I’ve been bitten by the visual novel (VN) bug. My kid has been interested in VNs for years, starting back when pretty much all the ones available were in Japanese. I remember seeing an early VN and thinking it a cute idea, but not for me. Since then, more and more English language VNs have come to be published. Still, they didn’t catch my attention until recently, when I rediscovered the storytelling style on Steam. I’ll take this opportunity to recommend The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood to anyone interested in the medium. Now I feel like dropping all my other creative efforts in favor of creating my own VN.
What is a Visual Novel?
If you already know about visual novels, feel free to skip down to the next heading to read about my own VN project.
For those who don’t know, visual novels are a unique form of interactive storytelling that combines narrative, visuals, and sometimes game-play elements (mini-games) to engage the audience. They are primarily text-based storytelling, as opposed to film or action video games, but they include visual elements to more of a degree than most print novels, excluding graphic novels. The visual components of a VN may include character sprites, full-screen backgrounds, and other artwork to enhance the story. They aren’t comic books or graphic novels, as they don’t change background imagery as often as you’d expect in a comic book or graphic novel, and most visual novels support multiple endings. Moreover, a comic book or graphic novel could be expected to have multiple panels per page, whereas a visual novel will likely have one full-screen panel on display at a time.
Visual novels are digital media. The reader clicks or taps to be presented with new text and possibly a change in the artwork. A plethora of visual novels provide the reader with a user interface for selecting options as the story progresses. If the VN is designed for it, chosen options will impact the direction and outcome of the story. This is similar to the kind of solitaire text adventures I’ve played since I was a kid, where the text in one paragraph on one page directs which other paragraph on which other page to read next, as opposed to one reading all paragraphs sequentially as usual. These days, those kind of old school text adventures can be found in print or digital form, and some are illustrated, but not to the extent of a visual novel.
Because visual novels originated in Japan, many feature artwork with an anime or manga aesthetic, but that’s changing. More than a few use computer-generated art, creating character sprites and backgrounds with apps like Unity or DAZ Studio. Some art might be hand-drawn and digitized, while photographs might also be used. Because the medium relies heavily on imagery, creating or gathering the artwork for a visual novel can be a major undertaking. Some visual novels include animated artwork, such as characters walking or animated cut-scenes, requiring even more effort.
Being strictly a digital medium, a visual novel needs a platform on which to run, such as a PC, gaming console, or mobile device. Some VNs are browser based, while others must be downloaded and run as an app on your device. For those visual novels that are browser-based, access to a wider audience is more easily granted. Non-browser-based visual novels require developers to build apps for all the platforms they wish to support. The language used for the text in a visual novel will also limit access, but that goes for any work of fiction involving text. Translations of works of fiction require resources beyond many indie publishers.
My Visual Novel Project
I’ve started on my first VN project, tentatively titled Fell Under a Dream. The main character (MC) visits an alternate reality via their dreams, and encounters a young lady resident, who in my outline is called Q. 🙂 I’ve yet to name the world in which Q lives, but for now let’s refer to it as AR, for alternate reality.
The residents of AR engage in competitions to earn XP. The more XP one has, the more capable one becomes in earning even greater amounts of XP, and the more standing one has in AR’s society. Perhaps MC can find a way to help Q excel in these competitions. Or perhaps MC will think it morally objectionable to help Q. In any case, what might the AR authorities do if they discover MC in AR, whether MC is helping Q or not?
There will be more to the story, of course. At this point, I’ve outlined Chapter 1 only. When it comes to writing any kind of fiction, I’m more pantser than plotter, so I’ve moved to the implementation phase for Chapter 1. This will help me to see just how complicated the VN development process is. Maybe it will be too much for a lone developer to take on. Many VNs are produced by large teams, and take months or even years of work before being released. A lone developer must either do all the work or hire help. I tend not to hire help. I could see if Emila (my co-author for the Head Hoppers series) is interested in helping, if I feel I need it. I plan to go it alone on this project for as long as I can.
I’m using DAZ Studio to create the character sprites and the backgrounds. For any given character in a visual novel, several sprites may be needed, one for each emotion to be conveyed by that character in the story. It’s considered poor practice to use only one sprite for a VN character, never varying the character’s pose or expression. Part of the appeal of a visual novel is the ability to demonstrate emotions visually. For that, one sprite is needed for the character engaging in casual conversation, another sprite for when the character is angry, and yet other sprites to indicate when the character is curious, shy, or thinking, for example. During development, a single image can be used for each of a character’s sprites, but eventually additional graphics for all involved emotions need to be created. From my outline, I’ve identified a half dozen sprites I’ll need for Q. I’ve generated them already using DAZ Studio. Once the initial character model is chosen and dressed, it’s a matter of applying different poses and expressions to the model and then rendering out each pose. The process went so smoothly, I generated all half dozen required sprites and another half dozen potential ones. I can envision needing more before the work is finished, but I can wait on others until I know what’s required.
I’ve also generated ten background images and twenty-some other image files, either for cut-scenes or for the competitions (mini-games). I have one more character to generate files for, and then I’ll have what I need to start writing code.
A number of VN game engines exist, and I’ve chosen to go with Ren’Py. It’s free and is well supported by a sizable, enthusiastic community. It makes use of the Python programming language to allow features not directly supported by the Ren’Py tool. I’ve never used Python before, but Ren’Py alleviates much of the need for it, and I daresay I’ll figure out whatever Python features I find necessary for my game. One of the biggest benefits Ren’Py provides is the ability to save the game to numerous slots. It also supports the manipulation and displaying of text, character sprites, background images, and other images, including some simple animations.
I’ll plan to release Fell Under a Dream as a Microsoft app for the PC, at the least. A Linux app might be doable, too. I don’t have a Mac computer, so I don’t know how I’ll be able to build the game as a Mac app without the help of someone with a Mac. That issue can be addressed after the MS app is done. I’ll be looking at releasing the VN as an Android app, but iOS won’t happen without the help of a willing Mac developer. If I can package the VN as a browser app, I’ll look at installing it on my Eposic server, so anyone with a browser can play it.
As for translations of my VN, it’s doubtful that will happen, unless someone likes it so much they volunteer to do it for me. I could always blindly throw Google translations of my text strings into files and hope for the best, but I wouldn’t want to do that, not understanding the nuances of the translated text. So, to begin with, at least, my VN will only be available in English.
The Fates of My Other Projects
Okay, so, what about the other creative projects I have on my to-do list? There’s a second edition of Undone (the second volume of the Head Hoppers series) coming out soon, well before the end of March 2024, barring any new issues. We’re redoing Undone based on reader feedback received. The second edition is told from the point of view of Morrow rather than Nick, because Nick isn’t likeable or relatable enough for most readers. The original edition of Undone lacked story structure, and the new edition is an attempt to tell the same story in a structured way. We’ve also cut a lot of material (killed a lot of my darlings, as the saying goes), while adding new material to plant the book firmly in the LitRPG genre.
I had other projects on my to-do list, including a couple of digital music albums. One of them, a digital country album, is proving more difficult than I’d imagined, and we’re dropping the project. We had started on it, but it has become obvious that it will take a huge additional effort to finish. We’re better at producing tracks that we come up with ourselves. The country tracks were all written by a cousin of mine. He gave us the lyrics and some notes/chords, but we’ve discovered we aren’t set up in our music production environments to digitally create realistic country beats and accompaniment.
Our other digital music project is for the electronica album we had originally intended as our second release. We have nearly all the work done for four tracks, but that’s where we stopped so as to concentrate on finishing the second edition of Undone. We had talked about doing six more tracks for a full album, including at least one track using GrimesAI vocals. That project is closer to our collective hearts than the digital country album was, as the digital country album was solely my idea. So we intend to eventually return to finishing the full ten tracks for our second Max Gumdrop album, to be called Robotic Dreamers. But my work on the album is on hold until Undone is finished and I determine how much work will be involved in creating my visual novel.
I’d considered creating more puzzle books, but the ones I’ve released so far aren’t selling, and publishing more of them doesn’t feel worth the effort. Of all my creative endeavors, the T&T solo game book and T&T game supplement I sold through DriveThruRPG were the most well-received. I marketed them as Trollhalla Friendly, to avoid using the T&T trademark for marketing purposes. The target audience knew what Trollhalla Friendly meant, as the T&T fan community had come up with it. Unfortunately, I still removed the solo and supplement from my DriveThruRPG store, because someone bought out Flying Buffalo Inc (the owner of the T&T trademark and copyright) and they didn’t like me making any mention of Tunnels and Trolls even in the introductions to my books. I could have fought them about it, but I didn’t feel like it. Most people who wanted those two products had already purchased them. All that being said, I can only measure the success of my projects by how well they sell, and the successes of those two products indicate I do best with RPGs. Okay, then. I’ll include RPG elements in my VN.
Since fourth grade, I’ve wanted to write stories. With visual novels, I can combine stories and gaming. In 2024, that will be my focus. I have all the skills and tools needed to produce visual novels. I won’t fool myself into believing I can produce anything as full-featured as The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, and I’ll endeavor to keep things simple (complex animation sequences won’t be in my VN, for example). But I’m excited to see what I can do with Fell Under a Dream. Stay tuned!