Nandemonai

I very much doubt the Hoshimemo fandisc will be a Kickstarter exclusive.  I can't imagine Sekai would want to leave that money on the table.
Sure, there have been some light novels and things that were, but those are much harder for Sekai to sell.  Sekai sells games.  It makes more sense to get money from the Kickstarter to translate the fandisc, then also get money from people buying at retail.  If the fandisc was some kind of Kickstarter exclusive, I'm pretty sure it'd have been explcitly mentioned in the campaign.

I very much doubt the Hoshimemo fandisc will be a Kickstarter exclusive.  I can't imagine Sekai would want to leave that money on the table.
Sure, there have been some light novels and things that were, but those are much harder for Sekai to sell.  Sekai sells games.  It makes more sense to get money from the Kickstarter to translate the fandisc, then also get money from people buying at retail.  If the fandisc was some kind of Kickstarter exclusive, I'm pretty sure it'd have been explcitly mentioned in the campaign.

I'm of two minds in regards to that last one.  On the one hand: What. The. Fuck. Was. That?  And on the other hand? I am intrigued by your ideas, and wish to subscribe to your mailing list.
 

That's not what justification means, that's an excuse

It makes sense, but:
There are better ways to check if a person bought the game or not. If it's really that they were going for, then it's still possible to buy only one DLC, apply the patch and play the game for a halved price.

Help us unpaid fan labour, you're our only hope! :3

I'm doing QC and here's a little tease on progress of where I'm at.
 

Supporting Moenovel is like paying to be able to suck a million dicks.

I like to call it The Catmaid's Tail, but I should probably be saving that joke for when the next season of The Handmaid's Tale debuts. But the parallels are haunting.

Yes, but he made it clear that this crack was being used on an illegal version. I tried to help, though.

I went to go take a look at Maitetsu's Steam page, only to find it hasn't actually got one.  I wouldn't be surprised at all if the game doesn't wind up releasing on Steam after all.  And if it does, it will only be because the game's promotional materials (at least the ones up on the game's site right now) aren't pushing the sexualization angle.  They push the slice of life angle, none of the characters are explicitly underage, and the main character isn't a grown man with an explicit avowed interest in little girls.  Sure, it might be a lolige.  But they're not marketing it as one.
Whereas The Key to Home sure seemed to have been designed to be marketed that way from the get go.  I checked out their Steam page awhile back.  It had a screenshot that was obviously supposed to look an awful lot like a footjob without actually being one.  It's just much more open and obvious about it, and guess what?  Steam has the right not to sell something if they don't want to.  It is their service.  They obviously know about the porn games flooding onto Steam.  They've chosen to throw up roadblocks (the patches thing) but have continued to allow it.  They don't need to do that.  Nobody has a right to sell their stuff there.
If Valve decides "we're not comfortable allowing this title on Steam", they can do that.  I'm fine with them doing it because they're worried about bad press if the story somehow blew up.  I'm also fine with them doing it because Valve as a company decided 'this makes our skin crawl, we don't want this on our store'.
I would not be fine if Valve said something like "if you publish that game anywhere else, we'll never talk to you again".  That would be censorship.  Valve deciding it doesn't want to carry Imouto Paradise or Suck my Dick or Die or The Key to Home isn't censorship.  No one has a right to be heard using any platform they demand access to.  That's not how it works.  Other folks have the right not to associate with you, if they don't like you.  Steam is not a public utility.

That's a common trick, actually.  I haven't actually played FSN myself, but I have no problem believing that's why he's there.

That's a common trick, actually.  I haven't actually played FSN myself, but I have no problem believing that's why he's there.

That's a common trick, actually.  I haven't actually played FSN myself, but I have no problem believing that's why he's there.

I went to go take a look at Maitetsu's Steam page, only to find it hasn't actually got one.  I wouldn't be surprised at all if the game doesn't wind up releasing on Steam after all.  And if it does, it will only be because the game's promotional materials (at least the ones up on the game's site right now) aren't pushing the sexualization angle.  They push the slice of life angle, none of the characters are explicitly underage, and the main character isn't a grown man with an explicit avowed interest in little girls.  Sure, it might be a lolige.  But they're not marketing it as one.
Whereas The Key to Home sure seemed to have been designed to be marketed that way from the get go.  I checked out their Steam page awhile back.  It had a screenshot that was obviously supposed to look an awful lot like a footjob without actually being one.  It's just much more open and obvious about it, and guess what?  Steam has the right not to sell something if they don't want to.  It is their service.  They obviously know about the porn games flooding onto Steam.  They've chosen to throw up roadblocks (the patches thing) but have continued to allow it.  They don't need to do that.  Nobody has a right to sell their stuff there.
If Valve decides "we're not comfortable allowing this title on Steam", they can do that.  I'm fine with them doing it because they're worried about bad press if the story somehow blew up.  I'm also fine with them doing it because Valve as a company decided 'this makes our skin crawl, we don't want this on our store'.
I would not be fine if Valve said something like "if you publish that game anywhere else, we'll never talk to you again".  That would be censorship.  Valve deciding it doesn't want to carry Imouto Paradise or Suck my Dick or Die or The Key to Home isn't censorship.  No one has a right to be heard using any platform they demand access to.  That's not how it works.  Other folks have the right not to associate with you, if they don't like you.  Steam is not a public utility.

I don't like conspiracy theories, but it's either just a fairly poorly constructed clarification (language barrier?) or there's something seriously fishy about it. I mean, she doesn't have a contract because she "trusts her boss so much"? After years of working for the same company non-stop? Also, it's the only company in the world that needs talented artists and she wouldn't have money to buy food without it?
Like Narcossis said, it really doesn't prove anything. No example of her supposed commission work for other companies, no specifics on her relationship with Winged Cloud. Just "I'm happy, nothing to see here, don't look any further". It doesn't mean that the allegations are true, but they're strong enough to be worried about (and to blacklist Winged Cloud, I've considered buying Sakura Dungeon out of curiousity but definitely won't do it now).

To what extent could you map out the VN scene? All the various fandoms, the EVN vs JVN split, translated vs untranslated. Using the VNDB voting stats, I did a little analysis of the VN fandom and came up with some clear clustering. I hope you enjoy it~
https://bunnyadvocate.tumblr.com/post/168412595697/visualising-the-vn-market
I'd love to hear any suggestions for other categories to investigate as I'll do a follow up post in a week's time.

Doesn't this kind of go without saying? Sure, SP can put SFW pictures on the steam page from the story, that look harmless enough. But if Valve was to do just a bit of research into the game, they'd find a super long list of loli porn scenes. (The game has a LOT, unlike your normal eroge with a loli heroine, which might have one or two.) If the suggestive poses in The Key to Home is pedobait, then Maitetsu is super pedobait. (I mean, have you seen some of the scenes in Maitetsu?)
The story and the H parts of the game are separated, so you can easily put just the SFW parts onto steam and cut out the H, but seeing as the game is technically still tied to a massive roster of loli porn, I'd think Valve would see that as pedobait regardless of the H being removed, simply because it clearly was designed with loli porn in the game originally.
 
I don't disagree with the removal of The Key to Home off Steam at all. In fact, I agree with Nandemonai, I think it makes sense. It does make me wonder what will happen to games like Maitetsu in the future, though, as Valve clearly aren't happy with "pedobait" games. Maitetsu is not your standard eroge that just happens to have a loli heroine. It's loli train simulator 9000. (/ω＼)

I went to go take a look at Maitetsu's Steam page, only to find it hasn't actually got one.  I wouldn't be surprised at all if the game doesn't wind up releasing on Steam after all.  And if it does, it will only be because the game's promotional materials (at least the ones up on the game's site right now) aren't pushing the sexualization angle.  They push the slice of life angle, none of the characters are explicitly underage, and the main character isn't a grown man with an explicit avowed interest in little girls.  Sure, it might be a lolige.  But they're not marketing it as one.
Whereas The Key to Home sure seemed to have been designed to be marketed that way from the get go.  I checked out their Steam page awhile back.  It had a screenshot that was obviously supposed to look an awful lot like a footjob without actually being one.  It's just much more open and obvious about it, and guess what?  Steam has the right not to sell something if they don't want to.  It is their service.  They obviously know about the porn games flooding onto Steam.  They've chosen to throw up roadblocks (the patches thing) but have continued to allow it.  They don't need to do that.  Nobody has a right to sell their stuff there.
If Valve decides "we're not comfortable allowing this title on Steam", they can do that.  I'm fine with them doing it because they're worried about bad press if the story somehow blew up.  I'm also fine with them doing it because Valve as a company decided 'this makes our skin crawl, we don't want this on our store'.
I would not be fine if Valve said something like "if you publish that game anywhere else, we'll never talk to you again".  That would be censorship.  Valve deciding it doesn't want to carry Imouto Paradise or Suck my Dick or Die or The Key to Home isn't censorship.  No one has a right to be heard using any platform they demand access to.  That's not how it works.  Other folks have the right not to associate with you, if they don't like you.  Steam is not a public utility.

I went to go take a look at Maitetsu's Steam page, only to find it hasn't actually got one.  I wouldn't be surprised at all if the game doesn't wind up releasing on Steam after all.  And if it does, it will only be because the game's promotional materials (at least the ones up on the game's site right now) aren't pushing the sexualization angle.  They push the slice of life angle, none of the characters are explicitly underage, and the main character isn't a grown man with an explicit avowed interest in little girls.  Sure, it might be a lolige.  But they're not marketing it as one.
Whereas The Key to Home sure seemed to have been designed to be marketed that way from the get go.  I checked out their Steam page awhile back.  It had a screenshot that was obviously supposed to look an awful lot like a footjob without actually being one.  It's just much more open and obvious about it, and guess what?  Steam has the right not to sell something if they don't want to.  It is their service.  They obviously know about the porn games flooding onto Steam.  They've chosen to throw up roadblocks (the patches thing) but have continued to allow it.  They don't need to do that.  Nobody has a right to sell their stuff there.
If Valve decides "we're not comfortable allowing this title on Steam", they can do that.  I'm fine with them doing it because they're worried about bad press if the story somehow blew up.  I'm also fine with them doing it because Valve as a company decided 'this makes our skin crawl, we don't want this on our store'.
I would not be fine if Valve said something like "if you publish that game anywhere else, we'll never talk to you again".  That would be censorship.  Valve deciding it doesn't want to carry Imouto Paradise or Suck my Dick or Die or The Key to Home isn't censorship.  No one has a right to be heard using any platform they demand access to.  That's not how it works.  Other folks have the right not to associate with you, if they don't like you.  Steam is not a public utility.

I went to go take a look at Maitetsu's Steam page, only to find it hasn't actually got one.  I wouldn't be surprised at all if the game doesn't wind up releasing on Steam after all.  And if it does, it will only be because the game's promotional materials (at least the ones up on the game's site right now) aren't pushing the sexualization angle.  They push the slice of life angle, none of the characters are explicitly underage, and the main character isn't a grown man with an explicit avowed interest in little girls.  Sure, it might be a lolige.  But they're not marketing it as one.
Whereas The Key to Home sure seemed to have been designed to be marketed that way from the get go.  I checked out their Steam page awhile back.  It had a screenshot that was obviously supposed to look an awful lot like a footjob without actually being one.  It's just much more open and obvious about it, and guess what?  Steam has the right not to sell something if they don't want to.  It is their service.  They obviously know about the porn games flooding onto Steam.  They've chosen to throw up roadblocks (the patches thing) but have continued to allow it.  They don't need to do that.  Nobody has a right to sell their stuff there.
If Valve decides "we're not comfortable allowing this title on Steam", they can do that.  I'm fine with them doing it because they're worried about bad press if the story somehow blew up.  I'm also fine with them doing it because Valve as a company decided 'this makes our skin crawl, we don't want this on our store'.
I would not be fine if Valve said something like "if you publish that game anywhere else, we'll never talk to you again".  That would be censorship.  Valve deciding it doesn't want to carry Imouto Paradise or Suck my Dick or Die or The Key to Home isn't censorship.  No one has a right to be heard using any platform they demand access to.  That's not how it works.  Other folks have the right not to associate with you, if they don't like you.  Steam is not a public utility.

But They Claim To Have No Knowledge Of This Being Done And Say The Devs Did It, Actually, So Who The Fuck Knows, But Yeah It Was Nutaku Releasing It So We Remain Suspicious
That Looks Like Pedo Bait Any Way You Slice It Honestly This Isn't Weird At All Holy Shit
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I mean, the headline would be less snappy if you told the truth. But you wouldn't be spreading misinformation, which is always nice.

Do you honestly think I would have translated two whole routes without checking that Astro was still planning on continuing the project? I've been in contact with him the whole time. He's too busy to do anything at the moment, as I said in my posts, but once his work project is over he will be resuming work on these free projects.
That's a pretty lousy attitude to think that fan translations are good enough to finalise a VN. While you may not be aware, the whole point of fan translations is to encourage the official market to expand and perform more official localisations with professional translations, official releases, packaged versions and so on, which end up giving money back to the original game makers. If the world was ideal, VNs would be as popular in the west with instantaneous releases in multiple languages. If you look at the anime market, the fansub crowd "won" this battle with official translations coming out often simultaneously in English. Some of the fansubbers and a lot of the fansub audience totally missed this point thinking the fansubs themselves were the endpoint themselves. This is the same mistake you are doing here with that attitude. While some people do buy the original Japanese box/DL version and patch it with the free fan translations, the bulk of people illegally download it. The VN creators get nothing from that. An official localisation after a fan translation is guaranteed to reward the original creators whereas the fan translation will likely get them only a pitiful number of extra sales from a small hardcore following like those of us here in fuwa.

Oh by the way, not a premise for the whole nukige but...
Mamankyoushitsu, my favorite nukige, has a harem route and it starts off like this:
The protagonist, when asked by one of his students (he ends up teaching a course to pregnant women about pregnancy & childcare) whether it is safe to have sex while pregnant, says that they can only have sex with him because actually men have a secret pact among them that they have to own a certificate to fuck pregnant women and that they lose this licence (awarded for knowing the risks etc. of sex while pregnant) if they let any woman know it exists. Three people out of the female cast consisting of four functioning adults buy into this (the last one lets go to see where this ends up) and then they start to have group sex in all the lessons. Then the protagonist's mom enrolls in the class and joins in. 

this legitimately sounds like something between a legitimately depressing VN, Starless, and the lore of a Dark Souls boss