[STEAM release] Yakuza Kiss [18+] [GxB] [Romance] [Crime] [Drama]

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Pink Potion
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[STEAM release] Yakuza Kiss [18+] [GxB] [Romance] [Crime] [Drama]

#1 Post by Pink Potion »

Hi all! I first posted about this VN a loooooong time ago with a work title, but finally I'm at a point where the 1st chapter of this VN will be on Steam in a few weeks and I can't wait to have people play it. Let me know what you think! :D

YAKUZA KISS IS NOW LIVE ON STEAM!

Visual Novel Database: https://vndb.org/v23139
Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/847950/Yakuza_Kiss/

YAKUZA KISS

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STORY

"Turn darkness to light, weakness to strength."

Some call it a neon paradise, but in reality, Cyan City is a hell on earth where the strong prey on the weak. Rays of sunlight seldom breach the thick smog of pollution looming over the city, creating an endless night where the criminal underworld never sleeps.

Jeong Moon had lost everything and everyone. Living in the slum district, she was barely scraping by. Finally pushed to her breaking point, she wanted to leave it all behind. Instead she was pulled even deeper into the belly of the beast and forced to become a member of the Yakuza.

Within their ranks, working to conceal her true identity, she would catch the attention of a dangerous and tormented yakuza leader - Yuki Yamaguchi - a man who had nothing left except his inner demons. To survive in his world, she would have to face her deepest fears and taste her darkest desires - never knowing how the story would end...

FEATURES
  • LIVE2D animated characters
  • Animated backgrounds with sprite animations and particle effects
  • Comic book style illustrations for important scenes
  • Karma system - your choices lead you to different outcomes
  • Immersive soundtrack, SFXs and visual effects
  • Chapter-by-chapter release - follow along & support us on the way
TRAILER 01



GAMEPLAY



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TEAM
My partner does the code and I do the rest. We've built our own VN engine with Unity3D since I wanted some features that were not available in renpy and others. When the team is this tiny, it takes forever to get things done, but we are well on our way :)

QUESTIONS FOR YOU

1. How would you advertise a VN like this? In an effort to reach my core demographic, I've chosen to brand this VN as "an adult visual novel for the feminine audience". I know some might take offense with that, but I personally find it's difficult to find the VNs I want to play - I like mature VNs, but I don't like the ones that are designed for a male audience. Thus I wanted to make it clear that this VN is more about romance and tastefully done sauciness rather than graphic porn stuff.

2. Have you watched Asian TV dramas or read Western romance novels? I ask this because this VN attempts to combine these two things and I've mentioned this in my marketing. I'm not that sure how many people really understand what I'm getting at. :lol:

3. How much options/choices should the player get? This VN is quite linear, but it has multiple endings. I try to give the player actions and dialogue options to choose from, whenever possible, but since I'm making this VN almost on my own, I can't really branch out the story that much.

4. What do you think about a chapter-by-chapter release? I will release the first chapter of Yakuza Kiss on Steam (06/19/2018) and the plan is to release one chapter every 2 to 4 weeks. The first chapter is about 45-80 minutes long (depending on your reading speed).

5. Can you see any pitfalls in this project?

6. Please tell me whatever else comes to your mind :D
Last edited by Pink Potion on Tue Jun 19, 2018 2:25 pm, edited 8 times in total.

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Re: Yakuza Kiss [GxB] [Romance] [Crime] [Drama]

#2 Post by Pink Potion »

Here's a demonstration of how Live2D is used in Yakuza Kiss:

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DirkB
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Re: Yakuza Kiss [GxB] [Romance] [Crime] [Drama]

#3 Post by DirkB »

1) I don't really like the idea of adult for feminine audience, because you are already saying then that it's not for men, so they might not even want to try it. Instead of adult, you could use the word mature maybe? And then use some words that connect with things people know and can make them excited about the story and world. I am struggling myself actually with how to brand my VN as I don't know any other VN that is quite like it.
2) I love Asian action movies but I don't know anything about Western novels.
3) Adding choices can be done in a way that it makes you accumulate points in certain stats, which then affects certain outcomes, which is the easiest way I think to add a lot of choices. In that case, the more choices the better I guess. And then on a few important moments in the story you make it go in different directions depending on the points accumulated in a certain stat. Otherwise you could just add choices at only those key moments.
4) Chapter by chapter release is good I think. It has been done for tell tale games, so why not?
5)
6) The backgrounds look great, Live 2D adds a nice touch of realism and the comic book illustrations are a great idea for action scenes. I am overall very impressed by your game so far.

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Re: Yakuza Kiss [GxB] [Romance] [Crime] [Drama]

#4 Post by Zelan »

I remember seeing the original post for this. Congratulations on coming so far! ^_^ I'm sure it took a lot of hard work.

1. How would you advertise a VN like this? In an effort to reach my core demographic, I've chosen to brand this VN as "an adult visual novel for the feminine audience". I know some might take offense with that, but I personally find it's difficult to find the VNs I want to play - I like mature VNs, but I don't like the ones that are designed for a male audience. Thus I wanted to make it clear that this VN is more about romance and tastefully done sauciness rather than graphic porn stuff.: Honestly, I think this might be the best way to do it - it's up front and tells you what you're getting with this VN. I think DirkB may be missing the point a little bit, but I do think his suggestion of using "mature" instead of "adult" is worth some consideration. Just make sure that people know whether they're getting R-18 content when they buy the game. You'll probably want to make posts about in in online spaces discussing visual novels, feminism/the female experience, and especially spaces discussing both at once.

2. Have you watched Asian TV dramas or read Western romance novels? I ask this because this VN attempts to combine these two things and I've mentioned this in my marketing. I'm not that sure how many people really understand what I'm getting at. :lol: : I haven't, really. Sorry!

3. How much options/choices should the player get? This VN is quite linear, but it has multiple endings. I try to give the player actions and dialogue options to choose from, whenever possible, but since I'm making this VN almost on my own, I can't really branch out the story that much.: It's hard for me to answer without knowing what those endings might be. This issue also tends to be hit-or-miss with players; some people love having lots of small, meaningless choices, while others prefer only choices that actually affect the outcome of the plot. A good compromise, in my opinion, is to have dialogue or action options that lead to essentially the same short-term outcomes but show off different personalities for the protagonist. Two games that I can think of that have done this really well are The Lady's Choice by Seraphinite Games, which is free, and The Rose of Segunda by Blackcross & Taylor, which is commercial (but well worth the price). These games are a little different from yours as they are not quite so linear, but if you pay close attention to the personality choices I think you'll be able to see what I'm getting at.

4. What do you think about a chapter-by-chapter release? I will release the first chapter of Yakuza Kiss on Steam (06/19/2018) and the plan is to release one chapter every 2 to 4 weeks. The first chapter is about 45-80 minutes long (depending on your reading speed).: I'm not a huge fan of episodic releases - I prefer to play fully completed games - but I don't see anything inherently wrong with them as long as you stick to your schedule.

5. Can you see any pitfalls in this project?: Not really, it looks pretty decent to me. A general tip would be that lack of marketing is what tends to kill indie games - there are so many new ones that it can be hard to get noticed.

6. Please tell me whatever else comes to your mind :D : Congratulations again! Good luck with your release. c:

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Re: Yakuza Kiss [GxB] [Romance] [Crime] [Drama]

#5 Post by Pink Potion »

DirkB wrote: Tue Jun 05, 2018 11:28 am 1) I don't really like the idea of adult for feminine audience, because you are already saying then that it's not for men, so they might not even want to try it. Instead of adult, you could use the word mature maybe? And then use some words that connect with things people know and can make them excited about the story and world. I am struggling myself actually with how to brand my VN as I don't know any other VN that is quite like it.
2) I love Asian action movies but I don't know anything about Western novels.
3) Adding choices can be done in a way that it makes you accumulate points in certain stats, which then affects certain outcomes, which is the easiest way I think to add a lot of choices. In that case, the more choices the better I guess. And then on a few important moments in the story you make it go in different directions depending on the points accumulated in a certain stat. Otherwise you could just add choices at only those key moments.
4) Chapter by chapter release is good I think. It has been done for tell tale games, so why not?
5)
6) The backgrounds look great, Live 2D adds a nice touch of realism and the comic book illustrations are a great idea for action scenes. I am overall very impressed by your game so far.
Thanks for taking the time to reply DirkB!

1) I decided to go with "Adult visual novel for the feminine audience" since the term "adult VN" is well-known and understood to mean that the VN will include sexual content, but I will definitely add "mature" to my marketing as well.

2) It seems like my Asian TV dramas and romance novels are too niche XD

3) Sounds like we agree on this. My system is such where you get to choose actions and dialogue options and even if the outcome short-term is similar, you accrue personality points for each choice and based on these points the ending changes.

4) Good to hear it!

6) Thanks so much! It has taken ages for me to get to this point, but now that I've managed to build the framework for my features - future releases will be faster to complete.

Thanks again for your input!

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Re: Yakuza Kiss [GxB] [Romance] [Crime] [Drama]

#6 Post by Pink Potion »

Zelan wrote: Wed Jun 06, 2018 3:44 pm I remember seeing the original post for this. Congratulations on coming so far! ^_^ I'm sure it took a lot of hard work.

1. Honestly, I think this might be the best way to do it - it's up front and tells you what you're getting with this VN. I think DirkB may be missing the point a little bit, but I do think his suggestion of using "mature" instead of "adult" is worth some consideration. Just make sure that people know whether they're getting R-18 content when they buy the game. You'll probably want to make posts about in in online spaces discussing visual novels, feminism/the female experience, and especially spaces discussing both at once.

2. :lol: : I haven't, really. Sorry!

3. It's hard for me to answer without knowing what those endings might be. This issue also tends to be hit-or-miss with players; some people love having lots of small, meaningless choices, while others prefer only choices that actually affect the outcome of the plot. A good compromise, in my opinion, is to have dialogue or action options that lead to essentially the same short-term outcomes but show off different personalities for the protagonist. Two games that I can think of that have done this really well are The Lady's Choice by Seraphinite Games, which is free, and The Rose of Segunda by Blackcross & Taylor, which is commercial (but well worth the price). These games are a little different from yours as they are not quite so linear, but if you pay close attention to the personality choices I think you'll be able to see what I'm getting at.

4. I'm not a huge fan of episodic releases - I prefer to play fully completed games - but I don't see anything inherently wrong with them as long as you stick to your schedule.

5. Not really, it looks pretty decent to me. A general tip would be that lack of marketing is what tends to kill indie games - there are so many new ones that it can be hard to get noticed.

6. Congratulations again! Good luck with your release. c:
Thanks for replying Zelan! It's defenitely been a bumpy road to get even this far, but luckily we've completed our own Unity3D based VN "engine" and all of our features - from now on it's just about producing the content.

1) I'm glad you think so. I received feedback the other day and added [GxB] to the description, because some people had thought this was a BL VN :lol:

2) Dammit XD I guess I'm the only weirdo in the World who likes Asian dramas and Western romance books. Might not be such a great selling point after all...

3) You describe the exact system I have in Yakuza Kiss. When you choose actions and dialogue options, you accrue personality points. These points determine where the story goes. In short-term the story branches out for a while and then returns to the main branch, in the long-term the ending branches depending on your points. I use this system also on the game characters (similar to Dragon Age series) - if you talk to a person and you are interested in their issues and you manage to build a rapport with them - extra branches and scenes open up. I want the player to feel that they have as much control over their character as possible, but I have to balance that with my nonexistent resources. :lol:

4) I completely understand wanting to buy a complete game. I decided to go with this approach since I want to expand the story as much as possible - if there is no market for this type of VN, then I will go with my original chapter structure, but if I get enough sales I can go for a much longer and richer story. The price of the VN goes up as I add new content, so early customers get all the updates and the complete VN for a very reasonable price.

5) Thanks! I'm awful with marketing... and I have to constantly remind myself to just do it. No one will buy your game if they haven't heard about it. 8)

6) Thanks so much!

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Re: [STEAM release] Yakuza Kiss [GxB] [Romance] [Crime] [Drama]

#7 Post by Pink Potion »

*bump*

Confirming the 06/19/2018 Steam early access release date.

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Re: [STEAM release] Yakuza Kiss [18+] [GxB] [Romance] [Crime] [Drama]

#8 Post by Pink Potion »

"bump"

Yakuza Kiss is now LIVE on Steam Early Access! Please give it a try and see if you like it (you can refund if you play less than 2 hours)!

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Re: [STEAM release] Yakuza Kiss [18+] [GxB] [Romance] [Crime] [Drama]

#9 Post by JBShields »

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

It's not fair!!!

I wanted to read more than Chapter 1!!!

I LOVE the story--which is the most important thing about a VN. It had me thinking about it a few minutes after I got to where the story says "to be continued".

How long until the whole VN is released and out of Early Access? [Seriously]

Your "animations" and graphics fading in to SHOW the story as you told it made it all the more alive.

As far as your questions? I think this genre would be a classic example of "Josei".

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Re: [STEAM release] Yakuza Kiss [18+] [GxB] [Romance] [Crime] [Drama]

#10 Post by JBShields »

Just a heads up-- autosave files load.
If you played before the Ch 2 update, saved files from the original Ch 1 are not loading.

I will add-- excellent job again on Chapter 2!!!

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