VNDB founder Yorhel has died

stuffoverflow 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Yorhel was also the creator/developer of ncdu among many other open source projects. He was a big open source advocate. The sites he hosted (vndb.org and manned.org) have automated database dumps and source code fully available. Recommend to check out his website https://dev.yorhel.nl/

	▲	wahnfrieden a minute ago \| parent \| next [-]
		There's a Yomitan dictionary (by bee) of VNDB using those dumps: https://github.com/bee-san/VNDB-Character-Names-by-Bee
	▲	veeti 18 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		ncdu is a lifesaver, RIP.

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indrora 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This is probably a niche topic on HN, but for those of us who play Visual Novels, VNDB is a massive resource for getting the setup right for older and obscure ones that require odd hardware or configurations. The early days of VNs were all on DOS/V and Sharpx68000 systems with quirky configurations. VNDB catalogs so many of them and things that are "Mostly" VNs for historical purposes.

Without it, we wouldn't have the modern wave of VNs that have become popular today (Hatoful Boyfriend, Doki Doki Literature Club, etc.) nor some of the offshoot genres that have become popular.

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Benjamin_Dobell 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I must admit, this is one area I've found LLMs to be surprisingly strong. They're REALLY good at reverse engineering obscure platforms, languages, game engines; and quickly throwing together super hacky tooling.

I was able to reverse engineer the PS4 edition of "New Game!: The Challenge Stage", which was never released in English. I've now fully translated it, added proper text wrapping and additional text boxes where text would now overflow. Along the way I've fully decompiled (with byte exact recompilation) the Squirrel scripts for the entire game, built atop the game engine of a now largely defunct game studio. Prior to this I hadn't even heard of Squirrel scripting language. I had most of this done in under 24 hours.

I'm not in any way a part of the visual novel community. I just did this because I enjoyed the New Game! anime way more than a near(?) middle aged man probably ought to.

P.S. My condolences to Yorhel's friends and family.

	▲	Anonyneko 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Brings back memories of how I did much the same for the PSP spin-off VN of the GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class manga/anime (that, of course, also originated from Manga Time Kirara and also had a big focus on art), although those were pre-LLM times. It even used Squirrel scripts too! I second the condolences, tremendous loss for the people who knew Yorhel, as well as for the VN and open source communities.

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1313ed01 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It is fascinating how some similar niche genres of games have managed to mostly ignore each other, from what I have seen.

Interactive fiction has https://ifdb.org/.

Gamebooks ("CYOA" to outsiders) have https://gamebooks.org/.

I think there is some community around branching browser text stories like (mostly) Twine games that have their own database somewhere?

And then there is always some overlap and discussions around what games to allow where, with each community gatekeeping to some degree what games are allowed in their database or not.

So, for example, I never heard about VNDB and never really crossed paths with VN players online, even if I have been around communities for IF and gamebooks since last century and the similarities are obvious.

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atahanacar 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

>similar niche genres of games have managed to mostly ignore each other

That's only because they are only "similar" on the surface. It feels like saying "football, volleyball and basketball are similar" just because they are all team games played with a ball.

	▲	1313ed01 34 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Isn't it the opposite, that they are mechanically the same, but differs on the surface (art style and type of stories)?

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keychera 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

thank you for sharing this! I never heard the two website you mentioned while being very familiar with vndb. I guess there will be always another corner of the internet that you don't even know existed.

If you are curious, vndb has a guideline you can see about what can be added here: https://vndb.org/d2

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mister_mort 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I think IF games tend to be more puzzle games with some story segments. Gamebooks are much closer, but still often have proto-RPG mechanics. (I remember tracking inventory and HP for the ones I played/read through). VNs are much closer to pure story, with some tracking of earlier decision flags for callbacks later in the story.

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kageroumado 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

This website is a remnant of something long gone: simple yet capable HTML websites that just work. I hope it will be preserved, or at least the database made public so it won’t get lost.

	▲	fau 5 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		It is public, and more! There's even an interface allowing you to run your own queries directly against a synchronized copy: https://query.vndb.org/browse
	▲	indrora 2 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		There's a whole team behind it running, so VNDB isn't going anywhere fast.

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peauc 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Also the creator of my beloved NCDU. May he rest in peace.

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fsckboy 16 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

another RIP has a nice picture

https://bimgs.jlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/RIP-Yorhe...

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anonymous908213 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

RIP. VNDB is a truly incredible resource and the world is a better place for its existence.