Part of my piracy studies, I would like to gather indie VN developers' experience with free, "pay-what-you-want" games on itchio.
Answers can be anonymous if you want!
In the 2019 Netflix series Tales of the City, when Jake uses the Grindr app to find a male partner, one the profile pictures is the face of Akira from Togainu no Chi, taken from cover of the game's official soundtracks.
Amusingly, said album's first track is "GRIND".
@JASTBLUE
Because some of you asked so nicely, here is BL game fun fact thread!
#1
Togainu no Chi has 12 endings:
3 characters give you Bad Ends only
3 give you only Good Ends
2 have 1 Good end and 2 Bad Ends (Keisuke and Shiki)
It's the only time N+C has given us "Good Ends" only boys.
Since there seems to be some confusion over the term 'all-ages' in my earlier tweet: we have worked extremely closely with Nitro+CHiRAL to make a version of the game which will not be 'adult' under Steam's category system, thereby making it 'all-ages', so that it can be sold --
"When playing a BL game, do you self-insert as the protagonist?"
73% of men self-insert "sometimes" or "most of the times", versus 18% of women, versus 29% of GNC players.
(I deleted the previous tweet and fixed the graph legend)
"Yaoi" is a perfectly fine term to refer to homoerotic content, regardless of whether it has become obsolete in Japan. "Yaoi" also makes searching for BL easier, for it gleans more results on search engines than "BL" or "Boys Love". In this essay, I will
Due to popular demand, have some Steam fun facts.
Fun fact
#1
: if you think DRAMAtical Murder is the most sold BL game on Steam, then you are right.
At the time of writing, DMMd's net revenue (after Steam's 30% cut) is estimated at $400,000 USD.
Steam fun fact
#4
After Dream Daddy and DMMd, the most sold BL game on Steam is Full Service, whose revenue is estimated at $300,000.
Unlike DD and DMMd, Full Service is adult-rated on Steam right off the bat, making its promotion within Steam more challenging.
Made with my blood, sweat and tears, I present to you: BLkedin, a list of BL Game content creators of all kinds for hire in free or commercial project!
It's pretty empty right now. You can add yourself to the list by filling this form:
Here are examples of reviews people left on Steam for DRAMAtical Murder.
All of these are unironically perfectly valid and helped DMMd receive more sales and more reviews in a rare example of virtous circle.
Write a joke, or just "gay", it helps!
What is your favorite BL game?
How did you discover the genre?
What is your ideal amount of sex scenes?
What BL game do you want to see translated?
Help me find out in the In-Depth BL Gamer Survey!
Three answers to the survey mention a desire for more "gameplay" BL games.
While I get where it's coming from (and damn I wish we had FF-like BL game too!), I think the problem isn't that BL game creators DON'T want to make those, it's that they literally can't.
"I googled "Hot blonde anime boy" in images back in 2012/13ish and saw a picture of Gunji. I wondered where he was from. It was a downward spiral from there."
One of the answers to how they got into BL games.
"I could afford it but" answers to my piracy questions are funny because for some people "I could afford it" means "I'm a college students who can buy 2 games/month" and for others it's "I live in Argentina and I must choose between buying Seiyuu Danshi or having food next week"
Some of of you seem to be confused by Nu:Carnival team's decision to make a SFW version of a porn game.
By doing so, they can expand their reach to China, Germany and more recently, Korea which has been banning uncensored dicks left and right in the past couple years. (1/?)
✨ NU: Carnival - Bliss iOS/Android Pre-Registration Begins! ✨
We're here to announce some exciting news 📢
Pre-registration for NU: Carnival - Bliss has officially kicked off on both platforms! ٩(´ᗜ`*)୨
Details regarding the game and exclusive pre-registration rewards will be
#17
The top 10 rated BL games of all times are:
1. Lucky Dog 1
2. Shingakkou -Noli Me Tangere-
3. Taisho Mebiusline
4. Sweet Pool
5. Togainu no Chi
6. Kichiku Megane
7. DRAMAtical Murder
8. Lamento
9. Si-Nis-Kanto
10. Room No.9
See the ranking here:
#26
The first "BL game" to ever be released on a Nintendo console is Omega Vampire by Karin Chatnoir Ω, released on Switch in August 2019.
Omega Vampire is a story that combines action, vampires, omegaverse and science-fiction. The original PC version is 18+.
I've seen so many devs call their game "spicy" or "steamy", like what did they do? Did they do *wink wink nudge* after the screen faded to black? Meanwhile I'm coding man getting double-penetrated by a tentacle alien.
Obscure game highlight: Silver Chaos by VividColor
A fully-voiced JP game from 2002 where, playing as the hero Might, you do typical hero stuff like slaying monsters, defeating the Big Bad demon and ban... romancing most archetypes associated with fantasy RPGs.
@dashiellwood
If anyone is interested, my account is dedicated to LGBT+ dating games that range from cute wholesome coming-of-age stories to angst-filled, gory, problematic content.
Due to popular demand: BL game meme iceberg.
If you're wondering why "thirsty fuck" is lower than "horny fuck"... well, perhaps it's best if you don't know.
#13
Kurahana Chinatsu, the character designer of Fire Emblem Three House, also illustrated Togainu no Chi and Lamento back in 2004-2006 under the pen name "Tatana Kana".
She also illustrated Uta no Prince-Sama and the Japanese version of the BL novel Captive Prince.
I know Lamento getting dropped (for now) is sad news but I'm really glad they chose to priorize localizing Slow Damage instead.
Localizing a newer game means more potential for sales and hopefully SD sells well enough to justify picking up Lamento again.
While this website keeps dying, I'm still not over the fact that it took Westerners fapping enough to Viktor and Yuuri for Nitro+ execs to figure out that Westerners would buy their games and not the thousands of people begging for a localization 3+ years prior.
IT'S BL GAME REVIEW TIME!!!
I am delighted to review
@JASTBLUE
's localization of Nitro+Chiral's famous DRAMAtical Murder!
(I checked for typos but forgive me if some slipped up, I'm French and I'm tired.)
The amount of survey answers that say fetishization is "typically done by non-male" and then cite Full Service, Camp Buddy, Hadaka Shitsuji, Room No.9 and other games made by actual men boggles my mind.
To celebrate completing Koujaku's route and
@JASTBLUE
's AMAZING localization I made a little pixel art animation of him!
(transparent still in the comments)
Hey, be nice to otome game fans. They're starved for games localization just like us on top of big quality concerns and no, they're not only made of cis, het people.
Reminder thar account does not encourage piracy.
Almost all BL games are made by small indie devs who need all the penny they get to keep going and piracy won't help them at all.
Obscure game highlight: Akaya Akashiya Ayakashino by HaccaWorks*
A game about Yue, a boy who lived his whole life surrounded by youkai and never left his shrine, until he goes to a winter festival and meets humans for the first time.
One last thing I have to say about fanTL VS official TLs is that publishers like JAST and Mangagamer are not your enemies.
The people who localize these games are passionate BL fans like you an I and pour their heart into their work and it shows. It really shows.
It seems like some you are wondering how many of your fellow countryfolks actually play BL games.
Have you ever wondered how many of them MAKE BL games? Let me enlighten you.
Meyaoi and Mazjojo are Indonesian
Ertal is Spanish
Winter Wolves is Italian
1/?
Obscure game highlight: Lemure Blue's 2 A.M. by Kenkou Land
A rare free Japanese BL game with many twists and turns.
Aoi, a third-year middle school student seeks to uncover the truth behind a mysterious boy who only appears at 2 A.M. beneath a cherry tree.
Obscure game highlight: Messiah by Core Dusk
A gothic fantasy BL game from 2006 with a high amount of smut. Takuto and his friend Ryouta are trapped in the mansion of Koh Haishima, a vampire with an unknown agenda who is haunted by his past and has a strange fixation on Takuto.
#41
The reason you haven't heard much of Lamento and DMMd's official English translations lately is because
@JASTBLUE
is currently working on SLOW DAMAGE while the game is still being made.
This was from Verdelish's Q&A at Fujocon:
Concept: a game that's just hardcore porn, except for one love interest who is ace. Lewd scenes and CGs get replaced by displays of degeneracy such as headpats and hand-holding.
This aspect is never brought up nor foreshadowed by the devs.
I'm back with a new article!
This time, I write about the BL game projects that are still stuck in development hell years after their successful Kickstarter campaigns.
Obscure game highlight: Cocoon by Adelta
In a near future, certain people have microchips implanted in their bodies that control them and grant them skillsets. The hero, Sora, has an "artist" skillset and can "feel" colors. He lives a content life in isolation until...
In case you've lived under a rock these past few years, Togainu no Chi has been officially translated and published in English by JAST USA.
You can grab the game here or on Steam: