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Visual Novel translations: Kickstarter?


Clephas

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Aaeru and the others brought up a good point when they thought up the idea of using Kickstarter to fund the localization of VNs for various languages. However, there are a number of conditions that would need to be cleared first.

1) Convincing the company in question to get behind the idea. Many VN companies would probably be delighted to affray the costs associated with localization through a method like Kickstarter. However, as of yet, awareness over there of this idea is rather low and the Japanese are natural conservatives, and for the most part they dislike being the 'first' to do something. Not only that, many companies who sell ero-versions would be unwilling to localize due to content issues such as rape scenes, fetishism, and the love of the loli. All of these could create potential problems for them at home and abroad.

2) Setting goals. First, you have to consider... just how many languages do you want to localize it in? How will you distribute it? How do you plan to convince others to take an interest in helping fund the project? For that matter, how do you attract the attention of fans unaware of Kickstarter? Do you want to utilize the fantranslator community or will you use professionals? What kind of stretch goals will you set? What kind of rewards will you give out to donators (other than the digital or physical versions of the game itself)?

3) Preparation. Be prepared to rush the initial translation, working your translators, editors, and quality-checkers to the bone for months on end. For a project like Grisaia, for instance, you could find yourself working for six months to a year flat, even if you had several translators working through most of the day, five days a week. Another thing, impressing not only with speed but with quality would be key to producing a possible second project. Not only will this attract fan interest, it will also gain trust with developers, potentially allowing you to more easily start future projects.

4) People. Whether you use pros or enthusiasts, you have to have people willing to take on the job, or you'll waste everyone's time. Without a staff on hand, it is all too likely that the developer will ignore you outright. Most VN companies make very, very little money on their games after costs. As such, you would have to display you had the resources to do what you say you want to do before they would be willing to make an investment in your ideas.

5) Alternate Idea. Raise money to actually buy the license to a VN, rather than negotiating with the developer to do a Kickstarter project. To be honest, I find this option to be slightly more realistic than convincing most VN companies make a bet on something as unfamiliar to them as crowdfunding.

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5) Alternate Idea. Raise money to actually buy the license to a VN, rather than negotiating with the developer to do a Kickstarter project. To be honest, I find this option to be slightly more realistic than convincing most VN companies make a bet on something as unfamiliar to them as crowdfunding.
Certain projects on Kickstarter have received levels of funding to that extent so I agree there.

But legal issues and "red tape" are going to be the biggest barriers to this happening.

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Forgive me for double posting, but I wanted this to be separate from the post above. To be blunt, to create a project like this, whether you use the straight crowdfunding method or the alternative of purchasing the license (probably using donations), this would be a huge commitment on part of the founder of the project. First, the founder would have to take responsibility for whatever he chose to bring over. For this reason, it would probably be wise to choose a title with as little extreme hentai as possible (avoid anything with rape, obviously underage heroines, or BDSM). For the second part, you should choose a project that has relatively wide appeal but is not boring or along the lines of what Mangagamer prefers to bring over (no nukige, no second-rate moege or chara-ge). Competing directly with Mangagamer at this point would be unwise, as success would hold the potential to unite our community behind this idea as a whole and failure would probably mean no more projects like it for some time. I'd suggest something by Will or one of its subsidiaries or Akabeisoft2 or one if its subsidiaries. My main reason is that both are none for producing games that are high quality, have wide appeal, and have a depth lacked by most of the commercially localized games currently being released in the US and other Western nations. Will is a more likely prospect, as Akabeisoft2 and its subsidiaries block foreign IP access to their sites pretty rigorously. Be prepared to set stretch goals including multiple translations (translations into German, Russian, etc.) if you choose the Kickstarter method. This will make it more likely to gain access to crowdfunding from foreign fanboys, which will make it that much more likely that you get funded on time. Spread the news. Advertising, whether it is banners or word of mouth (or posting on otaku sites all over the net) will be necessary to draw attention to the project. Without a crowd to fund it, your project will be dead in the water.

Edit: Realistically, a project like this would probably need help from all parts of the community. Ironically, the current split in the community's opinions is one of the biggest obstacles to success outside of the problems already mentioned. A sixth point that should probably be added to the first post I made is hiring or discovering someone who can figure out all the legal obstacles to a project like this. It is better to have all your ducks in a row before pulling the trigger, after all.

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There's quite the buzz with kickstarter now ever since Production IG went with it. (and grabbing ~$800k in contributions)

Famitsu and 4gamer and dengeki almost constantly publish news on the latest kickstarter now. like this: http://www.famitsu.com/news/201303/26030834.html

I want to add, 6) hack the game yourself. tell the JP publishers they dont have to allocate their resources to help you localize. I think that is a huge point to make.

Best candidate right now I think is either Robotics;Notes or Daitoshokan (<---this one only when anime airs).

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There's quite the buzz with kickstarter now ever since Production IG went with it. (and grabbing ~$800k in contributions)

Famitsu and 4gamer and dengeki almost constantly publish news on the latest kickstarter now. like this: http://www.famitsu.com/news/201303/26030834.html

I want to add, 6) hack the game yourself. tell the JP publishers they dont have to allocate their resources to help you localize. I think that is a huge point to make.

Best candidate right now I think is either Robotics;Notes or Daitoshokan (<---this one only when anime airs).

Robotics:Notes is out of the question, as JastUSA still has exclusive rights to Nitroplus-related localizations. Daitoshokan... *Clephas makes a face* latest fad. Also, that sixth option is too unilateral to avoid being quashed in the legal arena (the second money gets involved, official channels become vital). Perceived legitimacy is vital to gaining crowdfunding from the type of people on the other side of the argument, Aaeru. Bashing the wall with your hands isn't always the best solution... sometimes you have to dig under it or climb over it.

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I see a few fundamental barriers standing in the way of a Kickstarter project for VN localization that actually fits Fuwanovel's objectives (of eliminating the need for IP).

Developer fear of re-importation: This is already a concern of Japanese developers considering traditional localization, and is one of the reasons they insist on DRM in localized releases. I presume that the fruit of a Kickstarter project would be freely distributed, meaning the Japanese would have equal access to the title. This would be even more problematic if the game was 18+ and mosaics were removed in the English release (as the market currently demands of any professional project). Essentially this a problem of mixing funding models that simply aren't compatible (a localization funded prospectively vs. a game whose development was funded retrospectively).

Developer demand for legal accountability: This was a concern prominently voiced by minori, but likely applies to any developer. Japanese developers want to work with a group that will take responsibility for limiting distribution to territories where the work is allowed by local laws. Since some nations ban porn entirely, and most restrict access to minors, any free distribution model involving sexual content will not pass muster. This limits such a project to all-ages titles only.

These are the first two issues that come to mind. Also, Will probably isn't the best choice because they actively work with JAST.

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If you want to crowd fund a translation, then I recommend looking for indie/freeware visual novels. Then strive to contact the original creator(s). I believe this is how Witch Hunt's Umineko translation project happened. And as far as I know, both Kisaragi no Hogyoku (iOS) and Hatoful Boyfriend were translated with the knowledge and consent of the people who created the VNs.

The 99 Spirits translation project on Indiegogo was a success. They not only met their goal of $3000 US, but reached their strech goal of $7500.

For adults only VNs and games, give Offbeatr a chance. Just make sure to read their FAQ to know what content they don't permit. Before you click the link, please remember that most of the site is NSFW.

So yeah, if you're looking for genuine indie content that might be candidates for translation, consider browsing DLSite. After browsing the English worksafe website under the "digital novel" category for just a few minutes, I found quite a few that are not related to any existing series. There was Carnival Cage Fighting from Talestune (which talked about translating Ludesia some time ago), Hurtbreak Wonderland, Ibn al-Nafis, and more. Contact the creators and see what happens. If you can read freeware creators' sites, be sure to talk with them.

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I see a few fundamental barriers standing in the way of a Kickstarter project for VN localization that actually fits Fuwanovel's objectives (of eliminating the need for IP).

Developer fear of re-importation: This is already a concern of Japanese developers considering traditional localization, and is one of the reasons they insist on DRM in localized releases. I presume that the fruit of a Kickstarter project would be freely distributed, meaning the Japanese would have equal access to the title. This would be even more problematic if the game was 18+ and mosaics were removed in the English release (as the market currently demands of any professional project). Essentially this a problem of mixing funding models that simply aren't compatible (a localization funded prospectively vs. a game whose development was funded retrospectively).

Developer demand for legal accountability: This was a concern prominently voiced by minori, but likely applies to any developer. Japanese developers want to work with a group that will take responsibility for limiting distribution to territories where the work is allowed by local laws. Since some nations ban porn entirely, and most restrict access to minors, any free distribution model involving sexual content will not pass muster. This limits such a project to all-ages titles only.

These are the first two issues that come to mind. Also, Will probably isn't the best choice because they actively work with JAST.

Well when I mention kickstarter for localization I don't mean hiring a studio years after (like its done now, slower than fan TL), I mean kickstarting the development of the VN in english alongside the JP version so it can be released at the same day. With all the JP laws like censor and such (I don't really like uncensor, therefore fan translations are for me superior in that way anyway).

Being like "hey guys we are starting development of this VN, we did these in the past: 'blablabla" and if we get to this goal we could afford to pay some people who can work with the developers and make English scripts for the release"...

That's what we would pay money for but Japanese companies don't realize it. After the game is done, then they can supply the game to to people who kickstarted (like 30$ min) and at the same time have a publisher like JAST or whoever sell it in west, for lower price but still with a profit (0 customers is less then few customers at lower price). And aaa game market works that way too, companies know that people from rich EU countries are willing to pay 80$ for a game, UK people 70$, US people 60$ and people in CIS countries 20$. And the market works, yes some people try to buy the games from the cheaper regions (I always try to get the US price at least) but most people will just take the price they see on the main website.

Not to mention this would be digital only too, they could have boxed copy in JP but worldwide it would be too expensive, we would be buying the VNs for the VNs anyway, not for the box so no problem there.

But the problem is japanese companies will probably never do this, they will instead give the game to some random pub who does whatever with it (like put clothes on lolis, while decensoring all the mosaic and thus making the game worse in my eyes) and release it 5+ years after the JP release.

See this is the biggest reason why not that many people actually buy those licensed VNs in the first place, when there is a 5+ year old game, people will just buy it for 1 or 2 $ in steam sale, they are trying to sell 5+ year old VN for 40$ (for example school days).

Hell even most of the 1 or 2 year old games on steam get at least 50-75% discount.

The point of first month sales is that there is lot of marketing there and it gets even here, whenever there is new JP vn coming out, even we, people who read them in English, know about them. There are tons of blogposts on VN related blogs, there are OPs and trailers on youtube. If witch's garden was released in English on day 1 it would sell better too, everyone was hyped about the new technology and all. Maybe japanese developers dont see that or dont believe it, well thats where KS comes saving the day, they lose absolutely nothing, few hours of calculating what the price of the development in English would be at max.

Well I seem to be repeating the same over and over again, they dont believe there is a market, they dont trust the market at all and thats the whole problem of the current situation.

If only one of the more famous vn devs in west did it and succeeded, it would change everything. I mean people like Type moon, KEY, Nitroplus. Only then the others would have an example. Can you imagine the hype over the KS "Next KEY game in English on release", if some indie 99 Sprites got $7500, how much do you think a KEY project would get? Or Type moon project....

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For adults only VNs and games, give Offbeatr a chance. Just make sure to read their FAQ to know what content they don't permit.

And this is the other problem, if western people are gonna be banning all these "not permitted" things, it would be 90% of all JP VNs. Under aged - most of the games are high school centered. Incest in fiction is nothing wrong, there is no ban for literature about it, why are western people against it in VNs and again oniichans and imoutos are very popular.

If it is nukige, there is probably at least 1 rape scene in there too.

Solution - don't distrubute to the foreign countries directly, only have digial copies of the games purchasable from their website (which would have English section) just like I can buy from getchu DL (I did buy stuff there and except the terrible download speed it works just fine).

Then there can be no politicians and other other stupid people banning this because it would not be imported as a box in the US or even sold under US laws or anything - then we can have our lolicon with cute imouto, rape for those who want it and all the other things VNs offer. And only people interested in it would buy it. Before I got into VNs I never even knew there was something like that, make the public think it is not in the US and they will be fine with it.

I might have already mentioned it somewhere but this problem is even with korean MMO games, many of them feature loli-like characters and thanks to the distribution in EU/US with boxed copies and whatnot, it got so much attention like they people wanted to ban TERA because of Elin and all that bullshit.

So one of the problems of localization of VNs is also the fact that people in the west are so stupid and not open minded and what they dont like must be exterminated (not to offend anyone, but its mostly the US way of thinking and the big EU countries way of thinking [like Germany with their game bans are really stupid])

Here in my unimportant small country we have enough problems inside to worry about Japanese sex games being banned here and whatnot, big countries think they are important and can dictate what is and what is not acceptable on the planet Earth and it is a big problem as well.

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This is an idea I was given to get around the problems with sexual content and localization in the US, but how about an all-ages version or title? While a game with sexual content is more likely to get more direct support, it is all too likely that it would run into legal barriers that would prevent its localization. I already made a thread in this forum with a list of all-ages PC games, and anyone else can feel free to add their own obsessions to the list (all-ages, not by a company that has a strong possibility of localization already).

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  • 2 months later...

Hello guys.I and my friend want to start this not easy work about official translating novell.Can you please tell me ,what is the price for license to a medium popular VN?And may be you can make some recommendation with this.

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I think you would need to contact an official localization company like JAST or Mangagamer to get actual numbers on the licenses. They may be willing to tell you (although you never know). As for possible visual novels, it would really depend on whose willing to work with you.

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Hello guys.I and my friend want to start this not easy work about official translating novell.Can you please tell me ,what is the price for license to a medium popular VN?And may be you can make some recommendation with this.

Licensing costs will vary by game per publisher (2 variables there). Popular titles can have huge licensing costs (somebody fact check me here, but I thought Kanon's fee was going to be six-figures). VN localization companies generally have to sell hundreds of copies to make a game profitable. Mephisto is exactly correct about inquiries, though: you would need to contact a game's Japanese publisher (note publisher, not dev studio) to find out exactly how much.

Also, as these games will have to be translated, the Japanese companies generally will not respond to English inquiries (the logic being that you should either be capable of translating, or have a translator already on staff). Most publishers will only contract with companies, not individuals, which is another important point.

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All I can say is one guy tried this who has done great work in the community. Kickstarter got taken down and has pretty much pulled all his work. Arudoc I think it was.

Right but, uh, not only did Aroduc not get permission from the original developer, he started the Kickstarter campaign after they told him to stop his free fan translation, AND he sent them an e-mail notifying them of the campaign. "Special circumstances", as it were.

Aroduc is working on a project with JAST now, so it's quite possible he stopped distributing his unlicensed translations to avoid conflict with them. You know, "professionalism".

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First Vn companies won't even respond to you if you ae an individual and if you write in english, that's a fact and you will have to deal with it. Second we can't know i advance how much a licence will cost, because before you even talk to a company about any cost you'll have to promote your projects with facts, figures, garanties & co.

Then i think you are underestimating how much even a mid-popularity V licence would cost, it is pretty expensive, and will be even more if you don't have any contacts and reputation.

When i had this idea when speaking with aaeru we did mention the fact there is a lot of work to do before even contacting anyone. I'm also waiting for something to come in some near future that might help.

So please don't mess about with any VN companies wich might result in some crowdfunding hate from them with others if you mess up.

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Those donation rewards >.>

I know right?

"Pledge $600 or more

In addition to an anime or VN OP/ED, a crayon drawing, and contributors' credit, I will read an lewd scene from a translated or English-language visual novel of your choice and post the audio recording on Youtube."

I do think using Kickstarter would be a good idea, especially for a game by Key or Type-Moon.

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