Happiness+

You play as Will Getz, a hot-headed young man with unfinished businesses and a score to settle. When you were seven years old, you left the town you'd grown in middle of the night--never to return. 15 years later, you return to the quaint town of Edelton to finish things where you left off. Everything is exactly as you remember it, even the arrangement of the furniture. While in town, you find yourself draw to a harpy girl named Rosa Oaks, a pitiable girl inheriting a cursed family fortune and all of the misery that accompanies it. Figures from the past and presence cross paths over the two weeks you spend closing the lid on the past, culminating in an ending of your own choosing. At the end of it all, surrounded by your new friends, you try with all your might to remember something you've been forgetting for well over a decade? What happened, on that night? Welcome to Edelton, a twilight town of Rose and Ash https://imgur.com/5i3TE2I Play Now

Hello, I'm proud to announce a new event next Friday! Fuwanovel is having a livestream on February 3rd @ 7 PM EST with Watercress. We will be vibing on our discord 's voice-chat. Having a good ol read-a-long of A Field of Flowers and Stars and Q&A afterwards. It's a sci-fi yuri OELVN that was my directorial debut as head of software engineering. It will be hosted by me, the software engineering director of Watercress. Kevin, one of the narrative directors from Sarchalen @TheForeverLoneWolf, Studio Director of Watercress Watch the read-a-along and Q&A here on Watercress's Twitch Hang out with us Fuwacord's voice chat. or be a square.... February 3rd EST @ 7 PM US EST Visual Novel Intro Raine, a genius mechanic with a lust for adventure, thrives in the frontier of space accompanied only by her shipborne AI navigator. Well into her travels, she makes a critical error while piloting, jumping through an unstable wormhole and crash-landing on an unknown planet. There, she makes first contact with a young species of sentient beings that look a lot like humans with a hint of… goat? To return to her home, Raine must repair her ship before the wormhole closes. However, in this unfamiliar place, she makes a friend that forces her to question what she really wants. A Field of Flowers and Stars is a collaboration between Watercress, Somnova Studios, and Sarchalen Visual Media for YuriJam 2019.

You're fucking awesome

I don't use drm myself. Definitely not Watercress.

I haven't been on this forum in a long while: I think the last time I had a discussion post was when I was promoted to programming director role at Watercress Studios, which was back in January of 2020. You know, before the world ended. Long story short I was promoted to solve a problem or rather a series of problems and that stole all my time away from Fuwa. I knew at some point I would return. I just didn't know when. Thanks to @HataVNI they came in like a wrecking ball. What happened in these last two years??? I worked on releasing some visual novels. I could've released more but Covid-19 complicated things, and I didn't want to get burned out. The cool thing is that I actually have paid 2 jobs outside of the visual novel stuff I do now. My day job and my side hustle. Basically I had to incorporate my side hustle, and I might hire people if my business continues beyond me having just 2 people. But let's focus on the visual novel stuff– I swear I should do a podcast and drop all the fun stuff I did so far at Watercress. There's so much I wanna say but everything is still motion. Right now, I am working on a unique visual novel. I will drop details about it later. This OELVN right here is the main one taking up most of my time currently. Here it is at VNConf 2022 - Covid really did shake up things, however, I am really proud of Palinurus. I was in charge of Palinurus Android Edition. Not many people have android experience in the visual novel world. I had artwork help from AnagramDaine and I was able to get the Google Play stuff from our Studio Director, wolf. The hardest part was both setting up the Graphic User Interface to work on mobile and getting the music box code to work. The cool thing about the GUI is that it does change depending on your device. Thanks to Ren'py's variant system. They kinda remind me of media queries in CSS. So Ren'py has responsiveness for mobile. That's too awesome. Another large issue I ran into was when I had to convert it into an android app bundle. Why? Well the issue was that I was stuck with 32-bit architecture and then one day Google just announced they were abandoning 32-bit architecture. Ren'py was only capable of 32 bit architecture from the RAPT. I was so damn pissed but I managed to adjust the android manifest file and change the architecture to make an Android App Bundle vs an apk. So basically the dev cycle took longer because Google. In Summary, visual novel development is deeply important to me. Because it's not enough for me to write about the EVN revolution.... I WANNA BE A PART OF IT!!! y'all got any questions for me? (btw here's my Twitter and here's my Discord: Happiness+#1168)

@Plk_Lesiak Read my EVN please

This is the new remastered Android edition for the classic 2015 visual visual from Watercress Studios. Presented with: a new mobile-first GUI, a music box, new galleries, a bonus scene, and higher quality graphics. Feel free to read this on your tablet, your phone, and even on your television. A drifting traveler boards a one-man space shuttle destined for Alpha Centauri. This shuttle is piloted by Budapest, an artificial intelligence program designed to serve humanity. She is a hardworking, diligent program, just a little naïve to the ways of the universe, and intensely dedicated to her directive. But when disaster unexpectedly befalls their ship, the two of them are sent careening through uncharted space, left with dire prospects for rescue. Stuck in a floating cockpit drifting through the empty ocean of stars, they have only each other to rely on. Between interesting discoveries both old and new, Budapest quickly develops new traits and quirks beyond her programming. As she attempts to navigate her own troubled seas, the passenger discovers that there is more to this program than previously expected. Click Here to read Palinurus P.S please don't forget to leave a review

Basically, what pisses you off about these new romantic EVNs so much?

We found all the people we needed

Honestly I don't care. I have more of a cancerous opinion anyway regarding visual novels vs games. More power to you @Zakamutt, when the time comes, read our VNs here and give us your hot takes

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.

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.