Today marks the launch of the Narcissu 10th Anniversary Anthology Project arriving on Kickstarter with a goal of $75,000. This is a huge moment for fans of Narcissu as this collection is no doubt going to be a must-have for them. Not only that, but it will help introduce a new era of visual novel fans to a fantastic series. It’s worth noting that if you do not have any knowledge of the series (but would like to) that you can play Narcissu 1st and 2nd for free on Steam.
This project also marks the 10th posted by Sekai Project in the span of just under two years, the eighth of which is for a visual novel. When Witch Boy Magical Piece failed to accrue enough backer interest, I wondered what their next step would be in regards to that project. At this point, we still don’t know as they have not posted a post-project Kickstarter update as is so customary with failed projects by other people. My belief is they are currently in private discussions with Rosemary House discerning how exactly to proceed. Even if those talks are still under wraps, an update saying “we are currently negotiating our next move” would be very beneficial.
As it stands, it feels incredibly awkward to see Sekai Project not acknowledge this failure publicly at all. It becomes even more awkward now that they’ve jumped right onto Kickstarter again while still mum on Witch Boy Magical Piece. To be fair, Narcissu 10th Anniversary Anthology Project has been in the planning stages for a good long while, and recently got a Prefundia page, but it’d be nice to see things resolved with their last project first.
Track the progress of the Narcissu 10th Anniversary Anthology Project Kickstarter in our Campaign Calendar.
Mixed feelings on this project, not because of there previous failure, but because of there timing. The $20 asking seems fair since your technically getting four chapters, however with how much I’ve committed to the Muv-Luv project, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to back this one.
I was hoping to see you comment, Nonscpo :). Same here, the Muv-Luv project and this overlapping is going to be a huge strain on my wallet, if I choose to back both. Of course I want the $150 tier on both….
I guess my biggest issue, is that I never got around to playing the first two titles. Besides, with the limited amount of free/game time I have, I feel that there are other visual novels I need to tackle first. Still wish them best of luck.
P.S. Doing the kickstarter now with the Muv-Luv campaign ongoing in my view is a bad move. Even if they get a shout out from one of there updates, I think people are too committed to Muv-Luv, to be able to spare anything on this one. Hope to be proven wrong.
So far it looks like their campaign is doing well enough ($22k as of this writing), but if there weren’t competition with Muv-Luv I agree it would allow more fans to back it. I do wonder if Sekai Project had kept the goal of $150k that they said on Prefundia if it would have worked out or not. Guess it doesn’t matter now since they didn’t, so it’s all speculation at this point.
This is what i post on the comment section
“To be honest i wouldn’t have back this without the comment saying you
realized you had a lot of pending project going on still not released or
enterily released and you’re going for another method. I back most of
your title and i still wait to see half of them..i am not being
aggressive, but i just wish you could focus on what at hand rather than
expanding your collection of title.”
The answer i got? I was ignored ^^
I guess it’s a no-no question.
I think i will unback it at some point.
I am beginning to become quite irritated with this gluttonous company.
I saw your comment on the page! It seems unless you ask something simple there will be little response. I sent a question to their Tumblr once similar to your comment and they did reply, but it just stated that they have their business plan and are following it. Makes sense, even though some onlookers find it increasingly worrisome.
It makes me wonder why so many Kickstarter campaigns and other non-KS games are required for Sekai to run. In a way, I wonder if this is out of necessity because the company does not really make that much money off visual novels once they are on Steam (don’t know if that is true, I’m just going based on the trend where many Kickstarter-funded games give away a ton of keys to backers but don’t make much money on Steam itself afterwards).
If that’s true, then the only way to facilitate paying staff/etc then they need to always be in a fundraising cycle — but that sounds outrageously stressful. I’m just hypothesizing.
Without the actual numbers. It’s hard for anyone to make any assumptions..(profit/margin).
But from what i learn at my business school..there is one contradiction in your trail of thought (not saying that you’re wrong but the way i was taught it shows signs of expansion rather than looking for self-sustaining mode).
If you don’t make enough money with sales and KS is a fundamental cycle of your survival.
You’d be able to only start and finish one kickstarter at a time. The way they are doing it with multiples titles and project started at the time is a sight of expansion and undertaking.
I would say a fast expansion added with a certain sense of pressure by the environment.
That’s my guess, i am not saying i am right but it’s a clear contradiction.
Starting new project is adding new costs (staff/management etc), costs that if aren’t made up for sales aren’t worth investing and starting up new project until you made a margin enough to do so.
I’d rather think that they are in a process of mutation growing fast and big trying to become the main actor in the VN business. Since it is a rather empty seat, their undertaking is fast and steady and maybe a bit greedy. It sounds more to me as a “let’s make more money process” with the idea of increasing their titles. Plus, i guess they need to pay some license or make a deal with the company that own the right to these VN that mustn’t be cheap..It’s also a huge cost to add, which for this company to go on and expand real make you recalculate their margin of profit.
My guess is that you and I are way far from the real numbers. They are making money and our estimation are probably way under the belt. Also this seat being good and empty, i bet they are worried that this juicy business is gonna take over by some of those japanese company that own the actual license (when they realize they could make money out of it).
If the idea of Sekai is to become the main intermediate and facilitator in the VN translation business/publisher for western VN/ Creator of VN. Then they need to act fast and increase their titles, increase their ownership, expand the fastest they can to be endorsed by those VN companies and become an indispensable actor.
As for the whole KS business-cycle? It’s probably that with this ambition and the need to expand fast, increase their titles etc while the margin is thin (because of the expansion).
They need any additional fund to fulfill their ambition or else honestly they will fail.
Imo, if that is their ambition, they will fail anyway. At some point the japanese company will just buy them out, take over and close the shop. But the heads will make a bit of money in this whole story, most of the people will retain their job (but that’s a 3 year story i think).
[…] decide to see the end of their lives on their own terms. For more info, be sure to check out our launch coverage and campaign analysis or simply grab Narcissu 1st&2nd for free on […]