What is Visual Novel?
Visual Novels are computer based stories express through narration, music, images, and are sometimes voiced. It is often abbreviated as “NVL” derived from “visual NoVeL”. Art style used in NVL are anime – art style and some are realistic. It is similar to a book in terms of the amount of reading.
Most Visual Novel games contains different endings or outcomes depending on how the player respond or answer to questions or scenarios.
Learn more about Visual Novel Here: Visual Novels
How to create a Visual Novel?
1. A Visual Novel Engine.
First you need to choose a Visual Novel Engine. Many VN Engines are free of charge and let you sell games created on their engines. Example of free NVL engine is Ren'Py
I prefer using Ren’PY Visual Novel. It is used by hundreds and thousands of NVL creators around the world. Don’t worry if you don’t have any coding knowledge, the script language of Ren’PY is easy to learn and allows creator to write large sophisticated Visual Novels.
It also runs on different platforms which includes:
If you want to learn Ren’Py faster, join Lemmasoft Forums
Article on “Why use Ren’Py?”
Tyrano Builder
You can make a visual novel without knowledge on scripting and game programming. TyranoBuilder’s suite of intuitive drag-and-drop tools allows you to create high quality visual novels with speed and ease, and bring your creativity visions to reality!
It’s not free and it cost $14.99 roughly $15 dollars.
Like Ren’PY, it is also Multi-Platform
2. Do it alone or make a team.
If you can program, write a story, compose songs and sound effects, then, you are a talented person! Jokes aside, you can make your own visual Novel. On the other hand, if you lack those skills, start building a team which consist of Programmers, Digital Artist, Musician, Directors and Producers. Your team must be on the same page on what you want to create. You may want to increase your digital artist because, Visual Novel contains a lot of art, sprites and backgrounds.
3. Resources, and Licensing
You may want to create your own assets. Buy necessary equipment like HD Microphone (If your NVL is voiced or you want to record your own sound effects), Laptop, musical instruments and pen tablets. Don’t worry if you lack time in creating your own assets. A lot of resources are available in the internet.
Avoid stealing stuffs / resources / assets on the internet.
Learn more: CC - BY – NC – SA. Creative Commons License.
4. Writing as the first priority.
Write a story first. The story itself is the “soul of the game”.It is almost the 80 – 90 % percent of the game. You can have a not well done art with good story but not a game with godly art but with rubbish story. Create an original story and proofread it before publishing. It can be of different genre. It might be a mystery, romance, comedy or slice of life.
5. Arts and Music
After writing a story, you may want to start drawing characters and backgrounds in unison with creating BGM (Background Music) and SFX (Sound Effects). It must be related on the story of course. If you wrote a Horror story, your music and art should be spooky, terrifying and full of blood.
6. Put it up together, coding.
After writing, drawing, composing stuff, it’s time to code and make it playable. Make the game more interactive and enjoyable to players.
7. Release the game.
Release the fruit of your effort and celebrate. Releasing your game lets other people criticize your game. It will help you improve and point out your mistakes. Don’t forget to advertise your game.
Why Should I create a Visual Novel?
1. For Money – You can sell your games online in Steam, or, burn it on CD, Package and sell it. Most well done games sells on range of 15 dollars and above per copy. With the help of your NVL engine, sell your games in Google Playstore, Apple Appstore and more. You can also embed advertisement like Admob and earn money.
2. Popularity – You may want to use the game to showcase your talent and skills. Showcasing your talents may attract potential employers and funders.
3. Enjoyment, Hobby, hidden talents– If you just want to share stories to children, make other people laugh or smile, creating a visual novel might help you. Not only for pleasure but it can also improve and discover your hidden talents.
References
1. What is Ren’PY and where does it run? https://www.renpy.org/
2. Lemmasoft Forums.
3. Tyrano Builder Homepage : http://tyranobuilder.com/
Visual Novels are computer based stories express through narration, music, images, and are sometimes voiced. It is often abbreviated as “NVL” derived from “visual NoVeL”. Art style used in NVL are anime – art style and some are realistic. It is similar to a book in terms of the amount of reading.
Most Visual Novel games contains different endings or outcomes depending on how the player respond or answer to questions or scenarios.
Learn more about Visual Novel Here: Visual Novels
1. A Visual Novel Engine.
First you need to choose a Visual Novel Engine. Many VN Engines are free of charge and let you sell games created on their engines. Example of free NVL engine is Ren'Py
I prefer using Ren’PY Visual Novel. It is used by hundreds and thousands of NVL creators around the world. Don’t worry if you don’t have any coding knowledge, the script language of Ren’PY is easy to learn and allows creator to write large sophisticated Visual Novels.
It also runs on different platforms which includes:
- Android 2.3+
- Mac OS X 10.6+
- iOS 6+ beta
- Windows XP+
- Linux x86/x86_64
If you want to learn Ren’Py faster, join Lemmasoft Forums
Article on “Why use Ren’Py?”
Tyrano Builder
You can make a visual novel without knowledge on scripting and game programming. TyranoBuilder’s suite of intuitive drag-and-drop tools allows you to create high quality visual novels with speed and ease, and bring your creativity visions to reality!
It’s not free and it cost $14.99 roughly $15 dollars.
Like Ren’PY, it is also Multi-Platform
2. Do it alone or make a team.
If you can program, write a story, compose songs and sound effects, then, you are a talented person! Jokes aside, you can make your own visual Novel. On the other hand, if you lack those skills, start building a team which consist of Programmers, Digital Artist, Musician, Directors and Producers. Your team must be on the same page on what you want to create. You may want to increase your digital artist because, Visual Novel contains a lot of art, sprites and backgrounds.
3. Resources, and Licensing
You may want to create your own assets. Buy necessary equipment like HD Microphone (If your NVL is voiced or you want to record your own sound effects), Laptop, musical instruments and pen tablets. Don’t worry if you lack time in creating your own assets. A lot of resources are available in the internet.
Avoid stealing stuffs / resources / assets on the internet.
Learn more: CC - BY – NC – SA. Creative Commons License.
4. Writing as the first priority.
Write a story first. The story itself is the “soul of the game”.It is almost the 80 – 90 % percent of the game. You can have a not well done art with good story but not a game with godly art but with rubbish story. Create an original story and proofread it before publishing. It can be of different genre. It might be a mystery, romance, comedy or slice of life.
After writing a story, you may want to start drawing characters and backgrounds in unison with creating BGM (Background Music) and SFX (Sound Effects). It must be related on the story of course. If you wrote a Horror story, your music and art should be spooky, terrifying and full of blood.
6. Put it up together, coding.
After writing, drawing, composing stuff, it’s time to code and make it playable. Make the game more interactive and enjoyable to players.
7. Release the game.
Release the fruit of your effort and celebrate. Releasing your game lets other people criticize your game. It will help you improve and point out your mistakes. Don’t forget to advertise your game.
Why Should I create a Visual Novel?
1. For Money – You can sell your games online in Steam, or, burn it on CD, Package and sell it. Most well done games sells on range of 15 dollars and above per copy. With the help of your NVL engine, sell your games in Google Playstore, Apple Appstore and more. You can also embed advertisement like Admob and earn money.
2. Popularity – You may want to use the game to showcase your talent and skills. Showcasing your talents may attract potential employers and funders.
3. Enjoyment, Hobby, hidden talents– If you just want to share stories to children, make other people laugh or smile, creating a visual novel might help you. Not only for pleasure but it can also improve and discover your hidden talents.
References
1. What is Ren’PY and where does it run? https://www.renpy.org/
2. Lemmasoft Forums.
3. Tyrano Builder Homepage : http://tyranobuilder.com/
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