Played some, love some. Why not?
Only problem could be, that VNs are really niche and attend only a very small group of lovers in western society. That's what most publisher would guess I think.

Higurashi is currently ranked #85 in the Greenlight top 100, it may very well be on Steam in the coming months.

Would be nice to see some, I agree. It's one of those genres I think are kind of underrepresented right now.

The problem is that with Greenlight (or any similar distribution system) is that it's hard to judge the quality of a VN without reading it. I can't tell my friends "go vote for X" because I don't know if it's any good, I'm just voting for it because if it was released, I'd probably spend $5 to find out.

What people could definitely do to help with that is release the first chunk of the novel/game as a "demo" similar to how Kindle books all have the first 5% available as a free sample. I've purchased quite a few books after getting hooked by the first bit that way.

I approve of this.

Yeah, something that gives you the first 15-30 minutes of reading time maybe (depending on length) with an option to import your save so you don't have to start over would be really beneficial

I also approve of this. They are hard to find, I got my first intro to VN's on steam recently and really liked it. It would be nice if there were more of a selection

I would love for more VN's to be on Steam, but there are a few problems with trying to get them onto here. The main problems I think are:

1. Most English patches are unofficial, any commercial release would require permission from the original devs.

2. There is only a small Western Audience for these kinds of games, fair enough it would probably grow if you add fuel to the fire. (If you know what I mean)

If people kept asking the translation teams and developers then who knows? Perhaps we will see some VN's in the future, I would certainly like it as they are very interesting compared to a conventional video game, and I love stories.

I've voted up quite a few visual novels on Greenlight, it is much more difficult to judge something that's so dependent on the quality of the writing when all you have to go on is a few pictures and description though.

That and there is a considerable negative stigma then VN aren't 'real' games and don't deserve to be on Steam, so such a project is bound to see considerable negative votes by virtue of it's genre independent on it's quality.

That's always going to be one of the inherent faults in GreenLight however, the most popular genres will see far greater attention and hence your likely to see mediocre shooter game get voted on long before a great VN simply because of the genre.
Which is to some extent probably intentional, Valve is bound to be more concerned with what will sell more then what's the better quality game within it's genre.

Publicado originalmente por InsertCookiesHere:

I've voted up quite a few visual novels on Greenlight, it is much more difficult to judge something that's so dependent on the quality of the writing when all you have to go on is a few pictures and description though.

That and there is a considerable negative stigma then VN aren't 'real' games and don't deserve to be on Steam, so such a project is bound to see considerable negative votes by virtue of it's genre independent on it's quality.

That's always going to be one of the inherent faults in GreenLight however, the most popular genres will see far greater attention and hence your likely to see mediocre shooter game get voted on long before a great VN simply because of the genre.
Which is to some extent probably intentional, Valve is bound to be more concerned with what will sell more then what's the better quality game within it's genre.

I agree with most of this, it will be hard to know if the VN's story will be good just off a description and a few images, perhaps a video too.

People who say VN's aren't real games obviously don't know what they are talking about, yes, they do not act like a conventional video game, however they are still classed as such, and if played they generally have better stories than most modern games.

While Valve may be more concerned with what will sell, the whole point of Greenlight was for community input, if the community don't upvote VN's then its the community's fault more than Valve, but then again, if everyone who wanted VN's voted them up I'm sure eventually they would get the recognition they deserve VIA Greenlight.

Publicado originalmente por Curtis@HeroesofTalon:

I would love for more VN's to be on Steam, but there are a few problems with trying to get them onto here. The main problems I think are:

1. Most English patches are unofficial, any commercial release would require permission from the original devs.

2. There is only a small Western Audience for these kinds of games, fair enough it would probably grow if you add fuel to the fire. (If you know what I mean)

If people kept asking the translation teams and developers then who knows? Perhaps we will see some VN's in the future, I would certainly like it as they are very interesting compared to a conventional video game, and I love stories.

You are basically thinking of VN from east-asia, right? I don't think that "importing" them is the only option for an emergence of VN in western-society.

It is on the other hand true, that most VN I played were also just fansubs. Would love to play some good original work of western developers and see the VN market here grow.
And with growing intercultural exchange through the internet, I think it is not unrealstic.

Publicado originalmente por Nightmare90:

Publicado originalmente por Curtis@HeroesofTalon:

I would love for more VN's to be on Steam, but there are a few problems with trying to get them onto here. The main problems I think are:

1. Most English patches are unofficial, any commercial release would require permission from the original devs.

2. There is only a small Western Audience for these kinds of games, fair enough it would probably grow if you add fuel to the fire. (If you know what I mean)

If people kept asking the translation teams and developers then who knows? Perhaps we will see some VN's in the future, I would certainly like it as they are very interesting compared to a conventional video game, and I love stories.

You are basically thinking of VN from east-asia, right? I don't think that "importing" them is the only option for an emergence of VN in western-society.

It is on the other hand true, that most VN I played were also just fansubs. Would love to play some good original work of western developers and see the VN market here grow.
And with growing intercultural exchange through the internet, I think it is not unrealstic.

Some original work from Western developers would be nice too, considering there aren't many I've heard of which have been specifically developed in the West, so if there were more, perhaps it would catch the attention of Eastern VN developers too.

Not many Westerners likes VN so it may be hard to be greenlit
But Personally I like VN

Publicado originalmente por Pathorn:

Not many Westerners likes VN so it may be hard to be greenlit
But Personally I like VN

I don't think its fair to assume that "Not many Westerners like VN's", if they were more intergrated into our video game stream they would most likely attract a lot larger of an audience.

I'd be interested in seeing more. I don't play them much personally, but I'd definitely consider trying some later on if they were offered on here and they looked intriguing enough.