Regarding the Japanese translation (Patreon)

As some of you already know, a few months back I had translated the first part of A Promise Best Left Unkept into Japanese. It was only the first 100k words (since hiring a translator is not a cheap endeavor). It was to test the market and see if I could potentially make a profit by selling my games on Japanese websites.

The test was not the most successful, let's say. I only made around half of what I had paid for for the translation. Of course, it's mostly my fault for being bad a promoting… and also the translator I had hired was cutting corners, it seems (hard to tell when you don't speak the language). In any case, it kinda put an abrupt stop to my interest in the Japanese market for a while.

Not too long ago, I was weighing the pros and cons of a Japanese translation, and I was mostly ready to give up. But then, as I was conceptualizing my ultimate goal in the visual novel industry as a creator, there was something very dear to my heart that I could only achieve if I could become successful in the Japanese market; Japanese voice acting. When I think about my dream of being a full-fledged visual novel developer, having Japanese voice actresses for my heroines is at the top of the list. And obviously, the only way I can one day hire Japanese voice actresses is if I have a Japanese translation for my game, and if I have strong support from Japanese fans.

If one day I could achieve that, maybe having simultaneous releases in both Japanese and English for my future projects, and hiring voice actresses for those projects wouldn't be farfetched anymore.

So I decided to keep trying. In the same way I release monthly updates here, I will be releasing monthly updates on Japanese websites that are equivalent to Patreon. I actually released the first update yesterday. It's 20k words in length and starts right after Laura says to Harry that he's weak over the phone. Hopefully, I'll end up having enough support so that the translation can pay itself.

I hired the translator who translates NTRman games, so I know he's very talented.

I just wanted to let you guys know. I know it's a bit stupid in a sense since I already have a lot of work on my plate, but I feel like it's a worthy goal to aim for.

For those who want to help support the Japanese translation, you can do so on one of those three websites:

Ci-en: https://ci-en.dlsite.com/creator/17961

Fanbox: https://hangovercat.fanbox.cc/

Fanta: https://fantia.jp/fanclubs/494870

Also, if you guys have any good ideas to help me promote my game on the Japanese market, please do help. I'm kinda bad at this.