Whats up with visual novels and mobile games on steam?

[pontifex]

Is it just me or is there a huge influx of anime style visual novel games and crappy mobile games on steam?

I guess we're leaving the tower defense era and entering into the visual novel era or games where you just kind of follow along in a story, like Gone Home, etc.

 

[Elcs]

Welcome to quite a number of months ago. Those genres started to appear quite some time ago and there has been a large number of them come into Steam.

To answer your topic question: They're games and Steam is a digital distribution platform which focuses on delivering games.

 

[CPA]

My guess is that the visual novels are very easy to create compared to fully-animated games. So, they can't crank them out more easily and quickly and the return on investment is therefore better. Me, personally, if I want to read a book, I'll pick up an actual one.

Just looked it up, according to Wikipedia, Visual Novel and Adventure games made up 70% of the games released in 2006 in Japan. So, apparently there's a huge market for it there.

 

[Morbus]

Me, personally, if I want to read a book, I'll pick up an actual one.

Choice, that's what it's all about.

A friend of mine also flat out refuses to play games with story or to read comic books/graphic novels.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I like story but not when you watch the entire "game".

 

[Jodell88]

I like story but not when you watch the entire "game".

Like The Order 1886?

 

[Stringjam]

I like some of these games....they're a nice change of pace.

I like to read books too, but I've never thought I should ditch one because the other is better.

I thoroughly enjoyed "Dear Esther" and "The Vanishing of Ethan Carter." The problem with a LOT of these games, however, is that they just don't get enough effort.

It's extremely difficult to make one of these walking simulators worthwhile, and the number of them that actually are seem to be far and few between.

I think the genre is pretty ripe for some good titles, and I'm all for more developers really taking the game type seriously.

 

[Dankk]

Visual novels can be pretty good, you should try one sometime. I think I saw Planetarium pop on up Steam a while ago and that's one of the best japanese visual novels I've ever played/read.

 

[sweenish]

It's like, what's up with all these shooters on Steam?

 

[cmdrdredd]

Like The Order 1886?

Haven't played it so I dunno but I did hear that a lot of the game is missing actual gameplay.

 

[xantub]

It's like, what's up with all these shooters on Steam?

well played

 

[pontifex]

Visual novels can be pretty good, you should try one sometime. I think I saw Planetarium pop on up Steam a while ago and that's one of the best japanese visual novels I've ever played/read.

I guess if you're into hentai or anime girls. From the screenshots and videos I can't imagine them having any redeeming qualities or being any fun.

 

[pontifex]

It's like, what's up with all these shooters on Steam?

Thats bs and you know it. These types of games are very new to steam.

 

[bystander36]

If people are willing to pay for them, why should Steam not distribute them like any other game?

 

[HeXen]

And with choice comes the need for better organization. My only complaint about Steam is finding games that either I missed or can't remember the name of. For example I had no idea they brought Omikron among other old games to Steam until I accidented it while flipping through dozens of pages. But if you click on a game and go back, it takes you back to the beginning....*rage.

I think they need to sub divide genre's a bit better and a way to filter out better. I never understood the Anime thing nor half of the silly looking Indie games but every game belongs there despite my tastes. I do question all the Alpha/Beta pre release games however...they need to give money back if the developer isn't meeting deadlines.

 

[Zodiark1593]

If you don't like them, don't buy them. I do agree though that the crap ones reflect poorly on visual novels in general.

Was considering getting into making visual novels myself at one point. We've writing and programming talent, but I don't know anyone that can draw worth a damn, let alone one that will be willing to take on an open source project.

What I think would be awesome would be to push shader effects on these types of games, for example, during a dark rainy scene, the rain can be generated in real time as an overlay, and you have water drops trail down the display like it would a window (possibly with refraction?), HDR and lens flare will also be useful (transition to sunset). Effects like this could add quite a bit to the atmosphere of the scenes, and most modern phones should have hardware capable of that much. Ren'Py doesn't support GLSL though unfortunately.

 

[futurefields]

I don't get the appeal when porn is free on the internet.

I assume you are talking about Sakura Spirit and the like.

Maybe people feel less dirty watching that stuff than actual porn?

The stories are so basic and elementary I don't understand how any normal adult who navigates an adult world could find them interesting.

And, like I said twice already porn is free, including anime porn.

 

[Stringjam]

I don't get the appeal when porn is free on the internet.

I assume you are talking about Sakura Spirit and the like.

Maybe people feel less dirty watching that stuff than actual porn?

The stories are so basic and elementary I don't understand how any normal adult who navigates an adult world could find them interesting.

And, like I said twice already porn is free, including anime porn.

There is no "porn" in games like Dear Esther and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. I guess I'm oblivious to the Anime games the OP referred to, as I have absolutely no interest in that stuff.

 

[bystander36]

And with choice comes the need for better organization. My only complaint about Steam is finding games that either I missed or can't remember the name of. For example I had no idea they brought Omikron among other old games to Steam until I accidented it while flipping through dozens of pages. But if you click on a game and go back, it takes you back to the beginning....*rage.

You can shift click on a game to check it out. It opens up the game like normal, but then you can click the 'x' below the main one in the upper left corner. This takes you right back where you were last.

 

[Dankk]

I guess if you're into hentai or anime girls. From the screenshots and videos I can't imagine them having any redeeming qualities or being any fun.

Not all visual novels contain "hentai". Hentai/eroge are simply a subgenre of visual novels. Just like regular books, you can find all different kinds of subject matter. Planetarian (the one I mentioned above) is a sci-fi visual novel about a post-apocalyptic world, completely non-pornographic.

 

[cmdrdredd]

The best part of Sakura Spirit on steam is reading the reviews.

+ Nice girls
- Cant touch the girls
+ Furry ears
- Cant touch the furry ears
+ Fluffy tail
- Cant touch the fluffy tail
+ Boobs
- Cant touch the boobs

My parents frown upon my life/10

When I first launched it, I recieved messages from 5 different people calling me a pervert.

10/10

Quite the emotional story.

Keep a box of tissues near by, you will need them.

Still better than Call Of Duty.

If you hold down control, you can speedrun the whole game in 2 minutes and 3 seconds.
Thats all the time I need.

I picked this up on sale for 5 bucks. It dropped a foil card. After fees, I recieved $5.01 from the sale of the card.

10/10

-would earn a penny helping sexy fox girls again.

 

[Morbus]

Good compilation cmdrdredd.

 

[pontifex]

There is no "porn" in games like Dear Esther and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. I guess I'm oblivious to the Anime games the OP referred to, as I have absolutely no interest in that stuff.

I'm not lumping games like Ethan Carter or Dear Esther in with visual novels in the "porn/girls with huge tits and skimpy/tight outfits or pre-pubescent girls" aspect.

 

[pontifex]

If you don't like them, don't buy them. I do agree though that the crap ones reflect poorly on visual novels in general.

Was considering getting into making visual novels myself at one point. We've writing and programming talent, but I don't know anyone that can draw worth a damn, let alone one that will be willing to take on an open source project.

What I think would be awesome would be to push shader effects on these types of games, for example, during a dark rainy scene, the rain can be generated in real time as an overlay, and you have water drops trail down the display like it would a window (possibly with refraction?), HDR and lens flare will also be useful (transition to sunset). Effects like this could add quite a bit to the atmosphere of the scenes, and most modern phones should have hardware capable of that much. Ren'Py doesn't support GLSL though unfortunately.

I don't buy them. I'm complaining about the huge influx of them. there's like 3 every other day. it's annoying to see them on my steam new items thing. I have to go in and click "not interested". too bad you can't check "not interested" on certain genres. would certainly help.

 

[Morbus]

My steam new items thingie works like a sharm. It basically only should survival RPGs and stuff like that, because that's basically all I have on steam.