Lemma Soft Forums

Short doesn't imply a lack of quality. And like I said, being able to see a wide range of techniques is preferable to someone new to the medium then playing one huge game and having a lack of understanding of the medium as a whole. That could very well lead to them trying to mimic a style that may not suit their story instead of having a grasp of a number of tools that they could use. They can learn more as they go, but to start off with I personally think it's best for them to get some perspective.

Putting it as an analogy, if you were in a foreign country and you wanted to get an idea of the cuisine, you wouldn't keep eating the same dish over and over again, you would try as many different types as you could.

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The other 1/2 of Cyanide Tea l My Deviantart Account I My Tumber Account I Break Chance Memento I Ristorante Amore

Think if author doesn't want to be bombarded by suggestions, he should schedule time to do a sort of IamA reddit type thread on Lemmasoft.

That or just ask question here. Lotta VN can be quickly skimmed to get full realization of why they are good but cardinal sin of posters is to always recommend names.

Plus full spectrum not always so good. Like why buy Phoenix Wright game when there's free Phoenix Wright code in RenPy database to get idea? ...or what can author learn from playing 999 and D: Infinite? That top VN artists can choke up lots of art?

Even for stuff like paid games, playing a copy of Princess Waltz with saved enabled is far faster at getting to gist of why FSN's shrine unlock is special. You don't get special story but as a published author, he already should have special story.

Same thing for FSN/Ever17 style long intros. No need to pay for actual game. Download free Ristorante Amore who gets loads of praise for pulling it off albeit in micro setting.

With no feedback though, all posters can do is keep listing names until you might as well duckduckgo general best VN threads cause all the games nearly sound the same.

I'd let him play one short vn (like True Remembrance or Narcissu) to get a feel for the genre, and then see what he comes up with. The result could be fantastic, or it could be worthless, so it's a bit of a gamble, but I would rather see a fresh approach to vn-writing than a story and writing style based on countless other visual novels.

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Visualnovels.nl - We write (about) visual novels. In Dutch.
Visualnovels.nl Devblog - As above, but more relevant for non-Dutchies

True Remembrance, Narcissu, and Princess Waltz have basically zero branching/choices. (PW does eventually but not until the very end and not meaningfully.) Good writing, but not useful for the discussion of moving from straight fiction to branching.

As for why 999, much as with Ever 17 I can't fully explain because spoilers, except that interesting things are done with the medium and the interplay of multiple routes. There's a reason I picked 999 and *not* the other VNs on DS. It's also relevant beause it's popular outside te VN community, which IIRC was what was asked for. Only seriously hardcore VN fans and pirates even attempt to play F/SN.

While I like the Choice Of games, they're a pretty different style than the standard VN. Useful resource if you're planning a stat-heavy choice-heavy game. Not so useful if youre going for a more classic VN style. But it's quick to play so a good one to take a run at.

Realistically, playing the demo of Katawa Shoujo is probably a helpful introduction to standard romance branching.

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Hanako Games

But that's the way you should study any art form. For an artist this means looking at as many different artists, as many different styles and as many different techniques as you possible can so that you can understand the tools so when you make your choices, they are actual choices based on knowledge and not a biased reaction based on conventions.

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The other 1/2 of Cyanide Tea l My Deviantart Account I My Tumber Account I Break Chance Memento I Ristorante Amore

There's a big difference between seeing art as a craft and seeing art as personal expression. I can relate to both of those views, but I tend to encourage the latter form (or maybe it's just my excuse for doing whatever I feel like.)

Anyway, you're right. The OP shouldn't pay too much attention to my comments, and listen to people who have more experience with writing (and arts in general).

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Visualnovels.nl - We write (about) visual novels. In Dutch.
Visualnovels.nl Devblog - As above, but more relevant for non-Dutchies

Not a visual novel, but a piece of interactive narrative that I think is worth playing is Emily Short's Bee (this ought to work as a link; if not, it's easy as pie to find on http://varytale.com/books/). It has the paragraph structure and lack of graphics of a regular book, but second person narration and plenty of branching and, if you will, 'gameplay'. It's a close cousin of the visual novel, and it is, in my opinion, genuinely well written.

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"Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self." — Cyril Connolly