I've referred to my VN as "Call to Me" in the past, but as you can see, the title became some bizarre Japanese word. What happened? I'm a stupid weeb, is what happened. This VN is partially based on an old Pokemon fanfic about some Pokemon stuck in PC Storage during a crisis. Obviously, this isn't going to actually be in the VN, but computers are sorta still kinda relevant. I came up with "Call to Me" as a tentative title, which could also be a pun on calling a method or function in coding. What a boring title, I thought to myself. One thing I really want to do with this VN is to make it the sort of VN that I enjoy reading. I'm more familiar with Japanese visual novels than English visual novels, so I guess that means making my VN feel similar to the typical Japanese VN. For example, the mouse wheel will open the backlog instead of RenPy's rollback system. So, why not spice up the title by making it Japanese? I might not be that good with Japanese, but I can sorta kinda figure my way out. Probably. The verb 「呼び出す」("yobidasu") can refer to summoning or calling someone over the phone, and is also used when talking about calling methods or functions in programming. But "yobidasu" is the dictionary form, some kind of verb conjugation is probably necessary. The -masu form is 「呼び出し」("yobidashi"), which sounds nice, so let's go with that! But "yobidashi" already has a colloquial meaning. Apparently it refers to the announcer in a sumo match, who calls the sumo wrestler to the ring. The protagonist likes to keep to herself, so an "announcer" isn't the sort of feeling I'm trying to convey with that word. What am I trying to convey, anyway? It's more like the protagonist's desire for someone to call to her. The "-tai" suffix is used to indicate desire (e.g. Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai). And the "-are" suffix makes a verb passive. Which gives me 「呼び出されたい」("yobidasaretai"), or "wants to be called to." What a long, unwieldy word for a title. Sure, it's more interesting than "Call to Me", but it's too interesting. Who's going to type out that long word every time they want to find my game? After some thinking, I came up with 「エラよび」("Erayobi"), as an abbreviation of some hypothetical, absurdly long Japanese title that refers to the protagonist as "Error-chan" and also contains some form of "yobidasu." Something like:
Titles are hard. Maybe I should've just stuck with "Call to Me."
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Seven Tailed Fox
My aim is to make visual novels for people who enjoy anime and manga. I'm currently working on my first title, Erayobi. Archives
July 2021
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