Felix, Gaijin [First Non-English Ren'Py release]

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mikey
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Re: Felix, Gaijin [First Non-English Ren'Py release]

#16 Post by mikey »

ssssss wrote:so this games about a russian samurai who hits on asian popstars in his spare time
Unless you meant some in-joke which I didn't understand... no. This is about an exchange student from Germany living one year in Japan. :?

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Re: Felix, Gaijin [First Non-English Ren'Py release]

#17 Post by Alessio »

ssssss wrote:so this games about a russian samurai who hits on asian popstars in his spare time
Wrong topic. This post should go to the Ideas Dump thread. :)

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Re: Felix, Gaijin [First Non-English Ren'Py release]

#18 Post by Florian »

As promised, here is my technical article about how to scale a visual novel in Ren'Py to the best possible resolution:

» Automatic Scaling in Ren'Py

I hope it helps someone... :)

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Re: Felix, Gaijin [First Non-English Ren'Py release]

#19 Post by Free Time Machine »

I don't speak one bit of German... Florian, since you're clearly comfortable with English (is it your second language or first? I did not realize you spoke German earlier), I'd highly encourage you--no, I'd desperately beg you--to release a translation in English. I believe your game will be able to reach an even wider audience that way!
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Re: Felix, Gaijin [First Non-English Ren'Py release]

#20 Post by Dennis »

Hi!

First of all, thanks for all the great comments on our visual novel. The praise is very rewarding, and the few negative remarks will definitely help us in future projects.

:D

We're currently working on putting up Linux and Mac versions that work.

On the language issue... Thanks for your requests!

It's definitely feasible to make an English version of the written text. We could do that at some point. Just have to find the time, so many other things to do...

What is most probably not feasible is translating the voice acting. We'd have to find voice actors who speak good English, book or set up a sound recording studio, and go through the whole recording and editing process again - those were many days and nights spent in the studio for our sound team. It was doable in the first place since Felix, Gaijin was a university project then (two actually), but wouldn't be again.

So, if text translation is feasible, but voice translation not, would you still want that?

It would be

- English subtitles
- with German dialogue
- that is supposed to be Japanese in the story

Would that make it too complicated for the reader?

Keep writing comments. We're very happy getting them :D

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Re: Felix, Gaijin [First Non-English Ren'Py release]

#21 Post by monele »

Leave the original german voices ^^ *purist*.

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Re: Felix, Gaijin [First Non-English Ren'Py release]

#22 Post by mikey »

Dennis wrote:It would be
- English subtitles
- with German dialogue
- that is supposed to be Japanese in the story
Would that make it too complicated for the reader?
I think most of the people wanted exactly this, just the text translated - besides, the bulk of English VNs from Japan also has this combination - Japanese voices and English text. It's normal. And it keeps the game's original charm.

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Re: Felix, Gaijin [First Non-English Ren'Py release]

#23 Post by Dennis »

mikey wrote:Really excellent - except for that disco... I played at night, with only the monitor's glow, and I thought I would get that Pokemon fit or if I'm lucky that only some veins in my eyes explode. It was really hard to read, I covered the screen with my hand, trying to have only the textbox in view, but it still hurt.
Sorry for that!
mikey wrote:But to get to the point - the story and overall atmosphere - it really continued with the first impression it gave me - this was like a travelogue you could experience yourself.
Great! It was supposed to read something like a journal/diary of the time he's in Japan.
mikey wrote:I've never climbed the Fujisan, but I really felt like it was realistic what happened in the VN and the climax of that part was really touching - I almost thought there would be a reference to the rising sun on the Japanese flag.
:) We'll tell Ralf who wrote that part.
mikey wrote:There were several good touches like this scattered all over the VN even though some felt a bit educational.
True. We did have the intention to create interest in another culture, but we might have disguised that more.
mikey wrote:And of course as with every good thing, there are some things that you could nitpick - such as that Felix claims to have 8 semesters in japanology and then Yui has to explain to him what the suffix -chan means.
Well, he asks, what does it mean exactly? He has only got the theoretical knowledge from university and wants to know how serious things really might be between Malin and Takashi. Still, I guess you're right. Felix might be a bit too naive sometimes considering he's had 8 semesters in japanology.
mikey wrote:I think the balance was good.
Good :)
mikey wrote:though this wasn't the first German VN I played (there was Honey Hotel, which was done by AFAIK what Austrians like to call "South-Tyroleans", but whether you can call the beach cliches with sexy girls a VN is another matter
Ah, thanks for the info, very interesting!! Would that one be online somewhere?? Just for documentary purposes of course... :wink:
mikey wrote:Combined with the numerous small episodes and attention to detail, this is really a nice (and since this is still somewhat special in OELVN) also a very polished work.
Thanks very much!! :D

What is OELVN?

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Re: Felix, Gaijin [First Non-English Ren'Py release]

#24 Post by Dennis »

Well then... expect a translation to happen some time in the following weeks :)

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Re: Felix, Gaijin [First Non-English Ren'Py release]

#25 Post by mikey »

OELVN = original English language visual novel (that's why PyTom pointed out that it is actually OGLVN ^_^)

As for Honey Hotel, really, it's not anything comparable. I saw it a long time ago and it was a sort of a compilation CD with some anime pictures and I think minimovies (I don't remember), and it had a short story inside about some people who are on a vacation... It had this VN style and was anime, but I'd think you can safely label FG as the first original German VN. I saw only Italian names in the credits there, that's why I assumed it was South-Tyrolean. However, it might have been actually Italian and then translated - when I think of it, I don't know that Austria has an anime industry ^_^. But the Italians have already made an anime-themed product here and there. So it may well just have been translated to German. As I said, I don't really know for sure.
Here is a mini picture of the game screen: http://atp.manga.sk/english/data/hh.gif
I'll try to dig something out when I come home.
Dennis wrote:Well then... expect a translation to happen some time in the following weeks
Pre-emptively then, when you translate the game to English, can we mirror it at the Ren'Ai Archives? (http://www.renai.us)

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Re: Felix, Gaijin [First Non-English Ren'Py release]

#26 Post by Dennis »

Ah thanks! I did some research on the Web, and it appears that Honey Hotel actually is Italian, and you probably have a German translation. It is sold in Italy together with a hentai encyclopedia. They call it an anime game. It's still interesting because I hadn't heard of a German translation of a VN before (which certainly doesn't have to mean there are none).

So we should call Felix the first OGLVN :) (emphasis on "original")

Is your compilation CD a standalone thing or was it sold with a magazine? In Germany, there are quite a number of Manga/Anime magazines (certainly in Austria as well), and I'm still waiting for them to pick up VNs in the magazine or include some on the discs that come with them (they might have done that, I don't really read them, just occasionally browse in the shops).
mikey wrote:Pre-emptively then, when you translate the game to English, can we mirror it at the Ren'Ai Archives? (http://www.renai.us)
Yes, of course. Just don't change the archive and don't do anything commercial with it - then we're happy :) You'll hear from us, when the translation is done (it will take some time).

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Re: Felix, Gaijin [First Non-English Ren'Py release]

#27 Post by mikey »

Dennis wrote:Ah thanks! I did some research on the Web, and it appears that Honey Hotel actually is Italian, and you probably have a German translation. It is sold in Italy together with a hentai encyclopedia. They call it an anime game. It's still interesting because I hadn't heard of a German translation of a VN before (which certainly doesn't have to mean there are none).
Well, I don't have the game, I saw it in a CD version at a friend's but I didn't really play it, I just wanted a screenshot.
Dennis wrote:Is your compilation CD a standalone thing or was it sold with a magazine? In Germany, there are quite a number of Manga/Anime magazines (certainly in Austria as well), and I'm still waiting for them to pick up VNs in the magazine or include some on the discs that come with them (they might have done that, I don't really read them, just occasionally browse in the shops).
Hmmm, I don't buy or even read those either (you mean Animania or something like that?), but it's an interesting thought. Such CDs rely heavily on free content, so it may be a very interesting thing for them. Anyway, the version of HH that I saw wasn't part of any compilation, it was a disc itself - by compilation I meant to say that the contents were as far as I remember (it really was a long time) some pictures or animations here and there, and the game thrown in.
Dennis wrote:So we should call Felix the first OGLVN :) (emphasis on "original")
I think that is safe to say, also emphasising "language". Metropolitan Blues and The Loyal Kinsman were projects written and basically also "produced" by Taleweaver, who is German. The games as such are in English.

This reminds me of an article about a German game developer, who published and sold his topdown shooter in Japan (on CDs). They mentioned it in one of the game magazines (GEE), that he didn't even bother with trying to find channels in his homeland, instead went straight for Japan and succeeded.
Dennis wrote:
mikey wrote:Pre-emptively then, when you translate the game to English, can we mirror it at the Ren'Ai Archives? (http://www.renai.us)
Yes, of course. Just don't change the archive and don't do anything commercial with it ...
We never do. We only change the name of the zip, if it contains blank spaces or other potentially troublesome characters - so "Felix Gaijn.zip" would be "Felix_Gaijin.zip", but of course we change none of the actual contents.
Dennis wrote:You'll hear from us, when the translation is done (it will take some time)
I'm already looking to the translation of some of the Germany-specific references. Like Schnappi. Might be fun for others to be digging out info about something different than a Japanese warlord for a change. Heh, cultural differences are so great ^_^.

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Re: Felix, Gaijin [First Non-English Ren'Py release]

#28 Post by Jake »

Dennis wrote: It would be

- English subtitles
- with German dialogue
- that is supposed to be Japanese in the story

Would that make it too complicated for the reader?
I'm probably a little late anyway, but for the record - that would be nearly perfect for me. The only thing that would be better would be if you could leave the German text alongside the English text at the same time; I'm slowly trying to learn the language, but my reading is well ahead of my aural comprehension, and I'm guessing recorded dialogue probably isn't purposefully slow and clear for struggling foreigners. ;-)
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Re: Felix, Gaijin [First Non-English Ren'Py release]

#29 Post by mikey »

Actually, the recorded dialogue is IMO very clear and easily understandable, much clearer than anything on TV, for comparison.

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Re: Felix, Gaijin [First Non-English Ren'Py release]

#30 Post by DaFool »

Just to let you know I ABSOLUTELY LOVED the German dialogue (except for the landlord caricature)... been playing the game slowly when I have the time, still in the middle of it. I just realized my vocabulary is underdeveloped so I still wasn't able to pick up a lot of stuff. It seems like an English text version will push through, so I will wait for it.

Okay... please forgive me as I go into otaku mode... the spoken female voices were wonderful, I just love the contrast in what I perceive as an extremely masculine language but rendered in extremely feminine voices. Perfect for bishoujo characters, I'd say :oops: , and a welcome change from the usual Japanese fare.

I was just inspired to see if I can rework one of my projects into a 'German Bishoujo' setting (not that I hadn't done it before)... but to take advantage of voices. (Of course this means the project won't be ero, I'm not that unreasonable). I know because of your university setup you had access to a professional recording studio, and it isn't convenient to gather the cast members again. But I would be willing to pay for the rental and effort of people (through Western Union or money transfer or something like that). Assuming that I had a complete game which does not insult your sensibilities, I'm wondering if it might be a feasible proposition for the future.

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