Lemma Soft Forums

Finding a nice, unique (well, as unique as it can be anyway) plot.
And sticking to that schedule as well as not overblowing the whole novel into massive proportions,
you will not like what you see half way through...

Pretty much everything except programming (that's my area of expertise) Really, I haven't started making a VN yet so I don't really know specifically. But drawing is really hard, probably the most difficult skill I keep trying to learn in terms of time and effort invested for poor results. (It makes learning Japanese a walk in the park in comparison and that's not easy either.)

Writing. Definitely. Mostly because it takes the longest. XD It's fun, but to write a proper branching VN, you need a SERIOUS amount of text. It's a bit overwhelming, to be honest.

I agree with PrettySammy09 in that writing, especially to make a proper branching VN, is extremely difficult.

However, almost as difficult is getting a hold of artists. Since that is an area that takes many years of effort and practice. It is the same with writing, but finding an artist that suits the needs of your project adds a layer of difficulty in finding an artist.

I guess it depend on the person, huh!? Artist will think writing (and perhaps coding) difficult while writer will find drawing is difficult.

the plot is hardest for me..

For me, the hardest part is transforming my ideas into a concrete design. This is difficult because:

• Ideas are often contradictory. E.g., I can make character a demon or I can make her a vampire, but not both.
• Ideas are contradictory in complex ways. E.g., if character A is a vampire, and character A works a part-time job together with character B, then character B cannot work the day shift, which means she cannot meet character C (who does work the day shift) on the way home from work.
• Ideas are contradictory in very complex ways. E.g., if character B and C during the weekend instead of after work, then character D will see them together, which means that character D cannot be surprised that characters B and C know each other at the beach scene.
• Ideas are contradictory in ways that are impossible to forsee. E.g., I find that I need to add a scene where characters C and D visit the restaurant where B works. However, D cannot see A in the restaurant, which means that A has the day off, which in turn means that A cannot have her fated encounter with character E on that day, throwing my "A is a vampire" storyline into confusion.
• Ideas have synergies. The scene where character D is revealed to be a vampire hunter will have more impact if character A is a vampire than if she is a demon.
• I can't even evaluate which ideas I like best because each idea comes with a whole web of conditions and synergies.

Ideas have synergies. The scene where character D is revealed to be a vampire hunter will have more impact if character A is a vampire than if she is a demon.

Then make D a demon hunter instead.

LVUER wrote:Then make D a demon hunter instead.

Won't work. D's vampire hunting powers come from a contract with a demon, so making her a demon hunter would make no sense. If I try to turn D into a demon hunter, the entire structure collapses like a house of cards.

For me, it's the art, since I suck at drawing.

EmmaShan wrote:For me, it's the art, since I suck at drawing.

You said you were 10 years old on your welcome post right? If you really want to do it, you can practice drawing and you'll get better with lots of practice If not, you should focus on something that suits your abilities like programming, writing, or something else that enables you to work on a visual novel

Wintermoon wrote:

LVUER wrote:Then make D a demon hunter instead.

Won't work. D's vampire hunting powers come from a contract with a demon, so making her a demon hunter would make no sense. If I try to turn D into a demon hunter, the entire structure collapses like a house of cards.

But a demon hunter that got his power from a demon sounds interesting... don't mind me though, just talking to myself ^_^

Won't work. D's vampire hunting powers come from a contract with a demon, so making her a demon hunter would make no sense. If I try to turn D into a demon hunter, the entire structure collapses like a house of cards.

But a demon hunter that got his power from a demon sounds interesting... don't mind me though, just talking to myself ^_^

Indeed it does Maybe you can have it so that the demon gave D those special powers so that D could 'take care' of all those demons that stand in his way so that the demon would be the most powerfull, mwahahaha. Though I'm also just thinking out loud here >.>

Perseverance is critical. Without it, few, if no, tasks are completed.

In my mind, this is the most challenging thing about a visual novel. To have the committment to view an idea, consider its worth compared to your other ideas, and pursue this idea toward a reality.

Whether it's work, school, family, or none of the aforementioned, folks will have small amounts of "free time". Most folks tend not to be productive toward their end-goals with their "free" time. It's more of an unwind time, i.e. hanging out, TV/watching in general, reading, music, games, forums, what have you. Sometimes you may be in such shock that you have a moment of free time that you lose your free time by remaining shocked about it...

And others will try to sneak in posts like these during the work/school/family portion of their time.

It's utilizing this "free" time to prioritize your project, whether you're directly working on the project, developing the skills needed to finish the project, or recruiting someone with the resources to contribute toward the project.

My 3 biggest problems are (In no particular order)
1)Motivating myself to work on it
2)The more complex code commands, like instituting a dual point based system
3)The things I can't do myself, like the art and the music. Finding someone who can do either is hard work in itself, not to mention finding ones who will work for free. Writers (Like myself) and coders are a dime a dozen, but Artists and musicians are much rarer.(In my experience)