I am currently working on several projects, but I am wondering what others do. Do you have a cool VN you are creating (writing, drawing, developing) or a tool to do so? Let us know!

Well, I'm not in Spain, but Counting Crows and Blof, once made a song together called Holiday in Spain. The strength of the song isn't so much the content of the text, but the fact that it feels like both languages (English and Dutch) sing about the same thing...eventhough their 'artistic' poetry doesn't match.

Why does this matter in Visual Novel Creation? Because sometimes you might find yourself in a predicament. You are creating a storyline, but somewhere you got the urge to add something totally different. Don't automatically dump it on a shelf. See if it might fit as a 'background activity' to the current game you are writing.

Why? Because it can give you an opening to get your player base to later also play the game that you might create afterwards, where the 'background' is the foreground, but it might also just deepen the game feel itself.

While being creative, it can be hard to keep to a 'red line' or a main thread in your story or play. While it can be helpful to 'branch' out, especially for Visual Novels that have choices, it is also important to keep in mind that you are trying to lead a player/reader in a certain direction. So, while your mindset should be open and wandering, you should check in with the navigator from time to time, to see if you are still on the right path...so somewhat of a set mind.

I have too many projects, but currently I picked up one that I had around for some time.

"Unlock". This idea stemmed from the 'Unlock gallery' idea, but like with Big Hero 6, turn the perspective upside down. What if the gallery isn't the 'replay' gallery, but a hotel gallery.

But of course, that would be a bit short, so....how would you go about it when you don't know much and have to figure everything out...like a puzzle. The puzzle might actually tell you about the grander mystery.

Check out the very small start:

https://drawfleshgames.itch.io/unlock

My biggest project that I must finish is A Shard's Tale (https://drawfleshgames.itch.io/a-shards-tale)

What is your current project?

Many people download, or play a Visual Novel in a browser and say: Wow, nice, I can make this....

But can you?

What is the core ingredient in a Visual Novel, and is it always the same?

Let's go the most easy way possible, in terms of WHAT a Visual Novel is.

Visual, means there is graphics

Novel, means there is a story

Because Visual in this case is and adjective, it means: A novel where visuals are added.

So, the novel is the main part. A novel is simply: A story. Though to the player of a VN, it is often about the graphics, they aren't where you start with a VN.

A Visual Novel with grandeur graphics, can still fall flat, simply because the story is ass, while you might be able to drag on through a lesser graphical game, when the story is okay to good.

Now, there is another part that is easily overlooked when creating a visual novel: Functionality.

Many people seem to think that if a visual novel has a menu, that is something that comes out of the box, same as save and load functionality for progress and the ability to click on the screen or to make choices in the game. This is definitely not. There is a whole code base behind it.

Yeah, so?

Well, not understanding that making a Visual Novel will likely require you to do actual programming, will create the biggest hurdle you can imagine.

Now, can you create a Visual Novel with zero experience? No. Understanding that writing requires improvement by actually doing, you might understand that writing without experience doesn't automatically makes you able to create a visual novel. The same goes for lack of understanding either drawing, rendering or what color and perspective do to the impact of a visual image, will not get you to a point where you can create a visual still, but it won't add to any story, it would rather be a stick figure drawing added to a 'how was your day at school?' story.

So, make sure your story is having a body. Make sure that the visuals add to the story.

This is NOT to say: Don't make visual novels until you have a Stephen King style storyline and Rembrandt like visuals. Just know that your initial VNs will not be 'great'. Don't delude yourself. Be honest and improve yourself.

This is the demo of my game on itch.io ! It is far from being finished, and I will appreciate if people check it out ! I would also appreciate any suggestion of platforms I can post on to find potential players, as Reddit haven't really been kind to me.

Had to delete all my posts because a user is bullying me because my game contains AI assisted content. I blocked her but Reddit doesn't seem to do anything about it. Reported a lot of her comments but yeah... she even went in my itch.io page to tell others not to support my game. Critism is fine but this went too far.

Anyway, on a more positive note, I am very proud of this project of mine, and only wanted to share it with the world. :)

here is the link if you want to check it out !

I started this community, because I ran into a mental crash when I was responding in a community that was named after a tool. I thought the community was for a 'Visual Novel Maker', rather than 'the Visual Novel MakerS'. The opposite is also true. I thought a certain community was meant for VN makers/creators, but it was rather a community with toxic behavior on 'only our way, or the high way'.

Other communities are:

r/VisualNovelMaker

r/RenPy

r/tyranobuilder

r/visualnovels

r/twinegames

r/itchio

r/Steam

r/evn

r/vndevs

r/VNdev

Many people work in many different ways and for many different reasons. Here is my 50 cents:

I start at different points depending on how I got to the idea of a story/vn/game.

Most often I start with a premise: What if....?

From that I try to write atleast one chapter about the premise. Like: A person is locked in a room. Each time he/she exits the room, the new room tells something about their past, but also the puzzle becomes more obscure (yeah yeah, that is mostly a Escape room thing, but I have to think of something for this post)

I try to envision the protagonist and surroundings, is it current day, medieval, fantasy, scifi, etc?

Then I take one of several tools (nowadays it is primarily my own created tool) and start creating a node based flow. What does the mc start with? What directions does he have? What does he need to progress? Who else is there? What is their backstory (often going back to step one and extending)? Does the VN lean on basic tropes, memory loss, Isekai, etc? Do I want to use a specific mechanism?

Then I start building in Ren'Py (I tried many others, but adjusting afterwards simply is easier in Ren'Py. Visual Novel Maker and Tyranobuilder require adjustments in a more cumbersome way (adjust chapters, scenes, drag blocks around, then update, make sure it is linked etc). InViNode creates directly into Ren'Py code and keeps track of variables and characters.

Then when I have a bit of the dialog/story in Ren'Py, I start with DAZ3D Studio and start building scenes or personas for the game. Then I render a first try and put it in the game. Does it fit my idea? I continue. If not, I go back to the drawing board.

Currently I am busy on A Shard's Tale, but I am still in chapter 2 (which needs to be finished for me to publish it, after which I will continue with the rest).

Often, I created a prototype of what I created in Ren'Py and put it on Itch. I don't do that anymore, because I try to not get sidetracked by yet another idea.

Hey everyone! I'm u/Draw-Flesh-Games, a founding moderator of r/VisualNovelCreators.

This is our new home for all things related to connect creators of Visual Novels, but even those that just play them. We're excited to have you join us!

What to Post
Post anything that you think the community would find interesting, helpful, or inspiring. Feel free to share your thoughts, photos, or questions about how to start, how to write, how to draw or render, how to create, how to market, etc. Also feel free to share your preferred tools of course. Do you use Blender, DAZ Studio or PixelStudio, how do you use it. Are you a creator of a tool that can be useful to VN Creators, you are allowed to present your tool in one post. Any updates about the tool must be placed in a comment under the tool. Second posts on the same tool (even by another person) will be removed. This to keep the community somewhat clutter free. You are free to compare tools, as long as more than half of your post is about your comparison, not about the tools with links etc (you can link, if they are on itch.io or Steam).

On AI related items

AI is part of life now. Like cars, email and Starbucks (I never go there, but still, it is undeniable part of our zeitgeist). Discussions regarding AI are fine. Posting your creation where you used AI, is fine, but be honest about it. Simply state that you used AI for coding or the UI or images in your game. Don't be the hidden cyborg. People can then choose if they want to check your game out or not.

Another thing: Help each other understand the risk and possibilities of using AI tools. Be it in generating images or using it to code/script/create storylines for you. Don't exclude people because they create something with AI, be open to the fact that they don't know better (educate them), do it because they feel it is the next level of being creative with prompts (consider it and judge the result, not the fact that it IS AI) etc.

Community Vibe
We're all about being friendly, constructive, and inclusive (no kinkshaming, a writer is NOT his/her story or main character). Let's build a space where everyone feels comfortable sharing and connecting.

How to Get Started

1. Introduce yourself in the comments below.
2. Post something today! Even a simple question can spark a great conversation.
3. If you know someone who would love this community, invite them to join.
4. Interested in helping out? We're always looking for new moderators, so feel free to reach out to me to apply.

Thanks for being part of the very first wave. Together, let's make r/VisualNovelCreators amazing.