Visualnovelgames dot com

[DaFool]

http://www.visualnovelgames.com

I've stumbled across the site a while ago, but at first I thought it was one of those fly-by-night content aggregators, since the web design looked dated. Then I discovered they practically host ALL of the commercial visual novel games that have ever been released, plus RPG Maker games and a few adventure games. That just doesn't happen unless all the commercial gamemakers here talked to each other to put up the site or something.

It seems legit, but it's by people I've never heard before in the indie community. So I was hoping somebody here who've dealt with them sort of introduce them. Are they related to vnovel.info?

[jack_norton]

On top is written "by red panda games", I think is an indie dev who made that website to sell other commercial games as affiliate.

[papillon]

That just doesn't happen unless all the commercial gamemakers here talked to each other to put up the site or something.

Almost all the commercial games are available to affiliates; it's not hard to put up your own site featuring all that content without talking to anybody.

[DaFool]

I see. I did not know that was the case with open affiliation. If it were me, I guess I'd want to check their website first to make sure that they're not creating a bad impression.

[jack_norton]

I auto-approve affiliates, since honestly don't have time to check every single site that is selling them, though I understand what you mean.
However, most affiliates are either:
1-sites without original content so that have very low traffic, so even a bad impression won't be a big problem
2-sites owned by people who make also other original games (Hanako, Amaranth, Nekomura, etc) so they usually have decent websites

[redpandastudio]

My name is Lex and I am the developer for this site. Our main studio is Red Panda Games, but we are currently working on a visual novel game now called the Curse of Slaterock Manor. We have only released a few audio files and screenshots of the prototype at this point, but we expect to have a working beta in April.

Because commercial visual novel games appeal to a niche market, we planned on growing and expanding the niche before releasing our product by establishing a visual novel games website. It is difficult to fund these types of projects, so it was important for us to establish ourselves in some way before the product release.

As for the site, we wanted something that would be easy to navigate, and would not detract from the actual product. We are still working on how we plan to ultimately organize the content, and anticipate that the design will greatly change once our game is actually released, however this was not a priority from the beginning.

I hope this helps to clear up any questions that people may have about our site. Our first published title can be found on any of the major casual game portals, so we are certainly reputable.

[DaFool]

Well met, thanks for posting.

I do also believe in the potential for the niche to grow, but rather than the side that imports translated games from Japan, the more mainstream approach would be through interactive picture books and stories on devices like the iPad and Kindle. It's only recently that I've started seeing the term 'visual novel' being used as a label for them as well.

[redpandastudio]

This site has since been updated. I would love to know what people who are subscribed to this post think:

http://www.visualnovelgames.com

[J. Datie]

I think you may want to fix the text in the middle:



Maybe add a bit more contrast, too. I didn't like how the list of games tucked away on the main page, it makes the page kinda lopsided. There's also a lot of links in a lot of places. It took me a while to notice the About / Contact / Submit Games/ Forum at the top. Also, the page title is set to "Metamorphosis Design Free Css Templates". Other than that, it looks fine.

[EternalDream]

Maybe have some sort of banner at the top? The site right now looks really unbalanced and added with the fact that there's no banner, it makes me feel... not relaxed for some reason <.< (Maybe uneasy and awkward are better words to describe it...)

[redpandastudio]

Okay, thanks for all of your input! I will continue trying to improve the site.

[redpandastudio]

I took what everyone said and updated the content above the fold. The other parts of the site like the news and such will even out with the game list over time. The reason I have the game list in a long column is so that all games have some sort of front page feature and people can quickly glance through the list to see what they haven't played. When the site gets bigger, this will have to be modified of course. However, I am open to other suggestions.

http://visualnovelgames.com/

[DaFool]

Sorry I changed the title. I feel guilty that you're updating this thread and it's still entitled "Who are these people" which comes off as a bit rude.

[redpandastudio]

Sorry I changed the title. I feel guilty that you're updating this thread and it's still entitled "Who are these people" which comes off as a bit rude.

Haha. Thanks. I didn't mind, but I appreciate the thought.

[Snowflower]

Umm... I don't know if it's just my computer but the layout of the writing on the center picture is still kind of off.