What is a role of a VN director?

[Vorathiel]

Fewteen days ago, while reading horrible paced text in Grisaia I started to wonder who to blame. Writter? He definitelly has some skills, few scenes was really good. But his unfocused writting is just the pacing killer.
He can write long,long,long wall of text about nothing and at the end of that sequence in two short sentences summarize enjoyable/exciting moments, which was never 'shown' in text itself. And he does that constantly.
I have some movie theory background and thought that director is responsible for making script work, he is the one who made scenes flow, or not.
So maybe it's a directors' fault for not smacking Fujisaki Ryuuta with a baseball bat to the head, when he was needing it? Somebody to say to him 'this is wrong, trim a lot of fat here, and expand that part, because this is good'.
So I went to Grisaia vndb page and saw thet there is no credited director.

How can a work as large as Grisaia even work without director who would manage the work on this (clearly it didn't work)? So if it's possible to write that huge and widely acclaimed title (second most baffling thing about VN world, after the Sharin no Kuni acclamation) without director, then why many titles do have a director? What is his role on the projects? The great Nakazawa Takumi since I/O is only credited as director and producer, he's not writting anything. So what is his role in games like Root Double, or Secret Game? Who is most important? Writter or director?

[Deep Blue]

Just because there is no one listed as a director in vndb doesnt mean that the vn didn't have one (people add the data, sometimes they do in some vns sometimes they dont), you should see the credits of the vn itself. There is a ton of people working behind a vn of this "size"

http://erogamescape.dyndns.org/~ap2/ero/toukei_kaiseki/game.php?game=14237 check where it says (クリエイターの情報) those are all the people who worked on the vn.

and this is the director http://erogamescape.dyndns.org/~ap2/ero/toukei_kaiseki/creater.php?creater=19074 and this one the chief script (?) whatever that position means http://erogamescape.dyndns.org/~ap2/ero/toukei_kaiseki/creater.php?creater=19075 all of this guy dont even appear on vndb, also like vndb EGS is edited by people so maybe some data is wrong or missing.

EDIT: although that position should or rather is usually called 監督(I think) and not ディレクター so who knows xD

[Vorathiel]

Oh, okay. But what is a role of people in directors position?

[Deep Blue]

To give directions (?) I don't know xD I will try to see if I can find some answers in japanese because it seems that you are the first one to ask such question  maybe some user in the forum already knows..

[Funyarinpa]

Pretty sure a director's task is to coordinate the many aspects of a VN from programming to art to writing to music to marketing- Does this music go well in this part of the story? Do the flags work as they should? Do we have interesting adverts that don't spoil too much? How is the pacing?

Since the director coordinates and synthesizes all of these viewpoints into one single, cohesive game, they're one of the most important factors to the final outcome of a video game project. 

Kind of like how a general doesn't go around shooting people by himself but just gives commands, but is still more influential than any infantry, I guess.

[Diamon]

1 hour ago, Funyarinpa said:

Pretty sure a director's task is to coordinate the many aspects of a VN from programming to art to writing to music to marketing- Does this music go well in this part of the story? Do the flags work as they should? Do we have interesting adverts that don't spoil too much? How is the pacing?

Since the director coordinates and synthesizes all of these viewpoints into one single, cohesive game, they're one of the most important factors to the final outcome of a video game project. 

Kind of like how a general doesn't go around shooting people by himself but just gives commands, but is still more influential than any infantry, I guess.

As a director myself, I can confirm that it's pretty much what Funyarinpa said.

Example of stuff directors take care of would be:
- How many sprite expressions? Which expression should be used for this line of text? Should we create a new expression for this character?
- Do we need a CG here? How long should it stay on screen? How many variations?
- Does the music fit? Should we change it? Should we create a new OST that fits better the mood? Should we rewrite the scene so that it can fit one of the OST we already have?
- Should we add sound effect during this particular scene?
- Does the game have an internal coherency and logic about how it does things? (Example of inconsistencies: One CG for each heroine except one; one OST that is used nearly all the time compared to the others; character screen time that doesn't reflect their respective importance in the story; SFX of a school bell ringing one time but not the next time, etc)
- Does the game make good use of the assets and doesn't force creations of assets for a one time thing? Example: creating backgrounds that are used for only one scene in the whole story.

[Zakamutt]

5 hours ago, Vorathiel said:

How can a work as large as Grisaia even work without director who would manage the work on this (clearly it didn't work)?

From what I remember of Grisaia, you could probably argue it's the writer's style. I don't remember negative opinions on the common route shenanigans focused on the writing style itself rather than that there was so much of it (I  personally had no issues because it was so funny to me). That said, I'm not sure exactly which passages you're referring to.

The great Nakazawa Takumi since I/O is only credited as director and producer, he's not writting anything. So what is his role in games like Root Double, or Secret Game? Who is most important? Writter or director?

This is wrong; Nakazawa wrote the E and E' routes. With that said, he certainly did a hell of a job in the directing role considering how the (overly) complex scenario actually sorta comes together in the end.

Calling someone a "Director" is kind of vague in this business, honestly. At least part of the directing job people have described above would probably be the producer's job in larger-scale game development. Checking the text for concision and such would traditionally be the editor's job in other writing. Scene direction (transitions, sprite pose changes etc.) can be done either by a dedicated guy or just the writers themselves - I'm not sure if this job has a well-established name, but you might call them scripters in this capacity (and that means something different in translation work... yay).

[MayoeruHitori]

In the Japanese industry, I believe that a director is responsible for directly overseeing production of a VN, like a manager, making sure they do their jobs and it all fits together and the final product is up to standards. A lot like what Diamon said, although I think a director is not always involved in details of the script or music.

A director generally has to answer to a producer, who indirectly oversees production in the course of handling the financial side of things, including handling new hires and making sure the director doesn't do something like put NTR in a moege and cause it to bomb. The planning phase is also important in VN development, as many of the basic decisions about the direction of a VN are often made in that phase by one or more people.

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The great Nakazawa Takumi since I/O is only credited as director and producer, he's not writting anything. So what is his role in games like Root Double, or Secret Game? Who is most important? Writter or director?

Nakazawa is both the director and producer of Root Double, meaning he theoretically had absolute authority over the VN. That said, he didn't personally write the text (except maybe some small parts uncredited, I wouldn't be surprised). Instead, he relied on his scenario writers to do that. I think that if GundamAce were here, he'd recall some of those staff interviews he translated in which the Tsukishima brothers and Nakazawa talked about what roles they played, but I don't. However, I think the strength of Root Double's writers was in making the story work, not leaving any plot holes or inconsistently characterizing anyone or messing up their prose in any way whatsoever. They have a very deliberate style which perfectly suited the needs of a mind like Nakazawa's which comes up with such elaborate stories, but in my opinion someone like Uchikoshi would have to written more endearing (beyond simply likable) characters. In any case, even if Nakazawa is the director and has a clear vision for the VN, the actual writer/s may have a lot of influence in determining the details. By comparing to Zero Escape, it's clear Uchikoshi had a lot of influence in Ever17 and Remember11. Romeo's route in I/O also heavily focuses on his pet theme of alienation.

Having read all 3 of the Secret Game VNs (KQ/SG/Rebellions), I don't know exactly how much influence Nakazawa had over Secret Game as director, but well, Secret Game is just an expanded version of Killer Queen. The setting wasn't drastically changed, and the depth still can't compare to the Infinity series. I think that Nakazawa probably had a negligible influence during the planning stage. However, for Rebellions, another VN that he both directed and produced, the game itself feels very cohesive and complete, just like Root Double did, and certain plot elements remind me of his work. Root Double's writers also worked on large parts of Rebellions, and it's easy to recognize their style.

[Okarin]

If you hate the Grisaia novel, you should by all means stay away from the anime... I couldn't even finish first ep, too much facepalm! I hated the whole thing with a passion and didn't want to touch the novel.

[Good_Haro]

Can't speak for Grisaia specifically, but generally (at least in my limited experience) the role is kind of variable depending on the game and company (and a few different JP terms get translated to the same thing sometimes). Sometimes the "director" (ディレクター） is sort of just a project manager role––they're responsible for organizing pre-production planning materials, ordering and keeping track of assets, assisting in voice recording sessions, organizing promotional material, etc. Sometimes it's more of a scripting-related role (usually 演出) focusing on scene presentation within the game and things like that. But still other times it might be a more creative/supervising role, "directing" the game (監督), but that usually comes with an additional credit for planning (企画) or something similar.

[Black Sands Entertainment]

depends on the role of the director BESIDES directing.

A director's primary role (Going by my experience as director) is to recruit the proper skills needed for the project. Create the budget. Negotiate pay. Set Milestones. Assure quality.

If the director is also one of the lower positions, then they must not only do their job at that position, but give someone else the authority to check their work.

For instance, I am also the content creator. I wouldnt call myself a writer because I basically have my editor rewrite everything I create but none the less, I am always willing to let the team review everything.

 

Now pacing is something of a bitch. I too find it annoying when there is wor fluff that does nothing to push the story forward. Its one of the main things I cut from my VN. If it doesn't push the story forward, it doesnt go in the main game.