1. Visual Novels
Outside Japan
Domini Gee
Geoffrey Rockwell
Sean Gouglas

2. Higurashi: When They Cry (ひ
ぐらしのなく頃に)

3. Developing Market
What helped kickstart interest?
• Early visual novel localizers, such as JAST USA and Hirameki
• The use of the internet
• Fan translations of visual novels: “We are definitely not here
to help people steal these great games, so all of our patches
require a full version of the game to run. Fortunately, 07th
Expansion is a doujin group, so their games are fairly cheap.
Now that 07th Expansion has created a download version for
all of the games we've translated, they're even cheaper and
easier to get than ever. So please, support the incredible
people who made these games and buy a copy!”

4. Collaboration between
commercial and fan translators

5. Gamer Attitudes (Part 1)
How do Western gamers feel about visual novels?
• “Are visual novels ‘read’ or ‘played’? Your opinion? [….] I
mean, you don't exactly play them, since they usually have
minimal gameplay (Except for stuff like, say, Professor Layton
or Ace Attorney), but there's enough interactivity that you
aren't entirely reading them”.
• “Just make sure it’s more than words and pictures scrolling by
or you might as well just read a book”.

6. Gamer Attitudes (Part 2)
• In a poll asking what is the most important element of visual
novels, 57.1% responded 'story' and 30.1% responded
'characters‘.
HOWEVER:
• Visual novels with more overt interactive elements tend to
have greater profits than pure-text visual novels.

7. Obstacles to Localization
Why is it harder to sell visual novels to an overseas market?
• Differences in regulations
• Attitudes towards over-eighteen content
• Expectations for immediate, interactive payoff
• Demands that players read.

8. Final Thoughts

9. Thank you for listening!