Full Page Text or Text Box?

[frumplstlskn]

When you play a Visual Novel or when you make a visual novel, do you prefer it to be in the full page text style or the text box style?

Example of each:

[mikey]

I absolutely prefer the textbox.

I don't like the fullpage style, because:
- the text obscures the images, the faces etc
- the image is dimmed and so 99% of the time I'm not seeing the "real" graphic, but a washed-out version
- much less power for special effects
- if I want to stop and admire a graphic, I need to hide the text

To be fair, the textbox has a disadvantage as well, since it's positioned low - and so you need to look up whenever you want to admire the graphics - and often you can't notice the change of facial expression, because you're not looking at the face.

Actually, this problem I tried to address it in O3 (see picture) by:
- having texbox-sytle sentence-by-sentence system, so the whole screen isn't obscured
- being transparent and subtitle-ish, so that no dimming of the text area is needed (I remember we adjusted color and sometimes even chose different backgrounds so that subtitle/text could be readable)
- positioning it in the centre of the screen, so you would always have the characters' faces close to the text and so needed not to refocus.


In any case, textbox and "bite-sized" text is IMO the way to go.

[Hime]

Depends on the style and atmosphere of visual novel. For example in Tsukihime, I think the full page text fit it perfectly, because there was a lot of text that would have suffered if it had been cut into smaller pieces. But if you think of most of the fan-made games, full page might be a bit... In vain, obscuring the images as mikey said. So I'd say full page for the ones with more complicated text, or the more book-like ones, and text box for the simpler ones, where you'll have no need to read something again and stuff like that. Such as my currect project, Project Nattsu.

[DaFool]

Due to the complex language (especially for non-native English speakers), I use 1/2 page NVL and fullscreen NVL...

1/2 NVL for Hardcastle & Cromwell because of the extensive scientific discussions, which simply cannot be broken up to pieces smaller than a full paragraph.

full NVL for Everything is Relative (which recently became an independent project) because the style is mostly full prose text (in 3rd person) which only a smattering of dialogue.

If I had a more conventional stream-of-consciousness 1st-person narrative style, I'd go with the conventional small textbox.

Oh, the reasoning behind the O3 text style...hmmm didn't think it that way. The way I'm blancing the text and pictures is to delineate them strongly so one doesn't obscure the other.

[Raikiri]

I prefer fullscreen text, myself. I don't have any special reason I can think of, I just like it a tiny bit more than textboxes. Maybe it's because it feels more like reading a book, and reading has always been an interest of mine of mine - which is probably the reason I'm making Visual Novels in the first place. Crimson Thunder will definitely be a NVL style game, and there's a slight possibility that my NaNoRenO entry will be one, as well.

[yummy]

As mikey said, full screen text can somehow affect the graphics.

It depends on how the text box is being used.
If the text box is too wide and there isn't much text to display, it might seem somehow unneeded. It might prevent the user from watching the graphics.
But a textbox isn't really a hindrance: the human lecture sense begins on top then goes down. You immediately notice when there's a change of expression, some modification of character poses even if there's a text box. I don't think it's a problem so strong it makes the user look up or something just to see the graphics, since it's the human way to see something (for exemple, on websites, the menus are either on top, either on the left side).

What I want to say is that sometimes, for dramatic purposes (or for other purposes), a full screen text can be an understandable choice. I'm somehow perplex when it comes to a full screen text for a whole game though.
Most VNs have a textbox anyway, I don't hear much complaints about that. But the difference in storytelling is huge.

Let's take a full screen text: as mikey stated, it creates a somber image. I'd rather use it for introspective effects, or events like a writing or reading a letter, in short, displaying something that is purely narrative, which can be beter conveyed that way. It can be dialogs, as you use them as memories or something.

Then the textbox: it can feature a whole adventure, it doesn't necessarily need to be displayed all the time and it's used as a narrative and as a live dialog means as well. I could say it's a multitask medium. It can convey effects better since it has boundaries (shock for exemple, as shown in monele's attempt to recreate phoenix wright effects).

There's also what I would call free-style text, which can be used to convey a "pointer" effect : for exemple a text stating "In the park" in the center of the screen, then fading away. Or someone's words, for exemple you have a girl who's about to lose consciousness on her hospital bed and you see her last words (with the violins and concert of cries) that are being displayed the same way. Mikey's O3 text makes me remember of that kind of text displaying
Kinda sort of "poetic text" form. But as a matter of fact, while I played O3, it seemed like a foggy dream all the time (but a nice dream).

I'd say, the most used medium for displaying text is the textbox since it's versatile, but it isn't limited and it's most of the time linked to how you want to depict your own storytelling mode.

[lordcloudx]

I like both of em used. First saw it on a doujin 3d adventure game that used both full screen text and a text box with side-images to advance the story

[pheriannath]

NVL (full screen text) has always been my favourite. I can't explain why; it's not that I don't have any good reason for liking it, I simply can't find the words to say why yet. It just appeals to my eye more.

I'll probably do my NaNoRenO entry in complete NVL as an experiment, then think about whether it would have seemed better in text box mode instead.

[PyTom]

I prefer windowed mode.

Although, right now, quite a bit of that is because how annoying it's proving to ensure a nested click-to-continue indicator only shows up on the last line in nvl-mode.

[pheriannath]

Although, right now, quite a bit of that is because how annoying it's proving to ensure a nested click-to-continue indicator only shows up on the last line in nvl-mode.

You have my full support on that endeavour, PyTom

[frumplstlskn]

I, myself prefer the full screen text because I feel much less immersed in the game when I play text box. Something about text box makes it feel cheesy to me. I've probably had bad experiences in the past with text boxes.

[monele]

NVL mode for descriptive/prose text. Textbox for mostly-dialogues text.

[chisa-chan]

I prefer full-screen text / NVL

I used the text box at my current project at first, but it seems dull, so I migrated to NVL mode...

[yvanc]

I prefer windowed text box cause when its full page, the letter covers the artwork.

[Ignosco]

I prefer full screen, although it does depend on the type of VN it is. Anything with frequently changing expressions/poses I think needs the full screen approach as shifting the focus of your eyes between the textbox and expressions for every change (probably just the way I play )- using full screen text effectively though probably does limit what can be done with the backgrounds/characters a bit though.

For a VN like Gakuen Redux though, the textbox approach works a lot better as there are no multipose characters and a pure white textbox can be used because of the black and white format - and the textbox doesn't block off any of the backgrounds/characters... I guess with most VN's I find the textbox blocks off things I'd like to see sometimes and the only way to get rid of it is by hiding the text.