maybe some of their stuff like strip fighter
i personally would like to see demonbane come to an english market
What I like about the eroge market saturation is it gives amateurs like Type-Moon and even someone like me or Narg a chance to make our own games and see if people like them. The whole genre is very friendly to hobbyists because the idea of archetypical characters and textbox+static images has become acceptable so we can afford to cut a few corners as amateurs as long as we deliver a good story and somewhat decent art.
So what I’m saying is, if you can prove yourself and win a lot of fans on the Japanese market, then you get to enjoy seeing people make an anime out of your work or get offers from investors to make a new game and go corporate. Of course very few make it that far, but at least the chance exists. At the very least you’ll have a group of fans that will have bought your game from your Comiket booth and will be talking fondly about you on 2channel. That alone is a good reward.
Cheap is a relative term. Storylines aren’t so important, 3D graphics development is exponential in cost development so developing for older systems is easier, etc.
3D certainly is wave of the future. I was more meaning games for the DS or games that intergrate dating-sim elements into the game, like Persona.
Illusions games I am not sure how well they’d do mostly because of poor engine optimization combined with no real storyline. Great games for modders, and visual eye candy, but I doubt they’d be able to sell newer versions of such games to a more sophisticated audience who would want some kind of advanced character development and/or character interaction architecture. This would require a lot more scripting work, possibly more time spent with programmers on new items, but mostly it would require hiring top notch AI programmers.
Not if the new company can’t deliver anything more than crap localizations sold in self-destructing pacakages. Unfortunately, this market has a long history of companies trying to move into the business and failing shortly thereafter because while the degree of American interest is quite high, The Internet Is For Porn.
Interest is good, but it’s not enough by itself. The real problem is nobody actually pays for these games.
Self destructive packaging and high prices, such as MG has, are not the way to go to get larger audiences (most people don’t backup their systems at all, even partial backups).
The other problem is the format. A lot of Americans are put off by large amounts of text. A VN is essentially that, with pics. That’s why I think it really hasn’t caught on more, not because of lack of awareness, niche-market element, element of risk, etc. (though those certainly are factors). It is that fundamentally most North Americans don’t like sitting down at a computer to read a story, even with pictures.
Might be a bit easier to get them to do it on something like a PDA, but the nature of it means they can’t really enjoy eroge VNs in public.
This is why I think the inroads to such a genre of any type of dating simulator or romantic relationship storyline would be through other mediums like those seen in games like Persona, most of them, like the afore mentioned game, seem to be RPGs. Obviously there is no eroge in them, but it’s not that great of a leap.
I’m afraid that Bishoujo Games will never become a commercial success in my country. Still few people speak english (let alone Japanese) and those who do either aren’t interested in reading this whole gametext (it’s easier for dummies to watch porn, isn’t it?? :lol: ) or aren’t interested in erotic issues at all. Furthermore, Hentai is aimed at adults, and adults hardly ever are intersted in cartoons or cartoon sex. Sad but true. I tried to interest most of my friends in Dating Sims but it was doomed to failure.