Leaderboard

I recommend G-Senjou no Maou, it quite an exciting and interesting story that shouldn't be too intimidating for a newcomer. "You play the role of Azai Kyosuke, the son of a legendary gangster infamous in the underworld. You spend your time listening to Bach, playing God at school and covertly working for your stepfather, a ruthless financial heavyweight. This idyllic existence is broken when two individuals appear in the city - a beautiful girl named Usami Haru, with hair you could get lost in for days, and a powerful international gangster known only as Maou. Almost without delay, the two begin a deadly cat-and-mouse game, bringing you and your friends into the crossfire. Plotting, political intrigue and layer upon layer of interlocking traps are the weapons in this epic battle of wits."

What does it take to create a visual novel? * Free or inexpensive software. Ren'py is freeware, and it's routinely updated. Some people like Novelty Maker, which is also free, but it's not been updated in quite some time. I don't know if anyone's using ONScripter, but it's another free option. Finally, don't neglect other tools if they are suited to your needs (Adventure Game Maker for graphic adventure, TADS 3 or Inform 7 for text adventure, RPG Maker XP or VX, Game Maker 8, etc). * A person willing to write. * A person willing to create / provide visuals: sprites, backgrounds, and so on. * A person willing to help with music, sound effects, and so on. * A person willing to debug the game or VN. (One individual can do all four tasks, or they can be shared by a team.) * Dedication. I realize it's possible to create a short story or a game in a short amount of time. There are competitions such as Ludum Dare, in which all participants make small indie games in about 48 hours. But if you want to create a lengthy story or a complex game, you need to commit effort and energy. You must be willing to persevere even if you struggle to write the first few lines or the first few scenes. * Passion. In the words of Limp Bizkit, "if you don't care, then we don't care." Decide that you're going to create an amazing story, brilliant gameplay, beautiful visuals, a fascinating experiment, or whatever else you want. Do it for the art. * Communication. If you work with a team, then they need to get along. Someone has to be willing to organize people and settle arguments. Also, a little while ago, you mentioned Kickstarter. A person named SoBa managed to get Devil Gene R episode 1 funded. But if you're just getting started, then I recommend creating freeware. Show us what you can do with no budget. If you need the support of a few people for art, coding, music, and so on, that's fine. One last thing... Harry_kinomoto said, "I would, to that end, love if Fuwanovel came up with its own VN-production division and actually start to making this a reality. I am sure many of the members have a writer hidden deep down inside~" That's a good idea. If you want to create games or VNs with people on this forum, then it might be good to have a thread or a whole section.