Lemma Soft Forums

So I'm not sure why exactly Auro and I were contacted in particular (well for all I know, they could have contacted others), but we were invited to submit our games to Desura. Ristorante Amore was put up fairly quickly once we filled out some forms and whatnot. I've been chatting with one of the staff members during this process (as well as since then) and he's basically asked me to pass this along:

Desura Game Manager wrote:If you know of other high quality VNs or other games we would love to know about them and possibly put them on the system depending on quality. The games don't have to be games for sale, but clearly we would like to have more of those than free ones. The biggest issue is quality if I allow it to be on the system or not. I am trying to expand the user base of Desura so it isn't just those interested in hardcore FPS and RTS games. I will need other types of games to attract an audience of that type. [...]

We own the sites ModDB.com and IndieDB.com so we have been working with the indie community for 10 years and we bring that focus to Desura. We are quickly becoming the largest indie platform on the web. So stuff doesn't have to be mainstream to fit in here. [...]

Yes we don't mind hosting free games even if they are short as long as the quality is good. So if the quality is the same feel free to submit it. [...] Basically my only requirement is that it has to be quality work. It doesn't need to be the most amazing thing you have ever seen but at least it shouldn't make your eyes hurt to look at it. [...] I will take anything but eroge. I don't have a way to restrict or at least mark adult content right now. That will change in the future as we add more features to the system though. Oh and you can imply all you want in your stories we just can't have have any nudity in them or more of the adult themes like BSDM etc. The simplest rule I guess for themes is if you have to be 21 in the US to buy it then we can't put it on the system right now.

(emphasis mine) The staff is very helpful and attentive, so if you have any problems with or questions about the submission process, you can always contact them. Desura has some great development tools and whatnot and the site is very user-friendly. One thing in particular that I like about Desura is the auto-patching system they've got in place. (for games that are available through the client) As the staffer put it:

Desura Game Manager wrote:Doing updates using the client side of things is so easy. You do a clean install of the game, select "create MCF" then it looks at what is on the server that matches files in that directory and then only uploads new files or changed files. It does the same exact thing for users. It only downloads the changed and new files. Updates should be very quick to do for MCFs unless you made major changes that effects lots of files. [...]

For users it will always be better to use the client rather than standalones because the client will let you know when there is an update to any game you own. Standalones you have to remember to go check version numbers and see if there is a new version. That is the same for every game store online that does standalone downloads.

It's even possible to do invite-only private betas and whatnot using this system, so I've been thinking about using it to beta test BCM. (which I have been encouraged to do and been told is entirely possible)

So anyway, it appears that they're specifically looking to expand and bring in more VNs/story-driven games so those of you with finished or in-progress high-quality VNs should try and submit them. If your game isn't finished, it needs to at least have a short playable demo and lots of screenshots (and possibly gameplay videos). They are pretty adamant about not accepting "game concepts" or "ideas", only seriously in-progress games. About the videos:

Desura Game Manager wrote:It doesn't have to be a long trailer. I have had several people say you know it's basically a novel so a video would not be normal. I am aware of that but just something to get an idea of the story kind of like what you might read on the back of a book along with some shots of the game showing off the artwork.

You should probably also make sure your game is free of major bugs and whatnot and that you're not using any copyrighted material. It's not a free-for-all, so not all games will be accepted. They do have a screening process that can take several days to go through... But other than time, you don't really have anything to lose and personally I think it's great that a major distributor is reaching out to the VN community. The staffer I've been talking to even said that he thinks VNs have a lot of potential in the west, so. .....Yeah. /not sure how to end this post

Let me know if you have questions? I can relay them to the staffer if you're err too shy to ask or something. ^^; Most of the information you'd need is on the Desura website, though. Err thanks for reading!

First, congrats! I'm happy to hear that Cyanide Tea is getting some coverage!

Second, thank you for sharing with us! I'm definitely sneaking on board to recommend Desura some games. I was even thinking of submitting Tonight after its release, but then I saw the word "quality" lolol.

Thanks for the tip!

In other news, Siliconera (my favorite games site) now has "Indie Intro", where independent developers can create sponsored posts on Siliconera. That's pretty good news, since Siliconera readers in general are
1.) anime fans
2.) not as abrasive as in other anime sites
3.) willing to cover quality visual novels that focus on plot

(if not-so-fully-thought-out projects such as that MMO VN was featured on Siliconera, all the more what if you had a really well-executed game?)

@9:19: Aww thanks! We were extremely surprised to receive the message. As far as we know, they've also contacted Christine Love. (we recommended her as well as a handful of other devs with finished works--not sure if they contacted her before or after our rec) So being put on the same level as all of this is just very humbling and flattering. /)_(\ Honestly, I'm still kind of in "omg is this real life" mode......

I think you should submit Tonight once it's done! (or once it's finished enough that you've got a demo or something) It's got a unique premise and I think it looks great even now. Your art style is just awesome. I still can't believe you do all that with a mouse.

@DaFool: Oh, I wasn't aware of that! That's pretty cool. I love Siliconera, too. *_* I think a nice VN of quality could do very well if it was promoted there since the fans there are more receptive to VNs and whatnot. (watching the discussion about Hakuoki and similar games was very interesting)

I was quite surprised to see a VN on Desura when I looked there, now I know why, haha. Most my friends still regard Visual Novels as a recluse hobby, and I do hope this movement will expose the medium more. Sadly, the request for quality means I am barred from doing anything with it, but I suppose I'll ride on you "professionals" making the medium more interesting to the er, uninitiated.

Sadly, the request for quality means I am barred from doing anything with it, but I suppose I'll ride on you "professionals" making the medium more interesting to the er, uninitiated.

"Quality" means mostly graphic quality anyway, just hire an external artist.

DaFool wrote:

Sadly, the request for quality means I am barred from doing anything with it, but I suppose I'll ride on you "professionals" making the medium more interesting to the er, uninitiated.

"Quality" means mostly graphic quality anyway, just hire an external artist.

I'd feel terribly obligated to make it entirely perfect and never finish the moment I sink a lot of money into this hobby.

Camille wrote:

Desura Game Manager wrote: The simplest rule I guess for themes is if you have to be 21 in the US to buy it then we can't put it on the system right now.

The only thing you have to be 21 to buy in the U.S. is booze. So no drinking or alcohol in the games, huh?

I kid. I'm pretty sure the Desura manager means '18'. That's the official "sex-it-up" age in the U.S.

They have some pretty nifty tracking features with inforgraphics which allows you to check out the gender/age/country of the people dowloading the game. I'm not sure if this will ever effect our decisions much considering we like to do what we want, but it's very entertaining. Like 78% of our downloads are by males (...which is surprising considering what RisAmo looks like) and 4% of our downloads are from Australia. I need more VN players in Australia.

Auro-Cyanide wrote:They have some pretty nifty tracking features with inforgraphics which allows you to check out the gender/age/country of the people dowloading the game. I'm not sure if this will ever effect our decisions much considering we like to do what we want, but it's very entertaining. Like 78% of our downloads are by males (...which is surprising considering what RisAmo looks like) and 4% of our downloads are from Australia. I need more VN players in Australia.

It sounds handy, but how large is the sample size? And what is the ratio of male to female Desura users? Or percentage of Australian visitors? Numbers don't mean a lot without context.

LateWhiteRabbit wrote:

Auro-Cyanide wrote:They have some pretty nifty tracking features with inforgraphics which allows you to check out the gender/age/country of the people dowloading the game. I'm not sure if this will ever effect our decisions much considering we like to do what we want, but it's very entertaining. Like 78% of our downloads are by males (...which is surprising considering what RisAmo looks like) and 4% of our downloads are from Australia. I need more VN players in Australia.

It sounds handy, but how large is the sample size? And what is the ratio of male to female Desura users? Or percentage of Australian visitors? Numbers don't mean a lot without context.

You get to know how many people exactly consitutes that percentage which is good. Desura has a mostly male user group from what I know, I just still wasn't expecting that many of them to download it off the bat like they did. Shows what I know. The sample size is decent now and has started to steady out (so it's beyond "75% of the downloaders are male, all 3 of them!")

Desura target market is DEFINITELY male-oriented! My stats shows 98% males

jack_norton wrote:Desura target market is DEFINITELY male-oriented! My stats shows 98% males

Is that a good or a bad thing?

Well I wouldn't expect for example any otome game to have much success there, as it is now. Of course in few years things might chance. But even Steam, which is the biggest portal, is mostly male oriented.

jack_norton wrote:Well I wouldn't expect for example any otome game to have much success there, as it is now. Of course in few years things might chance. But even Steam, which is the biggest portal, is mostly male oriented.

I think it'd be more accurate to say that the world of video games, in general, is mostly male-oriented.