A new ZUN interview, concerning mobile game development

[cuc]

The Japanese Android game site AppGet has a new interview with ZUN at Comiket 82. The main topic is mobile gaming, which has become an extremely productive field for indie developers.
http://appget.com/c/news/7407/project-interview/

- ZUN admits his current guideline for Touhou fan creation is based on outdated circumstances prior to today's mobile game boom, and needs rethinking.  This guideline, last updated in 2011, expressly forbids the making of unofficial Touhou games for money, on all mobile or downloadable platforms including XBLA, Apple Store and so on.

- According to the current guideline, you can make free mobile Touhou games, but can't put in any method to charge money (no free-to-play model).

- He says he has no plan to make Touhou games for smartphones at the moment, then says he is interested in making mobile games.

- The rules of Comiket, which don't allow doujin circles to promote commercial products (which is only allowed in the coporate area), is also outdated and needs to change. By this rule, if he made mobile games, he too would have to leave the doujin area and go to the coporate area.

[Retsim Reklats]

He says he has no plan to make Touhou games for smartphones at the moment, then says he is interested in making mobile games.

So.. should we expect some danmaku on our phone?
This seems.. promising, though.  :3

[Dizzy H. "Muffin" Muffin]

Presumably he's talking about making not-Touhou games for smartphone; that's not an actual "no" to the question as you stated it, though.

I wonder if he could use his clout (to the extent that he has any) to get the Comiket rules updated. On the other hand, he is fairly well-known for not using his clout for anything ...

[Firestorm29]

This is an interesting turn of events, I thought that the mobile games ban was more recent than 2005.

This is interesting for me because systems like Apple Store and the like are much more accessible to the indie market, much more than I bet anyone would have thought that long ago. I wonder how Japanese law itself covers the cell phone software market, perhaps that itself needs to be updated before Comiket is.

[RemiShama]

I. Want. Touhou. For. iOS.
==

[Helepolis]

There is a Touhou game in the appstore for free which seems to be Imperishable Night.

I checked it out on my phone. Reimu is auto firing and you use your finger to evade.

[RemiShama]

Yep yep, I know this game, it's called Touhou Fantasy Night.
It's veeeery good.

[DX7.EP]

Interesting. Would like to see him work with the iOS/Android platforms and furthermore ease international releases of products this way.

Touhou on smartphone...well, the Cave STGs work quite well on this format so it's at least plausible to make a decent port.

[Arknarok]

TBH it's too early to talk about handheld Touhous. I agree with ZUN that current policies are in the way, but I don't see a good solution at the moment.

If only free games are allowed, I doubt many will bother creating them.

If paid (or free to play) games are allowed, then, indeed, they hardly are doujins anymore, since nothing limits their sales.

I can see ZUN updating his guidelines, allowing more mobile Touhou content to be created, but unless Comiket policies. change, I wouldn't expect much.

[Firestorm29]

Wow, I thought that game got shut down.

[RemiShama]

Wow, I thought that game got shut down.

Yep, but its returned in Appstore about 4 o 5 months ago. =W=

[Totaku]

Yep, but its returned in Appstore about 4 o 5 months ago. =W=

Well it's returned..."sort of"

What happened is yes, we learned about it. And us and probably several others (from the fanbase) notified ZUN, ZUN took action and he removed it. It came back eventually again, this time free. Still got removed from most stores.

Now the only one store that has the fantasy night. I think if you research you can understand WHY that's the only app place that still has it.

[Gorman8or]

Yep yep, I know this game, it's called Touhou Fantasy Night.
It's veeeery good.

I found that it was very buggy. So much, that it crashed just before I got to Reisen on every occasion that I played...

[RemiShama]

Strange, on my iPod 4G it works without crash or anything.

[homing curvy laser]

I'd still rather only have Touhou games on my desktop.

[cuc]

This is an interesting turn of events, I thought that the mobile games ban was more recent than 2005.

This is interesting for me because systems like Apple Store and the like are much more accessible to the indie market, much more than I bet anyone would have thought that long ago. I wonder how Japanese law itself covers the cell phone software market, perhaps that itself needs to be updated before Comiket is.

Yes, the point of the interview is that mobile game development is a very viable platform for indie developers, so whether doujin circles should be allowed to make mobile games for money becomes an important question to consider.

[Firestorm29]

Ya know, I went to visit the app store, it turns out it's not available to the U.S. even though it doesn't state it and I can view it through other browsers.

[cuc]

OK, instead of pulling things out of my ass (the mobile and downloadable game ban was part of the 2011 guideline), today I've actually spent some time researching ZUN's rules on fan creation and commercialization. There's definitely some interesting Touhou history buried in there.

[Firestorm29]

Could you share some links? I've only known about certain things about his guidelines such as the no commercializing without his permission request.

[cuc]

Everything regarding the rules is gathered here (the site is not run by ZUN, but even himself links to it):
http://www.geocities.co.jp/Playtown-Yoyo/1736/t-081.html

It contains the text of ZUN's earlier statements on Touhou's copyright, and links to the later guidelines posted on his blog.

Unfortunately, I don't know of any articles in English that do a more than cursory examination of these rules; it is beyond my capacity now. The NSFW site Sankaku Complex was one of the only English places that reported on them, but their style is sensationalist, spiteful and moronic, so that's still worthless.

[Branneg Xy]

http://appget.com/c/news/7407/project-interview/

Is it just me or the link above doesn't work(erver is taking too long etc.)?If anyone is having my same problem, I tried to search and translate  it by google and that seems to,slowly, do the trick .Anyway thanks for the heads-up and

http://www.geocities.co.jp/Playtown-Yoyo/1736/t-081.html

,whom is going to be translated bit by bit by my translator add-on.

[Lepetit89]

Unfortunately, I don't know of any articles in English that do a more than cursory examination of these rules; it is beyond my capacity now. The NSFW site Sankaku Complex was one of the only English places that reported on them, but their style is sensationalist, spiteful and moronic, so that's still worthless.

You know, just for that comment I'd treat you to a meal of your choice, or some hot coffee, whichever you prefer.

[pineyappled]

You know, just for that comment I'd treat you to a meal of your choice, or some hot coffee, whichever you prefer.

Might please you to know that this happens:
www.sankakucomplex.com

[Lepetit89]

Might please you to know that this happens:
www.tabloidtrash.com

I'm probably being dense due to lack of energy, but is it supposed to link me to wix.com ?

[pineyappled]

sankaku

[Dizzy H. "Muffin" Muffin]

I've seen Sankaku referred to as an otaku verison of Fox News.

[AnonymousPondScum]

Yeah, except I imagine that Rupert Murdoch has better hygiene and (marginally) better taste in all things sexual than Sankaku does.

(I'm actually defending Rupert Murdoch here, WTF.)

[Pepperized]

I have an unoffical Imperishable Night app on my iPhone, it was free of course, and it isn't quite right in terms of the actual game. Never the less it is highly enjoyable and I hope ZUN makes a port or an entirely new game for a smartphone, not that it will be in English mind.