This one isn’t really a visual novel, but I’ll be willing to bet there’s a fair amount of overlap between the target audiences: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inx … f-numenera
The amazing thing about KS is that even pure garbage OELVNs can make over 20k.
Doesn’t kickstarter have strict ‘no-porn’ rules that would exclude VNs?
Also this is sweet, threw in my $$
I don’t think any of these titles HAVE porn. It’s certainly not necessary to merit the label (unlike “eroge”, “VN” doesn’t really imply 18+)
Not that I’ve actually looked at the rules but they might just exist to stop people making porn with them. Video games with simulated sex scenes might skate by, since the public is at large becoming more okay with them- although admittedly they’re usually a lot less explicit than what you’d see in an eroge.
Hmm that’s true, I wonder if what’s in a VN would count as artistic nudity instead of pornography. I have a terrible habit of only buying VNs with sex in them but I don’t really consider all(or even most) the VNs I own porn. I’ve looked over most of the Kickstarters in this thread though and they never really spell it out explicitly one way or the other. Oh well.
Coming Out On Top has erotic content but they cleared it with Kickstarter beforehand, iirc
I hope people don’t seriously expect anything good from that.
What do you mean?
I played the demo and I thought it was really great. I joined the Kickstarter program, which has been really successful.
Not sure if you are against Kickstarter, or have some problem with that particular game, or what.
The demo had a very erotic scene. Full frontal was censored for the demo, but the full game will be uncensored.
The problem I have is that this work has probably made more money than a large portion of well regarded eroge.
Another problem is I doubt MG has made anything close to that much off of ef- which is an amazing game with gorgeous art.
Personally, i believe this was just due to the free advertisement and exposure it got.
In America, websites such as AfterElton.com, gay.com, gaygamers.com and even dating/hookup websites such as manhunt.com wrote articles and began tweeting about the game. If you are gay and check any website remotely related to it, chances are they had an article relating to it or had tweeted/facebooked about it. However it extended past just American websites. French websites, South African websites and more started pulling in support. Here in Australia it was referenced on SameSame. Obscura went and spread word to various forums too ( I first heard about it on Aarinfantasy for example ). My friend is part of a gay gamers (gaymers) group too and apparently word spread even to them.
Based on her blog she’s raised more money than is just on the kickstarter too. People have apparently been coming forth and emailing her, still asking to support ( 1 of which I believe she said was $1500).
And there are plenty of far better made BL games in Japan that will never obtain anything close to that fame. There’s a massive stash of games I doubt any of those backers will ever show any interest in.
The fact that this has gain far more mainstream attention compared to those games is quite sad for any developer in Japan. Even when they try to reach out hardly anyone supports them, but strangely this cheap product has!
It’s all about marketing. Just a shame the money didn’t go to licensing + localising Kannagi no Tori instead.
EDIT: One thing; I’m not slamming this game, the people who are developing it or the people who are backing it. I haven’t even looked at the project. Just going by other comments here~
That’s not really a reason to be angry at CooT - that’s a reason to be angry at standard eroge fans for not supporting the games.
There are many fans who are interested in CooT precisely because it’s NOT japanese-style BL, which they actively don’t want. If what you’re looking for in your gay porn is something more resembling western gay culture…
For that matter, we have something of a shortage of legit english-translated BL games of any quality. I bought Absolute Obedience and I regret it. I’m eager to check out some of the latest fan translations but that’s not much use for market purposes either.
Are there Japanese-mounted kickstarters to bring over ‘better’ BL games that are going unloved? How are people who aren’t hardcore enough to import and translate supposed to show their support?
I don’t really get the hostility towards COOT. I joined the kickstarter program, but I’ve also bought every yaoi game that’s been released in America - all two of them. Plus I’ve bought BL games like Animamundi, and Otome games like Yo Jin Bo and just about everything put out by Hanako. I’m a big supporter of yaoi/Bl/bara/otome, but I don’t speek Japanesse or have the tech know how to get around that.
I think there’s room in the market for both Western and Japanese style dating Sims, but since no one as far as I know, including JAST and their subsidiaries, are putting out new English language games with gay male protagonists, it seems strange to be critical of someone who is doing it.
COOT’s success clearly shows there’s a market for this kind of game, and so far no one else is doing games marketed to gay men.
If those Japanese yaoi games were subbed and released to a Western market I’d buy them, but as the marker stands, I can’t see where COOT is taking business away from anyone else right now.
If anyone knows differently, please give links and I’d support those games too.
Here comes another one, Driftwood
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/758 … f=category
And this one will have ero scenes, which you can turn off if you like.
It’s a little nearsighted and judgmental of me to be sure, but I don’t know if I’m going to play an eroge written by a high school student. Ignoring that for now, though, it seems like making it a free project could be a mistake? I mean, this thing looks like it will meet and probably exceed its funding target, but people have different motivations for funding projects and for some people it’s more because they like what they see and want to buy it. If it’s going to be available to everyone at the same time for free whether you funded it or not that motivation is dashed. Just a thought.
Somehow, I completely missed hearing about Kat Attack! The creator only asked for $666 US, and earned almost double that amount.
I learned about Demon Kissu! just this morning. It’s a love polygon boy x girls story with supernatural themes. It doesn’t have any backers just yet on Indiegogo, but if the creator adds detailed information and maybe a demo, then it might succeed.
Kako no Koi is moving along slowly. I’m not sure what will make it stand out among BxG love polygon stories. With only a month left, it’s only earned 665 of 5000 euro. I don’t think people will blindly throw money at it unless they speak German, or unless the final product will have quality translations into other languages shortly after its release.
Soul Gambler was a reasonable success on Indiegogo. The creator uses phrases such as “RPG adventure” and “interactive comic” to describe it, but I believe it can be safely categorized as a visual novel.
EDIT: Gender Bender DNA Twister Extreme asked for $5000 CDN, reached that goal in four days, and by the end managed to get over five times that amount. I assume the creators promoted their work quite a bit, and found a target audience that was ready to pay for content of this type. It’s also notable that they clearly said, “This game contains mature themes and a bit of nudity but is not pornographic.” Is there another male-to-female transformation game for which this is true?
Good question. After thinking about indie creators, I remembered Paca Plus. It was translated by Paco Project, the same people who created it. Unfortunately, the English writing is not genuinely good. Now compare it with Hatoful Boyfriend, which has a coherent and humorous translation. As far as I can tell, both the original creator Hato-king and a person named S. Nazerine Zarib worked on it. Having said all this… neither of these projects happened because of crowdfunding efforts.
If someone can find a project on Kickstarter or some other site in which the person is A) striving to get a game or VN translated, or B) in need of a translation for their creative work, then be sure to mention it.
Aroduc (Seiha Translations, translator of Kamidori Alchemy Meister and Duel Savior) started a Kickstarter project for an unlicensed translation of the raising simulator Little Witch Romanesque.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/135 … on-project
He contacted the developer first and they didn’t want to have anything to do with him or Mangagamer.
I’m grabbing my popcorn.
Well, it’s reached its goal so now we’ll see what happens next
And Kickstarter pulled the plug on his project. Doesn’t surprise me that it happened.