One of my ambitions is to expand from fansubbing Anime, and make a move into the world of Visual Novels. And after recent developments, this is no longer a dream, but a possibility.
The first project we will be working on is Tomoyo After. Doki has many translators, but all are involved in translating anime.
I am seeking one (or more) translator(s) dedicated specifically to translating Tomoyo After. You will be provided with the Japanese text to translate from. You can email me if you are interested, or go on our IRC channel and find me or Cruxis (Supreme Receptionist of the Doki VN Department).
Cruxis edit: I am also looking for a person who completed this Visual Novel and can provide me some necessary resources. Find me in #doki.
Later I will be recruiting a number of “testers” to play the patched game, for debugging purposes.
There will be no “public” release until the entire project is complete.
Edit: A small update about how we will deal with the release, which shouldn’t be too far away. The only thing we will release officially, ie, via this blog, is the patch itself. We will NOT be releasing the actual game (iso or otherwise), for obvious reasons. You will have to find a copy of the game yourself. If you idle on #doki, I am sure someone will be able to help you.
Wednesday 27th April 2011 
5:17 PM 
hey, could you guys mayyyybe do soukko akki muramasa, gekkou no carnevale or shikkoku no sharnoth later? or if your more intot he happy-eroge-anime-esue style, amybe try soemthing from unisonshift, like piece@pieces (the art and CG’s are done by the woman who did the illustrations for the shakugan no shana novels!) please please one of those they are awesome^^
i think Key get priority, though…… 😛
Why? Because Key is superior. That is all. =D
>I am very impressed how you were able to determine our anime-mentality if you don’t see our work behind the blog.
You will see what I mean by anime-mentality once work starts on the project, assuming that it has yet to begin.
>But since you’re oh so well informed about translation works, you should definitely just create the collaboration with them yourself.
Unfortunately, this line is overused too.
>…in fact I expect you to eventually get our release anyway, no matter how much you try to troll.
I’m starting to become weary of the generic ethos-based statements that you’ve been incorporating in your comments.
What exactly is your point? I can see what you’re complaining about, just not what you’re trying to achieve with your complaints.
I am merely suggesting the prospect of you considering some form of negotiation with the existing project. As it currently stands, the VN community is simply not at a stage where people want more than one group working on any given title. This is fundamentally different from anime episodes, where fansub groups are plentiful.
You should have said that from the beginning, instead of beating around the bush…
As cheesy as it sounds, we do not plan our actions/projects around the beliefs of the anime/VN/any other community. If “people” are not happy, they don’t need to get our release.
Nobody was beating around the bush. One of your team members had simply taken offence at one of my posts, to which I have responded accordingly.
I hope you take my suggestion into account before proceeding with your work. That being said, what ultimately comes from this project will probably be none of my concern, as I’m rather sceptical about Maeda’s rehashed scenarios.
On an unrelated note, you might want to note the difference between practice/practise, seeing how you’re an advocate of Commonwealth English. Unfortunately, I don’t remember where that error pops up, or which episode it was from, other than it having been a recent release.
“Cruxis edit: I am also looking for a person who completed this Visual Novel and can provide me some necessary resources. Find me in #doki.”
ahhh, maybe i can call my friends. some of them had completed this VN 😀
hope that they will help 🙂
Insemination, go inseminate your ass.
Unfortunately, I do not own any donkeys. Even if I did, I am confident in my belief that cross-species fertilisation is, at this point in time, impossible.
u mad?
Come rage at others works?
Meh, go fuck you.
lul u mek me soo mad hurrr XDXD
IPhone has launch its new gadget…..
IMAD 4
@insem
trololololololololol
You know, the way you say things, calling people idiots and all won’t bring you nowhere.
Now you can speak alone
does that explain why mules have been bred from crossing a donkey and a horse?
Technically, Insemination’s initial comment was about as polite as it could have been while still carrying its point.
Second, I have seen many on here complain in a much more crude manner about considerably smaller things, like a single typo in a release.
Third, If you wish to tell someone that their opinion does not coincide with your own, there are much better ways to do it than to make derogatory references to their name, when had previously merely expressed mild distaste about his opinion of what doki is doing.
Don’t get me wrong, I love that doki is going to be translating this, and I admit to knowing nothing of the general rules implied within the VN translation community. That just means, though, that I do not have the authority to insult him for the claims he may make.
/rant
Just had to get that off my chest.
don’t forget to put tag/warning for 18+ only when finished 😉
you are totally awesome doki
I am inserting huge hope in hoping that Doki will translate AIR visual novel in the future as well..
Correct me if I’m wrong, but AIR is most probably the only Key’s old release, which was released around 10 years ago, that currently have no English translation group doing the translation project..
Need not to be mentioned but this is quite a minus for those who couldn’t understand Japanese language well including me, since there’ll be hardly any to be enjoyed due to the fact that we’re unable to ‘synchronized’ completely with what the story is trying to convey..
Hoping that in the future there will be good news from Doki..
m(_ _)m
Also wishing you a good luck and happy translating Tomoyo After ;9
AIR is certainly a visual novel we would consider translating in the future.
so it’s All age version or 18+ version :-s
I think I saw the line it’s all age version in the chatbox this morning (my time zone 😀 )
hatersgonnahate.png
>you forget the graphics used in this anime, which, yes, are replaced and use fonts.
>Hence, fonts.
Uh, right… this just shows you guys have no idea what you’re getting into. But good luck anyway I guess…
(Btw, I’ll have to agree with Insemination there that it’d be better for you guys to join in the baka-tsuki translation effort. Just saying)
Why are people complaining? If Doki wanna do it then by all means go ahead. The only “group” translating currently is baka-tsuki, and I already dropped the project.
http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Tomoyo_After
Just shut ur ass and let Doki do their own shit.
Doki’s project, Doki’s decision. If they want to make a Doki exclusive translation, whats it to anyone else? Unless people are too impatient to let them work how they want to, they have no argument… and if that is their argument, its a shame that they don’t appreciate the FREE service the fine people here are providing.
Seesh. Show some appreciation, will ya?
I have to agree with Insemination. VNs are a whole different ball park than animu. If you have the chance to use a >30% dropped translation rather than start from scratch, you should seriously consider it. These projects take a long time and a large amount of commitment. If you really think you guys are up to it, more power to you. But there are plenty of groups that have failed and gave up their efforts while having a dedicated team who didn’t also have animu to translate between their VN projects. Not to say I have no confidence in your team, but I won’t be surprised if you give up, especially if you want the handicap of starting from scratch.
I love you.
Please have my babies.
Ignoring all the arguing here about whether you should start from scratch or borrow from Baka-Tsuki’s work…one question that I really would like to know: Will this be for the All-Ages version or the 18+ one. This matters to me.
18+ Sir!
YES! THANK YOU! ^^ Glad to hear it!
also ignoring the argument about borrowing, i’ve never downloaded a VN before… how many gigabigabytes it it likeley to be?
Impossible to say really. I have plenty of VN’s in my collection, and they range from everything from 500MB to 8GB, so it really depends on the game. It’s also NOT necessarily proportional to how big/long the visual novel is. My copy of Fate/stay night for instance, which is REALLY long, is around 2,7GB. The actual english patches though are usually never all that big, from what I’ve seen. They normally clock in at just a few megabytes.
YES!!! I jumped through the celling after reading this! i have wanted to play this game for a while and the baka group failed in alot of aspects.
I’d rather see an original Doki translation, since they are more familiar with the Clannad universe and such from working on the anime, and can make it more consistent than someone who hasn’t. Just IMO
I’ll admit I do like consistency in my translations of the same universe from different sources. It’s one of the reason I’m apprehensive about Fate/Hollow Ataraxia. (I haven’t checked out any of the partials yet.)
However, it isn’t as if there is much to the KEY/Clannad universe in terms of unique terms or things like that. Not to mention Clannad is a pretty popular series, so I’m sure most of the people who were previously working on it knew just as much about the series. (After all, who would translate a sequel VN without knowing the previous installment well?)
OMFG Yes Please!!!!!! ^^
OMG! YES
It can’t be helped
The last attempt to translate this was Baka-Suki, but it was stalled for the longest time.
http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Tomoyo_After
You probably could build off of their work and/or edit it to fit your needs.
I also suggest using the Tomoyo After Manga for a quick reference for the tone of the translations, but I don’t suggest it as a direct guide.
Furthermore, a few people on Youtube have played the whole game and uploaded video of what it was with some translations. Contacting them may prove fruitful to the project.
As for alpha testers for the translated version, I’m up for it. Just email me when you need me. “draken_benvolaid@yahoo.com”
Toasting in an epic bread! Nice announcement, Doki!
id like to thank you guys i recently got chaos head im enjoying it thanks 4 getting me into visual novels cant wait 4 this even more now
If Doki wants to start from nothing, that’s fine. At least they did it on their terms, their time, their resources (manpower included). I believe older VN sub groups start also from nothing, and they make their project better (if not perfect) as time progresses. And most of the time adapting another group’s project can increase time in terms of manhours to accomplish a project due to corrections and bug fixing. I think Doki will have its own “norms” (if not standards) on making VN eventually as time progress, just like the older VN groups do. Let Doki’s staff do their thing, I think they have a way to make this project a success. Even if the so called “experts” will say many things (negative or positive) because of their “vast experience” on older VN sub groups who they see is the best.
So when this is done, you’ll take project suggestions?