Nandemonai

Yep. Participation has also dropped off in recent years, I believe, but don't quote me on that.

There is a group, kinda sorta in between the ESRB and a Standards & Practices body, called SoFuRin / EOCS. Like the ESRB, it was formed in response to political pressure. Game developers would agree to abide by their restrictions and for awhile, all the major VN makers were members. This body actually standardized the way the schools are described, and it used generic words that don't imply anything about the age of the students, and it mandated not discussing the issue. (It also banned real incest for awhile, but that was eventually relaxed. This is why so many games did pseudo-incest, where protag-kun is adopted or bangs all his step-sisters or what have you.) This is wrong. It depends on what jurisdiction you're in, and the Miller Test (the controlling law in the area) has a lot of stuff but it essentially boils down to 'if it turns the stomach of the jury you're going to be convicted'.

I'm really loving the game so far, but the no-voice-repeat thing is actually quite annoying for another reason: There seem to be a bunch of places in the game where what was one 'line' in the original, was split into two. But if I don't let the voice line finish, when I click to read the rest of it the VA gets cut off. And I can't get it to replay. And it won't replay from the backlog. Given how inexpensive the game is, I'm not really expecting a fix for this issue. But it is definitely pretty irritating.

I second this question. I mean, most of the engines I know of you could have ported it to aren't that lacking in features.

Umm. It looks kind of like she's got a broken pinky on her right hand? And her eyes are too far down on her face. Makes her look like Megamind. I mean, the art style isn't terrible - I actually kind of like it - but there is definitely some weirdness here. Edit: And apparently I somehow missed the reply which said both of these things already. Damn ninjas... Well, it won't. VNs apparently still struggle to move four digits' worth of copies.

I don't know, I have the Denpasoft version. I'd probably recommend also asking on the Steam forums. People here tend to be focused more on playing the 18+ versions. You could also contact Sekai Project directly.

If enough people are demanding their money back that the whole project is in peril of getting cancelled, they don't have a choice. I, along with all the other people who haven't demanded our money back, will angrily demand that they deliver what was promised. I don't want a refund. I want my game. And, you know, there's more of us than there are people asking for refunds (even if there have been a lot of requests for refunds). When they Kickstarted this project, they took upon themselves an obligation to deliver. Giving refunds to people who ask is not actually something Kickstarter obligates them to do. So if they have to pick, one or the other, well, that's not a hard decision. Their reputation is equally in peril if they cancel the game because a minority of folks have buyer's remorse.

Don't presume to speak for "the target audience". That's hubris enforced by the echo chamber you live in. Most people do not engage online communities. Only the biggest diehard fans do. A small subset, skewed heavily towards those with strong opinions, is not a representative sample. And your opinion is not even universally shared among the online community.

Shady fundraiser? What would be shady about it?

Nah, they're ... okay, they're not "fine". But this has happened at least once before, when their Steam key policy backfired and caused a raft of fraud that forced them to get cut off by their then-current payment processor. MangaGamer still has games on Steam making them money, and they are run by a group of Japanese VN companies anyway. Sure, the games on Steam probably aren't making them that much money, but that's always been true and they've been around for 10 years now.

Seems like you double-linked the same blog post, @Clephas.

Well, Jast USA is going to take a very dim view of you ruining their investment like that. (Because that's exactly what they'll think of it.) The title is licensed, so it's off limits. "10 users" on this forum can't give you Jast USA's blessing to continue (because they're not Jast USA). Jast USA cannot simply ignore someone continuing to fan TL a game they're working on, after they've publicly announced they're doing it. If you don't stop, first, you're being very inconsiderate to them. And second, you put them in a situation where they have no choice but to formally DMCA the project. And given the number of people associated with localization companies (like the official Frontwing account) that post here, you should assume they're going to find out about it. If you're trying to learn Japanese, then it doesn't need to be this game, specifically, does it? The game someone else paid the original creator to get dibs on? Just do yourself a favor and find a different game. There is no shortage of good games that aren't licensed.

Sorry, but you can't no-true-Scotsman your way around the fact that in the very early days there were no fan patches at all. Back in 1996 Jast USA released Season of the Sakura. In 1999 Otaku Publishing released True Love. The first really successful fan patch (that I know of) was Tsukihime, and that didn't release until like 2004. By the time fan patches were a thing, G-Collections had come and gone already. They released a game a month for about 2 years before they imploded. Between that, C's Ware, Jast USA / Peach Princess's output, and the half a dozen other companies (or so) that released one or two games then folded (including Megatech, the first company to translate an h-game - in 1992!) ... Fan patches have always been outnumbered by official releases. Sure, most of the games released in those early days weren't all that great (and the translations weren't either). But they were there. In 2010, there were loads of legitimate releases to choose from (including Demonbane). You can't ignore the giant pile of releases, then say "see, there isn't anything here"

That can't be right. It's got to be more than 5 illegal downloads for each purchase. He must have been being overly conservative. Edit to add: The claim of selling about a thousand units or so seems pretty on the money to me. I'll put it this way: Nekopara was successful enough to propel Sekai into a major publisher and keep them there. If all games sold like Nekopara, we'd see a lot more English releases by more publishers. Another fun fact: If you take the average Kickstarter take, and divide by $40, except for the extreme outliers, you get a number that's the equivalent of between 1K and 2K copies sold.

Except that the main character is a girl, and there seem to be "heroines". I considered looking at the CG, but I have an allergic reaction to [edit: NC material]. VNDB did list lots of straight (rape) action in the tags though. So I dunno. The only one that seems remotely in line with that hint is this game. Even if it doesn't fit very well. Either that or they're going to announce it at that November con (or maybe next year; perhaps, say, a complication came up in the licensing).