Chapter 304: Clannad
What should the new game be?
Takumi chose Clannad without hesitation. He had wanted to create it for a long time. Clannad is the third visual novel (galgame) released by the famous brand Key. It represents the "spring" of Key's "Season Suite" game. The game positioned itself in first place in visual novel sales in the second month after its release.
This game breaks the ideological limitations of common visual novels. The main theme it shows is not love, but family affection. Thanks to its moving plot and rich connotations, it is considered a masterpiece by many. It is popular and recognized. As a new game, Clannad is undoubtedly the best choice.
After deciding on Clannad, Takumi got to work immediately. He first drew the character settings and then faxed them to the production department's designers to familiarize themselves with the style. This work was very easy for Takumi, but it was a test for them. Fortunately, they already had previous collaboration experience, and the artists divided the work and started drawing within a few days.
The first step went smoothly, and the second was the script's plot. The amount of work in this step exceeded Takumi's expectations. The plot of Clannad is very long and complex, far surpassing the writing of Fate/Stay Night, and could even be compared to the volume of an online novel.
Takumi made a preliminary calculation and found that it would take him a month to write the full script, and that he had to be very focused.
"Too much time..."
If he finished the script first and then developed the game slowly, he definitely wouldn't make the deadline, and Takumi couldn't write the script without working. So, before writing the script, he called some programmers from the video game production department to Tokyo, explained the game framework needed for this story, and asked them to develop it first.
Although Clannad and Fate/Stay Night are both visual novels, their main body is the same, but the details are very different. The story of Clannad requires collecting something called a light orb, key to unlocking later content, so the game's structure must be redone.
However, it's simpler than creating the game structure of Pokémon, and several game designers agreed with confidence.
The artists draw. The designers create games, and Takumi prepares the script. He learned from his previous experience and didn't write on paper, but entered it directly into the computer, saving a lot of time. Every few days, he would send a paragraph to the Hinotori Publishing headquarters in Suhua, and then the artists would draw according to the script's content. Once the image was drawn, the designers would proceed to the next step.
With this synchronized process, the game's production speed barely reached the standard, but Takumi was very busy.
He had to carry a laptop to work, typed whenever he had time, and drew manga with his assistants at night. He often wondered why he was in such a hurry. Why was he in such a hurry to make Clannad? In fact, did it matter if it was slower? Why did he have to do it in three months?
And three months later, he had to make an animated film.
"No vacations!"
Takumi was a bit tangled. He felt trapped in a labyrinth, but since he started, he couldn't stop and had to finish the work.
At that moment, an accident occurred: the game Clannad was leaked. This time, it was leaked from the website of a game company that claimed to have received information from Hinotori Publishing. Pokémon was put on hold indefinitely, and now Mirai-sensei began to create the second adventure game Clannad, with a family theme.
As soon as the news broke, a stir erupted on the internet.
"Is Mirai-sensei developing a new game, is it true?"
"Clannad? What does the name mean? Why are Mirai-sensei's game names so weird? I understood a little last time, but this time I don't understand at all!"
The Mirai-sensei's Corner Forum also quickly filled with this news, and readers asked if the news of the new work was true. Yoko had to tell Takumi and asked him what to do.
"Has it been leaked again?"
Takumi asked, somewhat annoyed. In fact, whether Clannad was leaked or not, the impact of the leak wouldn't be very large. This game will be released soon, so he will announce it to the public soon. However, this type of artificial leak made him very unhappy. The Pokémon matter was fine, but Clannad was also leaked in advance. Will all the other games he creates in the future be leaked in advance?
"Yoko, investigate the employees in your department to see who leaked the information. Find him and fire him." Takumi's voice was very cold, "I don't need an employee who can't keep a secret. If the story is leaked in the future, what's the point of our game?"
After hanging up the phone, Takumi returned home at night and searched the internet for which company knew the news.
The company that leaked the news was a game company called Mizuki Games. This company is not small. Several of its online games rank among the top in the country. Takumi also discovered that it had, in fact, produced a visual novel. Only a year had passed since the launch of Fate/Stay Night. This company, in fact, produced a visual novel. Their vision is quite sharp.
What surprised Takumi the most was that the sales of this visual novel were extremely high, even reaching the level of Fate/Stay Night, and they were all adult games!
"Was it discovered?"
Takumi asked, frowning slightly. He knew this day would come, but he didn't expect it to be so soon. In fact, a visual novel is a game about pretty girls falling in love, and its most popular element is the adult content (+18). Takumi didn't develop in this direction, but it was still discovered and used by others. With such a large number of players in Japan, games with adult content (+18) have a natural selling power.
This type of sales can be seen in many places. When Takumi observed the readers' reactions to the leaked news on the Mirai-sensei's Corner Forum, he discovered that the most common response was: "I beg Mirai-sensei to make Clannad an adult game (+18)!"
Both male and female readers seemed to be asking for more adult content.
"Yoko, has the government established review standards for visual novels?" Takumi asked on his phone. He reviewed the online comments and discovered that the current visual novel players were completely different from a year ago, so he thought that, at least in terms of game review, the government should have issued standards that allowed for an 18+ rating.
"Yes, our game must also be reviewed by the Ministry of Culture before its market launch." Yoko replied, "The content of the reviews is similar to that of other academic works and games. However, a rating system now exists, and other manufacturers are developing adult versions. Now, the 18+ rating is the norm in the online visual novel market, representing more than 10% of sales..."
He explained to Takumi the development of visual novels over the last year. Since Fate/Stay Night pioneered and caused a sensation, Japanese game manufacturers have unleashed a wave of followers. However, this wave suffered a major setback a few months later: the game couldn't be sold, to be precise. The scripts of these later works are generally of low quality, and the music and images are completely incomparable to Fate/Stay Night, so players don't buy it.
Under these circumstances, manufacturers have unleashed a wave of 18+ ratings. Pure games are based on plots and scripts, but 18+ games won't worry about not being able to recover the investment as long as they sell pornography. In addition, the Ministry of Culture introduced a rating system for online adventures. This provoked the anger of the developers. Although they lost the online adventure market, the market is still very active.
"No wonder the forum readers want me to make an 18+ version!"
Takumi understood, and he felt a little regretful. The market is the market, and it can't change because of him. Only a year has passed. Visual novels have returned to their original appearance.
"Mirai-sensei, think about this. I think the 18+ version is more popular..." Yoko paused and said slowly, "I think you don't know that the most popular 18+ visual novel is Fate/Stay Night. During your absence, several fan authors added sex scenes to your Fate/Stay Night, which was very popular."
"What?" Takumi was stunned, "What happened?"
"Someone adapted Fate/Stay Night into an 18+ version, without dubbing, and the images are also very bad... But that version of Fate/Stay Night was very popular. It's more popular than the original version." Yoko replied, "Of course, we found those people and asked them to compensate for the losses, but the 18+ version has spread and cannot be banned. So we took the opportunity to investigate." "
According to the data, if Fate/Stay Night had become an 18+ restricted game from the beginning, its sales would have multiplied by at least five. Mirai-sensei, what do you think? I think it would be more popular if the new work Clannad had become an 18+ restricted version!"
Yoko wanted to convince Takumi to change his mind, as Takumi planned to make Clannad an all-ages version.
"No..." However, Takumi thought about it, shook his head and said, "I don't think the Clannad script needs adult content."
In the original world, Clannad also had an all-ages version when it was first released. Takumi had no intention of changing this, and his target audience was not those over 18. He also hoped that young people could play it. It's an educational game, and hormones should not be allowed to take over.
"I knew you'd say that, so why don't we do this?" Yoko, who had already anticipated Takumi's response, suggested with a smile, "How about we develop two versions? One for all ages and one for over 18... That way it will be open to all players and you won't have to worry about anything."
"..." Takumi was speechless, "Do you think the +18 version is that important?"
"Mirai-sensei..." Yoko sighed and said slowly, "Actually, I wanted to tell you last year, but you were too young then... Now you should have turned 18, so I'll be direct... We are businessmen, and that's enough to make money. Why do you care so much about moral integrity?"
Takumi was speechless for a moment. He thought about it, and what Yoko said made sense. Why did he care so much?
"All-ages version and 18+ version..." He finally asked, "We can release these two versions at the same time, right?"
"Of course!" Yoko affirmed, "Other manufacturers do it, but their all-ages versions can't be sold..."
"Good thing." Takumi nodded, "There are two versions... By the way, did the leaker find out?"
"Well... he resigned voluntarily..." Yoko sighed, "It turns out that Mizuki Games wanted to sign him a long time ago. This time he was very direct and paid us the compensation... Mirai-sensei, I'm sorry, I didn't expect such an accident. He also knows part of the script. If this is revealed to others, will it be serious?" she asked nervously.
Takumi went to the official Mizuki Games website, saw the leaked chapter, shook his head and said, "No problem, this spoiler isn't that serious."
In that leaked chapter, Clannad has two tags: one is family and the other is... funny!
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