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=== The Engine ===
The first place to start is the engine for the [[Visual Novel]] itself. While it's certainly possible to handle all the technical stuff yourself from scratch, there is a wonderful open source [[Visual Novel]] engine known as [[Ren'py]] [http://www.renpy.org/
=== A Very Unusual Medium ===
So visual novels are just electronic books with fancy anime pictures and music, right? ''Wrong!'' While many can undeniably be described as that, others like ''[[Muv Luv Alternative]]'' have [[Visual Effects of Awesome]] so great they have action scenes akin to movies. [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Alternatively]], there are those that are like interactive manga such as ''Quartett''. Text and dialogue are undeniably the most important aspects of a [[Visual Novel]], but do not neglect the visual or even audio aspects of them. Presentation is important, after all.
=== The Visual Aspects of a [[Visual Novel]] ===
* '''Backgrounds''': While many people don't care if you just take real pictures and use a watercolor filter to save money on backgrounds since it is a common tactic of many amateur visual novels, they are still important. It's a lot of work, but hand drawn sprites just look better on hand drawn backgrounds. Furthermore, with self-created backgrounds, you can create your own unique atmosphere. Just look at ''[[Sekien no Inganock]]'' with its fancy and artsy backgrounds which complement the text and the characters.
* '''Character Sprites''': Good luck. Each major character in your theoretical VN will need ''at least'' half a dozen sprites. While it's recommended for beginners of any kind of story to avoid using [[Loads and Loads of Characters]], this is especially important for visual novel makers. Even minor characters will need multiple sprites since sprites are the best way to convey a character's emotions.
** Too bad, you can't attract players using screenshots from visual novel with poorly drawn character sprites. It's what turns off people from many amateur [[Visual Novel|Visual Novels]], yet not everyone can draw smoking hot characters. How to get around this? You have two choices. 1. Spend years mastering the art of illustration. Perhaps attend art school. Hone your craft until you can fully realize your character just as you imagine them. 2. Hire an artist for your project (or ask from very generous friend with good drawing skill)... Still not sound like a valid choice? Well, ''[[When They Cry]]'' series can get away with it because the facial expressions of the characters in the ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni|Umineko]]'' series are considered awesome. (Faces are what people focus on the most.)
* '''Computer Graphics''' or CGs for short: These are still images made to appear when certain scenes occur. These images are best used to convey events that cannot be shown accurately simply by moving the character sprites such as a [[First Kiss]], a [[Dying Moment of Awesome]], a [[Transformation Sequence]], baking cookies, and of course, sex, or make the importance of a scene obvious such as a [[Moment of Awesome]] or a [[Plot Twist]].
** Special note: DO NOT '''MESS''' THESE UP! It's far better to have no CGs than to have bad CGs. No one likes to be forced to look at a badly drawn or badly colored picture that takes up the whole screen. Even minor mistakes are very noticeable and can ruin the immersion a player has. A notable example of unpolished CGs ruining a game is ''[[Don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story
* '''[[Special Effects]]''': Sure, they may not seem important, but a couple of well-placed special effects can go a long way. Visual effects books cannot use ''can'' be used by visual novels. A flash here or falling snow there, can easily enhance the amount of emotion any given scene can enhance. Even something as simple as moving a sprite left or right or the way the text is shown on the screen is important! ''Quartett'' is a great example of sublime visual presentation of the story text itself and use of visual effects to evoke emotion, and ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]'' is a great example of using special effects to [[Painting the Fourth Wall|Paint The Fourth Wall]] and to use them as a plot point.
* '''Ways of presenting the text''': There are multiple ways, but the two major ones are ADV (short for Adventure Style Game) or NVL (short for Novel Style Game). There are advantages and disadvantages to both major styles.
** '''ADV''': The more common style. Basically speaking, all the text of the visual novel is put into a dialog box in the bottom of the screen. While this forces the writer to focus on a script-based format with minimal space to describe the setting or character actions, the background images or CGs can do that for you since a picture is worth a thousand words. This type of style leads to a visual novel with a large emphasis on the visual aspects of the [[Visual Novel]], so it is a terrible style to use if you suck at drawing and are more used to writing in pure prose. A common pitfall is for an amateur prose writer to attempt this style simply because it is the most common one (and the default style of Ren'Py).
** '''NVL''': The best format if you want less of a focus on the visual aspects and more on the actual writing since text covers the whole background and forces the reader to actually read rather than look at the background images. Part of the reason why ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]'' can get away with it's lame art is because it uses this particular style. It is also the best style to use if you tend to be very descriptive in your writing or like [[Stream of Consciousness]] style internal monologues like [[Nasuverse|Nasu]]. Some visual novels that normally use the ADV style like ''[[Sharin no Kuni]]'' or even ''[[Katawa Shoujo]]'' have a few brief NVL scenes to highlight important moments and to describe them in detail.
** '''Others''': An interactive comic book style like ''Quartett'', a [[Minimalism|minimalistic]] letter box style like ''[[Narcissu]]'', a [[Diegetic Interface]] like ''[[Digital: A Love Story]]'', or even one with vertically oriented text.
=== The Audio Aspects of a [[Visual Novel]] ===
* '''[[Background Music]]''': The major reason why a visual novel can get away with a lower quality of wordsmithing than traditional novels is because of this. Other than [[Grammar Nazi|Grammar Nazis]], no cares if a phrase is a tiny bit awkward if [[Awesome Music]] is playing in the background. The background music has to complement and enhance the text it is behind. Describing a soothing [[Slice of Life]] scene? Then use calming music! An action scene? [[Heavy Metal]], of course! A [[Plot Twist]] goes great with [[Ominous Latin Chanting]], and so on. You could also try using [[Soundtrack Dissonance]] to complement [[Black Comedy]] or [[Mundane Made Awesome]]. Music is important, dammit! The ''[[When They Cry]]'' series is so good at the music (and so bad at the art) that they are called Sound Novels instead.
* '''[[Sound Effects]]''': Like in any audio/visual media, a well placed sound effect can have a great impact. They are especially important in action based visual novels like ''[[Demonbane]]'' or ''[[Fate/stay night]]''.
* '''Voice Acting''': [[Ha Ha Ha No]]. Unless you are a professional who can hire professional voice actors or miraculously have good amateur voice actors despite [[Sturgeon's Law]], then please don't add voices. Good voice acting can enhance a [[Visual Novel]], but anything less would ruin it. Let the reader imagine the voices like they would in a traditional novel if you're an amateur.
=== [[Video Game]] Aspect of a [[Visual Novel]] ===
* Do you want to add game mechanics to your VN? If not, skip to the major bullet point. If, for whatever reason, you do, then read on.
** '''Relevance''': Make the gameplay reflect the Genre of the [[Visual Novel]] as a whole. For example, if the [[Visual Novel]] is in the horror genre, then give it some gameplay that involves running away from [[Eldritch Abominations]] such as in ''[[Shikkoku no Sharnoth]]''. If it's a war story, then there better be [[Strategy RPG]] elements like in ''[[Eien no Aselia]]''. If you want to make a mystery genre VN, [[Adventure Game]] elements would go well with it like in the ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' series. If it's a [[Porn Without Plot]] game and you feel like adding gameplay then... You get the idea.
** '''[[Rule of Fun]]''': If you're going to have gameplay, then it better be fun. No one cares how symbolic the [[Mini Game]] is if it's not fun.
* '''Forced Reading''': Yes, you can hijack the player's control of the reading speed and force him to read at your own pace such as in ''[[Deardrops]]'' or in certain [[Moment of Awesome]] concert scenes or in certain ''[[Muv Luv Alternative]]'' fight scenes. It gives you, the maker, more control over how you want the player to experience a certain scene. Just don't use them too much because it can break the immersion of some players.
=== The Novel Aspect of a [[Visual Novel]] ===
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In other words, how your story is broken up into the various routes you may have. However, the first question that must be asked is "Do you even want your [[Visual Novel]] to have multiple routes?"
* '''No''': You could always make a [[Kinetic Novel]] or [[Linear Visual Novel]]. There's nothing wrong with focusing all of your effort onto one plotline and making it good. ''[[Muv Luv Alternative]]'' is one of the most highly rated visual novels despite being a [[Linear Visual Novel]].
* '''Yes''': How will the routes tie together? Will you use a [[Multiple Route Mystery]] like ''[[Remember 11]]''? Have them all lead up to a climatic final route with the [[True Ending]] like in ''[[Little Busters!]]''? Share the same fundamental Aesop like in ''[[Katawa Shoujo]]''? Of course, you could make them have no relation to each other at all like in ''[[Kira Kira]]'', but they all better be individually good. Just please don't tack on the routes just for the sake of making all the girls date-able like in ''[[G Senjou no Maou]]''.
** '''Common Route''': It goes without saying that you'll need one to contain the choices that will decide which of the multiple routes a player will go on, but what type of length do you want to make it?
*** '''Long''': The upside is that you will have plenty of time to develop all of the characters at once through their interactions and [[World Building|establish the setting]]. The downside is that a few of the individual character routes may suffer because you don't get enough time to focus and develop on a single character and make up good plot related to that person. ''[[Hoshizora no Memoria]]'' in particular suffers from this problem.
*** '''Short''': The upside is that you have plenty of time to make up unique conflicts for each route by giving yourself enough time to add build-up within the diverging routes themselves and only leaving small tiny hints within the common route itself. The downside is that it gives you less time for [[World Building]] or you have to copy/paste text between the routes. ''[[Tsukihime]]'' has this problem to some degree even though it has a recommended route playing order. ''[[Fate/stay night]]'' removes the problem by having a forced playing order, but the first route's quality is sacrificed for the need to establish the setting.
** '''Diverging Routes''': A common way to split them is by centering the individual plotlines around a specific [[Romantic Interest]]. That being said, don't be afraid to have a [[Heterosexual Life Partner]] route like ''[[Clannad (visual novel)|Clannad]]''.
*** '''Choices''': You need some, but not too much. Furthermore, make them intuitive or at least solvable with some thinking. ''[[Kara no Shoujo]]'' is known for [[Guide Dang It]] for having too many and too unintuitive choices.
*** '''Bad Ends''': You could just add a short event where the protagonist dies or falls into despair before showing a [[Game Over]] screen, but you know that you're better than that. Why don't you try punishing the player by forcing him to read a emotional [[Tear Jerker]] or some scarring [[Nightmare Fuel]]. ''[[School Days]]'' has such potent bad endings that it is generally believed that while [[School Days]] is decent on its own, the bad endings are what make the game a classic.
** '''Final Route''' : [[Captain Obvious|It better be good.]] If you decided to have one of these, that means you stored [[Up to Eleven]] amounts of pure build up. Mess this up, and you mess up the whole VN. In other words, don't attempt this unless you have strong idea of what you're doing.
== '''Writing Style''' ==
You know the writing techniques for prose and poetry some people use like [[Gratuitous Iambic Pentameter]], Repetition, [[
== '''Characters''' ==
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=== Warnings ===
* '''Don't bite off more than you can chew.''' ''[[Katawa Shoujo]]'' (a Medium length [[Visual Novel]]) took five years for a reason. A [[Visual Novel]] requires an organized team of artists, musicians, programmers, writers, and editors. Don't forget about the potential infighting an amateur group may have when a project is too big. Start small.
* '''Substance over Style''': Nothing can save a [[Visual Novel]] if the story it tells is [[So Bad It's Horrible (Darth Wiki)|So Bad Its Horrible]]. Bad art can be counteracted with good music, bad music can just be muted or be counteracted by good art, but good visuals and audio can't save a bad story.
* '''List of Cliches that are extremely common in visual novels''': [[Groundhog Day Loop]], [[Ill Girl]], [[Rape as Drama]]
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