[Writing] Methods of writing for interactive VNs

[Fawkes - Feathered Melody]

In terms of creating an interactive visual novel, what's the recommended way to write it? I've been doing everything in a word document as a complete story and copying over to the script. Is it recommended that I simultaneously write and program inside the renpy editor?

[DaFool]

I find myself getting writers' block more if I write plain scripts in Word.

Programming while writing may take more time, but the insta-play feedback is crucial to know just how to divide your sentences and correct the flow and pacing of conversations.

Nowadays, I don't use any wordprocessing program to write anymore. I first scribble a topic outline on plain paper, then start programming simple dialogues into Scite, which progressively get more complicated.

When I'm bored at work, I open up Notepad and paste in a couple of extra dialogues, which I then port later when I get home. I lost count of all the text files I keep lying about.

But I would still say do what is best for you and is most efficient. It's just that in my case there is an extreme disconnect between words in Microsoft Word and words in Ren'Py. (Porting Builders' Mind from screenplay format to Ren'Py script was one of the more tedious things I did.)

[PyTom]

One thing that would be nice, if someone was to want a project for a software engineering class or something like that, would be to interface scite with a spell checker. That's one big thing scite is lacking.

[Samu-kun]

I've never finished a VN novel before, but I've finished a couple of games of other genres on engines other then Ren'Py. Usually, I write off my story on Word and them copy and paste them into code. However, sometimes Word automatically converts "..." into a symbol that isn't displayable in the game engine... It took me awhile to figure out what was causing the errors in the game!! Then I just figured out how to keep Word from doing that... :3

[JQuartz]

Then I just figured out how to keep Word from doing that... :3

So how did you solve the problem? This " conversion had been troubling me for some time as well...

[chronoluminaire]

You can tell Word to stop converting quotes (" and ') into smart quotes (“” ‘’) from: Tools menu -> "Autocorrect Options..." -> AutoFormat tab -> Replace "Straight quotes" with “smart quotes” (clear the checkbox).

You can tell Word to stop replacing ... with … in the same dialog, but in the AutoCorrect tab, down at the bottom, on the line that says "Replace ... / With …" (select that line and press the Delete button).

I'll often write my Ren'Py script on my PDA, as I'm travelling around, either in Pocket Word (which doesn't convert those things) or in the text editor that comes with Total Commander. Then I'll transfer the document to my computer, copy-paste the contents of the Word doc into a .rpy doc, and begin the long process of finding all the syntax errors I've made. :3

[Vatina]

I write my script in Word, every path that break off gets another word file. That means that for AO I have 3 major word documents, not counting all the notes and "bad ending" files
That's how I have been doing things ever since I converted from using my type-writer, so I can concentrate and focus better on the story that way, not when I also have to think code and presentation at the same time.

Afterwards I copy the story into Wikipad to get more control of the branching and labels, and fill in the extra short scenes that are still missing. And then I enter it into Scite and start programming. Sounds a bit complicated, but it really isn't. Then I don't get too confused.

But that's just how I do it ^^;

[JQuartz]

Thanks chronoluminaire.

Well now that conversion problems are solved, then using Word to type the story first before moving it into Scite would currently seems like the best option.

[papillon]

I write scenes in Textpad but I never go *too* long without pasting them into the game engine to run them, because yes, I do need to see it on screen to be sure I've got the line-length and pacing and face-change just right. Sometimes the text feels different on screen that way.

Obviously I'm not using RenPy, I don't know how easy it is to paste changes into your kind of code and immediately see the results. Since my dialog files are external and being read from all the time, I can change the dlg file while the game is running and just command the game to back up a few lines so I can read the new text I've pasted in.