How to Build a Useless Storefront Video

[Antiga]

It's really easy. Add in a lot of flashy content but zero in-game images or any kind of information that might help make the person spending their precious time watching your video make a decision to buy the game.
Or, you know, just look at the vid in this storefront.

Edit:
Step 2:
And only hours after such a comment as above is made, make sure to remove most informative screenshots and replace them with typical VN screenshots with some text, a bland background image and a stereotypical girl.

[lordgizka]

I like how the prostitution angle, which is, presumably, THE selling point, is not mentioned at all.

[archmag]

This is one of the things I don't like about such releases. Even though most adult games now provide adult content DLCs freely in Steam some publishers still keep them at their own site. Because of this they don't show anything about actual game play when game is focused on sex. Just some random dialogue pictures which give zero info about quality of animations or type of content in game. I am not sure who is the target audience of this game. New people who don't know about it will skip it because nothing in store attracts them, it looks like basic vanilla VN. Only people who know about this game from other sources will notice it. But if they know about this game from other sources they most likely already played it. So this leaves only people who know about this game from other sources and played it but still want to throw away some extra money because they really liked the game.

In this game specifically there are battles and base development which could have been shown but for some reason only one screen shows a part of the battle with two character and flying dagger but then dialogue blocks the enemies and another screen shows info panel for clearing battles. That's it. "Guess what the game is about yourself". Where is the weapon upgrade screen, where is the battle with tires that split, where is the battle where there are a lot of different enemies attacking your group, where is the screen where you select a battle to replay, where is the skill unlock screen?

Originally posted by lordgizka:

I like how the prostitution angle, which is, presumably, THE selling point, is not mentioned at all.

It's not the selling point. At least for me. The battles are the most interesting thing in this game in my opinion. Prostitution is just there, not really necessary for progression. When I played it in japanese I didn't even look at those adult events which unlock (luckily they have their own section and not part of the main event line) but enjoyed the battle, equipment modification and skill unlocking a lot.

[Antiga]

It annoys me in almost all modern releases, from some random VN to indie games to massive AAA productions. In this case I still haven't been arsed to look up some gameplay video for the game, even though a lot of what it seems to be is quite interesting to me. I'm currently taking a lot more time explaining my frustration instead.
I'm pretty sure a good informative storefront could have convinced me to get the game (Anywhere but on Steam(NOR EPIC!), if possible. That is something I can be arsed with, after deciding I want the game.) but right now I'm more interested in this topic, than this game.

[Antiga]

Well, google does not provide any useful information on the game, youtube has no relevant videos either, except the trailer.
Really, what a botchy release... I understand the western market is not the primary market, but I've got absolutely zero access to meaningful info when it comes to this game.

[archmag]

I guess there is a good reason why they keep their games without adult tag and release DLCs outside of steam. It increases their visibility as you can google them and open the store page of the game without logging in steam or without changing your settings to be able to see adult games. This is one of the games that would still be enjoyable without adult content.

But even then some screenshots not of adult things but of battles, upgrade screens, victory panel, character info, skill list, etc should be shown to say, hey, this is what you will do in our game. Currently based on screenshots available you will only read.

Originally posted by Antiga:

In this case I still haven't been arsed to look up some gameplay video for the game, even though a lot of what it seems to be is quite interesting to me.

The gameplay is actually good in this game and I was surprised when they announced it will be released on steam years ago. I was surprised because there was a ton of text in different events that should have taken ages to translate and it was not really necessary for the main gameplay loop. As I said I just skipped a lot of adult events without viewing them and mostly focused on battles and character development. And then they disappeared for years. I am very happy to see the release happening tomorrow.

So the gameplay in case you are interested is divided into few parts - VN where you just read, brothel development where you build different rooms and assign characters which give you resources each turn or affect some other things (without being good in Japanese I didn't understand most of what was happening in that part), skill panel (several pages) where you spend different resources to unlock different boosts that affect different parts of the game and battles. The battles is what I enjoyed the most in this game. In battles you control one unit (if I remember correctly) and it is a wall of your units vs wall of enemy units. You can equip your units with different weapons and can modify weapons (you also can upgrade weapons by simply completing levels). For example, my favorite weapon was a thrown tire which I modified with a lot of extra range and with split ability that I transferred from some other weapon. So my main character was just throwing tires all over the screen.

[archmag]

Originally posted by Antiga:

Well, google does not provide any useful information on the game, youtube has no relevant videos either, except the trailer.
Really, what a botchy release... I understand the western market is not the primary market, but I've got absolutely zero access to meaningful info when it comes to this game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0AKBvjv5gw
Here is some gameplay video that I found (in Japanese). I recommend watching from 2 minutes in.

Japanese name of the game is "素晴らしき国家の築き方" so search for it if you want to see anything because the English version is not out yet so no wonder you couldn't find anything about it.

[Antiga]

Originally posted by archmag:

I guess there is a good reason why they keep their games without adult tag and release DLCs outside of steam. It increases their visibility as you can google them and open the store page of the game without logging in steam or without changing your settings to be able to see adult games. This is one of the games that would still be enjoyable without adult content.

But even then some screenshots not of adult things but of battles, upgrade screens, victory panel, character info, skill list, etc should be shown to say, hey, this is what you will do in our game. Currently based on screenshots available you will only read.

Originally posted by Antiga:

In this case I still haven't been arsed to look up some gameplay video for the game, even though a lot of what it seems to be is quite interesting to me.

The gameplay is actually good in this game and I was surprised when they announced it will be released on steam years ago. I was surprised because there was a ton of text in different events that should have taken ages to translate and it was not really necessary for the main gameplay loop. As I said I just skipped a lot of adult events without viewing them and mostly focused on battles and character development. And then they disappeared for years. I am very happy to see the release happening tomorrow.

So the gameplay in case you are interested is divided into few parts - VN where you just read, brothel development where you build different rooms and assign characters which give you resources each turn or affect some other things (without being good in Japanese I didn't understand most of what was happening in that part), skill panel (several pages) where you spend different resources to unlock different boosts that affect different parts of the game and battles. The battles is what I enjoyed the most in this game. In battles you control one unit (if I remember correctly) and it is a wall of your units vs wall of enemy units. You can equip your units with different weapons and can modify weapons (you also can upgrade weapons by simply completing levels). For example, my favorite weapon was a thrown tire which I modified with a lot of extra range and with split ability that I transferred from some other weapon. So my main character was just throwing tires all over the screen.

Thank you, this is indeed a lot more informative than any other place I've found so far.
And along with that vid, it seems the battles are mostly in auto-battler style? The game does seem to have enough depth.
As for the adult content, I think it's a shame they hide this completely. I understand the reasoning for wanting the store page accessible without needing people to be logged in, but there are plenty of ways to go about indicating "H content". If it is properly implemented, it is a plus.

On that note I've always been disappointed with how mature content is implemented in most games. Either it is completely lacking, even against all realism. Or it is core content and the entire game revolves around it. A few games like The Witcher use it as gimmicks and nothing more. Some TRPG VN's have it optional or semi-optional, like Eien no Aselia or Utawarerumono. And that's about it. So this implementation does interest me. Ideally I like it most when it is part of the main game as well as intertwined into the RPG mechanics. Though the game has to be excellent in the first place for it to interest me. This is super rare...

[archmag]

Originally posted by Antiga:

And along with that vid, it seems the battles are mostly in auto-battler style? The game does seem to have enough depth.

You control one unit, the rest are doing their own stuff mostly based on which weapon they are equipped with - either shoot from range until they run out of ammo or advance to melee. In video you can see a player controlling the princess in heavy armor and how she runs after the red circle that player moves and attacks automatically when in melee range. I don't remember if it is possible to switch character you control after you start a battle or if there are some special abilities you can use. I played it almost two years ago. I remember you can customize your characters with different skills a lot so there must be some active ones among them. I also don't remember if you can customize AI to be more aggressive or to stand back.

Notice how each level has different difficulties and a lot of random drops which you discover. So you can farm some weapon drops and then use them to customize your favorite weapon. I don't remember the exact mechanics of this but I remember this was possible.

Ohh, and after watching a video myself I noticed that it isn't wall of your characters vs wall of enemy characters, it is defense of your wall battles. So enemies try to destroy your castle while you try to defeat them before they destroy it.

[Rah]

The gameplay looks like some kind of primitive tower defense. If that's all there is to it, along with walls of text (especially if vanilla), I'm not so sure if this game is for me. Really wish Kagura released a more comprehensive video, detailing the relevant activities. Too bad.

[lordgizka]

Originally posted by archmag:

When I played it in japanese I didn't even look at those adult events which unlock

Dev is taking ♥♥♥♥ on his Twitter about how his next game is going to have the most words out of any doujin project ever. Graphomania is a serious disease.

[Antiga]

Originally posted by lordgizka:

Originally posted by archmag:

When I played it in japanese I didn't even look at those adult events which unlock

Dev is taking ♥♥♥♥ on his Twitter about how his next game is going to have the most words out of any doujin project ever. Graphomania is a serious disease.

I only play VNs with actual gameplay. And more often than not, it's the walls of text (For example, Eien no Aselia will have you read for HOURS between missions, sometimes.) that put me off. As about 70% of all VNs content is rehashing its own content (You will typically have a single character described about a dozen or more times within a few chapters, and this repeats in almost everything.) it becomes tedious to hear how shy the girl is for the 20th time. Luckily most of the time they are held together by intriguing stories.

But to get to the point, I will definitely not play his next game then. No matter the gameplay - I won't torture myself with such walls of text.