How do you advertise/present a VN with a secret twist?

[Katy133]

Say you've made a visual novel that has a big, secret twist along the lines of Surprise Creepy, Genre Shift, Mood Whiplash, or a Deconstruction. Your VN starts off as one thing (usually very bright and mundane), but about halfway through, turns into something very different (usually darker).

This leaves you with a bit of a puzzle: How do you advertise/present a VN with a secret twist?

You want the right people (people who will like what you VN really is) to be interested in your VN, but you also don't want to spoil your audience on what the twist is. How do you accomplish this?

[Shinoki]

I think I've seen trailers or advertisements or previews that hinted at the dark stuff coming by saying things such as:

I didn't understand how precious my normal life was until it was too late.
When did the happy days suddenly end?

If the format of the advertising is in a picture form, I guess, upfront a happy picture with oddly contrasting, dark things hinting at what would be coming. (I'm sorry, I can't think of any examples right now for some reason...)

[Darkmoonfire]

You could use cover art that matches the second half without being specific enough to reveal the twist. Also, if you advertise it on sites that use a tagging system, you can tag the game in a way appropriate to the actual nature of the game. For example, if you tagged your game [horror], people would know that there is something more going on in the first part of the story even though they don't know what exactly.

[Auro-Cyanide]

Sometimes it's best to just not mention it directly at all and let word of mouth take its course. This solution is risky since it does require a certain number of people to play your game as it looks, but it also tends to be very effective once it gets going.

[SundownKid]

I guess it depends how much of a twist. If it's a major twist (like for example, Madoka where it

switches from happy to horror) then I would say it's better to hint at it so as not to have to deal with a bunch of angry customers who didn't want a horror game.

If it's relatively inoffensive like suddenly you find out the evil Sauron is actually from a race of aliens with laser beams, then it should be safe to hide to the public.

[Taleweaver]

Either that, or you don't reveal that twist at all and just let the first reviews you get for your story speak for themselves.

Have you seen the Narutaru anime? Here's the opening:

The anime is actual, true psychological horror. With young middle schoolers as main protagonists.

[Milkymalk]

Narutaru was already known as a manga, so anybody googling it would without doubt know what he was getting. It's not like that for an original game.
Madoka Magica started off with an apocalyptic battle scene.

If you intend to do a 180° turn with the mood, give fair warnings. Ominous quotes or pictures, tags, "disturbing images" notices. Don't quantify it, but hint at it. It's like those candies with a sour center: Some people like it, but if you advertise it as such, you will get more people who actually prefer sour candy and those who don't like it at all won't get disappointed.

[Loona]

A possible way is to use the subtlest possible visual clue in any visual material - what that may be, of course, depends a lot on what you're going for.

A fun example that comes to mind is the Sons of Abraham expansion for Crusader Kings II - the official blurb for it was pretty run-of-the-mill for a usually grounded historical dynasty simulator:

Crusader Kings II: Sons of Abraham is the fifth expansion for the critically praised strategy/RPG , focusing on the Abrahamic religions; Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Get your bishops appointed cardinals and tap the might of the Papacy, borrow money from the Knights Templar and send troublesome relatives off to live out their days in a monastery. Sons of Abraham also introduces the Jewish religion and allows you to recreate the Kingdom of Israel and rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.

The expansion for Crusader Kings II explores one of the defining periods in world history in an experience crafted by Paradox Development Studio, the masters of Grand Strategy. Medieval Europe is brought to life in this epic game of knights, schemes, and thrones.

* Control the Papacy through the College of Cardinals
* Ask the Pope for money and favors
* Play as a Jewish lord and restore the kingdom of Israel
* Interact with the Holy Orders and see their influence grow
* Pick sides in Islam as a rationalist Mutazili or an opposing Ashari
* Retire troublesome courtiers to a monastery
* Go on a pilgrimage to one of the holy places
* Experience hundreds of new religious events

See that last sentence about religious events?

It's actually about pretty insane stuff like demonic possession, witches and whatnot.

"Undersell but overdeliver" is something of an ideal, but they pulled it off quite nicely. Of course, it may be easier if the surprises are somewhat thematically connected to the superficial package.

[firecat]

i know what you mean, my novel has a lot of secrets so its hard to not reveal them. its better to never tell them about it and i think thats the best way to go at it.

[RotGtIE]

The long and short of it is that you can't have it both ways. If you want to surprise your audience, you have to not give away what's going to happen. If you want to draw in an audience who is going to like what is going to happen, then you have to let them know somehow. That's all there is to it.

[Laniessa]

Kimi to Kanojo to Kanojo no Koi's demo has a character who claims she's sending messages to 'God', which

makes her seem like an airhead, until weird stuff happens at the end of the demo and she contacts God, if I remember right. And then we get meta-game stuff in the real game.

So, uh, that's a hook without revealing the twist, I suppose? Given that it's a demo so people would have to play through it first, and it had the strength of the company's name getting it into fame. So... hook them in with a hint and a question that suggests the twist but cut off any information after that, so you still have material to reveal come endgame, maybe.