Do I have to use sprites and backgrounds?

[ShinyStarr]

I would like to try making a visual novel but I don't want to use sprites and backgrounds. Instead I would like to draw out all the individual scenes with the characters like in a graphic novel. So basically I want to make an interactive graphic novel type game with the music and special effects. Would that be possible? Also I've never played a visual novel before so I'm not really sure of what level of interactivity you can have with them. I'm not sure what program to use as well. I have renpy and novelty; no idea how to use either one. Have any of you used both programs and prefer one over the other? If anyone could give me any kind of advice regarding what I just asked about that would be nice. Thanks.

[Tempus]

Since this is your first post, welcome

You don't need to use sprites and BGs if you don't want to. You can have the story presented and progress in any manner you want really - if you wanna draw out the individual scenes with the characters in them, then go for it. I'd suggest actually playing a few VNs. There's plenty of free ones available or even Let's Plays on YouTube.

I've used Ren'Py and found the basics quite easy to pick up. I haven't used Novelty before though. I'm pretty sure there's a Ren'Py game that's a tutorial or something... I actually didn't use a tutorial so I don't know any more about that. If you ever need help with Ren'Py, a large portion of the community here uses it so they'll be able to help if you're stuck with stuff. There's also online documentation.

Hope that helps.

[ShinyStarr]

Do you know of any visual novels that would be good to read? I'm not too interested with the dating sim type of game. Though I do think it's cool how trying to develop a certain type of relationship with a character could effect the story as a whole. Are there ones about solving mysteries or something like that? Also would using a whole bunch of different images instead of using sprites make the game file too big? I assumed sprites and backgrounds were used so you don't have to use so many images... then again I know almost nothing about the creation process of actually programming a game and making a final product.

[Boomsickle]

Hey there, You do not need to use backgrounds and sprites in the same way that most games have them.
Here's a game that does just that. It's very much graphic novel style but because of that it requires more art while not everyone is artistically gifted to make their own art which is why it's cheaper to have a few sprites and a few backgrounds but if you're willing to put in the effort im sure you could make something like this. Mind you Quartett! is visually striking work of art i find that the story line lacks but anyways i'd say check that out and see if you can draw inspiration from it. As for programming that's not really my ballpark.
http://vndb.org/v82

[Auro-Cyanide]

Nope. You can do many other things with the medium. Sprites/Backgrounds/CGs are popular for multiple reasons but mostly because they are more efficient both from the artists perspective and the coding/writing perspective. Visual Novels can get quite lengthy, and so static sprites and backgrounds help to be able to cover those lengths with artwork. But there are other options of course, such as Digital: A Love Story which just uses interfaces for it's story.

There is absolutely no reason you can't use full comic panels for VNs. To do something like Quartett! you are going to need some programming voodoo to use ATL to animate the panels, and some elements such as the speech bubbles might be even more difficult. Apart from that, it's just the sheer amount of work. If you aren't familiar with VNs I heavily suggest starting with something small if you want to do panels, even if you are experienced in comics. The interactive element of VNs exponentially increases workloads in a way normal comics don't. I generally do the standard kinds of art work for VNs and I still sink significant amounts of time into them, so comic style is rather daunting. I will definitely applaud you if you pull it off though, I have a fascination with the Floating Director Style ^_^

If you are looking into ones produced here that dabble in what you are thinking of I would recommend the demo for Lucky Rabbit Reflex since Chensterrain does use a comic style for the opening and endings. From what she has told me, she just used transparent PNGs and animated them in Ren'Py. The other one I can think of is A Dolls' Story since Fioricca uses comic panels during cut scenes.

Hope that helps you out

[gekiganwing]

I assumed sprites and backgrounds were used so you don't have to use so many images...

Sprites and backgrounds tend to make things easier. If you *are* willing to create a sort of interactive comic, where every screen is its own image, go for it. But if you choose to do so, you will benefit by making it a short story with only one or two endings.

Do you know of any visual novels that would be good to read? ... Are there ones about solving mysteries or something like that?

There are recommendation threads elsewhere on this site, and you can also ask on Reddit /visualnovels/ . I think you might enjoy Sakevisual's series of mystery visual novels that began with Jisei, and the Nintendo DS games Hotel Dusk and Last Window. I won't make other suggestions in this thread.

[nyaatrap]

There are some VNs which use high amount of graphics instead of ordinal sprites combinations, like ef, quartett!. But these companies are facing into bankrupt, or already bankrupted. They can't compensate money they spend making these type of games.

[dramspringfeald]

Well I guess you don't but it will be hard seeing as this IS a visual medium.

Reminds me of an anime I was watching called FLAG. It's basically a 6 hour (12 part) slide show. It starts off kind of... meh but as you go it really begins to grow on you. The whole thing one picture or quick clip after another while being dubbed over by the narrator. Everything else has the camera rolling. It is entirely from the view finder.

ANYWAY what I'm getting at. as long as the story is REALLY good it can be gone with just simple pictures.

[Boomsickle]

There are some VNs which use high amount of graphics instead of ordinal sprites combinations, like ef, quartett!. But these companies are facing into bankrupt, or already bankrupted. They can't compensate money they spend making these type of games.

Princess Soft & Littlewitch made quartet and Princess Soft had a good run after Quarter! as did Littlewitch but yeah PS is defunct while Littlewitch became Tenko so that's not too bad. The two companies that made Ef are Minori and COMFORT who currently have TBA games so i wouldn't count them out just yet. Al in all it is a little risky when you're dealing with high production costs but the reward could be worth it

[fleet]

I use Novelty and all of my visual novels use individual scenes; don't be concerned about having only one or two endings if you use Novelty. For example, the adult version of my visual novel Arnie and the Hitchhiker has eight endings. I use Novelty as I don't like writing lines of code, and Novelty has a graphic user interface.
The disadvantage to using Novelty is that it only produces visual novels in Windows format, while Ren'y can produce in Windows, mac, and Linux. I don't consider this a major disadvantage because the vast majority of computer users run Windows.
If you do decide to use Novelty, the folks at the Novelty forums are very good about giving advice and help. The folks here at LSF will do the same if you decide to use ren'py.

Whatever software you use and whatever art method you choose, I hope you have fun.
I would recommend starting small and make a 10 or 15 minute game with two endings, using two or three characters, rather than a 15 character, three hour story, with multiple endings.

[Donmai]

I would like to try making a visual novel but I don't want to use sprites and backgrounds. Instead I would like to draw out all the individual scenes with the characters like in a graphic novel. So basically I want to make an interactive graphic novel type game with the music and special effects. Would that be possible?

Shameless plug: I just did it using Ren'Py. See the link in my signature.
And no, I am not facing bankrupt!

[Greeny]

I would highly reccommend choosing Ren'Py, especially if you're planning on deviating from the traditional format. Ren'Py offers a robust framework that's designed for the traditional VN setups, but the way it handles images, sound and interactivity still make it a great choice for ease-of-programming of many other kinds of things that use 2D graphics.

So panels-based visuals would be no sweat in Ren'Py. I can't vouch for Novelty though. Never tried it.

Definitely go on with your idea, if you think you can handle the art load. I really want to see more of this kind of thing.