Any general suggestion for a first time VN writer?

[LVUER]

You should have a theme. I mean if your theme is normal everyday school life, I doubt it will change into action mecha story. It's possible to change to protagonist from male to female, as long as the theme is still the same. With the main theme still intact, the changes won't make big dent to your overall progression.

[pkt]

I had problem keeping to a theme myself. Mostly because I don't have one yet.

[LVUER]

Before you make something (VN, manga, or anything), you should have a theme. It's hard to make one without a theme. I used to make things without theme and learn from that in the hard way. Slice of life is also a theme (only telling daily life of someone, like Lucky Star or Azumanga Daioh).

My R.S.P also changes a lot along the way; starting from the planning stage all the way to the implementation stage... even when in the last minute coding. But since I already decided the main theme and stick to it strictly, I could easily make the changes.

Well, though I could say that acceptable changes is when it won't change the main theme. So if you have decided to make an epic space-battle themed VN and suddenly changed it to underwater sea romance, you better ditched the first VN and make a brand new one altogether.

[pkt]

Do you think a slice of life vn or dating sim has a chance?

[LVUER]

A chance for what? Anyway, lots of commercial VN (and dating sim) are featuring slice of life...
Though additional romance element is a must. Besides, romance is always exist in almost all VN anyway...

[pkt]

It probably won't be a commercial game but one that I make so people can have something to play. Also how about an action vn.

[LVUER]

Well, the genre never matters. Will it be action, slice of life, comedy, horror, or anything else... genre is just a small elements in VN. Story, characters, presentation, and lots of other things affects the outcome. If you do it good, people will play your game.

[Jake]

Do you think a slice of life vn or dating sim has a chance?

The short answer is "if it's interesting". The slice-of-life approach has to try harder to be interesting because it's generally focussing on the mundane rather than the extraordinary... but if you can make it interesting for one reason or another (c.f. Azumanga Daioh, most of Haibane Renmei, for example) then slice-of-life can be engaging. If you can't, it will probably be incredibly boring - more boring than an uninteresting story with an extraordinary plot basis.

[DaFool]

Slice of life rests everything on it's characters and atmosphere. If you have cookie cutter characters, you may still be able to pull off an interesting plot though.

[Enigma]

You should have a theme. I mean if your theme is normal everyday school life, I doubt it will change into action mecha story. It's possible to change to protagonist from male to female, as long as the theme is still the same. With the main theme still intact, the changes won't make big dent to your overall progression.

The main theme was "do the imposible" and well, I've had some fun with that one. The other main theme is "Screw Destiny" and I mean it from then until now. I usuallly have a flexible theme, and usually go like "oh this would be cool" or "this script totally sucks so..."

That's how I got so far out of the way. Also, the main character, and much of the first ummmm... two half pages is the same. He's just got a different way of growing up than before. Besides, a theme of "do the impossible" isn't nearly as fun when it's only a figurative impossible. Also, pretaining to "Screw Destiny", I found a way to have the main characters break through destiny literally to.

Besides, to quote my inspiration "We're more evolved than we were a minute ago. With one rotation we move forward a little bit. That is a drill!" I take that to heart. This story isn't completed in my head when I start writeing, because the end distracts me from the begining. The middle isn't defined either. My plans changed as I went along. That's just the way I am.