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On my journey to try and write a complete story, I found it incredibly satisfying creating my story's universe. Mostly characters, relevant parties, and cause and effect. So after a few months of creating, I end up with a decent amount of details and a fair chunk of my story plot filled in. But I haven't written a story. In fact, I haven't even completed a single scene in it's entirety. Strange. These "details", feel so integral to the story. I feel like I'm creating the story. And yet when I google "how to writing", everything is dead focused on the scene: making the perfect scene, the build-up of scenes, scene dialogue, etc. It seems like our focuses are different. Anyways, without going into how modern writing is too presentation focused, let me lay out these two contrasting features which constitute a story. A World The world of a story is its own characters, and their thoughts, interactions, histories, and details. And a timeline of events with explanation of cause and effect. To me as a writer, a world is already the story. Creating the locations, characters, and happenings. Just like how facts and forensic evidence can tell a story, the existence of this separate world, it's characters and events makes it a story to me. Telling a Story However, there is another huge element in stories. That is, how we convey them. When we talk about a good writer, we often applaud their gripping text, captivating storylines. A good part of that is the art of presentation. The first implication of presentation is that of selection. Not every fact and character's thought reaches the reader's eyes, and certainly not every cause and effect is layed out. A story consists of a series of scenes which convey the journey, and also bring the reader through the build-up and through the climax of the story. Beyond that, a story has description, which helps the reader to imagine the scene and put them there. A scene can have a mood, which immerses the player. It's possible to like a scene just for it's mood. Note this mood is a very subjective thing which is both conveyed and imagined. A mood might also might suggest something about the character's lines of thoughts, or it might connect to the punch line of the scene. A narrator can use different tones, which achieve similar effect to a mood. For example, the ironic tone in the narration of the post apocalyptic world SukaSuka encourages us to grin painfully as we hear about curious history and the downfall of foolish parties, deserving and tragic alike. A caustic tone in another post-apocalyptic story could be emphasizing to the reader that human lives matters little here. Of course, the writer could offer up these ideas directly, but a tone or mood simply hints at them. Mostly what these things contribute to is to bestow an experience to the player. This is a subjective experience which is distinct from the world that the author created. Before you think I'm saying "objective rulz", I note that it is possible for a story's universe to have certain emotions or ideas that permeate through it, which the author was trying to convey in the first place. I guess this is why they talk about stories often having an over-arching message. I personally am not a big fan of stories having a primary message, though that it is definitely something which can be done. However, even without having a message, stories usually end up effectively talking about something. This is because they inspire us to think about the phenomena/conflict that they depict. In closing, my fellow VN readers, I leave you with this. Think about a story you've read or are writing. Does the world exist for the sake of the telling, or does the telling exist on behalf of conveying the world?

I was just wondering what every ones favorite Key visual novel is, that is if you like their visual novels. I've just started playing vn's and since I've always been a fan of their anime adaptations i wanted to know which of their Vn's i should play! (My first VN is clannad by the way, i just bought it for ps4^^)

Ah, I just remembered - Planetarian is nice little tearjerker too.

the only Key VN I have read so far ist Clannad, and it was simply awesome. No other VN has affected me that much emotionally, both making me laugh a lot but als having very sad moments. (Although I still loved the Muv-Luv series more in the end)

I'm not sure - I loved them all (except for Rewrite which I didn't read yet), but probably Little Busters as well. But Clannad, or even AIR and Kanon aren't too far behind.

Little busters without a doubt.

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I agree with what Plk_Lesiak said. Popular and corporate culture says a lot about what should be glamorous, what success/happiness should look like. None of is grounded in objective reality, and shouldn't be taken to heart. If people insist, it might be good to just keep a diplomatic face, acknowledge what they are trying to do, and assert that you have right to believe in whatever the heck you want, without being berated.

Alice just wanted a good internship when she gets thrown in the middle of a live singing competition- can you help her rise to be the top idol? Team Violora - Character Designs, Story Concept, & Art Tutty the Fruity - Main Route/Interaction Writing Seigetsu - Opening Day & Contest Writing Kidd - Side Character Interaction Writing MikomiKisomi - GUI & Programming Timka - Side Interaction Programming Social Media Discord ♦ Twitter ♦ Steam ♦ Itchio A bit about this project... this is an older NaNo project from 2016 that was unfinished halfway through- but, now that Violora and I are both much more experienced, we're reviving it for 2019! The finished game will be free and released on Steam, Itchio, Google Play, and Kindle.

While probably few people following my VN-related writing know that, for quite a long time I had a peculiar relationship with the brony fandom. Being brought into the community by my RL friend, a popular fan-artist working under the pseudonym Pony-Berserker, I’ve written a few dozens of My Little Pony comic scripts and, more importantly, based my master’s thesis on researching the fandom – more specifically, exploring the bizarre world of MLP fan erotica. While my current involvement with Bronies is minor at best, I’ve decided to commemorate both my previous and current hobbies by reviewing the humble catalogue of My Little Pony visual novels – in this post, and the one two weeks from now, I will go through pretty much all VN-style fan games made by bronies that are currently available in English, which is just around a dozen titles, including large demos and trials. So, if you have the courage, please join me in this bizarre adventure through the world of shipping, bad fanfiction and, maybe, some genuinely interesting, imaginative VN project within the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic universe! Welcome to Ponyville (demo) The MLP visual novel scene seems to be a hell of demos, dropped projects and never-ending development limbos. Some of the most notable games in this niche suffered from perpetual delays or straight-up died halfway through the production cycle, and Welcome to Ponyville might be the best-known among the latter. After releasing a substantial demo in mid-2012, the team behind quickly started becoming more and more silent, and after two years with no meaningful updates, the chances of the project being finished were clearly gone. The already available first episode, however, is still quite an interesting piece of content that is arguably worth experiencing on its own. Telling the story of a pony arriving to Ponyville to settle within the town (you can choose the protagonist’s gender and the breed of pony they represent), it showcases some of the most notable achievements of the brony fandom: art that very closely resembles that of the show, both in style and quality, and full voice acting that faithfully mimics the original voice cast of Friendship is Magic. The 1,5h-long demo is mostly composed of casual, amusing SoL scenes in which the protagonist organizes his stay in Ponyville and takes odd jobs, while meeting the Mane 6 (brony term for the 6 main characters of the show: Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Fluttershy), along with various other inhabitants of the town. At the same time, the game introduces Silent Hill-like, disturbing dream sequences, suggesting there’s something sinister hiding underneath the fluffy surface… While we’ll never know in which direction this project would go exactly and I would normally not recommend wasting time on approaching unfinished games, Welcome to Ponyville shows the creativity of the MLP fandom at its finest and give a taste of what we could’ve got if more of its energy went into projects of this kind. Final Rating: Recommended Read the full article at evnchronicles.blogspot.com

Hey everyone been a long time lurker in various VN communities and decided to make an account here mostly for recommendations though. The reason I don't really bother making accounts is more or less because I'm an on-off type of person, where I jump between interests pretty quickly although in the case for VN's however, that might change considering some of the games releasing this year have been on my watch list for years now and has pretty much rekindled my interest in these types of games.

After attempting to play Fruit of Grisaia and failing miserably, I've started playing the very light and fluffy moege offering from Purple Soft, Chronoclock, which many say is their least interesting game. Unsurprisingly I'm enjoying it 1000x more than Grisaia so far. It's easy to see what I play VNs for, and I should stick to what I know works...

Oh, I’ll do more than that

I'd say Rewrite because I liked all the characters and it had some of my favorite moments in all the vns I've played.

I gotta say, Clannad is not the best choice for a first VN, because it's pretty easy to get yourself lost in the choices. Then again, that is one of the reasons why it's my favorite VN of all time. Also, it might be easier to ask which Key VNs to avoid, since there are a lot of good ones.

Rewrite, followed by Tomoyo After. If it's anime only, then Charlotte.

Planetarian, followed by Rewrite, and then by everything else. Actually, I made a similar thread about a year ago. It's interesting how much the general opinion in this thread changed since then.

Little Busters is my favorite, and then Clannad is my 2nd favorite Key vn. All of the Key vns I read are very good, including Kanon. I still need to read Harmonia finish Air, and I also hope I get to read Rewrite someday. I just love that Little Busters explores friendship, and etc. I also loved the ost and the characters. I also loved how it has comedy, minigames, and then the feels.

Little Busters!, yeah. Clannad isolates its characters too much from one another most of the time. If it weren't for that, I'd say Clannad.

Alright, let's discuss the elephant in the room. This was kind of just abandoned, and I don't want to leave it like that. I wanted to pick it up again several times, but I haven't really had the time or the motivation to do so. I've gotten quite a lot of questions asking if I'd continue this or not, which goes to show that there's been some interest there from the community too. (Most of them coming from @Kiriririri, who just wants to kill everyone in his glorious loli form.) So I figured it's about time I wrapped this up. It has now been a full year since this started, and I want to at least have a proper ending for people. Here's what I'm thinking: I'll write one more, big chapter, trying to wrap up all the loose ends. I'd give everyone who haven't been in a chapter yet an introduction, and try to make one big, final battle for the rest of the people alive, then crown a victor. I don't know how many people still even remember this was a thing, but hopefully there's at least some interest in seeing it end. Now, one big thing of note: I have no real ETA on this chapter. I work full-time now, (I was still in uni back when I started, heh,) so I really only have the weekends to write. Therefore I expect this to take at least a couple of weeks. If you are interested in seeing the ending, follow this thread and you'll get a notification when I post something. That's about it! Sorry it took so long for me to finally pick this back up. Feel free to leave a comment if you're still excited about this after so long, lol. Will be interesting to see if anyone still remembers it.

Like Stormwolf did say, today we have Sora's update was fully translated so here's usual updates below for formality: Common: 100.0% Sora: 100.0% Marika: 100.0% Natsuki: 0.0% Misa: 100.0% Rikka: 100.0% Touko: 100.0% Total: 87.23% It's been five month since Trip started Hoshiori's project, and here we are with all but one route was already translated. Times flies fast indeed, and so that's all for this week update.

Oh my god, I played Part-Time Job quite a while ago. It was somewhat interesting enough to keep me going, but the culmination of the story was just so obnoxious and dumb that it's now probably my lowest rated vn on vndb. The only other fan-MLP vn that i remember hearing of is Starswirl Academy. But you're right, the MLP community is just an entire swarm of unfinished projects.

I think Kenshin-Sama got it right, but I'd add one little, small thing. You can decry how society treats you, but remember that none of us is self-sufficient. Humanity can't be "an obstacle to one's happiness", because there's no happiness without it (unless you feel like becoming a hermit - I guess there are both monasteries and forests for that). Those favourite books you read? Made by people in society. And made only because there are others that enjoy them, just like you, maybe even facing similar problems. The country you live in might suck in all the regards you mentioned in the past, but as long as they don't outright behead you for being different, there are ways to cope with it and find a somewhat comfortable path through life. Don't obsess over how people treat you, think about what YOU can do to find your own happiness, and where it truly lies.

I see what you're trying to get at, but I don't think it's healthy or productive to blame your problems on society. Now don't get me wrong, I am well aware that humanity sucks and there will be times where your success is severely hindered by the people around you, but that doesn't mean you're completely devoid of options. Keep a level head, plan things out, and take action. Invest whatever resources you have (time, money, information, observations, etc) at your disposal towards self improvement, and stay focused. And yeah, I think you should definitely consider Stormwolf's advice. As someone who's been getting anxiety treatment for 2-3 years, I can vouch for its effectiveness.

It's true. I unabashedly try to convince other people to follow my more glorious lifestyle. "But Fiddle," they say, "I don't want to have sex with penguins." "You must," I insist. "It's the noble way to live."

Just learn how to use tags to search for things on vndb if you want specific VNs and just stop with these threads.

Okay dude, at this point you're just spamming the same thread over and over and over and over and over(17 times at this moment). Seriously, move to a different forum, the only posts you've made to date are "I'm Looking for harem hentai animation or visual novel or manga or doujinshi" or something very similar. Go to a hentai site for the love of all that is good as if 6 months of nonstop posting this hasn't already told you that nobody has a recommendation for you here, especially not hentai and doujinshi. Your posts span back to around AUGUST of last year and have been the same since then. Please stop making the same thread (honestly, I don't see how the mods haven't stopped you from being able to post this again). 4chan, hanime with the "harem" tag, nhentai with the "harem adventure" tag. Anything besides another thread that says "I'm Looking for harem hentai animation or visual novel or manga or doujinshi". Hell, even one of the site admins said that your thread title is too generic and broad. Oh and go try Sengoku rance and watch the hentai. Maybe it'll keep you away from the forum for at least a week. And it doesn't help that you're literally copy and pasting from a different site evident by the white highlight on your text.....

Currently binge-reading Bokura no Kiseki. I remember starting this series a few years ago, and back then I only read the first two chapters, got the impression that it was some generic action-focused fantasy and dropped it. Recently decided to give this another try, and I can say that I was completely wrong. Basically, this turned out to be a competent psychological mystery with the focus on character development, so it's exactly the type of story that I tend to enjoy the most. The story takes place when basically the whole high-school class awakens to the memories from their previous lives. All of them were the inhabitants of a certain Medieval-style fantasy world who died on the same day in a castle that was suddenly attacked by forces of a country they considered friendly. Now they decided to unravel the reason the attack happened, while dealing with the whole baggage of past feelings, regrets and outdated beliefs that don't make sense in the modern world. Overall, the story tries to approach a pretty generic shoujo setting it in a more realistic way, and, in my opinion, it excels in that. The only major problem so far is that the art is not that great, so sometimes it's extremely difficult to distinguish between some characters. And it doesn't help that the cast is huge, so I regularly have to return to the information page at the start of each volume to recall who some minor characters are. Other than that, I feel like there might be some minor plot holes (we'll see after it ends), plus some twists are very obvious (though it's not necessarily a bad point), but overall I don't see anything major enough to make me give anything lower than 9/10. And this clearly deserves a (good) anime adaptation.