Reviews of your VNs (Not spamming, read the topic first)

[Banya]

Hi everybody!

I like programming VNs in my free time, but also playing them.
Lately I've been thinking to transform a section of my portfolio to an area dedicated to review other VNs of amateur and beginner developers like me. No spam of the link here of course, just wanted to ask if you would be interested.
There are lots of blogs and youtube channel dedicated to reviewing stories and games, but a few for the indie and even less for VNs.
I'd like to give a helpful service to the others and qualify as a good blog to advertise indie VN games and... why not, be of help in advertising your projects

I'm talking about free VNs only. For the commercial ones, only the ones with the free playable demo.
Do you think it would be a good idea? And would you be interested in it? Any proposal?

[morinoir]

I absolutely support the idea! However, is the review will be done here, in lemmasoft or in other platform? And does anyone can give their review?

[Kokoro Hane]

I definitely support the idea. Very few sites and channels are dedicated to the VN market, especially indie. I think it's a great way to get the word out there about some great works, and a nice gateway since you'll be promoting free projects so people can get a taste of the visual novel world~ I think it's a mutual benefit for all parties involved--giving exposure to some great developers and games, whilst also giving people an excellent game to enjoy without the worries of dishing out any cash and feel like they wasted their money if they didn't like it.

[Desichan]

I think this is a really fun idea! Kokoro Hane made a lot lot of really good point too. I feel that something like this could also just be nice, because the reviews also could give some feedback to the creator as well. But alongside that, yeah it'd be great for helping people find visual novels, and the like. ^^

If you choose to do this, I wish you the best of luck!

[Mammon]

Of course it'd be a good idea, who wouldn't want more publicity? And if you make sure they've got a honest critique label then you won't have to worry about also being negative where it needs to be. (A reviewer isn't reliable unless they'll call out on the bad as well as the good.)

[Banya]

Thank you for your replies!
I'm not at the PC, so I'll answer briefly for now:

@Morinoir: I thought of doing on my portfolio, to revive it, but I can do it also on lemmasoft on each individual topic of the game; I thought of doing it myself, but it would be cool if other people started reviewing VNs, if all goes well we could propose an initiative ^^
@Kokoro Hane: exactly! I would've liked to do it on youtube too, but I'm Italian and my English pronounciation is terrible... but youtube channels are even more powerful than blogs
@Desi-chan: thank you very much!
@Mammon: yeah, otherwise it would be pointless... so you suggest of doing it only to who signs up in the honest critique?

[Kokoro Hane]

@Kokoro Hane: exactly! I would've liked to do it on youtube too, but I'm Italian and my English pronounciation is terrible... but youtube channels are even more powerful than blogs

On that subject, I must say that your English writing seems very good!

But yeah, YouTube is excellent as well. I myself have thought about doing a Top 10 recommendations video to spread the word of some good projects. As a dev myself, I know I'd love if someone recommended my project. And I've run into a lot of good works I feel DESERVE more love ~

[Mammon]

@Mammon: yeah, otherwise it would be pointless... so you suggest of doing it only to who signs up in the honest critique?

Difficult to say. Of course if the makers aren't accepting constructive negative feedback by removing posts or lashing out it's easy to say those ought to be skipped. But the question of whether you should review games that you'd give a 'don't play it' recommendation is a lot more difficult to answer.
However, the honest critique button is a fairly common one around here allowing you to be certain that the developers aren't going to be upset about you pointing out some flaws as well. It's of course not absolutely necessary to restrict you to them.

Conclusion: I dunno.

[Aviala]

Hmm, but I think a reviewer should be able to review any works of art freely. It'd be a bit silly if people only reviewed games that they like. The important thing to remember here is that if you're focusing on free games, most of them have very limited budgets, and many are done by very unexperienced people as a hobby project or a labour of love. So if you want to give negative reviews, you really need to consider factors like these. If a game is bad because it was made by a group of amateurs it's very different than if the game was made commercially by experienced devs.

[Banya]

Hi everybody!
I'm sorry for the long abscence! The project, anyway, is still going.
It's just that... I don't think I have understood how wordpress sections are working ^^" I've got more familiarity with forums in building 'rooms', I'm still trying to figure out a proper way to do it on wordpress. Otherwise I will do a site of its own.
I've started playing a few games too, so I'll come back with a review