#visual novel development

[konpeico]

cause when i ride with you, i feel my love renewed

Soul Restruct is a sci-fi action yuri visual novel. Grey, a retail worker with a journalistic eye for beauty in the mundane, gets brought into the exploits of the elementally-powered "New Six."

As the newly-appointed chronicler of this team, Grey follows along to discover the meaning of civilian disappearances caused by a horde mechanical beasts, and the ambitions of the Tyrants in control of them. (all screenshots not final)

Soul Restruct will feature character and CG art by @jellyfishfortuna, background art by Ahruna and Nate D Hernandez, character designs brought on by the likes of khwany! On the soundtrack are @jamiepaige and @shadolith!

@teffiniwynn is the lead writer, producer, and director on Soul Restruct! Els White has been a great help co-writing. Studio Coattails is handling voice casting and Syon Santeria the direction! We'll do character and cast reveals over the coming days.

We're aiming to have a demo, and sometime afterward a crowdfunding campaign, in 2024! Stay tuned for further developments.

You can follow along the game's itch.io page as well!

We've also opened a Patreon if you want to support us in advance and receive extra development tidbits!

Not only that, but @jamiepaige has also released a single featuring the main theme of Soul Restruct -- Love Renewed, with album art by @reverieque! Grab it here!

[4noki-vns]

Survival horror yuri visual novel: The Final Prize is Soup out now!

Our survival horror yuri visual novel, The Final Prize is Soup, is now out on itch.io!

After a disastrous break up, Qian Hailu wakes up to find that she's dead. Luckily (or unluckily), she's been given a chance to turn back the clock and avert her death—as long as she can pass three rounds in the game of life. You who are unqualified to drink Meng Po's soup, you have been chosen for the game of life. Three worlds, three rounds. Win all three and you may avert your fated death. Lose any and your bones are forfeit for tomorrow's lunch broth. Good luck. Our ghosts have prepared their takeout containers, all plastic, non-microwaveable.

Featuring:

~45k words

2 major endings and plenty of dead ends

5 CGs

Cinematographic storytelling

Accessibility options

A CG gallery, a music gallery, dev notes, and an achieved endings screen

Play now!

[zoomies-not-shroomies]

I'm making a cursed fan VN

[arimiadev]

I'm holding an anonymous survey for anyone who's made a visual novel by themself before (including if you commissioned assets, as long as they didn't have a say over other aspects of the game). the results will be compiled onto my blog as a guide for new devs who want to make a visual novel solo.

it's anonymous, though you can be credited for your answers if you add your name at the bottom of the survey

there's a lot of long form questions, these are all optional

please only take the survey if you've released a visual novel by yourself, not if you're still in progress with your first game

you are a solo dev even if you used creative commons works or commissioned assets, as long as they didn't have say over other parts of the game

I'll close the survey sometime in late February 2024 and compile the answers afterwards. thank you if you submit answers!!!

[sunlabyrinth]

The Empress of Aeser: Act I will be available to play during #SteamNextFest!

About the Empress of Aeser

The Empress of Aeser is a visual novel with light point 'n click puzzles and lots of choices. You start out with the option between four personalities, which will influence how Tetrine grows as a person later in the game.

Lie, show restraint, be diplomatic or audacious. There are many dialogue options.

Solve light inventory object puzzles and explore a library of strange books.

Interact with newspaper articles and uncover the secrets of the city, once the capital of an old and dark Empire.

Tetrine begins in an existing relationship. It is already fraught. Will you repair the damage or start anew?

Other scenes are told from the perspective of other characters. Meet Sabina, a sheltered artist, Tell, a farm girl who has already encountered the dark secrets of the city and Kalevel, Tetrine's employer and an ancient demon.

Wishlist on Steam here.

[chattercap]

Hi! I'm playing MMM and am really enjoying it! :D But what I find really interesting is how your visual novel is made in Godot instead of Ren'Py. I wanted to ask how you make your games in Godot/what tips would you have for someone who wanted to use Godot?

Ohh thank you so much for playing; I'm glad you're enjoying it!

I'll be honest, I do not recommend my method of making games in Godot to anyone, haha! I started off with Unity, and during that time I coded my own custom framework (instead of using a pre-built one like NaniNovel) because I wanted to practice coding. After the Unity fiasco, I swapped over to Godot as it was open-source and supported C# code, and I ported most of my C# code over to Godot without many changes. So currently I use mainly a custom framework written in C#, besides the code relating to my animation program (Spine2D).

If you want to make games in Godot, I would actually recommend NOT doing what I did. I would

1) Code your games in GDScript if you have no plans to port your game to something like Unity and you have no experience with C# coding. GDScript is much easier to learn, and Godot currently has a bit more support for GDScript. C# support is very good, but not 100%.

2) Use a framework. Rakugo is a framework specifically designed after RenPy for Godot; I haven't used it, but it looks very nice and seems worth looking into. At the very least, I would use a dialogue manager - Godot Dialogue Manager and Dialogic are the main ones.

Now for actually making the framework, I would emphasize simplicity and modularity.

Simplicity: VNs are VERY lightweight. I was actually worried about the performance of MMM, as I used fairly heavy animation rigs and I didn't optimize it, but I've gotten reports that it works quite fine (well, even)! So don't worry too much about optimizing, and just try to make things simple and optimize later if needed (for instance, for searching for audio files, images, etc. - I just search by the filename using strings, even though this is inefficient/inoptimal).

Modularity: This is a general game design principle, but it's good to make it so that different parts of your game are as independent from other parts as possible. Only give access to information/variables as absolutely necessary, and control how variables are changed very strictly. This helps to reduce bugs and makes it easier to bugtest! I found it helpful also to organize the parts of the VN into different "systems" that all function independently - each of these systems can be deactivated or reactivated separate from each other, and they can also be tested as such as well.

If you want to know how I separated mine, they are:

Backgrounds, Audio, Sprites, CGs, Panels (mini CGs/cut-ins), GUI, Story (also contains a mini manager for Story Flags), Dialogue/Text Boxes

If you want another example of a VN made in Godot, I actually took a look at this one to see if it was "possible". It might be worth looking at! They did a lot of cool things that I didn't implement, such as a time rewind feature and more dynamic CG/sprite movement.

I hope that this was helpful! Best of luck if you decide to pursue Godot development! I'd be very happy to have more Godot VN devs in the community~

[melancolymilk]

Ta-dah!

How Am I a Vampire is out!

and I'm so nervous about it! Holy shit!

I'm so prepared to remove it from the jam- it doesn't fit in at all with the other games i'm so nervous about it ;-;

[abby-howard]

More previews of what’s to come in episode 4....

[beryllheliodora]

Day 30 of Nano, only 1 1/2 days left!

Aftertaste (Part 1) is fully playable now, we just need to add a few assets here and there ☕

[knickknackpj]

Graey Beauregard wants a portrait of himself to show off how powerful and smart he his, but he would rather not pay a living artist. That's too expensive! So he "created" a robot running an AI art generator to paint his magnificent portrait since that's way cheaper. Surely nothing will go wrong!

The Perfect Portrait, my O2A2Q visual novel is out now! Download it here!

*No AI generated art was used in the making of this VN.

[kurokrisps]

I'm going to write visual novels soon, and I'm going to use the same tag as my writing blog when I do, so if you want VN updates, find me here @elfqueen006 .

[konpeico]

The final act of this batch of character reveals is brought to you by Sophia! The shining voice she ~blesses~ her glitterlings with is @jamiepaige's!

[4noki-vns]

The Art of Asset Reduction: VNConf 2024 Write-Up

This is a write-up for my Visual;Conference 2024 talk on asset reduction: presentation of scenes with reduced art labor.

I will discuss how to reduce production requirements via various methods of asset presentation and staging, walking you through case studies of existing visual novels. This talk will guide you to answer the question: How do I fulfill my project scope without asset bloat?

This is an art talk that assumes you have already scoped down your story and have created a list of scenes that you need. This is not a talk about scoping down your game's story.

You have scenes you need to make. How are you going to make them (and with style)?

Abstraction

Cut-ins

Reduce

Reuse

-

I. Abstraction

I start off with abstraction as a reminder that visual novels are a combination of visual and novel (amongst other aspects)

Abstraction

Abstraction is a strong tool for bringing focus to the writing, highlighting ambiguity and setting the mood with colors.

Examples I mentioned in my talk include:

Black screen

Solid colored screen

Sky BG

Of Components

The mood-setting power of abstraction also extends to scenes with characters, especially CGs.

As again, abstraction draws focus to what you choose to emphasize: the characters.

(FLOWERS -Le volume sur ete-)

They are gay. Thank you for coming to my VNConf talk.

-

You can similarly abstract characters.

(Lachesis or Atropos)

Consider representing irrelevant characters (e.g., NPCs) as silhouettes. The reader can fill in the details within the shapes themselves.

Silhouettes are especially great for crowd scenes where you want to draw focus to the main characters.

This will be a recurring theme:

What do you really need to draw?

-

II. Cut-ins

One common not-quite full screen piece of art you'll see in many visual novels is the cut-in.

The cut-in typically consists of the:

Item/focus

Frame

And is often for topics such as objects or small animals, which may exist in the scene but may not be within the same frame of reference as the background and sprites.

The separate framing informs the players that the item is "separately framed."

(Who is the Red Queen?)

For example, this small bird is not huge and would not be the size of a character's head even had a sprite been on screen.

The Foreground-Backdrop Heuristic

Cut-ins make strong use of what I refer to as the "foreground-backdrop heuristic."

(Shikkoku no Sharnoth)

A general backdrop informs the reader of a broad location or scene (especially if characters are present). Then a more specific foreground (the cut-in) informs the reader of the specifics.

As the foreground cut-in is in a different frame, the pairing of the two helps create a mental model of the space in the reader's mind.

Cut-ins can be used for:

Backgrounds (mix and match foregrounds with a backdrop)

Reduced CGs

Presenting existing assets in a different frame of reference

CG variants

Try tackling your visual presentation in a layered, comic book-esque fashion with cut-ins!

Just be careful about clutter.

Whether you want to go for the layered cut-in style, the 3d stage cinematic style, or a combination of the two, make sure you have a vision before you jump in.

SD CGs

I had to make an obligatory mention of SD "super deformed" CGs in this talk, so here it is in the write up as well.

(Grisaia: Phantom Trigger Vol. 1)

SD, chibi. However you call these, they're great for playful scenes that might require more art than your classic sprite-background combination.

What SD CGs do best is that they:

Fulfill the role of a CG

Are easier to draw than fully rendered non-chibi art

Can be distributed to different artists to reduce artist workloads due to style difference

Just keep in mind that a simplified CG is still a CG and thus may lack reusability.

Consider what scenes really need a CG.

-

III. Reduce

Now, consider asking yourself: "Does what a player does not see need to exist?" (mostly applicable for games with opaque UI)

Yet, what you need to draw is what you need to draw. How can you reduce the work in what you need to draw?

One option is:

Palette Limitation

You've heard of gray scale games, but don't forget about other ways of limiting your palette to reduce workload.

Dramatic, mood setting color power

Less rendering work

(Sona-Nyl of the Violet Shadows)

A similar idea can be applied to NPCs for a more detailed take on silhouettes.

-

IV. Reuse

Lastly, please remember to be economical and reuse assets as necessary. One of the great joys of cut-in BGs, for example, is reusability.

I had to give an obligatory mention to CG variants in my talk, such as:

(Fatal Twelve)

However, overall, you never know when you'll want to use various components of your art elsewhere such as intermixing CG and sprite art.

Please keep your working layers if possible.

Other reuse examples:

UI (especially in episodic games)

Gameplay (e.g., Kogado's rhythm game)

Consider asking your programmer to work on a framework to reuse, reducing repeated code work.

-

Conclusions

All in all, you can make your game.

And it doesn't need to be hellish on your budget or timeline.

If you take anything away from this talk, let it be to:

Prioritize reusable assets

Maintain aesthetic; avoid clutter

Display important scenes

Do not scope up; aim for a set goal

A scene can be presented in many stylish ways, some of which will suit your workflow better than others.

So, go on. Make your game!

-

Interested in my works? Find me on itch:

And check out my newsletter:

-

VNConf 2023 Talk Write-up:

[indycinders]

what's this? a devlog? idk

Helloooooo

I'm very sleep-deprived over the events of the last few days, and in general the last week because I've been very sick. So take what I'm about to say at face value, mostly because I'm just throwing general ideas out there for my own self hahaha.

I'm going to put my energy today into re-thinking Duplicity. I'm talking about a massive overhaul. From today on, consider the current demo and the characters to be null and void and non-canon, just enjoy it for the goofy thing it is in its current state.

The entire story will be reworked, rewritten, and redrawn. I may reuse some backgrounds LMAO because I just can't with the background art man. The characters will still be the same though! Griffin, Taipan, Tris, Dell, and others will be included in the game, but their overall personalities and back stories will be redone to be more concise and cohesive so I'm not making it up on the fly anymore.

I will be removing Sophie from the game because I've come to realize that what I had planned for her story line goes against my morals personally. (that sounds real bad lskdjglsk she wasn't going to be hurt i swear) But I don't think having a character who is portrayed as a minor is a good thing to have in the game when she's not inherently related (like sister or niece or w/e) to any of the characters.

I'm going to go along with the original idea I had before I became obsessed with wanting to make a "yan game". I think it's a solid idea, I think it will overall be a lot better received, and I think I'll be able to write it better.

There won't be any NSFW in the base game, but I'll think about including a paid option for it, only because if I write it, I want compensation LMAO sorry but not really. I'm not a smut writer, I don't enjoy writing it.

Anyway, that's all I had to say. uvu Take care of yourselves, bunnies.

-Cin

[sunlabyrinth]

I've always wanted to do a Halloween special set in the world of Aeser...

Available on itch.io

Goblet of Mercy

Goblet of Mercy is a short light(?) psychological horror visual novel about your encounter with a woman whose ego is so big she made her own perfect world to contain it.

It began with Halloween, a time when the veil between worlds is thin. Your friend Judy invited you out to a themed party at the local library. A Halloween event, a good friend, a lot of weird books for sale. Judy might have been in a shifty mood, but there was no need to worry. Really. What could go wrong?

Download Goblet of Mercy on Itch

Features

Vampires.

Choices matter, leading to 4 different endings.

Choose between a male and female main character (name changeable) each with a slightly different personality.

[bibixpgames]

Got a new "CTRL FREAK" dev log in who knows how long! :D

While some of what it talks about is the announcement for "CTRL FREAK"s release in April, I also explain a lot more about the game's progress over time, improvements and, frankly, why the game took me a while to finish in general.

So go check it out, at least until the game comes out this month! :D