I assume there's no loli content in JAST's artbook. That wouldn't make much sense.
6 more days!!!
At this point I'm wondering if I should order a physical copy can cancel my digital copy because it doesn't seem that the digital copy will arrive before the release date.
The physical copy comes with a digital download code. If you order through J-List the digital download code should arrive before the box does.
You know, I've been very disappointed with JAST USA. They're not keeping their promises very well. At first they said the game will be released in June/July and that they're hoping to even sell the copies in anime expo but none of that stuff happened and they delayed it to August 25th. They then announce another delay one day before the release date. There was no word about until it was very close to the date which is quite quite irresponsible of them. They delayed it for 3 weeks and said that the digital download shouldn't take too long and guess what. It is taking quite long and theres not alot of word about anything. I doubt it'll even come before the release date. I wouldn't even be surprise that they aren't able to provide a uncensoring patch even though they have been hinting it. I'm just going to keep my expectations low for them from now on....
I really agree with you, John Nguyen. JAST have never answered me when I asked them about the release date after the delay.
is the mousepad in the limited edition made of washing machine safe materials? also any word on how the download is coming along?
Mouse pad is rubber mat style with a laminated top (not cloth). so if anything were to spill on it, wipe with a damp cloth...
Installer is still in the works. When I know I will definitely make an announcement, but I have little control over how fast people can work.
The installer will be done for the release on Sept 18... right?
That is my presumption. It's estimated to be another 6-8 hours of work if all goes well from what I'm told.
I'm promoting Shiny Days using the power of the Sakura Swim Club porn frenzy. I hope this blow to my dignity ends up being worth it.
So something I'm noticing is that my School Days / Shiny Days ad is getting a ton of clicks but hardly any purchases. My guess is that $40-50 is out of the price range of curious buyers. You'd probably get a lot more sales from casuals if you split the games into episodes (which is pretty easy since the School Days games are already episodic!) and sold them at like $10 each, the same price as the Sakura series. I feel that at the $10 price point you'd see a lot more interest in your games.
Price being the biggest barrier to entry isn't exactly an unknown thing, it's the main reason why the Sakura games and Gaokao sold well while Grisaia, Romanesque, and Princess Evangile sell a fraction of that. I have to wonder what JAST's pricing on Flowers will be.
I'd say time is second barrier. I probably have 100 games with at least 10 hours each with gameplay in my backlog. Motivation to buy a new 40 hour game for 50 dollars is because of that low. Easier to buy something that sounds like 2 hours game for 10 dollars.
I usually dread starting a new VN since I don't know if I'll invest 4 hours into a dead end and then have to replay 4 hours with a walkthrough. Which is why my backlog of VNs grow instead of shrink.
Er, there's a skip read text feature included with almost all VNs that should mostly negate any "lost time" due to a bad end. RPGs are an exception, but premature bad ends that require significant backtracking are pretty rare in RPGs. School Days was also an exception, but that's because the engine crashes cleared the "read scenes" buffer since your last save.
How can $40-50 dollars be too much for a curious buyer? Games are usually that much. I don't think they should lower the price at all nor is splitting the game by episode is a good idea. For a game that provides 10-30 hours with animation. 40-50 dollar isn't that much at all... If they're going to spend 50 dollars to try it themselves, then they're not curious enough and thats too bad. Its not very hard to see what the game is like when you can just watch a trailer and already know what its about.
I dont like that splitting up idea at all, the games should be left exactly as they were in the original release.Messing around with it would probably lead to bugs too.I think a demo or a trial version would be the best idea.
I think 40$ for a visual novel of that length with full syncro and animation quality that surpasses most hentai movies, it’s really a cheap deal considering a hentai DVD sells for around 50$ which is more cost for less hentai playtime! Actually I am surprised that they can sell it that cheap, it makes me feel almost kind of a bad guy that I used a 10$ discount coupon on my order from jlist.
I wonder if we get the e-mails today with our DLC codes? joins the hype train
I'm just citing my observations (based on a decent chunk of data too). I've observed the denizens of Steam (namely, the denizens of the Sakura Swim Club board) and they're more fixated on price than value. If the price isn't brought down the sticker shock is going to scare them off, particularly if they have no idea if the game will be any good or not. By splitting the digital version of games into episodes or chapters the price of individual units can be brought down without lowering the overall cost. Those who like the games as they are now could just buy all episodes at once or buy the hardcopy.
They can still count totals. Sakura games get away with it because it is months between their tiny games, but if anyone tried to sell a big game as 5 or so pieces at the same time, people would naturally just tally the cost and claim it is too expensive to buy it.
Not to mention all humans who see a group of games expect to get a package discount if they buy all of them. If they don't see that, it will be considered a rip off.
If that wasn't enough, nobody would want to download all the individuall installers and install them one after another to play the whole thing. So you'd still need the normal digital version for full price. Alternatively an extra downloaded installer that installs the installers.
Shiny days also needs a patch, which I'm not sure how it would be effected by splitting the game up. Would you have to patch the games that do not contain the scenes? Are the scenes in multiple episodes?
Personally I would just do standard marketing. Sell it normally at full price on launch, then lower the pricing 1 year later to get more people to buy it.