Since my last update, I have become involved in more projects. Sekai Project were hosting a giveaway (Steam keys) on Twitter/X, one of the requirements for entry was to join the Sekai Project discord. After chatting there I got invited to a Key/VisualArts fan discord, and someone there asked about my projects after reading my Discord bio. This lead to me being invited to join a fan translation group (Team Noumi), and I also got involved in another group called eien that works to preserve and translate more obscure Japanese visual novels.

I haven't worked with a group like this for a long time as I'm not the most confident person about such things, but I'm pleased to say it has been great fun so far and I've made some great friends in the community! So what does this mean for KotomiPatch? Nothing but good news. One reason I joined these groups is that my tools and knowledge can be shared across all of these projects, and I'm also learning more tips and tricks that will further improve KotomiPatch. I've also found a couple of new people to help me with QC.

So currently I am involved with:

• KotomiPatch - https://kotomipatch.zipplet.co.uk/ - I've pushed the deadline back to sometime in 2024 because I need to also spend time with other projects, however the end result will be of higher quality. I've already added some nice features to the todo list based on feedback, I hope that it will be worth the wait. A lot of the tooling I am building for KotomiPatch is also helpful for the other projects I am now involved with.
• Team Noumi (Little Busters Home Run Edition) - https://x.com/NoumiTeam - A brand new fanTL group that is currently working on a new translation of Little Busters. We have already released an alpha version (v0.1.1) with a new translation for Mio. A lot of work went into making her tankas better than the official English release. The installer (that includes anti-piracy measures) is a prototype of ZIS (Zipplet Install System) which is what I was building for KotomiPatch. For Team Noumi I am involved with building tools, reverse engineering/hacking and QC/editing.
• eien - https://eien.nl/ - Also a brand new group, and we released our first fan translation only a couple of weeks ago - Tenshi no Oshigoto (天使のお仕事 -their wishes afterward-) - a doujin VN that follows up on Shiori's story in Kanon. For eien I am currently involved with QC/editing but will also be contributing tools, reverse engineering, and helping to improve the quality of our releases with installer packages.

This is the first time in a long time that I have been involved in projects like this, and I'm really excited! I'll add proper sections for my projects to this website later, although I'm not sure how necessary that is given that KotomiPatch has a subdomain already.

You may have noticed I sometimes use the name Kotomi now. This started as a bit of a joke but I've become known as Kotomi within the visual novel community, so now I'll sometimes sign my work with both names especially when it involves projects related to that community. I don't mind being referred to by either name - although Kotomi is better in VN circles!

I spent some time this week tidying things up a bit; a lot of old content has finally been purged. I'm working on a project right now too - a fan patch for CLANNAD Steam edition.

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/zipplet/status/1772057678388338831
• Project website: https://kotomipatch.zipplet.co.uk/

I'll try my best to stick to the Summer 2024 estimate. I really, really wanted to have this ready in time for CLANNAD's 20th anniversary, but I'm not going to meet that deadline due to the sheer amount of tooling I am building to make this possible.

The software I provide is not code signed and this may lead to warnings in browsers like Google Chrome or popups from Windows Smartscreen. I have added a page explaining the problem and how to work around it. This is an issue that affects many smaller developers.

Here's the new page: My software is not code signed

I finally took the time to flesh out the github page for my windowsizer project and also add a page on this website for it. It's especially useful for playing older visual novels.

For more information check out - Old games on modern PCs: Window resizing tool

This domain has been around since July 2004. It is now old enough to drink. Here's to many more years!