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I’m completely new to VN and Dating Sims, and I find that this inexperience is almost stopping me before I have begun; I seem to hit a wall, when I think about story ideas, or more specifically: how to go about the story. My main problem is the first person point of view: how it is done properly, and what can I show of the main character/the player.
I’ve understood, that usually in these games the player’s character is not shown. I’ve played games that either do not show the character(and give us no info about how they look), or they show the character completely. I’ve heard that the standard and more popular approach is to not show the character at all, hiding their face even in the “event picture.” I personally would like to show my character clearly- in the event pictures- but I’m not sure if that’s the choice people will like?

Even if I chose to not show the main character in any way, there are still scenes where that is very tricky, for example: let’s say that a game character sits beside you, and I want the player to see this, not just read it: it’s tricky to do without doing an event picture that will show the player’s character.

I’m sorry if all this seems like a stupid question…I’d just be grateful to hear from your experience, what is the best(and possible) choice to make.

Well, that depends. In a lot of commercial, Japanese otome games you don't really see the protagonist very much and if you do, they almost rarely show her eyes.
But if you look at the majority of the non-commercial VNs, especially the ones who are represented in this forum, the character is almost always shown. And I think that a lot of people prefer to see the protagonist. The reason why they don't show the heroine in those otome games is that they want the player to identify themselves with her and to have, so to say, a better playing experience. I mean, it's romance after all and the player should feel the romance as good as possible, or there would be no point. But, as I've already said, I think a lot of people prefer to see who they are "controlling" and especially if you want to tell a story about a certain person and their life, it is crucial to show them.
But it's not like anyone could forbid you from showing or not showing the protagonist. It's your game after all and you should do it how you're comfortable with it.

There is no best choice.

Really, it varies a lot. People have different tastes. Some hate it when the PC has any personality or characteristics at all, because they want to 'be' the main character... others want to read about the main character, and hate them being featureless and boring. Whatever you do, someone will dislike it.

You don't have to write in first-person-perspective. You can write from a narrator's perspective and show the main character as just another character on-screen.

Or if you want to draw event pictures that leave out the PC completely, you can draw them from the perspective of the PC, so that you only see your own hands/lap in front of you and your friend sitting beside you.

Or if you have a lot of time on your hands you can make a customisable PC so that people can choose what the main character should look like! A lot of people enjoy this but it's a LOT of work.

Or you can have the main character only appear in CGs and not the rest of the time. There are lots of games that do this because it really is awkward trying to hide the PC in all the events.

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Personally I'd rather have the main protagonist and their face viewable in some form unless showing their face would be some kind of spoiler of something. I would probably go with side images; having their face portrait shown in the text box when they're talking, or a CG event that shows them.

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I think historically it comes down to the type of game. In a lot of games the hero is meant to be you, as a self insertion character - you can pick all the choices they make, you can choose how their stats go, you can input a name and so on. In which case, they'd either want to let you pick what the picture of the character looks like (which could mean a lot of work with CGs!) or just have the hero be a faceless everyman character.

In a game which is telling a specific person's story, though, there's less problem with just showing a picture to be the main character.

Think of it as the difference between a CYOA book where "YOU are the hero! Chosoe from twelve exciting endings!" and a normal novel. That said, sometimes the pictures in the CYOA books give away what the hero looks like... The last one I read had three main characters, a pigtailed girl, a boy and a somewhat androgynous one. I assumed you'd be playing as the somewhat androgynous one to leave it open for male and female players, but actually it ended up being pretty clear you were playing as the pigtailed girl.

In any case, the final answer is it's your game, so you can do what you like!

If you don't feel comfortable with writing in first person POV: I, me, my... don't write it that way. Write it the way you are comfortable with. There is no rule that says you have to write your story in "first person" POV. What matters is that the way you choose to write it works with what you're trying to say with your story.


Write your story first. When the story is finished, then you can decide whether a Visible main character or an Invisible one would work best for it.

I'll tell you a secret! Most readers of VNs really only care about reading a Good story. If you can get that part right, what POV you write it in, and whether or not they see your main character, won't matter at all.

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Ookami Kasumi ~ Purveyor of fine Smut.
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"No amount of great animation will save a bad story." -- John Lasseter of Pixar

About the writing:
You can create a all-seeing narrator, that explains in third person view, what happens with the main focus on the main character (makes it possible to see, what other characters are doing at the same time). Can be used with all ways of main characters.
You can create a you-narrator, that talks about the main character as if he talks about the player himself (mainly used for "without main character"-settings).
You can create a I-narrator, where the player can read the main characters thoughts and what he sees, hears, feels, smells and tastes (often used for "with main character"-settings).

Which one you use is a simple decision of personal taste and the story you make.
A mystery story with lot of suspense could be more interesting with a third person narrator, because you could show through him what happens somewhere else, making the player get a small hin on what happens or making him follow false trails by showing him events that can be misunderstood.
Love games are often in I- or you-form, simply because the player is supposed to fall in love with the characters the main character meets.
You can think about every genre in that way, just sorting them to what sounds reasonable.


But all of this makes it important for you to already having a story!

In the end the thing about main characters:

It depends on the game you want to make.

To make exact examples:
Let's take a dating sim VN.

Now there are two obvious ways, namely "With Main Charakter" and "Without Main Charakter".
The Online-Browser-Dating Sim "Star Project" has a "Without". The player is a girl, introduced to be the founder of a small star agency. The girl has short brown hair and wears a red-brown dress. She seems to be a bit noisy, but the rest depends on the player. You NEVER see her face and when she speaks then the player will only see the image of her shadow.
Games like this are supposed to make the player become one with the main character. You are not playing the main character, you ARE the main character. It becomes more obvious in the online game "My Candy Love", where you can create the look of the main character and her behaviour is totaly depending on the players choices, making it possible for the player to feel really involved (like flirting personally with the boys).
Another, more famous game, can be "Harvest Moon". You DO see the face and can't customize the character, but there is no personality at all and (almost) everything is simply by players choice and not by likes and dislikes of the character (he will dislike burnt food, but only, because that is a realistic thing).

The other way is the "With Main Character":
There are also quite a lot of these games, from here are for example: "(P)lanets" or "Re:Alistair".
The Main character has a fixed personality that can only change a little by player choices. The character has a background story, things he likes and dislikes, a specific look and even family and friends.
The player isn't supposed to BE the character, but to empathize with him. The player should recognize the problems and events of the character and want to make him happy/survive/what ever the goal is. The player - of course - can "fall in love" with In-Game-Characters, but he realizes, that those characters will not care about himself, but about the main character.
The events in these games are often fixed with 2 to 10 different endings. It has a whole lot more text then the "open" games "without" a main character (because those games don't have to follow a strict story). BUT the positive aspect of that is, that the player has often a more intense game, since there are real happening in the game like characters dying or becoming evil or or or.



But well, depending on what kind of story you want to do, one or the other would suffice.
You can show the main character either way by making him/her appear as a small side image or (when it is "without" a main character) just leave that person to the players imagination and create the cgs without the character in it (first person view).

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This is something I've had a lot of discussion about in my team as well, but it really depends on your story and preference. I'll just give you my personal opinion here and what I usually do.

For writing I use first point of view when I want it to add to the story. It's not only useful when you want to give the reader the idea of BEING the main character, it's also a great way to make them more engaged with the character because they experience everything he/she does. The latter could for example be useful in a story where the main character goes insane or where his thoughts and personal experiences are very important.

Now, when you switch point of views a lot or have many characters and thoughts don't really matter, or even if you want to express 'no, you are not the main character!', third person (limited) may be more useful to you.

As for visuals, I personally think it's awesome to show the main character on screen as well, but it doesn't work for every novel or scene so that entirely depends on the story. I find it's easier to use when there are few characters. You may also want to show the character on screen because he then leaves a bigger impression as an individual with his own thoughts and looks... or you could be like me and just want to draw his/her cool design :D.

If your main character is supposed to represent the reader or if you want the reader to feel more connected to him/her, it might be better not to show the main character at all. Another reason for not showing the main character, is because it could make certain developments in the story more surprising (see Ever17 as a good example). I used it like this as well, only then for making some things more subtle.

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Thanks to all of you for your help and great answers!



I want to make a game for both english and japanese(voices japanese only, but because of the high costs this won't be fully voiced game) which is one of the main reasons why I was wondering this...I mean, I do want to make a game that the japanese players will love. Although at this point, I don't think I'm going to be happy with not showing the main character, as for me it's also important to see them.

OokamiKasumi: Thanks for encouragement. I will probably go with either of the POV choices I feel good about when I'm at that stage.



This actually appeals to me a lot! It's quite different and interesting because of that.

There should be no problem in that, I know also a lot of japanese, commercial games were the main character has a face. I played already a few and only the hentai games seem to lack a avatas for the main character. Especially dating games seem to simply split up 50:50 in this.
In the shonen-Ai-fraction is it common to have a face for the main character (and many of these became very popular, resulting in mangas and animes like those from Enzai, Gakuen Heaven, Sukisyo or Togainu no Chi). I'm not entirely sure about the GxB fraction, since I only played Clannad and Umineko No Naku Koro Ni so far...

But the missing of a face seems to happen most often in Hentai games where is nothing needed except for a(ny) man to - you know
BUT I'm talking about Avatars right now. Many games won't show the main character regulary, they often appear only in the cg's. BUT some games make them appear besides the other characters in the main window.

So it really is just a thing of taste, I guess, even for Japan

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Destiny: That's reassuring! I haven't played (and won't play) Hentai games, so I had no idea it was mostly common in that type of games. Mine will be Yaoi, but I'm also considering an otome game.

(Havefunreadingmywalloftextlol)

If you don't enjoy writing in first person, write it in a different way! ^^ First person POV's like a shackle; it only binds you to one character's thoughts and views and nothing else. But if you try maybe a third person omniscient, you'd have more freedom over your story (like all those "meanwhile"'s in stories. Hard to do that in first person!) and plus it's a lot easier to understand. At least for me.

Just like what papillon said, the preference of an indecisive MC varies. If your MC has a personality, basically, it means all the player has to do will be to decide and change the endings, maybe. But if it's pretty indecisive, it means even decisions not related to plot can affect things like personality, her usual reactions to things, and lots more. The problem with that is that personality changes in the middle of the story can affect a possible ending, so it may require a lot of work. And actually, giving your MC a face can mean you're giving it a personality, since the way a person reacts to something is personality on it's own.

If your MC doesn't have a face, an easy way just to illustrate it in VNs is give the MC a typical hairstyle, then don't draw the eyes. That's it.

Well, things vary, so any of the things I mentioned above may not be right. ^^;

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Well, like I said:
A little avatar inside the text box is very unusual (but that in common, I've never seen that before except from here and the online game "Star Project").
There are mainly two ways: Leaving the main character out and just showing him in CGs (the main focus is often on the female partner in GxB games, in BxB on the other hand I often see the focus on both or even the main character alone) or making the main character appear beside the other characters (like in Silver Chaos with the main character "Might": KLICK).
That is just personal taste and how much you wish for the player to truly relate with the main character. The less you see him, the more you kind of feel like him. The more often you see him, the more you see him as a unique person with likes, dislikes and quirks.

All has good or bad, but as far as I know, the japanese don't have a real preference for the one or the other
So no sweat, do it how you think it would fit your story.

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It took just a minute or two to find a GxB game where the audience often sees the main character, face and all. Thank you, Hinano's Game Babbles, for all the screenshots. I'm not too familiar with BxB, so I don't know if there are examples where the audience doesn't see the main guy or his face...



It sounds like you want to create a visual novel with GxB or BxB pairings. I think you want it to be worksafe, and I assume you're creating freeware. That's a good start. I recommend focusing on your writing for now. Create a story, add gameplay if you want.

It's not a bad idea to have an audience in mind. No matter what you write, your VN will not appeal to everyone, so you want it to appeal to someone. It might help you in your writing to think about your intended audience as you present your characters, plot, themes, and so on.

But at the same time... trying to appeal to a large group of people is difficult. No matter how familiar you are with a demographic or a fanbase, you may have trouble connecting with them. Peoples' tastes are fickle. What's cool now will look outdated very soon. A concept that's currently innovative will soon be imitated, and it will seem done-to-death before long.

Here's the best advice I can give right now:
1) Don't worry right now as to whether your VN will appeal to current fans living in Japan. Think first and foremost about whether *you* like your story. (Cue the song "Respect Yourself" by the Staple Singers.)
2) Don't worry about becoming popular, getting indie cred, creating a meme, or anything similar. Write for the art.

It depends on the angle you're going for, I suppose. In visual novels I've played, where it shows the protagonist, I've always viewed scenes as a third party, someone who's not actually important to the story line or to interactions with other characters; a spectator. For example, Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke wo. A rare example of me also feeling the spectator while playing a game with no full-body protagonist displayed is don't take it personally babe, this just ain't your story.

However, when the characters I interact with are staring directly out of the screen at me, and I can't see anybody's body but my own, I feel as if I am the character, I'm important, I'm the one living this life instead of merely playing it. Then again, that might have to do with the fact that the ones I've played let you name yourself, like Persona 3 (portable, yay).

I tend to prefer the latter, though I don't play many visual novels, so I guess... *shrug* I guess I just like feeling like there are people who care about me, even if they're fictional, and they're programmed to treat everybody like that. So... immersive gameplay. Yeah.