Koropokkur Page is Now Live on Kickstarter!

We have a special announcement for you all today!

Following our Anime Expo announcement last year, we are working with Itaru Hinoue (character designer of acclaimed works like AIR, Clannad, Kanon, and Rewrite) to bring our very first project as a developer to English-speaking audiences! More information about the Kickstarter, Koropokkur itself, and our goal for this project are included in this blog post!

Over the next week, we want YOUR feedback on improvements you would like to see to our Kickstarter page! All feedback will be taken into consideration in order for our Kickstarter to be successful!

 Koropokkur Kickstarter Page is now live!

About

Whether you’re new to visual novels or a long time fan, we’re positive Koropokkur will leave a warm glow in your heart.

Here at MangaGamer, we love visual novels and everything that makes them special – the breadth of stories they can tell, the unique atmospheres they can create through sound, visuals, and music, and of course the depth of characterization they allow and the ability to really allow players to experience interacting with the characters. From the day we first began it’s been our mission to share this wonderful medium with English speakers and bridge the gap between East and West.

After ten years of quality localizations and publishing visual novels, we wanted to do something special for our anniversary – and what better than develop our own visual novel! We’ve already enlisted the support of a great team of developers, including the acclaimed artist, Itaru Hinoe, but now we need your support to help realize our full vision for this heartwarming little fairy tale of first love.

 

Summary

Somewhere in Hokkaido lies a small village of fairies, once known to the locals as Koropokkur. As times changed, their village prohibited its residents from interacting with the human world and the Koropokkur were long forgotten. However, a few of these young Koropokkur became fascinated with the human world and gazed upon it through the magic viewing pool. Asirrera, in particular, was enamored with an ancient Koropokkur legend of a young girl who ventured out into the human world, became human through the grace of Kanda’s Kamuy, the local deity, and found love with a human man.

Asirrera summons up her courage to break the village laws and see the human world for herself, using her magic to transform from the size of an apple to human-sized! Unfortunately, her clumsiness quickly gets the better of her and ruins Satoru’s last ditch efforts to save the maid cafe he runs in Akihabara. Plagued with guilt, Asirrera offers to help make amends and winds up working with Satoru to help revive the cafe.

After seeing her plight through the viewing pool, her friends, Cirta and Haruante, leave the village to help. While they’re both supportive of Asirrera, they also seem worried by her lack of urgency in fulfilling her true goal…

 

The Characters

Asirrera is a hardworking romanticist who has left the Koropokkur village in order to pursue her dream of becoming a human and falling in love, just like the girl in Koropokkur legend. Although pursuing this dream is her primary goal, she secretly holds yet another reason for leaving the village… She’s clumsy, easily flustered, and a bit ditzy, but she’s genuine and earnest to her very core.

Unfortunately, her clumsiness causes a great deal of trouble for our protagonist, Satoru, and she pledges to make amends and help him with his cafe. In addition to the general Koropokkur powers of changing size and how her outfit appears, she possesses the ability to conceal herself from others.

Haruante is a very intelligent and capable leader when she’s not spinning outrageous stories. Back in the Koropokkur village, she taught Cirta and Asirrera much of what they know, especially about the human world. She loves to tell dramatic and mysterious stories, but she has a compassionate side to her, too. She’s like an older sister to the two and takes Asirrera’s situation very seriously, perhaps moreso than she does.

In addition to the general Koropokkur powers, like changing her size and how her outfit looks, she also possesses the ability to control other creatures (the less intelligent, the better!) and transform their physical appearance.

Cirta is a carefree, rough around the edges kind of girl, who ignores all the minor issues or trivial matters that life happens to throw at her. Despite being a great hunter, she decides to leave the Koropokkur village after watching Asirrera’s hilarious antics in the human world. She’s a tomboy and a loyal friend through and through, and devotes everything to supporting Asirrera achieve her goals and obtaining true happiness.

She loves to exercise, especially fighting and contests of strength. Like Asirrera and the rest of the Koropokkur, she has the ability to change her size and how her outfit appears. Her powers also grants her super strength, which allows her to carry – or break – objects with ease.

 

The Staff

Artist & Character Designer: Hinoue Itaru

Writer: Miyu Naito

Music: Funczion SOUNDS

Localization: MangaGamer

 

Our Goal

As noted on our Kickstarter, our base funding goal of $30,000 will cover development and localization, backer rewards fulfillment, and Kickstarter fees.

Contact

Have questions or concerns? Don’t hesitate to leave a comment below, email our customer support (support@mangagamer.com), or reach out to us on our various social streams like Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr! Our staff members will get back to you as quickly as we can.


Updates

Update #01 (March 7th, 2018, 12:40PM EST)
First of all, thank you everyone for all the feedback you’ve given us thus far! Keep it coming! To give a quick update on some things you’ve brought up:

  1. In response to your feedback, we’ve decided to provide both MangaGamer Keys and Steam Keys to all backers pledging for a tier that receives a digital copy of Koropokkur!
  2. As for porting to Switch or other consoles – at present that is outside of the current scope of the game and the abilities of the engine it’s currently built on. Once we hit the first stretch goal for Linux & Mac support, we’ll be upgrading the engine to Unity which will make such console ports easier, and bring them into the realm of consideration. Once we hit that stretch goal we’ll be able to look into the possibility of console ports, but we’ll still need to get quotes to determine if they’re viable.
  3. Likewise, a dual language release is difficult on Koropokkur’s current engine, but once we hit the stretch goal for Mac & Linux support via the Unity engine, we’ll be able to add dual language support with minimal difficulty. It might increase delivery time, but since there’s so many requests for this feature we’ll add it to the $40k Stretch Goal.
  4. Since there’s been a lot of suggestions to lower the $10 tier to $1, we’ve decided to adjust that as well. We’ll be lowering it down to $1, so please help us make up the difference by spreading word about our Kickstarter to more of your friends and social circles!
  5. Though we never intended for Koropokkur to be an adult title, we’re surprised to see how much response we’ve gotten about it. We’re currently making some inquiries to determine the potential for bonus adult content, so we’ll have more updates on this later.
  6. For anyone interested in upgrading your shipping, we will be adding EMS as an add-on item through Backerkit!
  7. Lastly, some visual modifications have been made to our Kickstarter page to hopefully avoid further confusion and reflect the changes noted above. Please expect further modifications over the next week.

Please continue sharing your thoughts with us! We’re excited for the launch on March 13th, and hope you are too!


Update #02 (March 8th, 2018, 4:19AM EST)
Hey everyone, keep the feedback coming! We have a followup update on the possibility of adult content.

After broaching the idea with the writer and artist, they’ve both agreed they would be willing to add the content as bonus scenes placed outside the main story. (Think eden* PLUS MOSAIC for a comparison.) If we do include this content though, it will be after reaching the Stretch Goal for the 2nd DLC, and the adult content would not be available on Steam, only through Mangagamer.com

However, if we do reach the point where we can add adult content, then this is likely to limit our options and possibly change which voice acctresses we can hire to play the roles. So with that in mind, we’d like to collect your opinions over the next few days though this poll:

https://goo.gl/forms/zV0TlEDzOPVnLTqX2

Please take a moment to a fill it out and let us know your thoughts on including adult content drawn by Hinoue Itaru!


Update #03 (March 12th, 2018 10:40PM EDT)

Hello, thank you for your continued feedback! There’s only a few hours left until the official launch now, but we’ve got one more new update for you all!

After reassessing some things with our development team following up on some of your feedback, we’ve decided to reduce the price on the Itaru Devotee tier to $7,500 and add a new perk to it too!

Now, in addition to flying to Japan and getting to eat dinner with Hinoue Itaru herself, you’ll have an opportunity to be featured in Koropokkur as a customer at Petit fille! If you back the project at this pledge tier, you’ll be able to design a short situation in which you appear at the cafe in game and interact with the Koropokkur! These short scenes will be included in the base game, with a menu option to turn them on or off. In addition to having creative input on this scene, if Koropokkur reaches the Voice Acting stretch goal, you’ll also have the Koropokkur voiced in your scene!

This pledge tier will be very limited, so don’t let the opportunity pass you by!

The Koropokkur Kickstarter project will be launching Tuesday, March 13 at 1PM EDT, so set your clocks and join us in this bringing this cute tale to life!

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19 Comments

  1. Is it me or does the $160 and $180 tier rewards are basically the same? Though the $160 tier has “Early Bird” on it and seems to be the differing factor?

    Hinoue Itaru’s uncolored character design artwork looks really great. The coloring looks dated though compared to others but I guess its the differing style among artists. Asirrera is definitely my favorite design among the three girls.

    Anyways, I’ve never backed a kickstarter before so I’m not sure I will here as well along with the fact that I don’t use steam. The really good rewards for kickstarter projects are always so expensive too which is justifiable, but I can only shell out that kind of cash if it’s something that I’m a die-hard fan of. Though I do wish MG all the best.

    That $9000 tier sure is enticing but I definitely can’t afford it lol. A trip and then dinner with a famed artist like Hinoue Itaru is such a treat for those who can afford it.

    • Hello!

      In regards to the $160 & $180 tiers, it’s common for Kickstarters to offer Early Bird options so people can pledge for the cheaper tier. Once that tier runs out of available backer slots, then the Early Bird option is no longer available.

      We definitely appreciate your feedback all the same, and we apologize for any confusion the page may have caused. If you have any additional questions or concerns, please let us know and we will get back to you as soon as we can!

      • Oh, ok so that’s the difference, thanks. I’ll stay up to date just in case I change my mind and decide to help. As a long time MG customer since the release of Koihime Musou, seeing the company come such a long way makes me feel excited about it’s future endeavors.

  2. Koropokkur is only ALL-AGES version? Sad.

    I am not really very fond of suppurting some all-ages version for kids. You should at least think about adding some DLC that will add 18+ content.

    • After much discussion, we are currently making inquiries to determine the potential for bonus adult content. Please stay tuned!

    • I don’t see why it’s bad for a developer to choose to not add R-18 content to their game? There are some games that work with R-18 content while there are other games that work better without the erotic content. If a game doesn’t have erotic content, it doesn’t make the game automatically “kiddy” or bad. For example, the Higurashi and Umineko series do not have R-18 content, but you wouldn’t present the game to kids due to its gory and mature content.

      Another thing to consider is that one of the stretch goals MG listed for the Koropokkur campaign is to add full voice acting, which they’re in the in middle of scouting “several famous anime voice actresses” for. A lot of popular anime voice actresses are unlikely to voice in games containing pornographic content with their names attached so adding R-18 content could hurt MG’s chances of bringing them on-board with their project.

  3. I probably won’t pledge since it’s all ages, but I do wish you luck!

  4. This post makes it almost impossible to tell who the protagonist is. There’s no information about him at all? If the story is all about her and her love of a legend and her choice to seek love, why aren’t we playing as her? Even the title of a fairy’s tale says it should be her.

    • I agree with this. It really isn’t clear who the protagonist is. And from the description, it would make more sense that we’re playing as Asirrera.

  5. Love the updates~ I can’t wait to back this project once it goes live. Though I hope an artbook and a Collectors Box can be added, and to have a wallscroll with all the characters on it. That way I can spend more money ^o^ Haha.

  6. Not gonna support this; Kickstarter is not a viable business model for the distribution of VNs, and appealing to normies so much with generic moege isn’t why I like VNs to begin with.

    I will see what happens.
    Definitely won’t back this KS campaign though.

  7. Your second update sounds like a good compromise between those who want 18+ content and those who don’t. Would have backed this either way, so looking forward to this.

    One question: Will everyone character important enough to have an effect on the plot have a character portrait? I’m asking since in Rewrite there were characters who did have plot significance that didn’t have character portraits, so…

    • All three of the Koropokkur heroines have a variety of sprites, and some important side characters do as well. Satoru does not have a character sprite, but he’s illustrated (with face) in several event CG. Minor bit roles that only show up for a few lines do not have character sprites at present.

  8. Needing above 150k for a chance of adult content in this situation basically means it won’t happen. Recent VN’s that reached more than that were mostly already popular or well known, otherwise mostly under 100k.

  9. I know a lot of the audience are fan of adult titles (I’m one of them), but don’t be discouraged from the original vision even if it is early days in the project. Not every VN or Mangagamer published projects needs to have an R-18 version and you shouldn’t feel like an original project (not a localisation) needs to do so.

  10. So we can’t use paypal to back?

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