vkalsen

Puritanism is the death of art.

Atrocious that American companies get to impose their moral standards on the rest of the world.

Sales Success “To be honest, I don’t remember how many we sold, exactly. But I recall the game doing quite well. At first we decided to sell the game only through our online store, Sega Direct, which is closed now. There were also talks to sell the game at the Comike [a large Japanese amateur comic event]. When we started to sell the game on our online store, it was instantly popular. That convinced us to go with a normal store release as well. Later, it was even turned into a Dorikore [budget Dreamcast Collection] release. Following the release, I have to admit that I did not follow sales, but I was told it did quite well. When you know that our development costs were low, this turned out to be a very good release. But I realized one thing with SGGG: a game should not be made with limited resources. It is far better to put in the resources and have bigger ambitions.”

Yeah, pretty much, although the retail release seems to have followed from the initial popularity of the digital release.

Wikipedia doesn't list a source for the game being a commercial flop, just a flat sales number.

I don't know whether 34,000 copies counts as a lot or not, but it seems pretty arbitrary without knowing the development and marketing budget (which at the very least, wasn't a lot it seems).

In their own sources, the lead dev recounts how the game was always meant to be a small scope game and that his initial presentation to the higher-ups at SEGA had a positive reception.

When he's asked about sales, he recounts the game "doing quite well".

I've reading up on Segagaga in light of the announcement and I'm stuck by how its wikipedia entry frames the game.

It details how the lead dev struggled to get a proper budget and that the game was "was not a commercial success".

But that doesn't seem like it's actually true?

link for the interested:

web.archive.org/web/20080808...

Using Sega As A ‘License’ “There is one key phrase in the original game design document that introduces the project: ‘To do a game with one hundredth of Shenmue’s budget and sell one hundred times more!’ You have to remember that at that time the entire company was focused on Shenmue; the entire building #3 of the company was used for the army developing the game. Now, on a more serious matter, I’m a man of ideas. I mean that I really like thinking and imagining new ideas. Sega is not a company of ideas, it is a company of technologies, centered on amusement machines and certain quests – like simulating the human body, for instance. We were hardware-driven since the beginning. When a guy like me steps in, it is most uneasy. Imagine that I come to a meeting and say: ‘Guys! I have a new idea that…’ The reply to me would be: ‘Please, we are busy with Shenmue at the moment’.

This entire interview is golden lmao

The main creator, Tez Okano, sounds amazing

over art for Stray Gods

there's a whole game for that

Taking Charge “Let’s say that I was the project! More seriously I was involved in every aspect of the game. I designed the game but also supervised the program, the sound, the graphics – everything. I was director, producer – everything from just one being: me! I was also in charge of promoting the game. You have to understand that we – no, I – had just about ¥30,000 (£142) to promote this title! I used ¥20,000 (£94) to get a mask made that I could use to go and promote the game everywhere! This mask was made by a true professional pro-wrestler. In many ways, the game established some industry firsts in terms of budgets alone!”

just learned about this game and I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be laughing or crying

Feels good to be part of the hardcore Sky fans

I had to write about Horses for @aftermath.site aftermath.site/horses-indie...

I bring a certain cultural analysis to the table that the man absolutely cannot stand

I reread this article every time someone links it and I laugh the same amount every time.

Just wall-to-wall bangers.

I have never (and, god willing, will never) played Red Dead and this article had me hooting and hollering with mirth. I would die for you Hayseed.

I hate the fucking boob thing
It’s just cartoonish at this point

Rixia is my potential man of Trails. She's great in Zero and then she just slowly fades into irrelevancy because she's not allowed to do anything.

Move over “For sale: baby shoes, never worn”, “My other HDD is fading” has rolled into town.

Controversial take, but I generally have a higher opinion of manga readers than gamers.

My expectations are simply higher for my fellow manga friends. They at least need to be able to read.

It’s at the very least pretty juvenile. Sincerely hope it’s mostly kids.

Extremely so! Like just read both series lol? Can't fathom the spending that much energy on something so trivial

yeah lol that's spot on

it's giving "my dad can beat your dad!"-energy

it just seems so exhausting to be in that mindset 24/7

that boy is not het at all lol
feels like a weird omission

Wait is Heinrix het? That doesn’t seem right

I keep reminding myself that it’s probably not functioning adults making agenda memes, but I just refuse to believe that there are that many underage people on twitter.

It’s a zero-sum game for them. Nothing can be good outside of being better than something else.

Back when I used to go on /a/, discourse was bad, but at least discussion of a series was isolated. Whether something was shit was unrelated to the quality of other series.

The real weird thing about manga-twitter is that it has devolved into console wars tier shitposting.

Like there’s apparently a beef between fans of Chainsaw Man and Jujutsu Kaisen. They’re down in the comments, battling about who is worse at writing women like it’s goddarn tennis or something.

Too many vowels. Slike.

"The Big Popular Game Award is dumb and bad and it means nothing!"

Yeah, it's... an award show?

No one pretends it *actually* matters beyond a metric for a certain type of opinion. If you care about artistic merit or whatever go engage with a niche outlet instead of the commercials show.

I can't fathom why people always get upset when The Big Popular Game wins The Big Popular Game Award.

I saw someone mention that emulation works except for random party finding, so seems like that could work