What do you want to see more of in EVNs?

[Apius]

On the one hand I eventually want to see really complex, mature, unique stories that use the medium of visual novels to do unique things.

But before we get there, what I think we really need is just really weird crap. Like just completely insane experimental stuff that is mostly terrible, but it pushes the medium to try out new things. Like maybe a visual novel with no visuals at all, where it's all just an interactive story with a soundtrack. Or maybe a VN that is entirely dialogue with no narration. Or something that has no text in it at all, just sound and images. Just weird, different stuff that helps demonstrate to people how many ways there are of telling a story in a VN.

And I second all that stuff that the other people in this thread like Geki, Harly, Sunny, and Trooper

[trooper6]

On the one hand I eventually want to see really complex, mature, unique stories that use the medium of visual novels to do unique things.

But before we get there, what I think we really need is just really weird crap. Like just completely insane experimental stuff that is mostly terrible, but it pushes the medium to try out new things. Like maybe a visual novel with no visuals at all, where it's all just an interactive story with a soundtrack. Or maybe a VN that is entirely dialogue with no narration. Or something that has no text in it at all, just sound and images. Just weird, different stuff that helps demonstrate to people how many ways there are of telling a story in a VN.

And I second all that stuff that the other people in this thread like Geki, Harly, Sunny, and Trooper

I second you in return!

I want some really weird outside of the box stuff. Experimental! Taking risks! It might not be good...or it might be great. But I want risk taking and expansion of the medium!

[anon2045]

Some things I would like to see...

> You know, how in Digital: A Love Story, the interface isn't like a VN? You interact with a system designed like the computers of the Eighties. And I kept thinking, that it would be cool if there more games based on a similar formula. It doesn't have to be a computer. It can be the narrator's desk at work. Or maybe it's designed to look like an e-mail client and in the whole game you interact with people solely through internet communications. (This would be an especially interesting perspective if the character was a hermit or ikkoumori.) I have no clue on how could this even be done though. Or if it could be done in Ren'py.

> More descriptions. Most VNs I've read had little to no descriptions. I miss it. Not just visuals, but also tastes and smells and feelings. (Feelings, in this case, are =/= thoughts. Feelings like your chest tightening, like your feet cramping in a long run, or the sensation of someone's finger gliding across your skin.) But yeah, even written visuals too. Because sometimes, even though the character sprite is right in front of us, (or consider, especially if the character sprite is right before us) it would be fun to play around with how the narrator describes that person because it contrasts with how the readers would typically view it. For example, we see a rather plain ordinary man in the screen, but our narrator is quite obsessed or intimidated by his nose or mustache. Or maybe just descriptions of your heart failing to beat for a moment out of fear or nervousness or the plummeting in your stomach as you hear bad news. The smell of coffee and the taste of buttered bread crumbs when you kiss an office worker by their cubicle.

> While we're on it, I would love to see more a variety of writing styles in VNs... whether it's a character speaking like they belong in a historical or just language like this...

I am sitting over coffee and cigarets at my friend Rita's and I am telling her about it.
Here is what I tell her.
It is a late of a slow Wednesday when Herb seats the fat man at my station.
This fat person is the fattest person I have ever seen, though he is neat-appearing and well-dressed enough. Everything about him is big. But it is his fingers I remember best. When I stop at the table next to his to see to the old couple, I first notice the fingers.

-- excerpted from Raymond Carver's short story "Fat"

The interesting thing about this passage was that the language and writing style was deliberately chosen to show the narrator's character. We can sense a voice there, a genuine person. Diverse writing styles, good choice of diction, and excellent sentence construction helped achieved this end.

> More 18+ GxB EVNs. (Are there even any in English? Sorry for the newbish question.)

> Epistolary-based games (or have epistolaries in some form, esp. if it's e-mails, forum posts, PMs, tumblr asks). Has anyone ever read the short story "Wikihistory" by Desmond Warzel, a time-travel sci-fi told in forum posts? Wouldn't it be cool to have something like that in VN form?

[trooper6]

> Epistolary-based games (or have epistolaries in some form, esp. if it's e-mails, forum posts, PMs, tumblr asks). Has anyone ever read the short story "Wikihistory" by Desmond Warzel, a time-travel sci-fi told in forum posts? Wouldn't it be cool to have something like that in VN form?

I know that you already mentioned Digital: A Love Story, have you played Analogue: A Hate Story? It is also epistolary and also by Christine Love. If you haven't, you should!

[Caveat Lector]

What about a VN written entirely in verse? Not a Shakespeare adaptation, not an adaptation of any famous epics, an original work written in verse from beginning to end.

[Mad Harlequin]

What about a VN written entirely in verse? Not a Shakespeare adaptation, not an adaptation of any famous epics, an original work written in verse from beginning to end.

I know you said "not a Shakespeare adaptation," but I'm in the process of writing something Shakespeare-related, and I'm considering writing it all in his characteristic iambic pentameter blank verse. I think I'll at least have the characters speak in verse . . .

[Apius]

Thanks Trooper.

Oh, I thought of something else. I want to see more VNs that use different writing styles. I realize that there are reasons that first person present-tense is so common, but it's a really weird style. And I don't necessarily think it would feel weird to have stories written in the past tense. When it comes to decisions and player input, just write those in past tense too. Like:

• "By the time I arrived home, the notebooks had already been stolen. I knew Chris couldn't have gotten far, so I..."
• drove to his apartment as quickly as I could
• immediately called his cell phone

I also think it might be interesting to have stories branch in ways that are not directly related to choices the main character has to make. It's hard to describe, but I mean that there could be choices like:

• "I was on my way to see Ruth when the taxi came to an abrupt stop. As I looked up from my newspaper, I was shocked to see..."
• an office building, engulfed in flames
• an enormous spider, standing in the middle of the intersection

And these ideas go hand-and-hand with another idea, which is to make main characters more unique and realistic characters on their own, instead of making them be blank-slates that the reader projects themselves onto.

[SundownKid]

What about a VN written entirely in verse? Not a Shakespeare adaptation, not an adaptation of any famous epics, an original work written in verse from beginning to end.

I actually did that a while back, though I took it off of download due to it being based on a game I never finished. It does sort of stand on its own though, and is fully voiced in verse... by myself. You can download it here if you want to check it out.

[n0tgin]

I second the GxG targeted towards women/girls. Or maybe just even GxG games with one GxB route.
Also, VNs in general with some characters who aren't straight or cis or binary would be great.
Story-wise, perhaps the ability to date the antagonist. (I just realised this was done in Nicole, but I'd love to see more of it.)

[breadslam]

I want more games that, if they must have relationship meters, focus more on the friendship side of things rather than the romantic. Personally, I think there's a lot more character depth to explore through platonic relationships. Also, having familial relationships would be interesting as well...