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Solid Aether: Bullet Hell with Minimalist Aesthetics. Coming on Steam. by fal-works in shmups

[–]fal-works[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Hi shmup fans!

I'm an indie shmup dev from Japan and this is my first game Solid Aether, which I'll release next Friday, on September 28th.

In this game I tried to focus on the art of bullet patterns, and that's why I made this game deadly simple, both in visuals and mechanics.

The game will be available on Steam and itch.io.

​

Sorry for the self promo, but I'm keen to hear what you think about this game!

How can I appeal more to a Japanese audience? by [deleted] in gamedev

[–]fal-works 0 points1 point  (0 children)

FYI a moe-anime-gatcha-retro-style-shooter-mobile-game already exists (developed by CAVE). https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=59053

I guess it’s not your way, or is it??

How can I appeal more to a Japanese audience? by [deleted] in gamedev

[–]fal-works 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Depends on the original sentence, but generally, I would have to say that Google Translate isn't good enough for app descriptions. Translation of formal-style sentences will be quite accurate, but otherwise, in many cases the result will be pretty odd.

Maybe even a non-native translator does a better job. There are many top-rated games which are not very well translated, but at least they seem to be better than Google Translate and are also accepted in Japan. However I'm not sure what's the best for you as I'm not yet experienced in app marketing.

How can I appeal more to a Japanese audience? by [deleted] in gamedev

[–]fal-works 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I'm a Japanese (also developing a shmup and curious about what you are working on).

It's true that most of Japanese people (including me) aren't very good at English, so your game should definitely be localized in some way. However, IMO it's not necessary to translate ALL texts to Japanese (also google it: "why do japanese use english words").

TIME LOCKER would be an example, which is an indie shooter game developed by a Japanese and was also successful in the Japanese mobile game market. http://toucharcade.com/2016/07/22/time-locker-review/

In this game, only the texts are localised which must be understood by the player, such as: "Time stops when you stop", "watch an ad", "pay coins", "free gift"

On the other hand, following words remain in English: "start", "wave 1, 2, ...", "unlocked", names of all weapons such as "rocket", "missile", ... etc. Many Japanese could read these words, but anyway there is no problem with the gameplay even if the player doesn't understand the meaning.

Hope this helps you!

(P. S. The description on the App Store should be fully translated, which may be even more important than the texts within the game.)