Advertising in your visual novels

[AllegroDiRossi]

So, I was thinking about this at work today.
I'm working on multiple projects at the moment,
and I thought of something interesting.

You know how movies have advertisements for other movies at the beginning of the film?
Or how DVD's have a submenu for previews of new cinema and DVD releases?

Well, I considered what might happen if I were to implement such an advertisement system into a game,
either as a preview after the game has finished or as an unlockable submenu that appears after game completion.

I also thought about what it might be like to release a "demo pack"
which would be a single game with a collection of various demos
to drum up publicity not only for the games,
but for myself as their creator as well.

So, my questions are:

How would you feel about playing a VN and seeing an advertisement (completely separated from the actual story) for another game by the same creator?

Would you enjoy a game that was a collection of demos by the same creator, like a preview disk of their current and/or upcoming games?

[Wintermoon]

I don't mind advertisements/previews so long as they are tasteful and unobtrusive (i.e. skippable).

That said, I never watch the previews on DVDs, and I only rarely download game demos. If the game is not yet finished, then I don't want to hear about it. If it's finished and free, I'd rather play the actual game than watch the preview. If the game is finished and commercial, then I might be enticed to watch a preview or play a demo, but only if the game catches my attention before the preview.

[Wertville]

I wouldn't mind, but why limit it to the same creator?
I think it would make much more sense to advertise ones in the same genre, because when someone plays a game made by one person, and liked it, they will usually find out what else they made.

For example, after I finished Clannad I went and watched Air and Kanon, which were made by the same people. (As soon as I get my win XP disk, I'll play clannad too.)
But I also tried to find some anime that were similar to Clannad, and it was quite a bit harder (When people recommend anime, often they say "'anime' was made by the same people, so you'll like it." which is the opposite of what I wanted )

Another example is with Fate stay night and Tsukihime, how many fans of one haven't heard of the other? As soon as I finish FSN I'm going to want to find a similar VN, but it won't be easy because there are no more Type-moon ones for me to read.

Just remember to make the people you advertise games for advertise your games

[LVUER]

I don't mind too, after all, it's a bonus content(which is always a plus). Aren't they already do that in VN? If you explore the CD/DVD, sometimes you could find a demo (or more often, an OP/trailer of upcoming game).

[luminarious]

Rather than put the ad/demo in the game, put it in the game folder. Or perhaps in the readme file. Or, if it's a high quality game, put the opener/demo video there instead of the actual game. If the opening video is on youtube or some other site, you can embed it in the readme.html and then the download size wouldn't increase at all, which would be the best option!

[delta]

I wouldn't waste space on that beyond a link to the web site (and if you want to advertise, you need images at the very least). Unless you're shipping on a CD and have storage to spare, but that would not be valid for the vast majority of people here. If I'm downloading a game and see that a noticeable chink of the bandwidth is actually taken up with advertisements, I'd be less than amused.

[DaFool]

Not a visual novel, but basically the tutorial level of this 3rd person moe shooter was used to display billboards of other peoples' current and upcoming projects which use the same FPS engine

http://hanamonte.netau.net/

Unfortunately said engine has since been made largely irrelevant by release of free Unity.

[JinzouTamashii]

There's only one way to advertise:

Crossovers and cameos.

The fans LOVE it.

[Voight-Kampff]

Another example is with Fate stay night and Tsukihime, how many fans of one haven't heard of the other? As soon as I finish FSN I'm going to want to find a similar VN, but it won't be easy because there are no more Type-moon ones for me to read.

Slightly OT, but if you're really interested in more Type-Moon material, you could, in theory, get your hands on Kagetsu Tohya. It's not QUITE in the same vein as Tsukihime, but it is more quasi-canon material (well, some of it, anyway). There's also Melty Blood and Fate Unlimited Codes, if you want to branch out into fighting games based around the Nasuverse.

Anyway, as for the original question - I certainly don't see anything wrong with using one's own VN to advertise another one of their projects. It's par for the course when talking about manga publishers, game publishers, movie studios, etc.

Although, as delta mentioned - advertising a link to a web site might be better. People watch an ad once and forget about it. But if they see a URL and they go to it, they can explore a lot more material than you could put in a simple ad in a game. Plus, a URL is easy to bookmark and go back to check.

[number473]

An option on the main menu pointing to "previews", maybe. If I enjoyed a game, I would probably check that out after completing. If it went strait into it after the game I would be annoyed. unless it just consisted of screen shots during the credits. I agree about the added dl size, though. Dame dame (no good)

[Lanna]

A game with lots of demos sounds fun. But being the weird person that I am, I'd actually appreciate lots of different genres in one 'pack' instead of the same types of games. Personally, I just want to take a look at lots of different stories, and it'd be a great way to introduce people to visual novels, IMO.

Also, as long as the ads are skippable or completely optional, I'll totally approve of that idea, it sounds great! That, and cameos and references. I love them. So much.

[rioka]

There's only one way to advertise:

Crossovers and cameos.

The fans LOVE it.

This. Doing anything else is just a waste of time downloading additional content that doesn't really add anything to the game itself.

If you're going to do an ad, place it in the game itself like putting a poster or billboard in the background pronouncing so-and-so game or whatever. Or make the character wear a shirt with characters from another game.