Happiness+

Hey everyone! So, sorry for going dark for such a long time. The VN is getting reworked again. My artists are remastering a lot of the assets currently for this build of the VN. It's been three years since they last worked with me. I apologize for the delay.

Please share your results soon. As a dev, I have some predictions of the results.

The reason why I count it is because during that time EVNs as we know them today didn’t exist. But if you really want an example of a more proper EVN by design as we know it today, there’s Air Pressure: https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/529708 That’s the second VN I’ve ever read. (However, I did not use Air Pressure because oddly enough, I knew what a visual novel was prior to reading Air Pressure. How? Because Newgrounds classified galaxy sim angel as a visual novel themselves.)

Galaxy Sim Date. I know it’s a flash dating sim, but lol it was released during a time when visual novels as a medium weren’t strictly defined. I played that dating sim, when I was five years old on newgrounds.com. What did I think of it? Well, looking back on it it’s surprisingly in depth for a flash game made back then. Go as far to say that is one of the more advanced RPG‘s during that time. From exploration, to character customization, romantic options, etc. The weird thing about it is that before a galaxy sim date, i’m not sure if there were dating Sims before then. Well, to the level of popularity that they are now. ( obviously, someone will correct me and say a certain hentai dating sim predated it.) however, it’s still pretty revolutionary and it’s own way. Because it got me into the visual novel scene and inspired many many many other visual novels and dating Sims. When it comes to original English language visual novels, this thing predated the VNDB by four years and was released the same year as RenPy. Reception and cultural context aside, it’s not really spectacular. I would even go as far as to say that it’s pretty much obscure. The gameplay is OK. There is no strong narrative. Character designs are pretty much serviceable. On it’s own, it’s pretty good but if you were to compare with the newer dating sims it kinda sucks lol. My friends and I still play this every blue moon because of how cringey the dialogue is and because of nostalgia. However, with Adobe’s Flash dying in 2020, this gem of dating sim/OELVN history will be deprecated, unable to run on any modern browser. Play it now before nothing can play it: https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/203189

That's a hard question, but personally, I like philosophy that serves a practical and/or material purpose. I am not a big fan of idealism. I used to be, but I realized that I kept making so many assertions on certain propositions. Whenever you adopt an epistemology for example, you run into assumptions in order for it to work. There's no perfect one, but pragmatism has the least amount of assertions I have to make for it work, so I am fine with that. The main reason why I study philsophy has changed over the years, but the main reason now, it helps understand myself and the people around me a bit better. It's just fun to explore things that people never think about. The interesting thing about visual novels is that they are very good for cognitive mapping, they explore scenarios most people wouldn't even think of concerning and rely on reader participation to some degree. This is partly why I consider visual novels not games. The main mode of interaction in a visual novel is reading and interacting with ideas versus mechanics. This is why I liken visual novels more to literature. This is why I read and develop visual novels.

Prior to Subahibi, I was on an somewhat anti-philosophy binge namely because of my upbringing and how annoying it all was. I kinda just ignored all the newer philosophers come of the 20th century. Then after I finally read the damn VN, I realized the importance of philosophy, again... I picked up some Russell and read up Wittgenstein, after Ayana kept talking to me about it in the final ending. Next thing I knew, I was reading critical theory ......and actually enjoying this shit. I guess I’ve always been interested in philosophy since I watched evangelion 10 years ago, but that was basic shit I think every high school freshman should learn. But what made lose my interest in philosophy, especially philosophy of science, was Sam Harris. I blame him in his book, end of faith. It’s kind of surreal, reading a moe eroge that talks more about empiricism, falsifiability, and scientific revolutions than a book whose sole focus is epistemological. This is exactly why I consider visual novels—literature, a form of critical theory.

I asked this exact same question on the visual novel database yesterday . However, I’m curious to see what my fellow Fuwa friends think. I am curious to see what you guys think of the industry currently. Is it doing well? Is the industry getting smaller and smaller? What are some of the biggest challenges that developers face? I am all ears.

In all fairness, you did come across a bit fatalistic. You reminded me of those jaded JVN fans over at r/vns. Because I don't understand how VNs can remain unpopular as a medium. Everything you said asiade from that I agree with. However, it's a bit fatalistic to say, visual novels as a whole will never reach anime popularity. Especially, when we don't have any data on the matter. People said the same thing about comics, but now we have the MCU. Soooo yeah....... I don't really buy that because there's no data on this and I think isekai is a fad at this point. Are you talking about fan tranlators for VNs or for LNs because I cannot really say much on LNs. However, fan translations of VNs can be really good. Though, Fan-TLs are more of an art than science though, so arguing about translation quality is a bit pointless.

ehhhh, okay. I just didn't know how small polish would be then. Well, good luck anyway. (I kinda wish some studios would adopt a better editing pipeline.)

I am shaking right now. I donated $50 to their GoFundMe. I wish I could’ve donated more. https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-kyoani-heal

I mean, how? What I consider niche market, truly is EVNs. Because nobody knows what they are. But in Japan, people know what visual novels are. Especially if they are anime fans or something like that. However, most people, even other otaku in America don’t even know about western visual novels. I don’t understand how JVNs are still niche, when Unlimited Blade Works had a movie. Then a damn good anime series by a reputable company. Then a movie series about what’s considered to the “best” route in fate stay night. If you wanna say F/SN is an outlier, cool, fine, I know. But I don’t understand is how can an entire medium remain niche when people are pouring money into it. If it was niche than fuck, Subahibi wouldn’t had that amazing kickstarter. “But subahibi bombed initially, Happiness+” Yeah because that whole VN was advant garde shit. Don Qxionte was not profitable, but that did not stop literary scholars from considering it one of the best novels of the western world. How the fuck does a JVN that bombed horribly in 2010 in japan amassed a kickstarer of over $100,000 in a few months for a English release? I’ve seen American indie games get funded for less. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/frontwing/a-wonderful-welcome-for-visual-novel-wonderful-eve My point here is that JVNs aren’t niche compared to EVNs. Now, Mahoyo is different. I wouldn’t even use that as an example if I were you. Because A. It’s not that well known even amongst nasuverse fans like tsukihime. B. Type-Moon usually doesn’t localize their VNs in America like some companies do with Sekai or moenovel C. The fan translation group underwent burnout immediately upon taking it up. I talked to Herkz about it, but like I told @Plk_Lesiak, translation isn’t usually done by one person. You need a team to divide labor. But before that, how did TM make their money to launch F/SN in the first place? Oh yeah Tsukihime. Unless you have data that JVNs have been declining over the years, you’re pushing the cart before the horse.

Last time I checked, niche markets don’t get production for full movie series. Furthermore, less niche is always better at what point does it stop being niche. It’s been increasingly less and less niche over the years. I fail to see your point here.

How many developers actually know Thai. The southeastern language. Watercress is actively looking for people who can translate in that very obscure language. And most EVNs are like way less than an hour long. Your argument will make more sense if someone was asking you to translate like ever17 for 500 bucks or the higurashi for $1000. Eventually all your hours you put into it will be below minimum wage. However, those visual novels have a huge following. It all depends, I’m surprised you haven’t even addressed the fact you could just go to the damn publishers. The funny thing is about this is that you won’t spend like 100 hours on a really short Japanese visual novel. And most often than not you will be on a team so It won’t be like just you cracking in all of these hours by your self. Ehhhhhhh...... I don’t know what developers you’ve been talking to but my friends surely don’t think this will be full time. In fact, I don’t know any studio aside from maybe top hat who would prioritize profit above anything else and their development cycle. Many studios are kind of like fan groups who decided maybe we should start making VNs ourselves because it’s fun. This is really fatalistic. I don’t know any developer that would downplay translation over editing. It’s usually the other way around like our users have pointed out earlier in the thread.

Well, I don’t know if they are polish only readers though. I can only imagine that. Unless most poles already speak damn good English already.

Damn dude. How is it gross? The idea of having high-quality prose is very important. Is it more important than making translations? Ummmm no, do you know remember my previous rant about the purity spiral of translators who are waayyy too pedantic about shit. https://forums.fuwanovel.net/topic/21633-if-you’re-a-fan-translator-thank-you I love how you are looking for profit in an industry that is virtually broke. If one polish dude comes to you and says “thank you @Plk_Lesiak for translating Saya” or something smaller then that should be enough, right? You made it possible for someone to enjoy a VN. You literally one of the people I look up to because you actively making visual novels popular in the west. We’re fans here. Not business people. We’re here because we love the medium. Plus, if you really wanted to make some cash. Just learn how to code like me. Be a scripter or an artist so you can offer commissions for devs. I only know ONE paid editor, and he’s been doing this for free since 2014 and recently started being paid at 0.06 cents a word. Maybe you can go up one those publishers like Sekai Project, Moenovel, etc. They always need translator and they will pay better than what I and many other EVN devs can offer you. I mean how to companies become popular in the first place. You’re downplaying the success of Clannad, MuvLuv, Steins;Gate, Ever17, Eden, Higurashi, etc. I know most of us are jaded but come on. How can people expect VNs to stay niche? That does not make any since. At least you’re being honest here. Most people are a lot more certain about the so-called demise of the medium especially from r/vns. But what’s your data? How do you know that? I came from VN conference 2019 and saw data rising regarding the popularity of mobile-first visual novels. Kickstarters for EVNs have grown significantly since 2014. @BunnyAdvocate Isn’t there any data regarding the popularity of VNs over time to westerners? Because if you’re right @Infernoplex, then come five to ten years time. Fuwanovel would a desert. The VN publishers would be broke. Watercress and Nachi wouldn’t exist anymore.