Just my question about the market

[kenobihiro]

Hi all,

I felt this forum is really friendly and good for my experience so i would like to stick around and learn more.

I still have some questions that bug me.

People here releasing visual novel game for mostly Western countries, but why don't you aim for Japanese market? I mean, even with free game, distributing at the place where it was born is nice. And i guess some Japaneses like to try out English visual novel too.

It's just my question since i don't interact with Japanese that much and don't understand about their culture. But i believe many here would expand my knowledge =D.

[LateWhiteRabbit]

Because most people here don't read or speak Japanese well enough to make a Japanese game, and because the Japanese Visual Novel market is already saturated. I.e. You don't go to a mountain spring to sell bottled water to people, you go to a desert.

[kenobihiro]

Because most people here don't read or speak Japanese well enough to make a Japanese game, and because the Japanese Visual Novel market is already saturated. I.e. You don't go to a mountain spring to sell bottled water to people, you go to a desert.

I understand your point. Actually i know most people don't make Japanese visual novel, but they make English visual novel. My main question is there anyone try to introduce their game to Japan? Even with English language some Japanese actually might like it (for interesting plot or new Western taste) and mouth-to-mouth advertising for you. Just my thinking.

[Fawn]

English is an international language, so it's natural that many people would make their games solely English. There are a lot of people here from all around the world and one thing that we all have in common is being able to understand English (it's actually this forum's policy to write your posts in English). But, just because we all speak English doesn't mean that we only make games about western countries... In fact, if you look through the game archives, there are many many games that take place in Japan and other eastern countries.

There are Japanese people on this forum who make games both in Japanese and English such as Chu-3, (you can see her latest work here: http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... 11&t=12113) and also Japanese people who post their Japanese games. But, they are very few.

i don't interact with Japanese that much and don't understand about their culture

This is another reason why people don't make Japanese games. If you don't know anything about Japan's culture besides anime, how can you make a believable game about it?

[papillon]

A few people do sell their games on DLsite which means they are technically available to the Japanese market. I don't think any english-only game has exactly been blazing up the sales there.

Considering the absolutely awful quality of translation you sometimes see in English-side DLsite projects I sometimes wonder what they'd make of a machine-translated-into-Japanese game...

[Mirage]

Ahahaha, tried it before, and no one cares to see. I'm definitely not the only one who have attempted translating games to Japanese and failed horribly. Exactly what LateWhiteRabbit said, you don't go to place where VN thrives, it would take a miracle for them to even notice you exist, let alone buy them.

[kenobihiro]

Ow.
I guess even if anyone can create a good VN with good artwork, adult content, decent story etc.
They won't be able to live in Western market lol

[nyaatrap]

Actually, many Japanese are waiting the translated version of Katawa shoujo, but its translation progress is very slow. I think the reason of its delay is Japanese translators don't have much experience to work as team, not just lack of good translators.

[kenobihiro]

Oh well, Kawata Shoujo is very special in that case lol =D. Also it's free =/.