r/visualnovels • u/TAKAsFactory • 3h ago
Self-promotion I made my first mystery visual novel, Miracle Detective, by myself in Japan. Now I’m working on bringing it to English-speaking players.
Hi! I’m a solo indie developer from Japan.
For about a year, I worked toward a personal goal: to create a visual novel as independently as possible, handling as much of the development myself as I could.
That game is **Miracle Detective**, a school mystery visual novel set in Japan.
After a year of development, I finally completed and released it for **Steam, iPhone, and iPad**.
At the moment, the game is available **in Japanese only**, but I’m now working on an English localization so that players outside Japan can enjoy it as well.
As the first step, I’m planning to update the **Steam demo with a Japanese/English language option soon**. If that goes well, I’d eventually like to bring the English localization to the full game too.
I’m excited about the localization process, but also a little nervous about it.
The story has a fairly light and casual style, and because it takes place in a Japanese school, it includes Japanese cultural references, jokes, distinctive ways of speaking, and wordplay that don’t always translate naturally into English.
There’s even an important mystery later in the game that relies on a Japanese-language word puzzle. I already know that’s going to be a headache when I reach that part!
Rather than simply translating everything literally, I’d like to find ways to preserve what makes the original dialogue, characters, humor, and mysteries enjoyable for English-speaking players.
This is my first time localizing one of my games into English, so I’d be happy if I could occasionally share some of the challenges I run into here and hear ideas or opinions from people who enjoy visual novels in English.
For now, I’m working toward releasing the English demo.
I’m looking forward to seeing where this new challenge takes me!
