Solution 2: Don’t make your game so damn linear that the entire bredth of its gameplay experience can be had by watching youtube videos.
]]>Plus, think about how easy it would be to make one of those games:
Step 1. Write a script based on any of the typical anime archetypes (i.e. schoolgirl, magical girl, about-to-be-tentacle-raped girl, etc.), probably in flowchart format to accommodate the different choices.
Step 2. Draw each girl in the following picture types: normal, happy, angry, sad, and blushing. If you want to make this really complicated, draw two or three different outfits, but facial expression always the same.
Step 3. Repeat a broken meme.
Step 4. Profit.
So even if they don’t sell millions of copies, it also didn’t take them millions of dollars to create it. As long as they make a good deal of money on the few copies that they do sell, they’re set.
Then factor the glorious world of sequels. Clannad was a rather good visual novel…..and then they went batshit insane with whoring it out. I have no idea how many various versions of Clannad there are, but I’m pretty sure Nagisa is the reigning queen of visual novel cash.
]]>The developers could also consider adding some other sort of physical merchandise to the game purchase to entice people to still buy it like collector’s editions do here. I mean Jesus Christ those games are expensive over there, we’re talking the equivalent of $80-120 US for some of them. It’s ridiculous.
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