Budgets of various visual novels 2017-2023

• Steam’s catalogue of visual novels priced and compared to quality or quantity.
• Discussion on the difference in prices compared to quality or quantity when it comes to visual novels.
• Comparisons between Clannad or Fruit of Grisaia price points compared to other cheaper alternatives.
• Examples of visual novels on Steam at different price points i.e., 10 dollar point.
• High quality catgirl eroge, Stay! Stay! Democratic Republic of Korea, Kinetic novel “Planetarian,” and a visual novel Gaokao.Love100Days with strategical management.
• A mention of a few visual novels with a cheap price tag in the 5 dollar section, which manages to surprise people with a few gems.
• Discussion of Sakura series in the 10 dollar section that still manage to sell decently, if not through Steam, then at least by Patreon keys.
• Discussion on the differences in price for a 2 hour visual novel that can be both 5 dollars or 15 dollars, depending on the novel itself.
• Discussion on how choices and replayability can affect your view on the game’s monetary value.
• Mentions from Reddit:
  • Japanese eroge are priced at 80+ USD and everything in the west is literally half or less including “highly priced” grisaia.
  • Prices are sold at the price people are willing to pay.
  • Steam only very recently started carrying VNs at all.
  • A game with a humoristic presence can attract a lot of players and warrant a higher price as people might want to make a video on YouTube or use it.
  • Japanese Steam prices for VNs are around 10% cheaper than the US prices.
  • Discussion on visual novels with longer gameplay hours.
  • Opinions on the reasonable pricing of visual novels.

• Creating visual novels involves different levels of complexity and costs. The cost varies depending on the level of details and the assets used.
• For doujins that are released for free, the cost is minimal since free music and other elements can be used.
• For professional productions, the budget for titles like Minori could be up to a million dollars.
• The cost starts with about $50 which is the cost of buying a graphics tablet. But, it can go up, depending on how fast it should finish, as well as what one can do on their own.
• If the project requires a professional job to obtain beautiful artworks and CGs, outsourcing to a professional artist is an option that incurs more cost.
• From what Reddit users have seen, many indie visual novel kick-starters ask for a few thousand bucks.
• The prices vary for different visual novels and depend on the complexity of the production being made, the length of the story, the quality of the artwork, music, story, and all of the other projects required to complete the production.
• Financial hardships have caused the demise of many companies in the VN industry, making it difficult to determine the exact profits made from each novel.
• Profit margins for most models of making a visual novel are not made public. In cases where a product has a fandisk, it’s highly probable that it turned a profit.
• There has been some successful work in the indie visual novel scene.
• The visual novel scene is diverse, with many people creating different things and putting their skills to use.
• There is not yet any industry standard for the cost of creating a visual novel.
• It’s more expensive to create new games with original content than translating games written by others.
• Creating a new game from scratch requires writing the script and story, designing the characters, backgrounds, and other graphic elements while paying attention to the production quality, music, and sound effects.
• The cost of creating a VN can range from virtually zero (if the developer creates everything from scratch) to several millions of USD.

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• The webpage is a Reddit thread discussing the best visual novels for Nintendo Switch.
• The OP mentions having played Doki Doki Literature Club, Danganronpa, Lucid9, and Higurashi, and is looking for suggestions for games that are similar in style.
• Users recommend various visual novels including:
  • Fata Morgana (98 Metacritic score)
  • World End Syndrome (personal favorite)
  • Doki Doki Literature Club+ (recommended for a head-twisting experience)
  • Aokana and If My Heart Had Wings (recommended for a sweet story)
  • Steins;Gate (one of the all-time greats)
  • Raging Loop (also enjoyed by one user)
  • Crime Opera: The Butterfly Effect (only 5-7 hours in length, on sale in that month, inspired by Higurashi)
  • Maitetsu (fun, long, and cute with a serious side)
  • Kotodama (mentioned with a warning not to play)
• There are various karma scores for the comments but they are not directly related to the quality of the recommendations.

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• The webpage is a post on Reddit in the r/visualnovels community, titled “What are the best visual novels on Nintendo Switch?”
• The post was made 1 year and 9 months ago.
• The OP of the post is asking for recommendations on visual novels available on the Nintendo Switch.
• Some users listed their favorite visual novels on the Switch, including Raging Loop, Fata Morgana, Yu-No, Steins;Gate, Clannad, Grisaia Trilogy, AI: The Somnium Files, The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, World End Syndrome, and more.
• Some users also mentioned other games that are similar to visual novels, including Persona 5 Strikers and Blazblue.
• One user provided a spreadsheet with a list of all visual novels on the Switch at the time, although it may be outdated.
• One user mentioned the issue of censorship on visual novel ports due to Nintendo’s policies, but also noted the ability to patch in uncensored content.
• The post includes a discussion on the subjectivity of ranking visual novels, with some users recommending checking popular and highly-rated visual novels on VNDB to start.
• The post includes comments from 12 users, with karma ranging from 1 to 12.
• The post may be useful to gain insight into the most popular or well-regarded visual novels available on the Nintendo Switch, although it may not provide information on budgets or sales.

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• The webpage is a Reddit post from five years ago on the r/gamedev subreddit.
• The post asks for advice on what makes a good visual novel or text adventure game.
• A Reddit user, who is also a visual novel developer, comments on the post and provides information on the genre.
• The developer recommends starting with a basic visual novel, using free engines like Renpy.
• They also suggest studying other forms of media and recommends Scott McCloud’s “Making Comics.”
• Discord is cited as a good place to network with other visual novel developers.
• The developer states that it is easy to make a basic visual novel but difficult to make a good one.
• The developer recommends avoiding doing things just because they are popular, and instead try to make a good game.
• It is suggested that sound design is important to the genre and that limited sound effects can be effective.
• The developer suggests that choices should matter to the player and not be arbitrary.
• The post also suggests checking out the “IF” (interactive fiction) sphere and recommends using Twine as an engine for drafting visual novels.
• Some recommended games are 80 Days, Choice of games, and Choice of the Deathless.
• The post discusses FMV (full-motion video) games as an alternative to visual novels and recognizes them as games that often play with narrative branches.
• The Reddit user acknowledges high school romance as a popular setting but also acknowledges that it’s considered overdone by some readers.
• The user states that VNs are a storytelling format not quite like anything else. Players can experience the prose of a novel, the animation of a cartoon, the impact of a comic, and the interactivity of a video game.
• Finally, the developer notes that it’s important to figure out what you want to steal and build on in order to create an effective and interactive visual novel game.

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• The webpage is a Reddit post titled, “Top 100 Visual Novels released on the Switch (2022 edition)”. The post was made nine months ago and received 677 karma points.
• The original poster created a list of top visual novels on the Nintendo Switch and provided an eShop link for each game.
• Basic rules were provided for the list; placement was based on vndb’s rating, bundles were listed instead of individual games when available on the eShop, only games available in 2022 were listed, and only games officially supported in English were included.
• The list includes 100 visual novels, with a few marked with an asterisk (*) that are only available on Asian eShops but have full English support.
• The top ten games on the list are:
  1. Steins;Gate Elite
  2. The House in Fata Morgana: Dream of the Revenants Edition
  3. Clannad
  4. Little Busters! Converted Edition
  5. The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles
  6. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy
  7. Witch on the Holy night (releases December 07th)
  8. The Grisaia Trilogy
  9. Aokana -Four Rhythms Across the Blue-
  10. Chaos;Head Noah / Chaos;Child Double Pack
• An eShop link was provided for each game listed in the top 100.
• The poster also shared that they would give a few “detail-specific” top 10s in a comment underneath the list.
• People requested a public listing on DekuDeals, which the poster provided with a few changes.
• The poster also made a DekuDeals for ALL visual novels on the Switch (not just the top 100).
• Finally, the poster added an extra clarification that only games that officially have English support are included in the list, excluding games like “Christmas Tina.”

• The W webpage contains a discussion thread from the subreddit r/visualnovels titled “Where to buy more visual novels”.
• The thread is 1 year, 8 months old and has 30 comments and 17 points.
• The thread creator was new to visual novels and asked where to buy more after trying out 23 VNs.
• Several comments respond with where they purchase VNs: Mangagamer, Jastusa, Denpasoft, Johren, Steam, Indiegala, and Fakku.
• Someone suggests that GoG has added some VNs to their repertoire recently.
• A user suggests checking out the subreddit’s wiki page for buying visual novels which the person found helpful.
• Another user suggests checking Itch.io for indie VNs with the caveat that the most popular indie titles usually make it onto Steam as well.
• VNDB is recommended as a site for finding out which VNs have fan translation patches or for general information on VNs.
• Johren is discussed further, with one user stating it’s the English subsidiary of DMM.com one of Japan’s largest online adult retailers.
• Fakku was mentioned as another place to buy VNs.
• Some users mention purchasing from IndieGala which may feature sales or bundles that might be budget-friendly.
• A user also mentions that Indiegala mostly has the cheaper indie titles for sale.
• One user mentions buying a bundle of games from Mangagamer that had 5 games for a bargain price on Indiegala.
• Another user mentions a lack of deals after the previously mentioned bundle on Indiegala.
• A user describes Johren, stating the website is good other than a missing search bar.
• Someone else expresses surprise at not having heard of Johren before.
• Several users mention buying VNs from Mangagamer, Jastusa, Steam.
• A few users mention purchasing from Denpasoft.
• Indiegala is recommended for buying cheaper indie titles.
• Itch.io is suggested for buying indie VNs.
• Fakku is mentioned as another place to buy VNs.
• Johren is discussed as a website for buying VNs.
• VNDB is recommended for finding information on VNs.

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💭  Looking into

Average visual novel game budget by year from 2017-2023

💭  Looking into

Top 5 visual novel games with the highest and lowest budgets