The document summarizes the structure and history of the visual novel game industry in Japan. It finds that visual novel games have a uniquely large narrative volume for their production cost compared to other media like novels and manga. Many visual novel game developers started as doujin (hobbyist) groups, and the industry serves as a talent pool for other media. The visual novel format is well-suited for producing epic stories at low cost.

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)

2. Presentation File Available
https://00m.in/G83le

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.

7. DEFINITION AND BRIEF HISTORY

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

9. Example: Fate/Stay night

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

12. BUSINESS MODEL &
INDUSTRIAL STRUCTURE

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

16. Basic structure
Developer
Developer
Developer
Developer Publisher
Exclusive distribution contract
Game Engine
Development funds
Cooperate
in non-busy season
Mediation
Subconductor
Subconductor
Subconductor
DistributorRetail Shops
Distributer

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

19. COMPARISON WITH OTHER MEDIA AND
IMPORTANCE OF NOVEL GAMES

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