Hey, all. Ayu here. I've gotten a lot of questions and comments about this, so here comes a long and open letter meant to confirm rumors and deny misconceptions. It's taken me a long time to come to this decision, and please know it's not something I randomly decided to do one day. Let me start with this, so that there's no misunderstanding:
Sakevisual will continue to produce FREE visual novels.
There. Feel better? Now for the other question everyone's had. Jisei, will, in fact NOT be free. It will premiere at A-KON 21 and afterwards be available online for $15. Wait, what? Didn't I just say- Yes. Yes I did. So why does Jisei cost money? Let's backtrack a bit.
I love free games (Who doesn't?), and I love making free games as well. But the simple truth is that making any game of quality takes a lot of time and resources. I have had the good fortune to meet some incredibly talented people who have been willing to volunteer their time and abilities for free, but projects on a volunteer basis take a lot of time. Artists, composers, and programmers occasionally need to eat. And when the need to eat arises, they will do things that yield monetary results so they can continue eating (or wearing clothing, or driving, or living indoors). That means volunteer work gets put on the back burner, and the completion date gets pushed back further and further. If I could give money to the wonderful people who helped make these games, games would get done faster. On a regular schedule, even! I could even include even more nifty features like more CGs, longer stories, or voices instead of having to cut corners! We all like that, don't we?
And that's where Jisei comes in. Sakevisual needs money to stay alive and to continue to produce free games, and I want to offer a good incentive for people to help us out. I've seen a lot of webcomic artists who offer special wallpaper or sketches as a thank you to people who donate a certain amount of money. In the case of sakevisual, I'd like to offer visual novels. Once it's complete, Jisei will be the first of sakevisual's "Green Tea" line of VNs, a collection of visual novels meant to thank people who support us financially. Money will go to things like website hosting and paying artists, composers, and programmers.
If you don't have a job/can't afford it/promised all your money to orphans with cancer, don't fret. I'll be holding contests and random drawings to give away copies of Jisei as well. And before you ask, our in progress games Ripples and hanamix2 will both be free. Promise.
In short: I will continue to make free games for as long as I live. But if I don't have any money to buy food, I probably won't live for very long.
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11 comments:
Are you guys going to be accepting Paypal payments and then mail us a cd copy of Jisei?
We'll actually be doing direct downloads. You can pay via PayPal, and you'll get a link to download the game immediately. Physical CDs will be sold at cons only unless you really want one badly, in which case just ask and we'll work it out.
With the type of VNs you're putting your time in to produce, it's definitely worth spending money on. What you've got going here is a good thing and it'll get sakevisual on the right track in my opinion. You've really thought things out :)
Hmm, I've thought about helping out sakevisual artistically... I'll need to keep practicing my art though o/;; Good luck with the release of Jisei!
You can add the option to have game on CD with BMT (or Plimus), so in case people really must have the CD they can order it directly from the shopping cart (with an extra fee of $8-10).
The screenshot of Jisei looks really nice so far! :O I'll be looking forward to it~
It's a nice idea you have going for sakevisual atm; it strikes a nice balance between the commercial and the free. :D
Hi, Im 15 and lack a paypal and credit card. if I asked my parents to buy this who knows what they'd say...
is their anyway I can send money to an address discretly and you send a physical CD? or do you have any other suggestion?
Hi, I really love the art of your games, do you plan to release art books/guide books or something like that?
Hi, I just wanted to say you guys are awesome. Thank you!
What's the difference between the
demo and full game ( like playing time )?
To Joshi Kousei:
You can do what I did at that age. Go to the store and buy a Visa/Mastercard Gift Card (like Greendot) or American Express Gift Card and use that to pay for stuff online. It's as simple as buying a store gift card but it's good anywhere, even online, and you don't have to be 18 to use it.
Hi! Um, about your reply to Joshi Kousei, though...
My circumstance is like Joshi Kousei, so its also like suicide to ask my parent to use their credit card...
But I don't know if there's such thing as gift card that you can buy in my country...(it's Indonesia)
Do you know a solution for this?
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