Japanese highschool girl who wants to explore VN community in the west.

[OriginalRen]

Keep in mind that Nao is here on business. Nao's trying to promote a game. Suggestions are good but don't expect non-native English speakers to jump at the opportunity to engage in small chat. Simply reading and responding in this thread is probably a huge ordeal for them. The LewdGamer interview was conducted in Japanese and translated by LG. The director doesn't actually speak English. He wouldn't be able to talk with you on Teamspeak. Nao might or might not feel comfortable doing so, but it wouldn't be something I'd expect.

Fuwanovel is a place for community fans of VNs to come together and discuss hobbies. While I understand she's here for "business," we are going to make her feel just as welcome as any member on the forum. There is no reason to not ask her to come join the TeamSpeak.

For me, she's a member above all else.

[Ryechu]

I'm actually looking to review this title for FuwaReviews, but I dislike DLSite so much that that I'm finding it hard to justify buying a copy for review purposes.

 

It certainly looks cute though, I'll give it that.

 

Welcome to Fuwanovel!

[thetobby]

I bought the game on DLsite (nothing wrong with that page in my mind) and submitted a quick review there for approval. To summarize, the translation is bad, but the game itself is good. Buy the Japanese version.

[Daverost]

Buy the Japanese version.

 

I'm not following. Why? If people could read the Japanese version, they could have just bought it ages ago. Content-wise, there's no difference between the two. To the people just now getting access to the game, wouldn't an iffy translation be better than no translation at all?

[Flutterz]

wouldn't an iffy translation be better than no translation at all?

A word of warning, be careful when opening that can of worms

[Nao_KASUKABE]

Thank you, thank you for your many replies on this thread and via twitter DM...((´^ω^))

I am happy to see so many people here accept for joinig me, but I needed to take time to read English because of my English skills...((´^ω^))

 

 

Very nice to meet you, Nao - as others have stated before, it's really great to see the international VN community as a whole start to come together like this.  Before a year or two ago communication was low between Japan and everywhere else in terms of VN development, and even today the OELVN (Original English Language Visual Novel) community is perhaps arguably still pulling from a chunk of anime tropes while still figuring out how exactly to get these things finished in a reasonable way.  Depending on how you look at it, the genre is still perhaps in its infancy from an international perspective.

 

A good majority of the OELVN market seems to be low-mid level quality stuff pulling at things they think the VN audience might want at random, usually incorrectly.  The closest thing we have to stuff like, Fate/Stay Night, Umineko or the MuvLuv trilogy developed outside Japan would have to be Katawa Shoujo, though you could certainly call it a stretch to compare the two groups regardless.  Oftentimes you'll find some of them tend to underplay the importance of the writing itself, so keep that and the translation quality as a priority and I think you'll do reasonably well.  Personally I'm the kind who would rather bash the audience in the gut emotionally, though that depends on the tone of the story as a whole.

 

Anyway, I wish you and your team good luck in your endeavors!  Please try not to get discouraged - things may perhaps be confusing at first but hopefully everyone will be able to enjoy these soon enough 

 

Very interesting perspective...((´^ω^))

Mr kobushi said he and other staff do not like "insular mind" in Japanese eroge industry, so FruitsJAM will be happy that "Ona-Ken! international" and their other game has been the "huge experimet" for them...((´^ω^))

 

 

 

Nice to meet you, Nao!

 

I'm really glad to see Japanese developers finally reaching out to western audience in such straighforward and honest way. If there's anything you want to ask, feel free to do so and we'll try our best to help as much as possible!

 

You're propably familiar with Steam already, therefore I'd like to talk about itch.io instead. It's an online distribution platform very similiar to Steam, which was mainly aimed at indie developers (they're a bit similiar to japanese doujin circles). It offers almost everything Steam does, but it also has a couple of notable advantages:

• It's completely free. You don't have to pay any fees to publish your games or use their services and there are no adds, either. Itch.io uses open revenue sharing and "pay what you want" model, which means they earn their money from online transactions, for example - if someone buys your game, itch.io takes 10% percent of the transaction (industry standard is usually 30%), but it can be anything, since you're able to actually set the ammount you want to give them. "Pay what you want" means your can earn more, since the customers are free to pay you as much above the minimum value set as they see fit. In other words, even if you release your game for free, people can still pay you as a form of support.
• No restrictions on the type of content published. This might be the biggest and most important advantage over other platforms, especially in terms of eroge. You're allowed to publish adult content, as long as it's legal. The only thing you need to have in mind, is that certain payment providers don't allow transactions for adult-oriented content. In case of itch.io - Paypal doesn't, but Stripe does.
• Great services and ease of use. Itch.io offers a variety of tools; you don't have to worry about website or storing, as everything's hosted on their servers. They offer a unique way of distribution, by providing a fully-customizable web page for each product you publish. They collect usage information and statistics, so you can actually see how popular your game is, how many times it was downloaded and how many copies it sold. It also handles all the complicated technical stuff related to hosting and selling your game. You can generate download keys. Itch.io publishes your game in the exact way you want it to get published; there's no DRM involved.
• itch.io does not restrict it's services depending on the country. All of the services are available in the same way across the whole world. Depending on the payment providers, you can even receive money in your currency.
• itch.io allows your derivative works to be sold as well. Got a game soundtrack, or an art book? No problem! You can sell/distribute other variety of products tied with your games/franchise in the same way as your games.

I hope this helps; You can always check their FAQ and developer's guides for more information. In that sense, itch.io does look like a heaven for japanese doujin circles.

 

Aside from Steam, there's GOG as well, which works in the same exact manner as Steam, but offers DRM-free downloads. At the moment, it's growing to become the biggest competitor to Valve's Steam.

 

If you're also familiar with TeamSpeak, we actually own our (somewhat) official Fuwanovel channel, where you can chat and talk online with some of our community members (I and OriginalRen frequent it often). If you're interested, but still unsure how it works, feel free to PM me and I'll instruct you how to install and configure it to work. You could even try to encourage mr. Kobushi, if he's interested to hear from western fans like us. From my experience, there's nothing better than getting directly in touch with people to discuss things and enjoy a good time.

 

I already followed you on Twitter and I'm eager to hear more from you. I wish you and your team best of luck in your crusade to bring more great games and conquer the overseas' market ( ｡>‿‿<｡)

 

Thank you for useful information...((´^ω^))

I checked the website instead of them and tell them all the information I could find...((´^ω^))

 

Looks like one of the problem would be the method of payment...Paypal and Amazon restrict the payment for the adult content strictly...so only choice for them is Stripe...I could not find any information about Stripe in Japan...((´^ω^))

 

But anyway, they will try to find the best way for them...((´^ω^))

 

 

 

Hiya.

 

There's quite a few of us here who are pretty familiar with the Japanese language as well, so if you ever feel the need, you could always just throw Japanese at us.

 

Might I be allowed to sit in on OriginalRen's interview?

I live in the area as well. 

 

 

Thank you for your kindness...((´^ω^))

それじゃ時々はそうさせてもらうわね((´^ω^))

 

I have already sent message to OriginalRen about the interview...you`d better ask him about it...((´^ω^))

Mr kobushi and his staff might not care about it...((´^ω^)) 

 

 

 

I'm actually looking to review this title for FuwaReviews, but I dislike DLSite so much that that I'm finding it hard to justify buying a copy for review purposes.

 

It certainly looks cute though, I'll give it that.

 

Welcome to Fuwanovel!

 

I will tell Mr Kobushi about it...I certainly think he wants to know how people in western world feel about "Ona-Ken!" ((´^ω^))

I will send a message to you later...((´^ω^))

 

 

 

I bought the game on DLsite (nothing wrong with that page in my mind) and submitted a quick review there for approval. To summarize, the translation is bad, but the game itself is good. Buy the Japanese version.

 

Thank you for buying!! ((´^ω^))

And sorry for bad transration...(´；ω；｀)

 

They will check your review later and wiil use it for great advice for next production...((´^ω^))

 

They are planning to participate next Comic Market on Dec. (depends on lottery)  and trying to bring something new there ...((´^ω^))

[sanahtlig]

My guess is that Nao would appreciate it if people made their comments on Twitter public.  It doesn't generate publicity if the discussions are private. ^^; Reading and writing in English is very difficult for Nao and FruitsJam, so please be courteous of their time as you communicate with them on Fuwanovel and Twitter.

 

I bought the game on DLsite (nothing wrong with that page in my mind) and submitted a quick review there for approval. To summarize, the translation is bad, but the game itself is good. Buy the Japanese version.

Linking the review would be useful if you want others to read it.

[Ryechu]

 

Linking the review would be useful if you want others to read it.

 

 

DLSite's reviews take forever to appear, but assuming that's where it was submitted it will appear here, assuming they approve it.

[Daverost]

A word of warning, be careful when opening that can of worms

 

It's a touchy subject for some projects, I know. But I literally can't see any reason to recommend buying the Japanese version over the International one unless you just really need that $0.90 difference.

 

It's not a fan translation, so I'm not going to apply the usual logic here.

[kingdomcome]

Thank you for huge information...I think they need this kind of info. to overview the market...((´^ω^))

 

 

 

They kind of follow the footsteps of "NekoPara," so they choose Steam for publishing..((´^ω^))

Please tell if they have a choice of marketplace other than Steam and DLsite.com...((´^ω^))

 

 

You could try humblebundle as your marketplace: https://www.humblebundle.com/store

 

They have sold other VN's with a lot of success, and they have a very large audience.

[Nao_KASUKABE]

You could try humblebundle as your marketplace: https://www.humblebundle.com/store

 

They have sold other VN's with a lot of success, and they have a very large audience.

 

Next Marketplace for "Ona-ken! International." ((´^ω^))

 

Thank you very much ((´^ω^))

[sanahtlig]

So I thought of another avenue to market and fundraise for your game.

 

Try going the same route as Ecchi Mery creator A-Cellar and raise money for a proper translation using IndieGoGo.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ecchi-mery-and-the-perils-of-the-cosmic-shrine#/story

 

IndieGoGo is an adult crowdfunding platform.  They take a 5% cut of the proceeds, like Kickstarter.

https://support.indiegogo.com/hc/en-us/articles/204456408-Fees-Pricing

 

Further reading on IndieGoGo and other crowdfunding platforms: http://www.furstarter.com/crowdfunding-adult-projects/

 

Notably:

While customer service support is rarely official policy, I think this gives a pretty firm guideline for IGG’s approach to adult materials: yes, we allow them. Please be sensible with the amount of nudity in your IGG  project page, kthx. Weirdly, Kickstarter actually does allow nudity, at least artistic nudity, but prohibits pornography. More on that later, but it’s an interesting point of contrast. It seems like IGG would have no problem with a pornographic project, as long as it is appropriately black-barred or the images used were selective.

[Yatsufusa]

welcome.

[Nao_KASUKABE]

So I thought of another avenue to market and fundraise for your game.

 

Try going the same route as Ecchi Mery creator A-Cellar and raise money for a proper translation using IndieGoGo.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ecchi-mery-and-the-perils-of-the-cosmic-shrine#/story

 

IndieGoGo is an adult crowdfunding platform.  They take a 5% cut of the proceeds, like Kickstarter.

https://support.indiegogo.com/hc/en-us/articles/204456408-Fees-Pricing

 

Further reading on IndieGoGo and other crowdfunding platforms: http://www.furstarter.com/crowdfunding-adult-projects/

 

Notably:

 

IndieGoGo is pretty niche, and you'll have to draw supporters yourself, but it would be a great way to draw attention to your game and mobilize the fanbase with very little financial risk.  Talk to the Ecchi Mery campaign person for details.  He could help you run the campaign or even translate for you if you're lucky!  He runs a company called Culture Select.

http://www.cultureselect.com/go/cs/

https://twitter.com/culture_select

 

Culture Select has a relationship with MangaGamer, so if you worked with them they'd probably help you get your game on MangaGamer's store too.

 

Thank you, sanahtlig-san ((´^ω^))

 

I think they never consider raising translation budget by crowdfunding...((´^ω^))

 

I will tell them to think about it

 

((´^ω^))