate a game because they like it and want to share it with other people. If a company comes along that has the proper channels to make that game legally available in the Western market, there's very little reason not to accept such an offer. 
Complaints are usually from people that have only pirated games before and are salty about having to pay money now.
Of course there are valid criticisms to be made in the actual localization processes for each game, namely the fact a lot of erotic content is being left behind in favor of all ages releases, but the concept of a company buying a fan translation isn't really destroying the world as we know it.
Also fan groups asking for donations are 10 times shadier than ChuSinGura's Kickstarter project.

Thanks for sharing your extra tips,advice & thanks for sharing your experiences with me & thanks for understanding what i mean when I've thought of asking you all too as well :).

Em... I just playing VNs and other people usually don't say what I'm doing. Just "meh, what the..." - and that's all. I continue to enjoy it, and nothing happens.
If you want to know about, how I deal with 18+ scenes, I usually read them, when nobody at home, for example.
And yeah, I have some 18+ content as physical edition, but I keep it in safe place and don't show anyone. It's only my treasure, hah.
So... I don't have that problem.

So... Yeah. 

Wah, Lump of Sugar goes to Steam... But without English. Yet. 
Only Japanese and Chinese. I don't know how they can Greenlit with it, but okay. 
Release at 9th of December already.

 

Uh, no, it really doesn't.  It reads like crap if you can understand English well enough to see when a sentence is clunky.  Going off of the description of the game's Steam page (since I refuse to buy it), the English looks pretty terrible.  Want me to point out a few choice mistakes?
By the way, I'm not an English major.  I've taken beginning English classes in college, which are mandatory for everyone, and high school English classes before that.  I haven't taken any advanced English classes and I don't write that much in my spare time.
"Training" would be a better word choice to go along with "apprentice", but it's passable.  Not much wrong with this sentence, honestly, other than that it lacks detail.  It would have been nice if they described Adonis is some form, instead of just plopping him into our laps as (presumably) a male that wants to be a dragon tamer.
Without even noting the lack of a "the" before "forest", this sentence is pretty crappy.  A sentence that would read much better would be something like, "One day, while training alone in the forest, he meets a dragon girl named Mint.".  While simply stating the dragon girl's name directly after describing what she is works for basic comprehension, it's extremely sloppy.  If they really didn't want to use "named", they should have done something like "...meets a dragon girl, Mint, while he...".  Overall, not a terrible sentence, but it's not good for readability, and the "trains alone in forest" makes it sound like it was written by someone that has a poor grasp on English.  Surprise, surprise.
I'd personally use past tense for this whole description, as present is kind of odd for this, IMO, but it's not really that big of a deal and is more about my writing style.
This literally makes no sense.  Never having a girlfriend wouldn't prevent someone from calling them daddy.  It's not normal in everyday life to just call people "daddy", but the second half of this sentence doesn't mention this, does it?   Furthermore, "girlfriend" is the word they were looking for, as "girl friend" is one of the ways people will use to prevent people from thinking that they're in a relationship when they're really just friends with a girl.  To someone that's fluent in English, this could be taken to mean that he's never had a single friend that was female, and as such, is a poorly constructed sentence.
Is it implying that since he's never had a girlfriend, he's never had a chance to reproduce, and that's why being called "daddy" is weird?  I don't know, because the sentence doesn't really say that.  If the reader has to go out of their way to figure out the meaning of a sentence, then you've done a pretty bad job at writing.
"He EXPLAINS her...".  Dafuq?  You can't explain someone.  You explain things to people.  Let's give them the benefit of the doubt here and just assume that they forgot to add in a "to", and not that they're incompetent and don't understand how to properly use "explain".
Missing comma between "but" and "mistake".  Some comma placements are optional, but this one is not.  It's basic sentence structure.
Ugh.  This sentence is the worst one so far.  Get ready for a quite a few complaints.
"In confusion" is a pretty bad way to start a sentence.  It's typically used for short moments where the subject is confused, not long periods of time.  It makes it sound like he's confused and just wanders over to Dannan's house while having no idea what's happening or why he's there.  A more typical usage of "in confusion" would be "In the confusion, Bob ran into Lisa and dropped his candy bar."  Not technically incorrect, as far as I can tell, but it sounds pretty stupid.  Also, there's yet another missing "to".  I'm sensing a pattern here.
"...what he is confessed there..."  What the actual hell?!  Where's the person confessing to him?  You need someone doing the confessing to have the subject hear a confession.  It's also the wrong word to use there, and no, synonyms can't all be used interchangeably.  "Confession" has a negative connotation, usually one of guilt from doing something wrong.  You'd "confess" to the cops when they catch you, you'd "confess" to having cheated on your wife, or your parents would "confess" that you were adopted.  You wouldn't "confess" to the main character that a girl is destined to be trained by the main character, especially when the girl has only just appeared and the person (Dannan?  I don't know, it doesn't say.  His name has now also been spelled "Danan" and "Dannan".  Pick one, for God's sake.) wasn't specifically intending to deceive him.  Something like "learns" or "discovers" makes the sentence a little less stupid.  Hell, even "told" makes much more sense the way the sentence is written.
"...is the fact that Mint is the girl who destines him as a dragon tamer."  Ummm...is she destined to him as a dragon trainer, for him to train?  If so, that would be yet another missing "to".  Am I to assume that her mere existence shapes his destiny, or does she read his tea leaves to tell him his destiny or some other bullshit?  I thought he was already training to be a dragon trainer.  This raises so many questions that I really don't care about.
"Memory loss dragon girl"?  WTF is this garbage?  They've already given Mint a name, so why shouldn't they use it earlier in the sentence, where it would make the most sense?  Is this really a good way to refer to a character, by summing up all of their attributes?  I guess I can now walk up to my friend and say, "Hey, tall brown-haired college man!", and he'd look up, knowing that I was talking to him, and not think my choice of words was weird in any way.
"Makes a contract with" or "agrees to be the partner of" would both be better choices here, without completely re-writing the beginning part of the sentence.  "Contract" is a very formal word, usually for legally binding agreements.  It doesn't really fit in this sentence all that well.  Did they draw up a contract and have both parties sign, or something?  Because that's kind of what it sounds like.  Is Adonis being employed by Mint to help rediscover her memory?  That would be quite odd.
"...and they begin their journey to see around the world in order to find out Mint's lost memory."  Replace "see" with "travel", it's a terrible word choice unless they're just visually searching the world without leaving a set place.  "Rediscover" would be a more apt word than "find out".  Trying to "find out" someone's lost memory sounds hilariously stupid, and isn't something most people would choose to say if they had a decent vocabulary.

So, yeah, it's quite shitty.  I'm sure an English teacher or major could rip even more holes in that tiny description than I did.  Also, notice how the official screenshots only have extremely simple sentences that consist of only a couple of words.  It's almost like they're trying to hide that they're unable to string together longer sentences without them sounding like broken English.  Who'da thunk it    This whole description reads like it was written by someone that is learning English as a second language, and is mostly relying on dictionaries and spell-check to make sure what they're saying makes any sense at all.  I wouldn't even read it if it was free, which it isn't.

How about people vote for whatever trash they want to, be it a trashy port or extra trashy scenes.  

From what I've seen, they've put in a huge amount of work into this Kickstarter assembling some pretty great looking tiers. That's on top of the fact that they're taking the effort to retranslate most or all of the game in order to make sure it's as high quality as possible. That's not what I would characterize as "the minimum amount of effort," and I'm not sure the lack of mosaics contribute much to that. 
Honestly, I see no reason not to be really optimistic about this project, yet here you are shitting on them while providing no real explanation. And you call me jaded, lol. Maybe it would help if you explained why you think it's bullshit.

Holy crap, the art in this is stunning... I feel like a scrub not having known of this game before. Adds to backlog.
 
Anyways, I hope whoever TLed the summary isn't the one who TLs the game, cuz... if so, RIP western readers.
W-What?

Hey moe fluff is worth playing too.
What are you? A fucking pleb not understanding the deep philosophical meaning of 2D waifuism dating...!?

TBH if I wanted an episodic VN for 10 bucks, my first inclination would be to skip over Corona Blossoms AND Supipara and get this instead:
 
 
The screenshots by themselves generate a wonderfully visceral atmosphere, I can feel it coming off the screen, and the description emphasises their primary hook - choice and consequence. 

There are a couple of factors that need to be taken into consideration:
As already mentioned above, HD cg assets cost considerably a lot more than SD ones; in overall, cg is the second most expensive part of game production, straight after VA. You can blame the somewhat stagnant market for such situation. Space limitations. Huge assets take a lot of HDD space, thus resulting in a large game size. Even though we have digital distribution available nowadays, games are still being released on physical storage mediums, mostly DVD's; there's a limit on how much data can be stored (To be precise, it's ~4,2GB of actual data); since costs of physical release on a DL DVD's, not to mention BD's are expotentially higher, it's completely out of question for majority of japanese studios. This more or less means, a game has to fit a single standard DVD. Obsolete standards of work. A lot of companies and studios still rely on very old production standards; they use outdated formats and programming routines; they most often fail at grasping any modern possibilities to actually squish as much as possible from the modern tech and use it to the fullest potential. They use raw bitmaps instead of PNG files, rely on WAV formats instead of OGG Vorbis. This results in ultra high file sizes, virtually bloating assets, that wouldn't otherwise have a difference in case of more modern formats, especially when it comes to their quality. You'd be actually surprised - a well made, high quality, mid-long vn with HD assets and sound CAN actually easily fit under those 4,2GB; the problem is, japanese devs are way too thickheaded to understand it's not 90's anymore and there's a lot more possiblities nowadays.

I kinda feel bad for that guy, he just wanted to show some WIP stuff he was working on and got roasted.

I hope that they not screwed up. Moonstone ignores me about the "fair of poor quality", Harukaze too. Okay, well, please. Well, it's not necessary.
When you are promoting your game with a terrible English, you need to understand what are you doing.
Because not only the text in game should be good, then all promo-materials (including web-sites, fliers etc.) too. It's a PR, oh my gosh. Why do they think they can thus save on advertising?
It's awful. 
 
How many years publishers on the West did a little steps... and now everything is pushed. 
I don't trust the knowledge of English at Japanese. Arrgh, I bombed, sorry.
 
 

They said they ran out of time, and had to reschedule it to another con. I asked why it had to be a con announcement, and dovac said "because Japan."

Hi there, fellow VN fans,
I always had a thought: why do we have so many proprietary and semi-proprietary VN engines? There are *many* defiencies in having a closed source engine (and kinda inaccessible VN content): there are problems with running it on many platforms (like 95% of modern VNs are released for Windows, good luck trying to read them on your Android / iOS device), there are these infamous problems with "Japanese locale required", sooner or later platforms become inaccessible (good luck trying to run some less popular games of Windows 95-98 era - they won't
run on modern Windows 7/8/10 in any of the compatibility modes). If one wants to grab text for translation, one has to resort to really ugly API hooking hacks. Etc, etc.
So, why not just convert VNs to some easier, more universal, accessible format? I've followed the pattern of ScummVM project (a universal engine that runs adventure games) and thought - why not?
There are 2 projects close to what I thought: that is VNDS, which is, unfortunately, dead, and Asenheim, which is, unfortunately, not free/open source and I can't participate in it.
Today I'd like to share some of my progress, proof-of-concepts and ideas.
I've studied several VN engines, namely:
Kirikiri2 (AKA TVP) NScripter BGI (Buriko General Interpreter) Whale Caramelbox SysAdv Ren'Py Tyrano Yuka VNDS Asenheim What do I have now:
An understanding of some common baseline capabilities that all these engines have A project of JSON-based format (basically, some metainformation plus an array of simple instructions like "show text", "show graphics", "play sound", etc) A proof-of-concept engine written in HTML5+JavaScript (well, actually CoffeeScript) Most important: some working converters for several games that can be used on original games' data to make a "port" that my engine will be able to run A list of VNs I currently support and working on:
Koisuru Shimai no Sextet - https://vndb.org/v13353 (Yuka) Zutto Tsukushite Ageru no! - https://vndb.org/v8439 (Yuka) Moshimo Ashita ga Harenaraba - https://vndb.org/v100 (SysAdv) Sakura Swim Club - https://vndb.org/v18261 (Ren'Py) Edelweiss Eiden Fantasia - https://vndb.org/v2093 (BGI) Koneko Doumei - https://vndb.org/v153 (BGI) Nora to Oujo to Noraneko Heart - https://vndb.org/v18148 (Whale) Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru - https://vndb.org/v195 (Caramelbox) Here's how it looks like:

A few nice things that I already have is full customizability (like using any skin for every VN for UI), support for multiple simultaneous languages (like showing original Japanese + English translation for the sake of learning Japanese from it), support for annotated Japanese (i.e. adding furigana and/or hovering tooltips with word translations), etc. It's very easy to run HTML5 engine on Android and iOS (tried both), thus enabling one to enjoy reading VNs on the go.
I want to ask if anyone would be interested to take a look and possibly join me in developing / using such a concept? I'm almost ready to publish it all as open source software - actually, I just need a good name for the engine Any ideas?
If anyone wants to try translating any of mentioned games using my engine - please contact me too. Anyone who wants to participate in any way (i.e. checking out demos, porting more games, playtesting, etc) - also feel free to contact.
UPDATE: The engine is released in public and available to download at https://github.com/mnakamura1337/mikan_engine

They just want to beat Winged Cloud? Hah, good luck...

seems more like they wanna wait and see how this goes.
So, remember to buy this folks, we wanna see sakura mori.

instead of translating sakura no mori or natsu no iro they decide to translate this shit not so great game  

I know we already have a Corona Blossom thread of sorts but I wanted to make it more specifically on the campaign itself. Discuss what's right and wrong with it and ultimately whether or not people plan to back. So I'll ask the question (before I scare people away with the length of this thread) What are your thoughts on the Corona Blossom Indiegogo Campaign. 
You know I'm surprised at the low amount of backers but when it comes to flexible funding I really shouldn't be. I really dislike kickstarter and indiegogo and not really knowing the translation quality of Frontwing's in house team makes this initially questionable. It does not help that we know nothing of the length...for all we know we could be paying money for an extremely short vn less than an hour or two. I think lack of information is probably the biggest reason why this campaign is not doing all that well.
Let's take a look at their actual indiegogo campaign https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/corona-blossom-a-visual-novel-by-frontwing/x/12572100#/
First thing to note is that all versions of the game will contain both English and Japanese text, with Japanese voices. This is an unexpected surprise and allows for people to choose how to read it. For those of us that know how to read Japanese we might actually prefer to read it that way instead of trudging through potentially cringe-inducing poor english dialogue. Then again nothing currently hints at that. Honestly I'd mark this as a point in favor of the game. 
Second thing to note is that the All-Ages version of Corona Blossom Vol.1 is scheduled to hit Steam July 29th for a mere $10 dollars. There are a number of things to take away from this sentence alone. 
The scheduled release date for both english and japanese version of the game is July 29th which likely means the translation is either going to be really quick or they are close to finishing it already. I can't help but think that Frontwing is simply using Indiegogo as a pre-order system. Admittedly this can save them money as well as they only need to create enough physical editions and extras for the amount of backers they receive. 
One area of potential caution is the fact that this is vol.1 usually this means that the story will not be fully resolved by the end of the game and that we are just getting a volume 1. The worry here is that the game is going to be really short similar to Nekopara which admittedly does have its fanbase like even the sakura titles . It means they can sell pieces of the game for cheaper. How many volumes will there be? If the game sells poorly will we even see any future sequels. How much is the game really worth? These are questions that the 'vol.1' makes people think about and is something to keep in mind when determining to back or not. edit: seems to hint that there will eventually be 3 volumes if it ends up succeeding. 
All-Ages version seems to imply there will also be an 18+ version and yes indeed a little further down they make mention of the fact that "ecchi fans, fear not - an 18+ patch, removing censorship and adding adult scenes, will be available at launch for an extra $10 (prices may be subject to change). It is likely the censorship being removed is not the actual mosaics and this is simply poor wording. They likely mean that any added censorship from the all-ages version will be removed and the adult scenes will be added in. Do not be expecting it to be free of mosaics. The patch is also 10 dollars which likely means the game's probably worth about 20 dollars to begin with. Not a huge visual novel but not a 2 hour one. We can probably expect something around 10-20 hours or maybe a bit more. The fact it will have adult scenes does make it likely it will have a story as this does not seem to be 'sex-romp'. If you scroll down a little bit more we get another big piece of information.
"The Physical copy version of the game includes 18+ content by default, and is currently stated for release in August at a price point of ¥2000 in DVD-ROM format. This will be sold at select stores in Japan, and for anyone outside of Japan, the physical copy is available as a reward on Indiegogo".
It seems that people who enjoy physical editions of visual novels their only chance to pick the game up is via Indiegogo (or buy from Japan). It does confirm the 18+ content is included on the physical copy of the game so that's also a plus. People who buy the physical version get a copy of the digital with the 18+ patch included. No hassle to install the patch on a disc version and potentially no wait to play once it releases on steam. The 18+ patch itself seems like it will appear by end of August if the perk date expectations are to be believed. What we are not told about however is whether or not the game will have DRM. This is something that I believe needs to be addressed before the end of the campaign.
Honestly I'm hopeful for the translation. The website for corona blossom is actually decent as far as the english goes while the story description is a bit awkward the character descriptions are written well enough. We've yet to see Frontwing translate in-house so we can't say for sure the translation is going to be good but neither can we say it is going to be bad.
The Staff:
Producer
Ryuichiro Yamakawa (frontwing's producer) 
Character Design/Art
nanaca mai (she is also doing the art for Purino Party coming out soon)
Super-Deformed Character Art
nanaca mai (did some Pure Girl and Grisaia art)
Story
Yuhi Nanao (did the story or a scenario for a number of games that can be seen here
Art Director
Yuji Kaneko (don't know much beyond does backgrounds for trigger)
Mechanical Design
Hiroyuki Taiga (done a number of mech designs in numerous anime)
Opening Theme
"Happy! Corona Blossom" by Haruko Momoi
Ending Theme
"Be Myself" by Ayumi.(Astilbe×arendsii)
BGM Production
Fuminori Matsumoto
Let's look at the pricing and perk tiers:
 
You know these tiers are not bad...however not having anything above 550 for backing means some of those more rich-ish folks have nothing to overly back on. Which is not a bad thing as honestly these tiers are pretty decent (if you live in the U.S.) The only thing they need to do before the end of the campaign is to show off the goods.
For a mere 7 dollars you can get the game on steam for backing. That's good. It does however lead into the qualms about how long a game it might be but there is also the possibility that Frontwing is simply giving backers a really good deal as well. 
For 15 dollars you can get the game on steam and an 18+ patch. I imagine this is closer to the amount the actual game should cost. If they release the game on steam for 10 dollars it might actually pick up enough traction to convince people to buy it and then if they like it they can try picking up the patch for 10 additional dollars which people likely will do as people on steam are that type of crowd more often than not. For an extra 10 dollars you can get the digital soundtrack with. 25 dollars for the game and soundtrack is not bad at all.
For 40 dollars those of us that prefer physical copies can back and get a physical and digital copy of the game. All physical copies are 18+ so essentially this would give you an 18+ version and an all ages version plus a digital soundtrack. This is about the same that games tend to go for physical at a place like JAST (unless it's a big game) so this is yet again a very nice price. For an extra 10 dollars you can get a shikishi (likely the pre-order item in stores in Japan). For 60 dollars you get the 40 dollar perk plus an art book.
For 80 dollars you can get the 40 dollar perk plus either tapestry A or B (of which neither are currently shown which is likely why they have no backers). For 140 dollars you get the 40 perk tier plus a traditional happi coat or a one color hoodie (which is neat but like everything else really needs to have an image to see what people are getting) and get your name listed in the end credits. 
For 150 dollars you can get the standard collector's edition which is everything from the 40 perk tier plus a shikishi, an art book, name in credits and both tapestries.
For 240 dollars you get boobs. (you get a giant 3D Boob Mousepad and the 40 dollar tier).
For 550 you get everything in all the other tiers.
In all I actually think this indiegogo campaign is more of a way to check interest and allowing people to pre-order. There are a number of concerns about this potential release but there are a lot of positives about this particular campaign as well. It has a month to reach goal and is only at 30% the lack of any stretch goals make this all the more likely a means of pre-order. The flexible funding is a concern as they get the money whether they make goal or not but at the same time I'm pretty sure this will get released regardless of indiegogo. 
Would I back this? Originally I believed it was a bit too early to say. More information is needed regarding length and perks. For seven dollars (15 for adult) the price is actually quite good. Do you think Frontwing can do a good game and have a proper translation? Then I'd say yeah go ahead and try them out. I've backed a number of kickstarters and indiegogo's in the past to varying degrees of success and results. Frontwing has yet to release a game in-house and I personally have nothing to base their translations on outside of a bit of a questionable move with chirchiru idol. I'm willing to give them shot. If this ends poorly or the game isn't what it's advertised as then so be it. Decide for yourself if it's worth it and if it is feel free to back. 
Is there anything you believe Frontwing can do to make it more appealing to people? Why do you believe this isn't getting as much notice as other games...are people simply sick of indiegogo and kickstarter and has fatigue finally settled in? Discuss below. 
 

Well, I guess this ain't half bad; at least they're learning from past mistakes and making the right choices accordingly.
Not sure, whether the game will interest me that much, as it's not the kind of stuff I really enjoy, but I might still throw some money at them.

Because it can never be said enough:
Guys do not ejaculate massive amounts of semen during sex. Your typical male spurts out about a teaspoon of semen. Not nearly enough to drench the poor heroine in a sea of briny cum.
Most guys are not going to be able to have sex 2-4 times in one session. Especially not virgin protagonists. You have to be like Sting to be able to fuck like that. Most guys are not Sting. They need time to recharge. AND, even if the guy does manage a second go-round, he does NOT spurt forth even more semen than the first time. It's almost always less.
Cum together? Right now? No, just me. (The Beatles would kill me.) It's very rare the two people rutting manage to cum together. And it's also really hard to try and time it by holding back just so it can happen. It's stupid. Know what happens? One person cums at a time. If it's the guy then hopefully the girl has already came, otherwise she may end up disappointed. If it's the girl, she can hope for a multiple, or endure the guy until he finally climaxes.
Phrases never heard from the girl during sex: "Your cum, it's so warm." "Let's cum together." "You're tearing me apart, but since it's you I can bear it." "Fill me with your love juices." "It's so big."