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Let's say you could decide what extras to add to a finished game. It would be more valuable for you:
- having more art/CGs
- having the game fully voiced
- have a title/theme song for the game
- something else ?

I'm asking because have some projects that are basically finished (still need to write) and I am undecided how to improve them further, so I'd like to know everyone's opinion. I am talking about not only visual novels but also dating/life sim and even RPGs! Thanks

For those curious/who wants to vote in a poll I asked same question in my forums:
http://www.winterwolves.net/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=2334

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I really love voice acting

More work means less competition between us composers, so I'll say "title/theme song" is far better.

Well if this good argument isn't enough... since the strong point of your games is already art, drown it with more art is a waste, each cg or art thing will decrease in importance because of the number.
Full-voice isn't that bad but it kill a bit the imagination of readers, I don't know if it matters for you. See for instance Narcissu, you have the choice to read it without voice, and many players have agreed it was better with your spirite voicing it only. And that's a real big work. That's not a priority.

A theme song is the thing that people will hum in their head, remembering the world they was in, playing the game. A thing that links better the differents players, because the same song will make them all remember your game. If you had some lullabies of your childhood, or songs from the past, hearing them make surely you remember lot of memories. And everybody can hum a melodie, that's not the same thing about drawing etc.
That's also good for a kind of trailer / video presentation, the thing that will increase the chance for a game to be discussed and showed around the web.
Also that's not a thing really common along the indie VN, that could allow you to gain a bit in originality.

Good luck anyway.

Ps : or if it has yet to be written, spend more time in the writting / money in talented proofreaders, it's also a good idea.

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Thanks some good points. Just as note I posted that question, but I wanted it to be a generic question for all VN / dating sim developers, so maybe don't take in consideration my games, but in general what you expect/love in games

As for my personal preferences, I like voices in VNs, I think they add to the atmosphere rather than being a turn off (I guess is just personal tastes). If I could, I would have all my games voiced, but for example some are so big that it's really not much practical, both in terms of money involved and time needed. For Loren I decided to add only the battle voices because the game plot is insane (160k+ words and counting) and has lots of possible combinations that adding the voices would have taken minimum 2 more months!

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I say voice acting, but it depends on the quality of the voice acting. Bad quality voice acting can be distracting. On the other hand, it helps you work out the kinks in the script. Sometimes it takes someone saying it out loud for you to realize how weird a line is.

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This is strange.

I actually avoid games that are fully voiced. I find that it slows me down because I can read faster than the voice, so I either have to wait for the voice to be over, or I get choppy sentences.

I do like when short parts are voiced (like battle cries, greetings, exclamations) Those are short enough that they play while I'm reading.

I would go with more CGs. I like being able to re-live the story by looking through the gallery of CGs.

Theme songs are nice as @Ziassan pointed out.

Susan
EDIT: Misspelled my name.

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Voice acting all the way. It's the most immersive part of a game if done well, so if you're able to produce quality voice acting, go for it!

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What if the game allowed the option to automatically advance the text, I mean after each sentence? it would be almost like watching a tv show / cartoon ? (maybe is already possible with voiced games setting auto-advance, I admit I never tried it). In this case I think would be nice and reading speed wouldn't be that important...

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I'm in agreement with Susan, I also usually skip listening to the voices because I read faster without them.

I'd go for more art or more storyline instead of voice acting. That's just my opinion though.

I never got along with the automatic text advancing in VNs. It would always either be too fast or too slow at times.

I am also far too impatient to listen to voices. I want to read at my own pace.

As for the topic, a theme song or ending song is always nice to have, but there is literally no way to have too much art in your visual novel.

I like voice acting in games.

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All of my VNs are at http://wolflore.net Some recent works on lemmasoft:
Vera Blanc and the Purloined patient http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=20801
Something Strange (modern fantasy/romance) http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=17127
Arnie and the Hitchhiker (vampire romance) http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=15382
Poorly done hand drawn art is still poorly done art. Be a Poser (or better yet, use DAZ Studio 3D) - dare to be different.

Question, do you also avoid games that have voices but come with the option to turn voice acting off?

If I got a game and it happened to be fully voiced, but I had the option of turning the voice off, I would still play it.
If I got a game and it happened to be fully voiced, but I could not turn the voice off, I would stop playing it.
If it said "Fully Voiced! (optional)" I would still consider it.

If it said "Fully Voiced!" and only mentioned the option to turn it off somewhere in the fine print, I would avoid it.

Ideally, I would like two versions -- one with voices and one without. Then the one without would be smaller to download.

For people who like Voice-Acting, who you pay more to get a voiced version if both versions were available? e.g. Non-Voiced = $20 and Voiced = $25

Susan

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I got some people in my forums who said that, they would pay more for voiced version. I think, from male point of view (but maybe also female?) playing a romance (or even sexy ) game with a nice, charming female voice would indeed add more to the atmosphere than simply reading "cold" text

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A lot of the hardcore otome fangirls (the ones who import games from Japan) are very, very into the sexy voices. However, caveat: they're very into the Japanese voices (and a lot of fans despise English dubbing) and given that even many of the import fans have shaky japanese language skills, the voicing is pretty important in trying to understand what's going on in a way that it isn't for an English games.

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