/evn/ - English Visual Novels

"Please keep this thread civil" edition

Thread for discussing English language visual novels and their development.

Do you have a question about an originally-Japanese visual novel or a translation of it?
/vn/ is ready to answer it. We are not them.

>Developer Resources, Getting Started:
pastebin.com/7LsCvtq3

>Recommended Reading:
vndb.org/v/all?q=;fil=olang-en.tagspoil-0;o=d;s=rating
pastebin.com/zGVSpH0B

>For Developers. Huge collection of guides on everything:
lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewforum.php?f=42

>Ren'Py Download:
renpy.org/

Last thread:

>tfw friend who you asked to do some art editing is far more competent than you realized and can knock out the 4-5 edits necessary for completion

Almost got done with the writing. Now I just have to find a proof reader. What about you guys?

What are the actual EVN success stories? mainly asking how many people there are who really make a living off this. Obviously there's WW and hanako and christine love, and I guess if you count recent kickstarter successes (that haven't actually released their games) there's raithfyre and cuddlebeam, but is that basically it at this point? Did the ACE Academy guys make enough (between the release of the game on steam and their current patreon for their next game), or are they still freelancers and people working on this in their spare time?

Well there is Taos-
BWAHAHAHAHAHA I CAN'T GUYS
I JUST CAN'T

>ignoring WC
they're earning $11k+ a month

Did the Moacube guys ever make it? I know they have a lower bar for success, due to living in Poland and needing less money to support themselves, but I wasn't aware if any of their games ever took off in the same way Cinders did.

Apparently, Solstice didn't do so well.

Personally I found it too cynical for my liking, but it's a pretty polished game overall.

Putting things together, after I'm done with some commissions I will start doing the writing and art as well.

I will also have to work with the ayy lamaos faces.

Did sakebento make it?

They're getting a share of a $2million bundle at the moment though iirc

She doesn't release enough games to live off them, I think she has a day job and EVN is a hobby. Don't know for sure though

yeah, but devs have said that bundles often pay off cents per sale.

why are the tiddies so small

why are you such a faggot

...

most people secure real jobs that pay better. my friend makes 80k a year doing gui and design stuff for mobile games, the job is piss easy compared to the constant annoying hiccups of game development. "making a living" off evn is really only practical when you're used to working for pennies or are okay living in a shithole at age 30.

Huh?
Chino usually have flatchest, come people were flaming me for giving her tits and now someone want her tits bigger?

>80k a year

is that supposed to be a lot or....

oppai is the will
oppai is the way

If you didn't consider that a lot you wouldn't be in this thread desu

Are they doing 3D gui? C-can I see their portfolio? I want to know what I have to do to be hired.

If anything, I'd imagine vns to be the perfect rich kid's hobby.

>eyes look like she just had her pupils dilated at the optometrist
>nose is a sad comma plonked in the middle of her face
>mouth and chin are slowly melting off her skull
>that telltale hentai sunburn
>whatever's happening to her spine
>the indeterminable camera angle

These all stand in the way of what is otherwise a very cleanly rendered drawing. The hair in particular is working well. Sorry if that was a bit harsh, mate.

>>that telltale hentai sunburn
You mean the blush? Looks fine desu

Alright, that one's down to personal taste, I admit.

But I still think it's an overused visual shorthand that's totally divorced from reality and looks more and more absurd the shinier it gets.

>that pathetically small ulnar styloid
shameful!

>The hair in particular is working well
I think it looks a little too stringy, slimy, and gross desu

Depends on where it's used imo
Face and butt? Yes.
Knees and elbows and back and feet and ears etc? Please stahp

Is this a viable style for a VN?

for EVN, yes.

where be the tids???

If it's more story focused than romance focused, yeah I guess.

Thanks for the input. That's the plan, at least. I'd be doing the whole project by hand, so simplicity is a virtue.

I like it. It reminds me a bit of Okami.

So anyone here doing Lewd jam? How's your progress?

Already finished.
stillborn

Then upload it.

Depends on the overall aesthetic, I guess. If you get backgrounds to match and the contrast between the sprites and backgrounds is enough to make them "pop" enough from the environment while still feeling relatively "seamless" it could give you a really cool Okami-like aesthetic, which I guess works if you're trying to tell a fantasy or magical realism story about mystical stuff. Other genres, it might feel a little outa place.

wtf is wrong with her torso

bump

My "success story" involves quite a lot of internal drama lol. But most of it is basically the repetition of:

[A]
>"noooo, don't do that thing cuddles, its a bad idea!"
>cuddles does the thing
>"oh wow, it was actually a really good idea."

or

[B]
>"cuddles you should do this"
>cuddles asks why
>"because trust me."
>cuddles disagrees and he explains why with numbers, budgets and calculations.
>"no cuddles, just trust me on this one"
>cuddles doesn't take argumentum ad verecundiam and eventually does his own thing.
>go to [A]

Note that I massively, MASSIVELY appreciate that people critize me, tell me and explain to me where I'm wrong, and tell me how things could be done better. I LOVE and I'm extremely thankful that my backers and people here on /evn/, on youtube, in emails and pms tell me where I've done wrong so that I can improve.

But too often people will say no to things because they're scared, they don't want to leave the area they're familiar with, or because they want to protect their ego. In those cases, you just have to do what's best for the project. Someone else's feelings, biases or self-confidence isn't worth losing a couple grand for.

this is true, but a bundle totalling that high is still bound to be worth a nice chunk. i have no idea what his share is, but I'd still assume he'd get at least $40k out of it? which isn't massive wealth, but is still a 'live off this for a while' figure

Sounds like it's hard to work with you, since you care only about your own opinion.

(i'm saying 'at least' because I know people have gotten at least that much out of bundles that reached only six figures, not seven, so even if his share is tiny....)

some make more than 80k a year in VNs
but you won't, sorry

who the fuck refers to themselves in such a way
ego much?

...

Well he's got a point that you can't slavishly follow every suggestion, sometimes suggestions are wrong

lol at the people who were expressing an interest in working with you

Sure, but that applies to your suggestions/decisions too.

Well, yes, obviously. The person with the creative vision may be hopelessly wrong, and sometimes projects fail.

If you're trying to achieve a 'safe bet', you want a lot of focus group work, rather than any one person's single opinion of what would be cool.

If you're trying to achieve an artistic vision, the person with the central cool idea should have the final say, and should accept the consequences if their cool idea turns out to be hated by the public.

hey guys I posted here a few months back () and I was told i sucked ass. Is there any hope regarding my art?

shade it? face readjustments needed imo
looks like a weird anime boondocks.

remove nazi symbols.

i was going for a flat kind of look but i guess i should put in a little more effort (other people told me that as well). what do you mean by "looks like boondocks" though?


the controversy caused by having nazi anime girls is precisely why I'm putting them in. no publicity is bad publicity, right? plus, I'll put in a disclaimer about it being satire etc.

>no publicity is bad publicity, right?
only literal retards think that

I've been thinking about writing a VN for quite some time now.

Is Ren'py the engine to go, lads?

Did you use a tablet? You should use the stabilizer. Also, bone up on color theory.

Guaranteed replies

They have the right idea. No publicity is, well, no publicity. And that is ALWAYS worse than publicity when it comes to interest and sales. Even if you're a terrible human being and what you've created is garbage.

Now whether or not hammer and sickle irisis are a good way of achieving publicity, that's another matter entirely.

No, it's retards that think ALL publicity is good publicity. No publicity is definitely bad.

Yep :^)
Btw, we are girls :3

Last I checked my clitoris was at least 7 inches and had a pair of testicles attached to the base. Also, I have hair growing on my nipples.
Does this make me a man?

Sound like normal /evn/ female

at least you've made something, upload anyway under a pseudonym or something

>make a joke about literal retards
>/evn/ acts like retards by taking a sentence literally instead of the actual meaning anyone who isn't a 3rd worlder would know
sasuga

Only if you can't code.

People who can't code whine that RenPy is too hard.

TyranoBuilder is the answer.

...

It's alright, I do agree that the eyes are weird, probably because I was trying to paint them like the original instead of doing it the way I do.

Maybe I shouldn't do that with the chin, I will try something different next time.

Eh?
Really?

I am sure you will get more help at

I wouldn't describe it as slimy, but the strands + amount of highlights makes it look slippery. As if you were going for a wet look, but didn't actually draw it wet.

Is it better than Renpy?

What game?

Characters look fine but what the heck is going on with the background?

For some reason I don't want to go there.

I wasn't trying to make it look wet, some other artist told me I should fill parts with shades and highlights since leaving parts without them would look empty.

>like the original
don't tell me you trace shitty animu drawings for your own animu drawings, that's basically copying other people's mistakes

Yes, in every aspect, plus you don't need to know how to code, it has all tools you would ever need to create Visual Novel, and even more.

Of course not, which is why I failed on making them look like the original and how the hell can you trace eye colors when it have multiple layers?

I'll give it a shot when I get a few things ready.

he's either a shill or a funny jokester, tyrano is a mess, customization is severely restricted, the only thing it has going for it is live2d sdk but who cares if the rest of your VN will look like vomit

Go away Pytom.

One of these days I'm gonna draw a character and call her Ayaya Lamao.

I'll experiment with both and see which one works better.

up

Why is nobody else posting their ayys?

>Is it better than Renpy?
Well, 99% of the games released with it are completely broken, crash randomly, can't even manage load/save properly.

But it costs money and it allows you to integrate a better animation tool that you don't know how to use anyway, so it's definitely better.

>99%
I wonder which one is 1% that werks?

The ones written by the people who actually knew how to code, unlike the target audience, and could debug their problems. I assume.

>the ones
the ONE
Name it!

...

3:4 Intergalactic High School goodness.

ded

Anyone know of any good sci-fi background artists that are looking for a little bit of work? I need to get a pair of backgrounds done.

>good background artists
>needing to look for work
lol

Room for improvement, but it looks bretty gud senpai

>>make a joke about literal retards
>only literal retards think that
>>>>>>>>>>joke

well, that's a given. thanks for stroking my ego brohai

yeah I did, but it's tiny as fuck, so I'm putting off making actual sprites until the day when I get a larger tablet.

well, you're not wrong (at least in this case)

Iffy gradient hair, linework feels pretty thin and a little wobbly around the face, bangs or whatever they are need work, inconsistent shading/detailing across the whole.

Controversy for its own sake is a hollow pursuit.

When does it end?