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

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Florian

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

#31 Post by Florian »

Updated (but still German *g*) and hopefully functional Linux and Mac versions are now available.

The updated versions are available from kreativrauschen.de/felix/ or www.serik.de/felix.

If anyone tests any of the new versions, please tell us if they are working currectly now.

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

#32 Post by Guest »

@Mikey: Yes, I was mostly thinking of the Animania magazine. It comes with a DVD with lots of stuff on it, mostly Anime episodes, so that should be a good place to spread visual novels. Also, there is now a larger number of "Asian lifestyle" magazines. They seem to be quite popular among young people. So, I wonder if they ever did a report on visual novels there.

As for the German references in a translation... Amazingly, Schnappi was a success worldwide. How come that a German-language children's song becomes No. 2 in New Zealand?! Apparently, there was even a translation to Japanese.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schnappi
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schnappi

So it may be known to some readers, that little crocodile. Malin knew it ;) What makes me wonder more is how to translates the German tourists that Felix encounters on the Fuji. They speak in a certain dialect (Schwäbisch).

@Jake: I think having both, German and English text on the screen would be too much. Space-wise (we'd have to figure out where to place it) and too confusing for the reader, I guess.

@DaFool: Thanks a lot for the compliments! We'll forward them to the sound team. I will ask them if it might be possible to do a recording for you. I'm not very optimistic though. I'm pretty sure the university studios aren't available to external (not course-related) productions, and as I said before sound recording and editing takes quite an amount of time. Whether the actors and actresses are still available, we'd have to find out. Most of them were voice students from a local acting/music school. They tend to participate if they get a product out of it that they can use as a reference in applications. I'll ask the sound people in the team.

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

#33 Post by Dennis »

Ooops, that was me, not logged in.

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

#34 Post by DaFool »

@DaFool: Thanks a lot for the compliments! We'll forward them to the sound team. I will ask them if it might be possible to do a recording for you. I'm not very optimistic though. I'm pretty sure the university studios aren't available to external (not course-related) productions, and as I said before sound recording and editing takes quite an amount of time. Whether the actors and actresses are still available, we'd have to find out. Most of them were voice students from a local acting/music school. They tend to participate if they get a product out of it that they can use as a reference in applications. I'll ask the sound people in the team.
This response is not particularly addressed to Dennis, but is sort of an open forum:

Felix, Gaijin, is the visual novel that (we know of) that really has the best most professional voice sound quality. Now, I am often involved in discussions regarding reaching 'professionalism', and I think this work hits the spot, and one of the contributing factors is of course the crisp voice acting.

There is still the option of asking volunteers to speak into their ipods, but for someone who plans to eventually sell stuff, this won't be an option. That is one good hand the professional visual novel companies (mostly in Japan) have -- the infrastructure for voice acting. Even amateur circles may have to place themselves under the wing of a larger softhouse in order to take advantage of that.

I'm pretty sure some of these actors / actresses will want to pursue careers in the industry... maybe dubbing anime and cartoons, who knows...okay, so the work they do must be something they will be proud to put on their resume. I will keep that in mind when planning voiced projects.

As for getting them together, maybe it's similar to the American voice acting industry (for anime at least)... there are union people and non-union people, there's Los Angeles and there's Houston and New York, there are reputable sound studios but the actors are more or less the same and just circulate around.

It would be very convenient if the university had that sort of guild setup that makes pooling people together for a project easier. I'm also curious how much this may all cost, and I have some investment money to back me up now.

But of course, I don't want you all to scramble around investigating the feasibility of what is still a far-off proposition. But it is something serious to consider, many thanks.

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

#35 Post by DaFool »

Sorry to hijack this thread, but the topic fits in more with what I've said earlier, so instead of starting a new topic, here's the link:

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/20 ... hai-studio

The article touches upon the prohibitive production cost of using professional recording studios in the U.S. I think the university setting generally has the same level of equipment, except that costs are waived if the projects are academic-related.

But this really does open ones eyes... whose eyes? Basically anyone seeking to have voice acting in their projects with some degree of professional quality.

Oh, and by the way, I really appreciate your decision of having an english text version... I mean this audience is probably at most only a few dozen people compared to your university setting, but making that decision just on our request. Many thanks.

EDIT: Oh, and for the record the local voice-recording industry is [insert negative expletive here]. Doesn't matter whether it's anime from japan, a soap from Mexico, China, or Korea -- they use the same untalented folks who love to set the speakers to maximum harmonic resonance (over-acting). Plus having something spoken in a foreign language while the text is in english--I've gotten quite used to it.

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

#36 Post by mikey »

DaFool wrote:...having an english text version... I mean this audience is probably at most only a few dozen people compared to your university setting, but making that decision just on our request...
Shhhhhh, DaFool, before they find out and reconsider...

Heh, heh, such an outrageous claim... few dozen... *wipes tear* ah, that's our DaFool, always joking around, heh, heh - actually there are thousands of us, honest!

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

#37 Post by PyTom »

I think that seriously underestimates the number of people interested in these games. Last month, we had 2 games in the RAA that had more than 450 downloads, and 5 more that had more than 100.

http://www.download.com/Dating-Sim/3150 ... 0-2-0.html?

If you go to the dating sim category of download.com, every game there has been downloaded at least a thousand times, with several having more than ten thousand.
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Re: Felix, Gaijin [First Non-English Ren'Py release]

#38 Post by mikey »

It's excellent news - I thought that downloads were about 50 - 80 a month, and older titles about 20... I don't have statistics on my site to know about my own site though.

I guess we only measure it then, by the response in the topics? From those it's not unreasonable to think that only a handful of people are interested. I know it's not the number of actual players, but without download stats, what other indication is there?

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

#39 Post by Hime »

PyTom wrote:I think that seriously underestimates the number of people interested in these games. Last month, we had 2 games in the RAA that had more than 450 downloads, and 5 more that had more than 100.

http://www.download.com/Dating-Sim/3150 ... 0-2-0.html?

If you go to the dating sim category of download.com, every game there has been downloaded at least a thousand times, with several having more than ten thousand.
Oh my, that's a lot. I'd wish to see RAA statistics or something... I wonder how many downloads Nattsu had, hehe. ^^

...Totally off topic, but anyway. I can't read German, so I can't really say much about the real topic. Except that it's a real shame that it is only in German.
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Re: Felix, Gaijin [First Non-English Ren'Py release]

#40 Post by Der Tor »

@Macher von Felix, Ausländer:

So wollt euch nur mal schnell zeigen das auch ein Deutscher euer Spiel (kann man es Spiel nennen?) gespielt hat...

Joah... also profesionalität gaaanz oben, und die romantischen Teile waren auch alle niedlich... aber jetzt muss ich zugeben das ich es nicht ganz durchgespielt hab... es war zu steril... nicht die Hintergründe, die waren super, und ham mich voll an die ganzen alten Spiele mit Filmsequenzen wie Command & Conquer 1 etc. errinert...

es war die GESCHICHTE die mir zu steril war...

Und dann war es natürlich ziemlich offensichtlich das ihr praktisch keinen einzigen Japaner hattet, und eure Chinesen gehen einfach nicht als Japaner durch...

Joah... Aber die Hintergründe und die Art und Weiße wie ihr es gemacht habt fand ich wirklich beeindruckend... für nebenbei gemacht ist es von der Profesionalität ganz oben.

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

#41 Post by mikey »

Der Tor wrote:es war die GESCHICHTE die mir zu steril war...
It's actually best, really, to treat this like a travelogue, rather than a story - indeed it is too tame, but I don't think it was the goal to make it story-driven. Well, let's put it this way - it really worked for me when I saw it as a travelogue and memories of experiences. In may ways it felt realistic BECAUSE most of the time nothing really spectacular happens.

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

#42 Post by Adorya »

Reposting from another post :)
So, can we ask the author what were the motivations to make a VN in an university environment? Did your finalized project get any mark from the professors or it was a year-end project? :)

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

#43 Post by MoonlightBomber »

DaFool wrote: EDIT: Oh, and for the record the local voice-recording industry is [insert negative expletive here]. Doesn't matter whether it's anime from japan, a soap from Mexico, China, or Korea -- they use the same untalented folks who love to set the speakers to maximum harmonic resonance (over-acting). Plus having something spoken in a foreign language while the text is in english--I've gotten quite used to it.
I hate to break it to ya, but -- I'm actually kinda appreciative of our VR industry, though tainted with some bad eggs. I keep abreast on the local anime scene because I was appointed as the webmaster of an anime organization that focuses on that.

I even got the chance to meet a voice actor/director -- he once worked on the Tagalog dub of Gundam Seed -- and he narrated how he was one-upped by another voice actor/director who wants to shove his wishes into the throats of other VA's. Unfortunately, as of now, he's in the US of A -- but I bet that he's finding work in Texas, California, New York, or other prominent NA dubbing places.

Now, before I begin to go OT... an English version... DO WANT.
Korina Sanchez: Ex-sensei Mel, we've met again.
Mel Tiangco: I'm expecting this from my former student.
Korina Sanchez: I know all along the reason for your presence.
Mel Tiangco: Of course. Your hairbrush.
Korina Sanchez: Snatch it again? Well, you're mistaken. It's because my hairbrush's container is packed with security features. What's your say?
Mel Tiangco: If you can do security... (pause) then 120% of my strength will shatter it!

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

#44 Post by chris »

Hi there,

so Dennis got me interested in this topic. First of all, thanx a lot for the compliments but also for any sort of productive criticism in here. Any project feeds on feedback.

@DaFoll: As a member of the sound team I do really appreciate your opinion concerning the audio quality. I'm sure that our actors will do exactly the same, since they did a great job in particular. First of all, i do believe that it is quite possible to get these actors (again) or other ones. There are many gifted voices, since there is the earlier mentioned artist school. For them and for us it is a chance to work on projects like this one. Furthermore, as long these people are students it is in their best interest to participate. Besides time, this position does not really involve money. But as Dennis mentioned earlier, too, the problem for us lies within the studio surroundings and their usage. As students we have full access to the studios and the equipment as long it is connected to a certain course or a seminar etc. Without this connection it could get quite tough to access the studios, most of all since other assessed classes have the right of usage in first place. Nevertheless there are chances to get together in one or another way (an if it's only the exchange of precious contacts). So, what i wanted to say is, if you do have a specific project, fell free to contact personally. Dennis will surely forward anything and having a nice talk doesn't cost money either!

@Der Tor: Ebenfalls Danke für Dein Lob und die Kritik. Ich gebe Dir völlig recht, dass unsere Chinesen nicht als Japaner durchgehen. Aber die Zeit rannte davon und echte Japaner aufzutreiben erwies sich als schwieriger, wie anfänglich vermutet. Es war dennoch eine für uns alle akzeptable Lösung, mit Chinesen zu arbeiten. Allerdings sollte hier nicht der Anschein entstehen, dass Felix mal so nebenbei gemacht ist. Ehrlich gesagt hat es mich im Laufe des Projekts schockiert, wie schnell der Aufwand explodieren kann. Ein typischer Film (als Hochschulprojekt) hat bspw. eine Dauer von bis zu 10min. Und trotz der Tatsache, dass unsere VN nur mit statischen Bildern arbeit, fielen doch die gleichen Aufgaben an. Casting, Requisite, ca. 20 3D-Kulissen, ca. 45min Audio etc etc. Mit der regulären / planerischen Seminarzeit, die ja bewertet wird, hat das nichts mehr zu tun. Vielmehr geht es hier um sehr lange Nächte und um die Vernachlässigung anderer Aufgaben :wink:

@Adorya: Certainly we do get marks for our project. In this case, there were two courses involved (still with some marks pending :roll: ) But the marks don't really compensate the amont of work you put in. I do also believe, that in our case the motivation is not getting a mark, but working on a fun project, where everyone gets a chance on working with what he / she does best and of course the learning progress behind all of this . My personal motivation on projects like this one is also seeing and enjoying the final result. Having a product, getting to know each detail of it and working up to point, where everybody is satisfied. Wheather it is the story, the picture, the sound and so on. It's what I like doing and therefore I do - hopefully always highly motivated, even without marks or money (of course money is something, which can be highly motivating from time to time, too :wink:) And concerning the university environment ... well, we do have classes where we can feel free to produce any media product that we please (film, audio, animation, web etc., depending on your personal focus). In this case Dennis came up with the idea, which i personally liked pretty much since in never did a VN before (didn't even hear about it :oops: ).

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

#45 Post by Alessio »

DaFool wrote:There is still the option of asking volunteers to speak into their ipods, but for someone who plans to eventually sell stuff, this won't be an option. That is one good hand the professional visual novel companies (mostly in Japan) have -- the infrastructure for voice acting. Even amateur circles may have to place themselves under the wing of a larger softhouse in order to take advantage of that.
I don't necessarily agree. It's enough if one person of the group has a halfway decent microphone/preamp (meaning not the $2,50 headset from the bargain bin) and a quiet room. The problematic part is collaborating via the internet, because then recordings will have to be done in different locations, and thus the audio recordings will not be consistent (different EQ, different hall in the room, different background noise, different position of the microphone etc.). [Edit: Uh, assuming you were speaking about technical quality.]

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