GUIDELINES ON USEFUL FORMS IN FREIGHT FORWARDING (F) Danny Diep Toh MBA.pdf
Structure of pc visual novel game industry
1. Structure of PC Visual Novel Game
Industry in Japan
Yuhsuke KOYAMA(Shibaura Institute of Technology)
Nobushige Kobayashi-Hichibe (Tohoku Gakuin University)
Jin Nakamura(Atomi University)
3. About me
▶ Yuhsuke Koyama
Dr. Econ (2002)
Major: video game industry
▶ History of Japanese Video Game Industry(2016)
『日本デジタルゲーム産業史』
Written in Japanese
preparing for 2nd edition
Now on translating
It may be the first book about the history of video game
industry in one country.
4. Uniqueness of PC Game Market in Japan
▶ R18 games account for the majority in 21st century
Often called “エロゲー(erotic games)”
"Visual Novel Games" account for the majority
No statistics, but more than 90%!
▶ Market size is very small
Less than 1/10 of that for home game consoles
PC Games: 19 billion JPY, Console Games: 260 billion JPY(2016)
more than 500 new novel games are annually created.
▶ Works are transplanted into various media
Console games, Manga, Novel, and Anime
5. Example: Fate/Stay night (TYPE-MOON)
▶ Before FSN: Tsukihime (Dojin,2002)
▶ Original: PC R18 Game (2004)
Console game (2007)
Anime
TV: 2006, 2014, 2015
Movie: 2010,2017,2019, and 2020
Comics: more than 30
▶ Many sequels and related works
Fate/Zero, Fate/Grand Order
Fate/Apocrypha
6. Purpose of Our Research
▶ Analyze features and its industrial structure based
on interviews to various developers, publishers,
scenario writers and illustrators.
▶ Interviews: around 2010
Because this is a translated work of my old paper in
Japanese
Before smartphone and Steam get popular
Structures do not change even now.
8. Definition: Visual Novel Game
▶ Features (Hichibe(2016))
Text displayed on the CG or in the lower screen
Full screen size CG & Standing picture of character
Story branches by choosing the presented options
User interface where the story advances by click
BGM and sound effects tailored to the character's mind and
story
▶ Price and Volume
“Full price”: 8,800JPY,1.5-2MB scenario, 80-100 CGs
“Middle price”: 5800JPY, “Low price”: 2900JPY
10. Short History
▶ Pre History: SFC horror novel games by Chunsoft
Otogiriso(1992)
Kamaitachi no Yoru (1994) (Banshee's Last Cry)
▶ Horror Visual Novel Games for PC-98 R18
Shizuku(雫) ,Kizuato(痕) (1996,Leaf)
▶ Date Sim Type Novel Games for PC Win R18
To Heart (1997, Leaf)
Kanon (1999, Key)
▶ Many dojin followers began to develop visual novel
games and some groups entered the commercial
market.
11. Entry routes to visual novel game production
▶ Industry hierarchy is reflected
Consumer Kuzure
Doujin Agari
▶ Major entry route
Consumer(20th)->Dojin (21st)
Fist boom: consumer kuzure entrants
after Otogiriso.
Next and after: “To Heart” and “Kanon”
generated many dojin followers.
Console Game developer
(called “consumer” in JPN)
PC Commercial
Visual Novel Industry
PC Doujin
Visual Novel developer
consumer kuzure
doujin agari
13. Basic Revenue Model
▶ Production Cost: 38 million JPY (next slide in detail)
▶ Recoup line: 38,000,000/4400 -> 8637 packages
Small developers may reduce costs and set recoup lines to around
3000 packages.
WholesalerGame company
game
BUY OUT (NO RETURN)
Full price: 4400JPY/package(50%)
Middle price: 3190JPY/package(55%)
Low Price: 1740JPY/package(60%)
14. Basic Cost Structure
Expense item
Cost
(million Yen)
Voice 3
Music (theme songs and endings) 1
Scenario (2 Megabytes) 3
Graphic (Original picture: only line) 3.5
Graphic (Coloring) 3.5
Program (Standard engine usage fee) 5
Movie (Opening and Ending) 1
Sales promotion (advertisements, novelties, etc.) 2
Development Total 22
Package production (case of 10000 packages) 8
Indirect cost (office maintenance fee, etc.) 8
Total 38
15. 3 types of gaming company
▶ Developer
Devoted to development
Small core team + several subconductors
▶ Publisher
Pay package production cost, advertise the game to be released, and
release it as its own brand
Usually own the developer branch
▶ Distributor
Buy game packages from publishers and distribute them to retail
shops (= wholesaler)
Usually own both developer and publisher branches
17. Visual Novel Development
▶ Low technical barriers to entry
Highly standardized system & Many game engines
Not necessary for programmers
Publishers or distributers call some dojin group to invest the
production cost.
▶ Small group production and low cost
5 to 6 core people deeply involved in development
Workers monthly unit cost is considerably low
Some essential tasks such as level design and tuning do not exist.
Many tasks are highly specialized and not required whole
development period -> outsourced
18. Task difficulty and timing
Task Skill specificity Inhouse/outsource
Voice Actor
Very short term
Large
OutsourcingMusic
Movie
Scenario& Script
Almost all periods
Normally in-house
Outsource for
popular creatorGraphic (Original)
Graphic (coloring) Small
Normally in-house
Outsource in busy
period
Program Very short term
Small
(when using tools)
Outsourcing
Promotion
the latter half of
development
Large
Small developer
Publisher
20. Narrative volume/price performance
▶ Full price novel game package
Price: 8,800
Scenario:1.5-2MB (normal case)
Fate/Stay night: 4MB!
CGs: 80-100
▶ Huge narrative volume fit in one package
Middle production cost, but huge volume of narratives
More than 10 novels in one title
Huge scale stories can be developed without the risk of
being censored or stopped.
21. Amount of story and production cost
Scenario Volume per unit Unit production Cost
Entry
difficulty
Light
Novel
Middle:200pages
about 2-300 KB
Low (Several million yen) Lowest
Manga
Comic
Small or Middle
20pages for magazine
200pagesfor book
Low (Several million yen) Low
Visual Novel
Game in PC
(extremely) Large
about 2 MB
Middle (20-30 million yen) Middle
TV Animation Small
About 50KB/story
in Light Novel format
High
About 200 million yen (1 season)
High
Console Game
Large
(same as visual novel)
High
(More than hundreds of million yen)
High
22. Role of “Talent Pool”
▶ Entrance from dojin to commercial game industry
Many visual novel game developers were born as dojin.
▶ A role as a "talent pool" that supplies talent to various
areas of other areas.
Scenario writer -> light novelist, anime scenario writer
Illustrator -> mobile phone game, light novel illustrator
▶ PC visual novel industry is one of the “upper stream” of
Japanese creative works.
23. Summary
▶ Visual Novel game is the best media for producing
epic stories
Low cost & Low recoup line
Low technical entry barrier
▶ Many are from dojin
One powerful entry method to gaming industry
▶ This feature has pushed the novel game to one of
the upstream content in the Japanese media mix
Editor's Notes
Someone who have interest in my book, please contact me. I like to send a link of PDF file folders.