This game is now available on Steam!

Thank you for the kind words our time frame is getting everything done by end of the first quarter of 2014

Here's a list of things we need to do before it is ready for steam:

http://www.neechin.net/article/183/narcissu-12-has-been-greenlit-woo

Funny, Phoronix reporting on this also made me realize ONScripter is an open source[onscripter.sourceforge.jp] engine.

Since the game is free to begin with, you guys don't mind making the whole game open-source for people to, you know, mod it to make their own language packs?

Phoronix got a few of the facts wrong. We're using PONScripter which is also open source. The engine is open source, the assets are not open source in any way.

At the moment we are focusing on English and Japanese language and will add other language packs once the engine is updated to support more than 7 fonts.

Sounds reasonable. Since 3rd language support is a lower priority, I think they should be a post-release patch.

On that note though, how will the QA process be done for a 3rd language? Surely not any translation would cut it regardless of whether they are terrible translation or not, would they?

We will be looking at using a 3rd party to review portions of the translated text as from what we can tell quite a few of them are English to target language, instead of a native Japanese to target language.

You don't really need so many fonts at once. Steam client can just replace some files when different language is selected in Language tab.

If the Steam SDK supports that then great, we haven't looked at all the features yet.

It's probably not a good idea to be reliant on the Steam API, since the moment you do that, the game becomes a Steam exclusive (it would not work without the Steam API), ergo not available on other distribution services. Commercial games get away with that because other services can sell you keys to activate on the Steam client, but since this is a free game, there's no key to sell, so users of other distribution services will simply not be exposed to the game.

It's tempting, but being Steam exclusive is against our common goal, I think.

What are you talking about? It will not be Steam exclusive. Even now you can download Narcissu from many sources with many different languages. Some features like Steam trading cards, Steam achievements, Steam cloud, Steam language tab are Steam exclusive. But it does not mean that game is exclusive for Steam.

If Steam version will be exactly as any other versions, you'll have to say goodbye to Steam achievements, Steam trading cards, and any other Steam features.

Originally posted by TrickZZter:

What are you talking about? It will not be Steam exclusive. Even now you can download Narcissu from many sources with many different languages. Some features like Steam trading cards, Steam achievements, Steam cloud, Steam language tab are Steam exclusive. But it does not mean that game is exclusive for Steam.

If Steam version will be exactly as any other versions, you'll have to say goodbye to Steam achievements, Steam trading cards, and any other Steam features.

I'm talking about the official version, that is the one that won't be available anywhere else aside from Steam if they are dependent on the Steamworks API for multilanguage support, I never mentioned achievements or trading cards in my post.
I'm not talking about the unofficial versions, the ones you have to be told where to download from hearsay to get them from, I'm talking about the version that services like gog.com would accept, the one that will show up on the frontpage of distribution services for the public to see and pique their interest. You talk about other fan-created versions in other languages? Well guess what? No distribution services will accept those, thus defeating the point of delivering the game to as wide of an audience as possible.

The whole point here is public exposition, not availability.

And thus, multilanguage support cannot be dependent on the Steamworks API. Multilanguage support, not achievements, not trading cards. Multilanguage support.

If Narcissu will have achievements/trading cards, then it is already a different version. So nothing changes if they add some other Steam-only features.

> You talk about other fan-created versions in other languages? Well guess what? No distribution services will accept those...
English version of Narcissu is a fan translation. And you are saying that fan translations can not be accepted by distribution services? Don't make me laugh.

And even if Steam will have absolutely unique version of Narcissu, what's wrong with it? Other distribution services will die out of envy or something? Well, i don't really care about other services.

Originally posted by TrickZZter:

If Narcissu will have achievements/trading cards, then it is already a different version. So nothing changes if they add some other Steam-only features

I don't care about achievements and trading cards, I care about multilanguage support. How much do I have to emphasize this? MULTILANGUAGE SUPPORT. Focus on the point here. I don't care if other versions outside of Steam don't have achievements and trading cards, I never said so. But if they don't have multilanguage support just because multilanguage can only work with the Steamworks API, then that's a huge problem. I know this for a fact: the GOG version of Strike Suit Zero does not have integrated mod support. Why? Because the integrated mod feature of the game is dependent on the Steam Workshop.

Originally posted by TrickZZter:

English version of Narcissu is a fan translation. And you are saying that fan translations can not be accepted by distribution services? Don't make me laugh.

Correction: insani's version is a fan translation, due to having no agreement with Kataoka before making it.
sekai's version is offcial due to having an agreement with Kataoka. sekai's version is not a fan translation.
You still think you can just translate any foreign game by yourself without agreement with the original creator and expect distribution services to accept it? They will not, they are not allowed to do so legally. Fan translation is technically illegal, and distribution services will get in trouble with the law if they endorses it.
It's true, and there's precedent. The fan translation of Yosuga no Sora[tlwiki.org], has received a cease and desist request from Cuffs (parent company of Sphere, the development studio of the game), and the group had to comply, they were legally bound to. They went underground after that in god-knows-where, Cuffs simply haven't snuffed them out yet.
I know it's absurd, but regardless of what I think, copyright law still makes fan translation an illegal activity. And it's doubly illegal to distribute it through an official channel.

Originally posted by TrickZZter:

And even if Steam will have absolutely unique version of Narcissu, what's wrong with it? Other distribution services will die out of envy or something? Well, i don't really care about other services.

I know the specific kind of people who have sworn off DRM entirely for the rest of their lives, including Steamworks API. That's why they will buy their games majorly on DRM-free services, some don't even have a Steam account (it's true, I have met a couple of PC gaming guys at my uni that said they don't have a Steam account).
Now, that's no reason to the strike them from the list of people we need to expose this game to. When Narcissu comes out, no media attention will be given to it, users of other services will not come to Steam, this game will have to come to them. I don't care if you don't care about other services. This movement is neither for you or for me because we are here, on the Narcissu Greenlight page, ergo we know about the existence of the game already. This movement is for people who have not heard of the game, this movement is to make them aware of it. Like I said, they will not come to Steam to play the game (because they don't know about it, and the media will not let them know), this game will have to come to them.

Originally posted by aquapendulum:

I care about multilanguage support.

Who cares about what you care? :) If someone wants to play, say, Russian version, he/she will download Russian version. They don't need multi-language version.

Originally posted by aquapendulum:

You still think you can just translate any foreign game by yourself without agreement with the original creator and expect distribution services to accept it?

You CAN ask original creator. Anyone can. Just like Sekai Project.

Originally posted by aquapendulum:

I know the specific kind of people who have sworn off DRM entirely for the rest of their lives, including Steamworks API.

They can download Narcissu with many different languages even now. Not multi-lingual, but no one really need so many languages at once.

We're looking at how to do multilanguage without Steam APIs. However, we want to stress again, that is currently not a priority. We will get a English and Japanese combined version out first and then see what is necessary.

We will be creating a repo on github with the current version of PONscripter that we will be using. Since the engine is open source, if someone else figure out before we do to get better multilanguage support that isn't dependent on having special fonts distributed with the game and they submit a pull request then we will review and accept it.

Originally posted by TrickZZter:

Who cares about what you care? :) If someone wants to play, say, Russian version, he/she will download Russian version. They don't need multi-language version.

That person would have to be made aware of the existence of a Russian translation in the first place. If a Russian user on GOG for example, sees Narcissu pops up, informed in the store page that the game is narrative-focused but doesn't have Russian language as an option, and he can't just get it for the gameplay and figure it out as he play, then he just won't give the game a chance. Who's gonna tell him about a Russian translation? It's illegal, sekai can't reference it, GOG can't reference it, nobody will mention it unless the Russian user ask the community who may or may not know about the existence of a specific translation of a specific game either.
If I speak on a personal level, then I don't care for a 3rd language. Public audiences is difference, public audiences are not me, they do care about support for their own languages. I'm not telling you to care about me. Hell, I don't even need an English version since I can play these games in Japanese just fine (with the little help from the dictionary app in my Android phone, of course). This is not for me, if you think I'm urging for Steamworks independence out of my selfish desire or personal motivation, you are seriously wrong. I'm urging for it for a common goal of getting this game to as wide of an audience as possible.

Originally posted by TrickZZter:

You CAN ask original creator. Anyone can. Just like Sekai Project.

In which sentence did I claim that nobody have either the legal rights or the communication ability to contact the original creator? Mr. Strawman over there claimed that, but not me.

Originally posted by TrickZZter:

They can download Narcissu with many different languages even now. Not multi-lingual, but no one really need so many languages at once.

But like I said, in order to do that, they have to be aware of the existence of the game and its translations in the first place. Like I said, this is not for the people who already knew about the existence of the game and want to play it in their own languages, this is for the people who have never heard about Narcissu in their entire lives. And like I said, this is not about availability, this is about public exposition.

And yeah, I still think this feature should be patched in post-release if necessary since it's still a lower priority. It's better to get the game out there sooner than later.