A Kickstarter for a "visual novel" based on Fred Gallagher’s Megatokyo has passed $125,000 in its first six days and appears headed for a much higher number. Megatokyo was one of the first successful Webcomics, with a massive audience and print collections that paved the way for other OEL (original English language) manga-style works. A visual novel is a blend of manga-like storytelling, anime-style visuals (and soundtracks) and interactive game elements. Visual novels were a key medium in Japan, along with manga and anime, but despite some efforts in the middle of the last decade (most notably by Hirameki, see "Visual Novels Starting to Catch on Here"), they never broke out of their limited audience in the U.S.
Now Gallagher plans to change all that with this Kickstarter, which blew through its $20,000 goal almost instantly. Various stretch goals have now been reached, and at $150,000 all three parts of the novel will be funded. There’s a $500,000 stretch goal for "Excessively Romantic Content" that seems to be attracting a lot of attention.
Delivery options as downloads or on a flash drive are offered, along with lots of extras for higher level backers. Gallagher hints that he may offer the visual novel through other outlets as well as through the Kickstarter and through his own online store.
The Megatokyo property has been fairly quiet for the last three years; DC published the last collection of the Webcomic in 2010. DC had been publishing the collection under its CMX, and eventually Wildstorm, imprints. Prior to DC, collections were published by Dark Horse Comics, and originally by Studio Ironcat.
Now there's activity on the collection front. Gallagher has revealed that Dark Horse will publish an omnibus of the first three volumes this year. Gallagher also told ICv2 that rights for Megatokyo Volumes 4-6 are still at DC. He's generated about half the content for a seventh volume, so publication of that is "still a ways off," he said.
Can Gallagher make the visual novel a viable format in the U.S.? DC recently announced DC Squared (see "DC Announces New Digital Formats"), which has some visual novel elements.
And will the interest generated by the Kickstarter help give the collection volumes another round of sales? The Dark Horse omnibus will certainly help.
For Visual Novel
Posted by ICv2 on June 24, 2013 @ 2:16 am CT
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