What do you like about VN's?

[Venusz]

So my cousin and I have decided that we want to create a visual novel... We're still in the beginning stages of planning it, but we were wondering what makes a visual novel appealing to you guys? What do you like in a character? What do you not like? Do you like it to be more "choose your own story", or do you prefer a more limited choice Visual Novel?

Anything would be helpful for my cousin and I! We want to bring something fun, and interesting to the table that will appeal to everybody. We're a two-woman team, so if anybody would like to help that'd be cool too!

[B0X0R]

Although difficult. I enjoy VN with several routes. Perhaps more then three, but less then 7.

[Venusz]

Although difficult. I enjoy VN with several routes. Perhaps more then three, but less then 7.

[XReaper]

to me it really doesnt matter, i enjoy reading nearly everything from lovey dovey stuff to mad demons ravishing mankind. it really doesnt matter. as long as the characters are somehow unique and differ from eachother, the artwork catches my eye, the plot or story makes me wanna read it in one single night AND as long as in the end every major plothole is ressolved, to me the world is fine.

what i hate the most is an incomplete storyconstruct in itself.

wish you luck

[RinXD]

The porn nah actually the stories o.o

[Life]

For me, a vn stands out compared to other entertainment mediums because of the method the story is presented along with the types of stories themselves. The first person storytelling is great with all the inner thoughts of the protagonist being fleshed out so that you are able to understand why someone does as he/she does instead of just having them do something. It also goes to see how different people think and how messed up some mindsets are. This personally allows me to have a more emotional touch with a lot of the characters and the story. The types of stories themselves are very interesting as they find different ways to abuse the VN method of never seeing the protagonists face or the multiple routes to add little details/major plot points to the story.

[melo4496]

For me, one of the factors I consider in liking a VN is good background music.

I like romance - comedy - slice of life combo..

[Rose]

Everything about VNs amuse me, as it's quite the unique medium. Honestly, I'd rather have less choices than many if that would mean me making relevant decisions, instead of stupid ones. I don't completely hate meaningless choices, but if there are way too many, I end up not caring that much for them. I just recently noticed this, but having a good OST helps A LOT.

[Funyarinpa]

Plot twists. Lots and lots of plot twists.

 

And remember: Porn and a good story DO NOT go hand in hand.

[Ezeefreak]

The most important thing for me is the relationships between the characters & protagonists. Well mostly it is romance but it can also be "simple" friendship. But it has to be believable. Also the developement between the characters. If that is good implemented the rest for me nearly goes the right way and it doesn't mather what kind of story it is. Also I like if there are enough side characters who fill the world of the VN with life.

[Tyrael]

I wish you guys luck, considering it took 4 Leaf Studios 5 years to pump out Katawa Shoujo in their free time with a team of 21 people  

 

I personally love a snarky protagonist, as long as his/her inner monologues are witty I will inevitably end up loving him/her 

[Venusz]

Thank you everyone for your great tips! We will definitely keep them in mind! Not sure where exactly we're going with it yet, but we'll definitely keep everyone in the loop!

 

Another question... Our main character is a girl, so what type of guy would you prefer for her to fall in love with ?

[Zalor]

So you want to create an interesting visual novel? Most western visual novel writers make the mistake of treating VNs more as games than books. So my advise would be to take this advise from Earnest Hemingway from this movie:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw9spMYA-XU

 

 

 

Basically what I am saying is that asking people what we want is already making a mistake, you should write what you want and what you know.

[Rose]

Just like Zalor and Palas said, you should write your story and your characters. You'll surely enjoy writing it more if you don't have to worry about our tastes, remember that we won't be the only ones to read it so even if you completely satisfy the people who replied here, you can still upset others. 

[Venusz]

Yeah, I agree with what you guys said. We just wanted to get a little insight because it's our first time making something like this, so we wanted to know if what we're making falls under the guidelines of a VN... Not sure if that makes ANY sense, but thank you guys for the tips!

[Darklord Rooke]

So my cousin and I have decided that we want to create a visual novel... We're still in the beginning stages of planning it, but we were wondering what makes a visual novel appealing to you guys? What do you like in a character? What do you not like? Do you like it to be more "choose your own story", or do you prefer a more limited choice Visual Novel?

 

[MrP]

Really depends on the content and the medium.

 

I personally prefer ADV style VN's with lots of meaningful choices and routes that complement each other, rather than separate isolated branches. I value complex stories and mystery over exquisite character design. But its no good taking that as advice if your strengths are in other areas.

 

A VN can be anything from a digital book with sound and a few pictures, to highly technically complex systems. If I were writing a VN I'd be asking myself questions like; what parts of the work particularly suit a VN system, which system (or engine) matches my strengths best, will the narrative be dialog or narration driven etc. I'd fear shoehorning in unnecessary elements to qualify my work as a 'proper' VN and concentrate on doing something fairly modest, perfectly.

 

Sorry if this sounds arrogant, nice artwork and good luck!

[Diamon]

For starters, I agree with what Rooke said : create something that will seem appealing to you in the first place. That's the best way to stay interested in what you're doing.

It doesn't mean that it's you shouldn't consider what kind of public you want to target, just that you'll have to to make choices.

If you want to have a girl protagonist, know that it will probably close the door to most of the male audience. But at the same time, if you feel more comfortable with writing with a female protagonist, you should definitely go with it. You need to choose yourself what you want to do, and assume it.

Of course, you can also try to think outside of the box, and ask yourself : "How can I interest male players to play a narrative game with a female heroine?". Simple enough : create a novel that doesn't focus on romance, and that has an interesting world / universe / lore / setting. But again, it all depends on what kind of stories you'd be ready to write. A visual novel talking about women's rights in a sci-fi setting? That would be most likely very interesting. But if you're not into sci-fi, you should not try it.

[Venusz]

I agree. Thank you guys for opening my eyes. Everyone is correct we should write whatever appeals to us because after all it's something that we'll be putting a lot of effort in and so we should make it something that is worth it for us. I apologize if I have offended anyone. Thank you for the great responses we will definitely keep them in mind.

[Venusz]

I've avoided this topic until now because I think you're going about things in a very bad way - you should write what you love, asking this community about their preferences is like an author jumping on the web asking what types of books people like. Can you imagine the replies?

 

"Fantasy."

"Romance. With lots of hot smut :3"

"Literature"

"Sci-fi."

"Time-travel stories."

"Time travel stories ARE sci-fi, dummy."

"Doesn't have to be. Could be fantasy, now who's the dummy?"

"Nobody cares! They're both speculative fiction anyway" and on and on. And it's the same for characters. What are people supposed to say when you ask them what they like in a character? Are you expecting a reply like "put in lots of lolis" or are you expecting a reply like "there has to be an ignorant hero, a witty thief, and a wise old mage."

 

I remember one author who thought she would write romance because romance is easily the best selling genre for books. She'd thought she'd pick up a lot of fans and make a lot of money that way. She never finished the romance story. One of the best pieces of advice someone mentioned is - if you're not having fun writing a scene, then how do you expect anybody to enjoy themselves reading it? So write what you love.

 

As for the questions in your opening post 1 - What makes a Visual Novel appealing to you guys?

A - You have the section of the fanbase who download a lot of nukige, so I imagine graphic sex scenes would appeal to them. Then you have the section who love gripping character development stories, the section who like a deep plot with characters not being as important, and the section who like gameplay. Most of the otome fans hang out over the OELVN scene so while you won't find many of those fans here. you'll find them on lemma. Over here otome games are a little looked down upon.  Wasn't very helpful, was it?

 

2  - What do you not like? Do you like it to be more "choose your own story", or do you prefer a more limited choice Visual Novel?

A - I'm assuming you're asking about choices in Visual Novels, there are many different philosophies here. Traditional Visual Novels tend to form under the "route" system, that is not many choices affect the story but instead trigger flags to manipulate which version of the story gets loaded. However Visual Novels are a subgenre of the Interactive Storytelling genre, where usually more of a "choice and consequence system" is employed. What I mean by this is choices the protagonist make affect the environment (people die, cities get levelled) and not so much switching between set versions of the story. So you make a choice, and there's a consequence from that choice. Either method is available to you. I personally prefer the latter but a number of people (especially here) prefer the former.

 

Another thing you will need to consider here are "lots of choices" vs "not so many choices." You'll need to think about this yourself. What I tend to find are those games which contain "lots of changes" either have a lot of decisions which only affect flavour dialogue or nothing at all, whereas the games with not so many choices have the opportunity to make each one meaningful. Pros vs cons, you have limited manpower so you need to think about this.

 

3- What do you like in a character?

A - Just make sure your characters are actual people and not plot devices or caricatures. I've got a handy document I can give you if you need help in that regard.

 

What else... oh yes, your cousin's art rocks.

 

 

EDIT: This won't happen. I'd advise saving yourself the frustration and just write a VN you would be interested in playing yourself. People try this all the time when writing stories/novels and it rarely turns out well.

 

EDIT2: You should read this thread: https://forums.fuwanovel.net/index.php?/topic/7981-so-you-want-to-create-a-visual-novel/

Thank you for the great insight. You are correct we shouldn't have jumped the gun and tried to appeal to everybody. I guess we were just too excited! Thank you for giving us a reality check we appreciate the advice and will definitely keep in mind what you said when creating our Visual Novel!