Speeding Up the Production Process?

[Rozume]

I'd like to make a VN, but I don't want to take forever making it. What are some ways to speed up the production process? Cutting corners? Working in teams? Or should I not focus on the speed of production and focus on making a quality game? (Even if it takes me the same amount of time as Duke Nukem Forever?)

Experienced VN Devs, how do you speed up your process? Furthermore, do you have any tips on avoiding the dreaded Development Hell?

[LVUER]

Make a clear time table. NaNoRenO is a good chance since you have a clear deadline. You have to balance between quality and quantity (speed).

[Lesleigh63]

I'm not an experienced developer, but what I've learned from the KN I'm making is to write out an art asset list and stick to it. Even if I can illustrate everything, the time required to do so makes it inefficient in the overall production process.

[Sorakun]

Don't cut corners, that just lowers the quality of the game.

So things that you can do to keep the quality and finish the product faster.
1. Working in a team will normally speed things up as long as people do their part and actually get things done
2. Set up a bunch of deadlines that certain things have to be done by, possibly try something like scrum, though you might want to take down the sprints to somewhere around 1-2 weeks rather than 2 or so months
3. Be passionate about what you are working on, this will naturally just make the project more fun and also help you work more efficiently.
4. Don't fall to distractions
5. Stick to your original plan and don't allow feature creeps(features put into the game under production time)

[SundownKid]

There is no real way to speed up the process, if you are collaborating on a visual novel for free. It will always be slow, unless your team members are dedicated to getting it done fast. There's no way to set deadlines.

If possible, do everything yourself, and if you can't do everything yourself, hire someone to do the rest. You are the one person who is the most dedicated to you work, if you are an artist already then it's even better since that's the slowest part of making a VN.

You should most definitely focus on the speed of production, though not so much that it will lead to a lazy quality game. But generally, after a point you start to get diminishing returns. And you, personally, will lose interest in the game after a point and find it impossible to work on it.

[Asceai]

The most productive team is one where everyone is strongly invested in the outcome and have a shared vision of the result. The screenplay can then be designed collaboratively and the individual tasks (scenario writing, character art/CGs, background art, music, GUI etc.) are off each other's critical paths.

If I work out how to get one of those together I'll tell you. It seems to be most possible for really short term projects- I've had it work well for 24 hour competitions- and it could probably work for something based around a nanoreno timescale, although with correspondingly more planning required.

[MelodyKnighton]

-it's tempting to try and do everything yourself, but you need to find people you trust to delegate work to.
-avoid feature creep. Bigger isn't always better. Focus on quality over quantity
-set realistic deadlines
-only work on projects where everyone involved is passionate about them
-have fun with it!

Now if you want to know specific shortcuts for art/writing/programming/music, that's another story.