dfbreezy

Kawaii~ 9/10

For me, I've had to put of alot of VNs due to dev work, so the list has piled up. A few notable ones are; Fata morgana The Grisaia series Corpse party series Daganronpa series (That's how it's spelt right?) Sharin no Kuni Aiyoku no Eustia Clannad Steins;gate series Maji de Watashi ni Koishinasai! That's about it for the most part. The list goes on and on, but it can't release my heavy load on you guys soo soon yet.

The sooner the better. I haven't been able to watch because of the JP voices, when all the while I've been hearing about future trunks, some new villain and Vegeta being badass. It's been too long.

8/10 for the Christmas hat thingy.

Hello again Fuwanovel, it's Dfbreezy (now named Kotario). This new entry is going to talk about the problems when motivating team members to work and to commune. There are alot of problems with development. The ones that are most known, are funding, recruitment and meeting deadlines. Yes, those exist and are very well known because Devs highlight that very frequently. But one other element that is largely overlooked is team motivation or involvement. How is this a problem? Read further to find out. Picture you have a nice concept. In fact you've completed the first draft of the said concept. You then go into recruitment based on the summary of the concept... not the concept itself. Of course the recruitee does a passover of the summary, checks whether the genres fit with him, and inquire about their all important pay. This process is done and repeated over and over again in the EVN sector. It's basic practice to some extent. But that is where the problem begins friends. After the payment is settled, almost every team member (minus writers) never actually takes the time to assess the content of the project until it's over and done with. All the ask is for what you need and References. That is the problem. You, in reading the content, should know what is needed based on the description of the scenes in the concept material. But most of that is waived based on "I'm working on multiple projects". I myself have had this problem with my team, with only 50% of the team actually reading the content. Luckily my character artist falls in that category. Because of that, i feel we have a distinctive disadvantage against other studios whose members actively take part in shaping the story itself, not just the VN aspect. It may just be my assumption and speculation at this point, but what if team immersion could affect the final product positively and make it far better than it normally is? Some good food for thought, i'd say.

Kaizoku-ou ni naru no otoko da! 10/10 for the Kawaii twins.

Two sample texts of the story! Sample 1 Sample 2

Yes, I am the one making this.

Rainbow Dreams is a Sorrow and Despair themed visual novel that has a total playtime of 3-4 hours. https://vndb.org/v20128 Summary: part 1 Luka wakes up one morning to find a beautiful girl beside him and she claims to be a forest fairy! How is Luka going to deal with Myra's variety of troubles when she refuses to go back home and rule the world? part 2 The world is tearing at it's seams. People are being returned to nothingness. And Myra Orbis, the only person who can stop it has gone missing for three months. Luka Sanguis sets out on a journey to find Myra and Hopefully save the world in the process. Characters: Luka Sanguis- A very handsome young man who is apathetic to most things even though he possesses a genius-level intellect. His apathy was caused by the frequent abuse he suffered from his foster parents during his childhood. Bora Sanguis- The foster father of Luka and a very important politician. He is very hardworking and secretly cares for Luka but is unable to show it because of his wife. he has a weakness for Myra. Mara Sanguis- The foster mother of Luka and a very prominent woman in the real estate business. She despises Luka because of his great achievements while her son was born with down syndrome of a strange nature. Tika Sanguis- Luka's younger brother who is disabled and cannot do much on his own. Luka tends to spoil him while their parents are not looking. Lara- the second in command of the forest fairies and Myra's retainer. for some reason, she and Luka have never seen eye to eye. Team: Writing: Dfbreezy Editing/proofreading: TheGreatTheorist Programming: Joe B. Character art: Eccopink Composing: Lexikins Interface and Logo: Valhalla Background art: FalyneVerger Progress; Story; Part one: 100% Part two: 100% Art; Character design: 20% ( 50% of demo) sprites:35% (50% of demo) Backgrounds: 16% (40% of demo) CGs: 0% Gui: 35% Music: 38% (100% of demo) Programming: 5% (90% of demo) Sample BGs: More backgrounds coming soon! Open Positions; Japanese translators* Japanese Voice actors* *Not actively recruiting 1. Rate the premise on a scale of 1- 10 2. This story is very symbolic and has alot of deeper elements that may be unnoticeable to a light reader. How do you feel about that? 3. What do you think of the plot in general? The plot may seem generic, but i plan to make the story one that will leave deep emotional scars. Any opinion will be much obliged.

7/10 for having a stern face. 100/10 for the Maou signature though.

Kaneki Ken ripoff 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001/100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 Btw, I am the man who will become the pirate king!

Reminds me of Smash bros. I miss smash bros. Why don't i have Smash bros? 10/10 for nostalgic feels.

.... Wat? 5/10

I am the man who will become the pirate king! .... Err.. i like baseball so 7/10.

Hmm... I think i'm going to agree with OP on the points, plot holes and problems he pointed out, but i'd rather not agree with his comparison since I've been traumatized by school days for a while. It's simple logic. Write a long introduction that throws the reader into the world you created by showing some average humor (sometimes it was great) and character interaction to build some fealty to the title. After that, throwing mediocre drama and making idiotic decisions are fine by most readers since they "know" and "understand" the characters. Plus after all the time invested it's easier to extract emotions. Everything has it's good and bad. Writing a 60+ hour game would leave plot holes unless your editors are very good (which a company like Key should have). But having a long story with many different aspects allows one to forget or pass over these plot holes unless you are a critic, as opposed to a casual reader. A smart business ploy. We must not forget that Key is first and foremost a company. That means their main aim is profits regardless of whatever reason. That means anything goes in order to make profits. Sorry to have to do this Key fans, but think of Apple. Apple basically produce nothing special each time but they are assured profits due to the great name they built over the years. Same goes for Key. They know that they can afford to skimp over somethings because they know that no matter what they make, they are assured profits, if not at the cost of favorable reviews. My biggest problem with Rewrite was the piss poor action. I loved rewrite, heck i even shed some manly tears, but the action and all fighting aspects should be removed from the game except for major ones like Kotarou vs Midou etc. Using sprites for battle and throwing in some lame 2dfx is an affront to all action visual novels. I understand the production costs of such a game is beyond my imagination, but if you know you're going to put out low quality fights, the throw out the low quality slice of life to make up. Rewrite's music however is in my opinion, they greatest I've ever heard. A pat on the back to Shinji-sama. Art was meh. The general story made up for it mostly, but upping their art game would be nice in my opinion. Finally, the best route was Akane's route in my opinion. Not the earlier bits, but all scenes involving Shimako and post destruction were pretty symbolic. I'm curious to know what others think of Rewrite. This may prove to be a helpful discussion for other devs to take note of.... I know i have.

Finally!!

3spooky5me 10/10

The boxart has been added.

Hey guys, It's dfbreezy here, your greenhorn Vn writer who's gonna use this blog to educate and enlighten readers as to the deeper workings and challenges in VN creation. The topic i'm going to choose for today would be Vn project recruitment. VN recruitment sounds easy at first because, hey, all you have to do is post an ad and wait for the interested parties to flow, right? Unfortunately that particular thinking process was quashed in a very short while. If you have ready and available money to pay, recruitment is never a problem. In such a situation it all boils down to what you want and how much you're willing to pay. But for a newbie, unemployed university student (like myself), such feats of maturity are far beyond our grasp. Recruiting for a free project is actually easier than recruiting for a paid project with delayed payment. That's because when recruiting for a free project, members are aware that there is no monetary gain whatsoever. For a commercial project, team members expect some form of compensation for their work (not always monetary), so in the case of money, they expect upfront payment. They may have their own complex pricing methods or they may utilize a general flat fee, but all in all, you have to pay something. Being a penniless soul planning to gather funding from Kickstarter, i tried to recruit a team of people on the notion of delayed payment. This, was the most trying time in the production process for me. This particular duty was made much harder due to the fact that all this is transpiring over the internet. Without seeing my face and knowing my name, i attempted to gather people to help produce my idea on the promise of future money that may or may not come depending on various factors. Laughable isn't it? But it didn't fail completely. With not a single penny exiting my pocket, i managed to gather writers, A programmer and composers. Satisfied with my recruitment, i turned to what i thought to be the easiest avenue. Artists. To sum it up, it took a whole month and 15 rejections for me to finally fill up those positions. Hardly anyone wanted to take the risk of trusting a newbie with no money with their time and experience. There's no way you can blame them for that... after all it doesn't align with reason to take such a risk. Nevertheless i gathered a suitable team and work begun on the project. Episicava had hit off and was going smoothly. I had quite a bit of a breather and a sudden increase in my leisure time, so i decided to work on a small scale project while Episicava's assets were being worked on. The recruitment process for RD wasn't as difficult as that of Episicava since, i fully utilized my wealth of information and tactful wording to gather a second team. It took me about 2 weeks to gather a full team for RD as opposed to the one month+ time it took for Episicava. Experience really is the best teacher. There are probably a few others in the same position as i am, wanting to work on an idea they have, but not being sure of it's advisable to move forward and recruit. To all those in such a situation, the truth of the matter would be to not recruit yet and to rather gather some funds, say at least $1000- $2000 if you're planning to use low quality assets. Another is to do the impossible and convince someone to work for free on a commercial project. If there's someone who can perform such a feat, i tip my hat off to you. To round up my short essay, recruitment, whether free or commercial, whether EVN or another language, would possess and create it's own challenges that only the lead dev can solve with his own power and actions. That is... if you don't have a dime to your name.

My opinion is closely aligned to Funyarinpa in his earlier message. I don't know if anyone else has spoken from the opinion of an OELVN dev yet, so i'll act as if i am the first. Naturally, i fall into the category of those who had their VN virginity brutally torn by Katawa Shoujo, but even then, after reading subsequent Japanese novels like G-senjou no maou, i never actually compared the two. Why? Because they were both great. This may sound like i'm trying to defend OELVNs but it's the undisputed truth. It doesn't matter how, why, what or who made a VN. A good story is a good story no matter what it's 'ripping off'. Some who've read this far might still disagree with my notion. Then let me explain a little further basing my opinion on facts and ideas. There are two popular VN forums sites for western otakus. There's our very own Fuwanovel and there's Lemmasoft. Fuwanovel strikes me as a Vn site that is mostly focused on Pure Japanese Vns as opposed to lemmasoft which tries to promote OELVNs. this is true because this forum has a sub-forum for OELVNs that sees even less action that most virgin NEETs. Neither of the sites are better than the other and neither of them are worse. But after browsing these two for a while, I've come to learn quite a few things about the differences between OELVNs and Jappy VNs. 1. Literature. OELVNs use a different style of literature as opposed to Jap Vns. To be precise, they are more focused on prose and the utilization of text heavy lines and powerfully fluid description. So it's almost like reading a paperback novel on screen with art. I myself dislike writing with prose, as i prefer utilizing Japanese literature and plot devices. An example would be the very well known Boke and tsukkomi routine (think Comyu). Most OELVNs are focused on delivering the story with excellent wording at the cost of visuals. 2. Art. Art is the main branching point and the OELVN's greatest weakness. i'll be blunt. Sometimes i see some projects on Lemmasoft and be awe-struck by the art used to depict characters... and not in a good way. It seems like OELVN devs are satisfied with utilizing low to medium-low quality for their projects to cut costs, as they are not companies who can shelve the heavy costs that comes with great art. Most of the freebies have low quality art, while the Commercial ones have medium low art. Like Funyarinpa stated, this community gathered because of Japanese art, music and style, so OELVNs with such art would have little to no impact on those used to the excellent qualities Jap Vns deliver. I'm an OELVN dev, yet I've never bothered to read a single OELVN except KS. (the ones I've edited and proofread don't count). This is because, before i am a writer, i am an Otaku. that means i love Japanese stuff. that means i want Japanese stuff. But attempting to produce something on the level of the Japanese is apparently being termed as a 'ripoff'. It makes you wonder what exactly the consumers want. Do they want westernized art? No. Do they want Japanese art? Yes, but not from you. A difficult situation indeed. 3. Communication. Another bane of OELVN creation. From what I've read/heard most Japanese devs are mostly located in a single room/complex/building during most of the VN's creation. Most OELVN devs do most of their communication over the internet. Something like this doesn't sound like a pressing problem from the perspective of a non-dev, but trust me, communication is what has lead to the crumbling and breakdown of most OELVNs. For example, an artist is working on a CG. Now CGs unlike sprites or Character designs, have to be done right from the get-go otherwise you're going to lose a lot of time in correcting it. So they send WIPs and Lineart sketches. You'd have to pray and hope your description and their understanding matched well, otherwise you'd have to restart. Jap devs, however, just need to look over their shoulder and check out their comrade's WIP, or the artist may even explain a better idea for positioning and perspective as opposed to the writers description. Also some associates on the EVN sphere can remain offline for days or weeks and there's absolutely nothing you can do but wait patiently for their return. The internet is difficult like that. 4. Commitment. Apart from one or two exceptions, most associates in the EVN creation are not fully committed to what they're doing, especially in the case of Artists. It seen by the style of advertising on lemmasoft. "Pay half to my paypal, i'll send a sketch and you pay the other half". After that payment is done the association has ended. Whatever the art is used for is not their problem, since it has been compensated by a few bucks. I'm not saying artists should work for free, but rather take a controlling share in what they draw for. Unfortunately for EVN devs 95% of artists aren't interest in Sales commitment or as it's called, "Rev-share". Yes, i know that economical and financial security play a part etc but that doesn't change the fact that it's still a problem. Another point under this, is that EVN artists hardly actually read the story their drawing for. I mean they just read the summary and draw based on whatever you give them alone, instead of mixing it with the emotions, perceptions and ideas you derived from reading. It still works for business purposes, but it would never match up to Jap Vns with their enthusiastic and moving work. Aside from these points, there are many other deep rooted and subtle difference that bar EVNs from making it big. I can't touch on everything since i don't have the energy for that, but i would spent a little more on talking about my 100% personal opinion. What the OP refers to as 'ripoffs' are those EVNs that utilize Japanese names for characters, Japanese locations and Japanese culture, while using western style literature, art etc and the writers themselves only have a second hand grasp of the Culture. Like Funyarinpa said, what the EVN community needs is that one (or two) project(s) that stands out from the rest with Art, Music and story that are original and compelling while delivering it in the style that Jap VN lovers want. Hopefully, with the increase of the EVN output, that one project may come sooner rather than later. EVNs may not be the best examples of VNs, but like all things that are shot down by humanity, it's just a mentality... which i'm also criminal of. Being someone who understands this very intimately, i hope that whatever i throw out would be to the satisfaction of both sides of the market and wouldn't fall into the demeaning category of 'ripoff'.

You should probably open another thread like this on Lemmasoft.com for more coverage.

Kawaii Neko 10/10

Westernized art. 7/10

So there's this site called Minds in which you can gain views on your posts by exchanging earned or bought points. This site is very helpful to Devs who are unable to gather some awareness using other social media. Although when i joined, there wasn't really any VN coverage, i created a VN society group which has been growing very nicely over time. So i thought i'd give a heads up to Fuwa members. If you're interested in joining or just to browse the site, i'll post relevant links. For the site- minds.com For the Vn Group- https://www.minds.com/groups/profile/624189356399140868/activity If you want to join*- https://www.minds.com/register?referrer=Epic_Works *It's just my referral link. While it's optional, i'd be really grateful it you used it to sign up to the site, if you do.

9/10. That tongue seems very experienced.