Slice-of-life romance eroge developer ChuableSoft is connecting with English VN fans--bridging a long-standing gulf between Japanese eroge developers and the English fanbase.
ChuableSoft's president, IshidaP, recently announced on Twitter that he's looking into releasing their titles in English.
. @jankahl Hi, I'm a president of Chuablesoft and interested in a localization of our games. I know @sekaiproject ,so pls wait a good news.
— イシダP（療養中） (@twit_chu) July 27, 2015
ChuableSoft is an eroge developer focused on slice-of-life romances, featuring a selection that alternates between comedy and drama. Several of their titles are rated highly by Japanese users on Erogamescape, including Ano Harewataru Sora yori Takaku (85, 367 votes), Sugar+Spice! (80, 551 votes), and Astraythem (79, 227 votes). English synopses are available for ChuableSoft's entire lineup, courtesy of LewdGamer.
After a discussion on Reddit, several fans reached out to IshidaP to suggest that he also approach Mangagamer and JAST USA. Sekai Project focuses on non-adult releases, with the goal of promoting their products on Kickstarter and Steam; in contrast, MangaGamer and JAST USA are more focused on purely adult titles. All three companies try to release adult versions (when they exist) for non-adult titles they license, but Sekai Project usually doesn’t license titles that do not have a non-adult release in Japan. Since ChuableSoft's titles are mostly eroge with no non-adult versions in Japanese, Sekai Project seemed like an odd publisher to approach first.
IshidaP also asked Westerners what they thought about eroge being censored for release on Steam. Several users replied, and he summed up their opinion as follows in Japanese.
“When eroge are translated and released overseas, what do you think when a non-adult version with the ero-scenes cut is released on Steam?”
When I asked this question to the English-speaking world, they largely responded, “We prefer a non-adult and adult version be released at the same time and price.”
I'm currently reading an article sent to me by a person who expresses an opinion about alterations that not only remove ero-scenes, but also lewd jokes and underwear showing [through wet clothes]... thankfully it's written in clear and easy-to-read English. Why I won't be buying If my Heart Had Wings
Since adult content isn’t allowed on Steam, they seem to be requesting a version to be sold on Steam, and then a separate adult version to be marketed and sold on another platform. As far as numbers go, Steam has many more users, but the core fans seem to want an uncut version.Source [1][2][3]
IshidaP seems interested in engaging with English fans, as he responds to many of the English fans who tweet to him, especially those who reply to his English tweets. Hopefully he finds a suitable publisher and starts releasing titles in English. The English market needs more proactive Japanese developers who are eager to connect with the English fanbase.
[Edit 7/2/16] MangaGamer has announced their license of If You Love Me, Then Say So! (the title in the feature image) at AX2016 (official site). One of the main selling points is the event system, which changes the game scenario based on how you spend your time and time your confession.
[This is my rewrite of LewdGamer's article, which I feel was not up to professional writing standards. I did the Twitter translations and fact-checking for that article. I also provided the article's topic and did most of the background research.]
