So you want to create a Visual Novel...

[Diamon]

Tortured Zaka to put this on the blog http://visualnovelaer.fuwanovel.net/2015/01/a-guide-to-making-visual-novels/

 

It's as much as I can for this amazing post~

 

Thanks a hundred time!!

I'm very happy to see my guide featured on the Fuwa blog!

 

(And sorry for the numerous typos and grammar mistakes... ><)

[nvekmauvia]

A bit late coming, but good job on the guide - especially the "get a writer" part - our team realized that way too late

[Lexyvil]

Great guide!

 

Just reading it motivates me even more so to attempt at making one, mainly to share ideas and feelings to whoever would give it a try!

 

Now if only I knew how to program a game...

...Wait! My friend can! I'll just have to ask him.

 

And for the writing... That's the most important aspect in a Visual Novel... I'll just have to spend a tremendous amount of time thinking of captivating ideas for a story alone. Brainstorming is imminent~ I'll just have to compose for it as well as finding an artist...

 

I might as well start small and build big from there.

 

If I ever make a decent Visual Novel that gets attention, I won't forget to mention you for making it happen.

 

For now, I'll ponder a bit more on the idea, and if time lets me, I'll start working on such a project within a month or two (hopefully).

[Diamon]

Great guide!

 

Just reading it motivates me even more so to attempt at making one, mainly to share ideas and feelings to whoever would give it a try!

 

Now if only I knew how to program a game...

...Wait! My friend can! I'll just have to ask him.

 

And for the writing... That's the most important aspect in a Visual Novel... I'll just have to spend a tremendous amount of time thinking of captivating ideas for a story alone. Brainstorming is imminent~ I'll just have to compose for it as well as finding an artist...

 

I might as well start small and build big from there.

 

If I ever make a decent Visual Novel that gets attention, I won't forget to mention you for making it happen.

 

For now, I'll ponder a bit more on the idea, and if time lets me, I'll start working on such a project within a month or two (hopefully).

 

I'm glad that my guide is giving you motivation to start on a new project!

What's more you're a composer, so if you manage to handle the writing as well, you'll be able to create great tracks that synergies perfectly with what you're writing!^^

Just looking at Jun Maeda's work, the combination of the music and the writing just make VN from Key some of the best I've ever read!

[asima32]

Hopefully this thread will serve as a future reference for anyone who wants to start a VN project on fuwa, and maybe even decide some people to give it a go.

[Andrew]

It's an amazing guide through the certainty alone that all individuals who claim "TL;DR" ought not attempt their hands at making something that requires further responsibility than the 10 minutes it takes to peruse this string. It traces a great deal of general stuff seeing diversion improvement too, so: Good employment.

[Lumaria]

Unreadable. Its all black and with this dark background, makes it impossible. Which is odd. Normally forums (or any modern computer) has the ability to turn the font opposite color if it's automatically set to default color. 

 

 

[Diamon]

Yeah you're right, the latest fuwanovel maintenance kinda screwed with the presentation, will fix this tomorrow.

[Lumaria]

Well let me know when it's fixed.

[shuak]

Very nice guide. 10/10 would read again. As someone who has developed his own online games(not VNs) for a couple of years with other groups of people. You hit the nail on the head in terms of communication. 

[Diamon]

Thanks everyone for your kind words!
I've (finally) got the time to make the guide readable again, sorry for the long wait. I can't believe that I wrote this guide more than a year ago... I will try to edit this guide in the near future since I have acquired more experience and now that we've progressed a lot in the development of our own project, I'd really like this guide to be as complete as possible.

[wraithseeker]

On 3/2/2016 at 8:51 AM, Diamon said:

Thanks everyone for your kind words!
I've (finally) got the time to make the guide readable again, sorry for the long wait. I can't believe that I wrote this guide more than a year ago... I will try to edit this guide in the near future since I have acquired more experience and now that we've progressed a lot in the development of our own project, I'd really like this guide to be as complete as possible.

I think it's pretty detailed as it is. I read the whole thing from top to bottom. Maybe I should stop developing casual mobile games and work on a visual novel instead

[Diamon]

48 minutes ago, wraithseeker said:

I think it's pretty detailed as it is. I read the whole thing from top to bottom. Maybe I should stop developing casual mobile games and work on a visual novel instead

Why not both? I think there's quite the market for Visual Novels on mobile and tablet, it's just that a lot of developers are going for the paywall approach which is imo quite frustrating for most people. Otome dating sims sell like pancakes on android and IOS.

[wraithseeker]

7 hours ago, Diamon said:

Why not both? I think there's quite the market for Visual Novels on mobile and tablet, it's just that a lot of developers are going for the paywall approach which is imo quite frustrating for most people. Otome dating sims sell like pancakes on android and IOS.

I think it would be a cost issue. They both burn funds like crazy and I think an average budget for a short visual novel would be around $1k?

[Diamon]

36 minutes ago, wraithseeker said:

I think it would be a cost issue. They both burn funds like crazy and I think an average budget for a short visual novel would be around $1k?

It's true that it can cost quite a lot, especially if you're looking into hiring artists. But if you're confident in your ability in leading a project and finish it, kickstarters are a thing. It's not like you can't find people willing to work based on shared revenue or even for free either, despite making a commercial game, you just need to search more extensively. Proof being that there are a few EVN that I know that are being worked on with a 0$ budget (mine included).

[wraithseeker]

2 hours ago, Diamon said:

It's true that it can cost quite a lot, especially if you're looking into hiring artists. But if you're confident in your ability in leading a project and finish it, kickstarters are a thing. It's not like you can't find people willing to work based on shared revenue or even for free either, despite making a commercial game, you just need to search more extensively. Proof being that there are a few EVN that I know that are being worked on with a 0$ budget (mine included).

Sounds, interesting. I'll try to get things set up after I finish up my pending mobile game.

How do you tell or differentiate a good writer? I'm definitely going for a commercial one and before I get the other things setup properly, I would have to hire a writer before hiring other members. What is a good rate/word to work with for an intermediate writer?

[Diamon]

11 hours ago, wraithseeker said:

Sounds, interesting. I'll try to get things set up after I finish up my pending mobile game.

How do you tell or differentiate a good writer? I'm definitely going for a commercial one and before I get the other things setup properly, I would have to hire a writer before hiring other members. What is a good rate/word to work with for an intermediate writer?

Interesting question, I'm not exactly the best qualified person to judge a writer's work since I'm not english native, but there are quite a lot of things I could at least try to look for :

- An experienced writer who already writes stuff on a regular basis (could be fanfiction or original stuff), that guarantees you that this person is passionate about writing, and that they are able to write in all circumstances, and able to force themselves. Thid is pretty much the difference between a hobbyist attitude and a professional attitude.

- Writing wise, someone who is native english speaker, with a grammar as flawless as possible. Make sure that the writing flows well, flow is a very important point in VN writing and it makes the difference between something comfortable to read and something painful to read. Make sure there is no basic errors in the writing, especially "purple prose" and "show don't tell".

- Because there are visuals in Visual Novels does not mean that descriptions are useless, it just means that they should have a different focus and be used slightly differently than in normal novels. Good descriptions are a great addition to a visual novel, so don't underestimate that point as well.

- Someone who reads a lot of material, but more than anything someone who likes a diversity of creative work. Someone who reads a lot of type of novels and likes a lot of genres will be very flexible and able to work with any more or less complex concepts you throw at them, since they'll be familiar with the tropes and execution. If you're aiming at creating something more "anime" influenced, prefer someone that still reads a lot of books (and by that I mean legit novels, not Light Novels) and knows less regarding jap VN / anime over someone who is very knowledgeable about VN / anime but reads very few novels. If you can have both, you hit the jackpot!

- Something I've noticed is that play writers and movie writers also make for very good VN writers because the organization is very similar : the way you write the script regarding the dialog have a lot of similarities (direction regarding the tone / acting = sprite expressions and animations on screen)

 

Regarding the rates, I don't think I actually have a good estimate in mind, mostly because a lot of writers generally accept to work for free, since there is a heavy offer for writers to work on VN, and less demand. If my memory serves right, I think it's something around 0.05$/word? Can vary depending on the person you ask. Hiring someone gives you somehow more safety over getting the work done by someone who is working for free, but if your budget is limited you would probably prefer to pay for the art, since it's much harder to find a skilled artist willing to work for free compared to a writer willing to work for free imo.

[Hanako]

0,05$/word is actually quite high considering the average reader read 200 words per minute, it means for 1 hour worth of reading you have to pay 600$

So for a vn of decent lengh, let's say 10 hours, it's 10 times the price

Tough, compared to art it's a drop in the see x)

[Diamon]

1 hour ago, Hanako said:

0,05$/word is actually quite high considering the average reader read 200 words per minute, it means for 1 hour worth of reading you have to pay 600$

So for a vn of decent lengh, let's say 10 hours, it's 10 times the price

Tough, compared to art it's a drop in the see x)

Yup, it's just have seen very diverse pricing regarding writing, some would propose 0,02$/word, and others would go as high as 0,10$/word. One thing that is really an issue with "per word" pricing is that it makes the writer more likely to try to pad with fillers, just to artificially increase the word count (which is already an issue in the japanese VN industry).

[Hanako]

On 23/3/2016 at 3:27 AM, Diamon said:

Yup, it's just have seen very diverse pricing regarding writing, some would propose 0,02$/word, and others would go as high as 0,10$/word. One thing that is really an issue with "per word" pricing is that it makes the writer more likely to try to pad with fillers, just to artificially increase the word count (which is already an issue in the japanese VN industry).

0,10$/word feel like scam x)

For 1 min of reading for the average reader you have to pay 20$

Though for a short VN if the writing is good it's not a big problem I guess ^^

 

Also filler can be good if well done. I mean the easiest example is the nakige. For me, a good filler is a way to put some light (and forshawoding) on the charac of the story. And it may "put" the reader in the charac mind and understand how their mind work.

I mean if, for example, the center of the story is how the prota cope with the death of his whole family I think it would be better to see how he is before it happen and therefore see how his mind is evolving. 

Though it's useless in story driven story

And ofc bad filler is bad x)

 

Btw why your project is associated with SP? And how can you still manage a 0$ project with them?

[Diamon]

4 hours ago, Hanako said:

Also filler can be good if well done. I mean the easiest example is the nakige. For me, a good filler is a way to put some light (and forshawoding) on the charac of the story. And it may "put" the reader in the charac mind and understand how their mind work.

I mean if, for example, the center of the story is how the prota cope with the death of his whole family I think it would be better to see how he is before it happen and therefore see how his mind is evolving. 

Though it's useless in story driven story

And ofc bad filler is bad x)

Btw why your project is associated with SP? And how can you still manage a 0$ project with them?

I guess I'm more defining filler as stuff that is either not plot relevant, or either does not serve to characterize a character. For example, narrating how your MC gets out of bed, takes a shower, eats this special brand of cereals for breakfast, and about his brand new uniform that he just got from the tailor, that is pointless and bad filler. Bad filler is basically giving useless information to the reader.

As for why we are associated with Sekai Project, it's mostly because it's a win-win situation for both of parties. On one hand, we get free exposure from their social medias, and also they help us set up our steam greenlight and page (granted it's not that much work). On the other hand, they get a new EVN to add to their catalog, also I do think it's good for their image that they show that they can support projects like ours, they obviously don't receive any financial compensation for helping us since the VN is free, but they still help us getting more exposure and published.

[VegasRich]

Hey - I'm new here, but I'm actually working on a completely free graph/node-based tool for just this purpose (Right now it's Windows only).  My daughters are both excited about the idea and I'm a programmer by trade, so....

Anyway, the tool just generates script that runs in Torque 3D/2D - so an existing game engine that is actually meant for video games, but will handle general image presentation nicely along with having all of the sound tools you could need.  But it is extensible - you could write a plug-in for it that would export script for any other engine that uses scripts, really.  Right now I'm working on the last bits of the project management tools (folder browsers, script management, project organization) before I start on the visual novel plug-in.  The source for the whole project is available under MIT license here : https://github.com/RichardRanft/T3DConvoEdit (originally it was going to be a simple conversation tree editor, but I extended the plug-in system to make it more flexible).  Feel free to use it as a jump-off point if you have programmers on your team.

The only reason I dropped this here is that I felt it would fit in as "tools" - hopefully someone gets some use from it.

[Roencia]

I wanted to mention that Steams new publishing platform dubbed "Steam Direct" is pretty neat. Basically it lets the customers decide what content they want to see on the store and lets anyone publish a game. The self-publishing fee is $100. So now more than ever is a good time to realize your dream and make a game. And you get the 100 bucks back if your game sales exceed that amount.

[Yoyo in Wasteland]

Before making a huge plan ahead before starting a Visual Novel project, most of the great writers start from a trial on ideas.  We need some easy tools and handy license-free materials to startup a long novel.  I would like to introduce a tool that I have been using for a long time to create my visual novel: oice.com.  It is a web based tool with easy interface.  The finished stories will be published on an app, just like uploading a video to Youtube.  The most important thing is that the artworks and music are free to be used *within the tool* - oice.com believes in the terminology of Creativity Sharing to make the world better.

Below is one of an story that I wrote recently by this tool: The Awesome Trolls

URL: https://oice.com/story/dfe87d7ddeae4cb0aff63dd1e5cef775

Let's try it out.

[HELYEES]

I made a small video about starting a Visual Novel project. I would say first concentrate refining the story of your game. 

Sorry my for my english pronunciation