The Skip Button – An Anatomy of Visual Novels
Entry posted by Pallas_Raven in Analysis
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This is a condensed version of the full article which can be found on my Main Blog Here.
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A simple feature like a Skip Button might seem too minor to be worth covering in any detail, after all most visual novels have one so they must be a normal part of them, right? It is only when it is taken away that its impact, both on how the player interacts with the game and their perception of it, becomes clear. Presenting the option to skip content is always a double edged sword for a game as it offers player convenience at the risk of them skipping over something important to the narrative and in a game so focused around story this can be a major issue. Then there are the different types of skip functions from the standard skipping text to skipping between scenes to skipping to the next choice. A common bed fellow to the Skip Button is the auto play setting where the player can let the visual novel progress at a pace set by the player without their input which presents some odd design considerations. Let's speed through the game and discover how skipping influences visual novels.
The Standard Skip
Of all the types of skip functions found in visual novels, the skip read text and the skip unread text are the most common and shape how the overall experience is perceived. Skipping text the player has already seen is the easier of the two to understand the impact of on the game. It is a simple quality of life feature to enable a smoother transition from one route to another without boring the player with repeated content. With this their interest can be maintained while allowing for an unimpeded exploration of the choices and endings on offer. This reduced barrier does have a slight drawback in that it brings the player onto a system level engagement with the game rather than an emotional and personal one making it damaging to the impact of key moments which the player is suddenly thrust into after some detached skipping. Take a game with a long common route like The Fruit of Grisaia as an example. Here the length of time it would take to reach another route would be an unreasonable amount to ask the player to put themselves through and so letting them skip the text they have read is a basic method of avoiding tedium. By doing this The Fruit of Grisaia runs into the issue of the player’s attention wandering as, even with the ability to skip, it can take a long time to reach new content and thus their interest in continuing to play drops. The more expansive the visual novel, the worse this problem becomes and there is no way to properly balance it without introducing new content into the common route based on routes completed, but this expands the scope of the game and takes a lot of time and resources to implement.
Sitting right next to the ability to skip read text is the option to skip unread text, meaning lines or scenes the player has never interacted with before. The role this occupies is as a means for players who have already played the game before to skip to whatever part of the game they want to go to without having to reread the whole title on a fresh install. It also serves as a means for the player to skip sections they might be finding uninteresting so the game can maintain their engagement rather than having them put it down and stop playing. Of course this comes with the ever present risk that they could accidentality skip past a big revelation or key character moment without which they will not properly understand later events. This matters significantly more in visual novels which rely on plot as their primary driving force since a twist can come out of nowhere if its foreshadowing or setup has been skipped. It also further takes control of the experience out of the hands of the developer since they cannot account of any amount of skipping the player does and so have to assume that they are engaging in good faith in order to pace their game. However, the convenience offered to the player is seen as the worth the trade off and so its inclusion has become a standard feature in the medium.
Jumping Between Scenes And Choices
In a large visual novel even skipping the text might still result in long wait times where the mind might wander to what other games could be played instead of watching text fly by. The solution many titles reached was to allow the player to jump to either the next scene or choice. This bypasses the issue of wasting time and quickly puts them exactly where in the game they want to be in order to progress down a new route. Jumping features like these are essentially the logical end point of the convenience of the text skipping options and so exist to promote a smoother flow of the narrative and keep the player engaged. As such it suffers an exaggerated version of the same weakness in its system level interaction drawing people out of the experience. Using jumps inherently leads to an element of confusion as the sudden shift between scenes is disorienting and it takes a moment to remember what happened there. In this moment the player is made acutely aware of the artificial nature of the game and it impacts their perception of the title by distancing them for the immediate and personal strengths of visual novels.
Auto Play
While an auto play function is not a type of skipping, it does operate on the same axis of player utility and often influences them in a similar manner. This option allows the game to progress through the text at a set pace decided by the player before it starts. No further input is required once it has started outside of choice selection and it will keep going until the credits roll. The main advantages of this feature are twofold. It presents the visual novel in manner where the player can do something else at the same time and lightly engage with it or simply to make it as relaxing as possible. Alongside this is the role it has in making the titles more accessible as not everyone can repeatedly click a button and having the ability to let the game perform this act allows them to be included among its players. However, there is an interesting design problem introduced with auto play and this is how it contrasts with the way a person progressing under their own steam since they do not do so at a constant and even pace. This is mainly due to the way a game has fast and slow paced scenes and a player’s progression through each generally matches the style presented to them and designers can use this knowledge to fine tune the experience to keep the player engaged. Since auto play moves forward at a constant speed all of this subtle control is lost and it can in fact be damaging since its original purpose has been undermined so might feel odd when viewed at the wrong pace.
Due to its wide spread nature just about any visual novel can serve as an example of this feature, but its issues are most noticeable in title focused around action like Sorcery Jokers. The extremes of emotion that the games based around action rely on stem from a control over the narrative pacing to express these ideas to the player in a compelling fashion. Auto Play completely irons out those peaks and drops into a flat line making their presence feel awkward and distracting. As such developers have to keep this possibility in mind and try not to make the visual novel’s pacing mechanisms obvious when view outside of their intended speed in order to account for the players using this feature.
Conclusion
Giving someone the option to skip the content in a visual novel is necessary for convenience and yet it can indirectly harm the overall experience when not properly considered. Skipping read text is the most basic tool to avoid wasting the player’s time while skipping unread text can be a useful feature for returning players to get them into the action. An expanded version of this is the ability to jump to the next choice or scene which allows for faster traversal of the game at the cost of drawing the player completely out of the game’s immersion. The auto play function exists as a complement to the skip button and offers the ability to customise the pace of progress in order to make the title more accessible. Overall the skip feature is important part of the visual novel and so should be properly considered when you are making your own game.
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