Happiness+

Shit, everyone else here said it better than I could. But, fuck, I am going to put my two cents here anyway. Personally, I just don't want gameplay mechanics. I will give you example of why I think they kinda suck in visual novels. In analogue, a hate story. There is gameplay, but the gameplay itself is just trash. It's a annoying hacking scene that takes you out of the narrative. It just interrupts the flow of story, and for what, interactivity? It's a problematic scene, because it's the only scene that has gameplay and there's no gameplay loop. Games need to have a core gameplay loop with winning and losing. Visual Novels typically don't need to that. In fact, I am of the opinion that it's detrimental in most cases like analogue. Hell, even JVNs like Kara No Shoujo tried to be gamey and it did not work because it was too difficult, good luck getting through some of the endings without a walkthrough. Visual novels today, mostly JVNs evolve out of dating sims. That's why they keep the character route, thing we are used to. As others have noted, and as a EVN developer, gameplay mechanics are hard to make because you have test, debug, over and over again. While instead you can be doing other things like scripting and GUI design etc. If you want a visual novel to be more interactive, there's plenty as others have said, but honestly. I am glad it's not the norm. For some reason, a lot people nowadays think we need to make a VN that's more interactive because that's "fun". Even though, most of the interactivity boils down to boring mechcanics that exist just to piss off readers at worst. gameplay as narrative is really hard to develop, and frankly in all my years as a VN reader, I haven't seen a single VN pull this off. The best VNs I ever read, never bothered with gameplay in the first place. The ones that do aren't really known for having amazing gameplay either. Honestly, I much rather learn cool scripting effects from JVNs like Dies Irae and Tokyo Babel than to try to create gameplay. I see myself as a VN developer in my heart, not a game developer. The two may overlap, but I am not here to blur the lines. My position is definitive, I just don't see visual novels as games. If I did, they would be some of the lamest games I ever played. I see them as novels, more specifically visual novels. They shouldn't have to adhere to the standards of what games ought to be or even try to.

Huh.... *goes back to prepping for NaNoReNo*

shit. Beat me to it. Anime of the decade: Really hard to say, but I think Steins;Gate is a good contender. However, I am a moe bitch so I will pick Mysterious Girlfriend X. Manga: Fuck, I don't read manga like that. Game: Yall motherfuckas are forgetting about the mastapiece Super Mario Odyssey

Now this is a good ass question Gaming Interface: Anime: Can they please finish Black Lagoon? I miss the days of having darker anime. Nowadays, we are in a moe wave. I want more experimental OVAs to come out to push the medium forward. Furthermore, More studios on Pateron. Reading: More JVNs that are avant-garde, heavy philosophical and don't have to sell a shit ton of sex scenes. General Gaming: I don't really know. I do like JRPGs, but I don't play enough to have a solid opinion. Soo I am a loss for words.

Yes, but I cannot speak any more, because "they" are watching. Walls have ears. Windows have eyes. Forums have CIA. Lies. Dogs are trainable. Dogs can sniff danger. They evolved from the wolf, one of natures best predators. I would agree if you if were talking about the inevitable future of having genetically engineered cat-girls.

I wish. Ask me in a year Yeah, they are Canadian, so they don't count. Doujin circles that make MONEY!!!! Easily, DDLC. I read more JVNs here than I do EVNs though, that would explain the easy pick. Nah, I do put Watercress on my resume. So, my chances of getting a really good career do increase. I like to think that my hands are medium sized, they have been for the past 12 years. No, I have a team now within the 60 person VN company. I wouldn't know, because Dogs are the superior species.

You’re talking to the new programming director of the largest EVN company in America right now. Your boi is moving up in the world.

Unineko still exists. IIRC, that anime wasn't even finished

All the above, I did not know that many came out each month. But honestly, I am more interested in translated releases.

It's been awhile, and I am kinda curious to see if there's anything new from the land of the rising sun for 2020.

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.