Decker Shado

The internet personality with the best hair, providing a weekly show of movie reviews and related videos.

PFP by @BlackMoonRose13

[Decker Shado @DeckerShado]

https://t.co/oAGjlB24jq

The demo for Convent Chronicles: Revelation is now available for download on Steam!

Check out the first 3 chapters of my upcoming visual novel - or as I like to call it, "a novel with visuals" as it has far more drama, mystery, and horror, and considerably less... you know... "dating simulation."

[Decker Shado @DeckerShado]

@pureMetatron First, I'd slowly turn my computer chair away from my monitors loaded up with editing software, game engines, and the perpetual twitter feed, and raise an eyebrow as she apparently shouts over from her computer desk, her current soulslike boss up on her television.

[Decker Shado @DeckerShado]

Guess I'll toss my hat into the ring.

The 2 hour refund window serves multiple purposes on Steam - one, it's a very customer-focused policy, a clear point to say "You have this long to try x game and can refund it in full if you are not satisfied for any reason."

Two, it encourages developers to develop their games around this policy in two ways. The first one, expressed here, is that games that are able to be beaten under 2 hours may simply end up being refunded in full and as such games should be designed to either exceed two hours comfortably, or be such a phenomenal under 2 hour experience that players will not care to refund it.

The second aspect is that longer games end up being nudged to get past all the bumps that lead to "don't worry, the game gets good after the first 30 hours" and push it closer to "the game gets good after 90 minutes, or less."

Steam does not bar games under 2 hours from being able to be put on the store, but it does not change the refund policy for them either. This refund policy has been in place for quite a long time, we all know it when going in.

Sure, it can be disheartening to get a large % of refunds. The way I'm going about it, I've got a pretty beefy demo available to try. I fully expect some percentage of players to not like my visual novel. Maybe detest it, perhaps only dislike it so much that they really don't want to put down money for it. As such, the demo works as a filter for these players, and they do not need to treat the refund window as a pseudo demo in it's stead.

Conversely, of course, anyone on the fence not sure about putting money down who finds they -do- like the story may be convinced to actually put money down for the whole experience. How well does it balance out? That's entirely a case by case basis, depending on the qualities of the product on offer.

I am not concerned with a large percentage of players blazing through the VN to snag the refund after beating it, because it's a 115,000 word story, and if you can blaze through that in under 2 hours you deserve that refund.

[Zoroarts 🦈 Paddle Paddle Paddle OUT NOW @Zoroarts]

This should not be possible @Steam

Would be cool if you could finally do something about your refund policy... Got dozens of reviews like that and 21% refund rate even though the Reviews are 90% very positive...

Thats over 55,000 Refunds btw...

[Decker Shado @DeckerShado]

@rah_66_comanche I vote Golden Week.

Mainly because it would have been really, really helpful if I knew it existed - before - arriving in Japan, finding myself woefully underfunded to afford hotel rooms.

Free tip to frugal travelers: internet Cafes often have very affordable overnight rates.

[Decker Shado @DeckerShado]

After what feels like an eternity, I have made it through the translation/localization process for a third time, now having Convent Chronicles: Revelation support Simplified Chinese -

https://t.co/ypTWpUjZZ7

This is in addition to Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese... and of course English, but that last one didn't have to be translated.

While I had to rely on AI to tackle the translation - I was certain to double check every single line every time I added a language, doing everything I could to ensure that the subtext and intent of every line remained accurate. This is part of why it took so long. The other part being that AI will surprisingly spit out "translations" that are literally the inverse of the intended expression at astonishing regularity.

From what I can tell, the PT-BR is probably the cleanest translation. Brazilian Portuguese is much closer to English than the other languages, and the lines I was checking frequently mapped 1:1 with the English, which was kind of surprising to me.

Chinese somehow was also not that much of a hassle. As a meaning-first writing system with grammar closer to English than Japanese grammar is, while things didn't map 1:1 nearly as often the meaning remained exceedingly close.

(rivers flowed through the lush green hills vs the lush green hills had rivers flowing through them, that kinda thing)

Japanese though... I gotta say, if by some miracle this VN actually makes some money, I think dropping the 10 grand for a proper Japanese localization might not be such a bad idea.

The meaning is intact, the story is there - I fought tooth and nail to ensure that. But my Japanese language skills are incredibly poor, and even I noticed all kinds of weirdness with the AI localization at regular intervals. そこ、ここ、and あそこ for instance are some very, -very- basic things that the AI frequently would mix up.

Nevertheless, I need to get some work done other than continued localization marathons. Remember, the visual novel releases on the 28th - and there is a demo available right now! All supported languages are available in the demo... so if y'all know Japanese, you might even be able to tell me just how butchered it really is.

[Decker Shado @DeckerShado]

@grok @Tapfuma315052 @blacksquad_22 Now make it even bigger - and one eye.

[Decker Shado @DeckerShado]

@tramstalker @ChristerEricson They were a lot smaller in scope.

[Decker Shado @DeckerShado]

@anon11472 @ChristerEricson When did I ever say I don't value others?

Please, stop fighting figments of your own imagination.

Have some tea, take a walk, meditate for a while....

Do something.

[Decker Shado @DeckerShado]

@anon11472 @ChristerEricson STOP FIGHTING FIGMENTS OF YOUR IMAGINATION.

[Decker Shado @DeckerShado]

@anon11472 @ChristerEricson PLEASE stop fighting figments of your imagination.

[Decker Shado @DeckerShado]

@anon11472 @ChristerEricson What workers am I exploiting? Myself?

[Decker Shado @DeckerShado]

@anon11472 @ChristerEricson Funny thing, I did find a solution. You just don't seem to like it very much.

[Decker Shado @DeckerShado]

@anon11472 @ChristerEricson So just don't make it?

Way to go to bat for creativity.

[Decker Shado @DeckerShado]

@anon11472 @ChristerEricson At no point did I say a basic visual novel requires that much to break even.

I said -the one I am working on- would, if put together with traditional methods, in the manner it has been.

Please, stop arguing with your own imagination.

[Decker Shado @DeckerShado]

@anon11472 @ChristerEricson That's a cheaper way to do it, yes, but that is not how this one is put together.

Are you going to address the actual thing in front of you, or continue shadowboxing with figments of your imagination?

[Decker Shado @DeckerShado]

Steam fees and taxes are a thing. Selling 10k at 599 is not the same as budgeting a game costing 10k x 599.

So the budgeting is closer to 3 million dollars.

Because industry professionals - not hobbyists, we're paying people what they're worth, right? - charge 'sabouts $1k per fullscreen, high quality artwork.

Of which the game contains approximately 4,000.

[Decker Shado @DeckerShado]

I specifically said the amount I was comparing was the average amount of sales for a visual novel. Which is 10,000 sales. Which lines up with the rest of my calculations, based again on the average commission price for the quality of artwork against the quantity of the artwork.

At no point did I ever say I expected low sales. You said I expected low sales.

[Decker Shado @DeckerShado]

@anon11472 @ChristerEricson Considering I never stated I expected low sales, you are not addressing me. You are arguing with a figment of your imagination.

[Decker Shado @DeckerShado]

@anon11472 @ChristerEricson Who are you talking to?

[Decker Shado @DeckerShado]

@anon11472 @ChristerEricson Aspire to do more?

How much more? What would be a standard you would accept?

[Decker Shado @DeckerShado]

@FabulaForge @ChristerEricson Did either of your visual novels contain over 3,000 unique fullscreen images?