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So You Want To/Make a Visual Novel: Difference between revisions
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** 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]] 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
* '''[[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
* '''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
** '''Others''': An interactive comic book style like Quartett, a [[Minimalism|minimalistic]] letter box style like Narcissu, a [[Diegetic Interface]] like [[Digital:
=== 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? [[
* '''[[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
* '''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 ''[[
** '''[[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.
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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. [[
*** '''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
** '''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]].
*** '''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.
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** [[Nice Guy]]: Your visual novel will be most likely in first person point of view, and thus [[Nice Guy]] archetype is the sensible choice, right? Too bad -- the fact that nice guys are very common as protagonists means it's hard to make the character stand out, plus [[Good Is Boring]] to many. You do want to avoid [[Designated Protagonist Syndrome]], don't you? Still, if you plan to use a [[Featureless Protagonist]], this plain good guy offer the best template.
** [[Troubled but Cute]]: Similar to the nice guy, but with flaws, they may have some hidden things about them that are unsavory or make them somewhat unlikable.
** [[Jerk
** [[Jerkass]]: Highly unlikable, although what they don't go around and commit crime [[For the Evulz]].
** [[Complete Monster]]: An outright [[Villain Protagonist]]. Despite being polar opposite to the [[Nice Guy]], it's actually much harder to write about a [[Complete Monster]], as you're writing about a [[Designated Hero]] anyway.
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* '''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
* '''[[Vaporware]]''': Creating [[Freeware Games]] of any kind, including visual novels, is a long and often frustrating process. If you can not (or choose not to) charge money for your final game, then it can be difficult to keep writing and coding until it's finished. Some people who aspire to create freeware visual novels give up, leaving nothing more than a few paragraphs of description and perhaps some concept art. Other people finish a demo, and the final version ends up in [[Development Hell]]. If a group decides to collaborate on a freeware VN, then it may be more likely to remain unfinished. Either way, if months go by with no substantial news, then the VN has likely become vaporware.
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