Making Visual Novels

An interesting article about making (and selling) visual novels by someone whose been doing it a while. I even tried doing this myself years ago with FLASH, although mine didn’t have any interactivity and was a poor first effort.

Although both visual novels (VNs) and dating sims have been gaining popularity in western markets, many people still don’t know exactly what they are or, more likely, have the wrong idea about them.

Visual novels are a graphic novel of sorts with flat or basically animated tableaus and a story with optional paths the reader can follow. Dating sims are very similar in that the reader chooses from on-screen options but the purpose is to develop personal relationships with in-game characters. These games can have rather complex paths with multiple endings.

To be clear, they originated in Japan and, while many visual novels or dating sims are erotic (or at least sexy) in nature, it’s not true that all dating sims have erotic content.

It’s really a shame that people automatically label these games as “adult only” because, in most of cases, is not true. In the case of indie developers, few include racy themes or art as they are often trying to appeal a more family-friendly audience.

Full article here.

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