Any advice on creating a gender-neutral visual novel?

[EJ107]

Most visual novels I see are specifically targeted at either men or women (and usually of certain ages as well). But for my current project I plan on creating something more gender-neutral. The player can choose if the main character is male or female, and their name. It's mainly story-driven, with the romance content being entirely optional, relatively short and non-explicit.

However I'm concerned that this might not have much appeal, since most visuals novels seem to try to pander to a particular demographic. I'm definitely aiming for a slightly older demographic (late teens- early twenties) and I want the game to feel more mature than, say, a standard Harem game.

Does anybody have any advice on creating a visual novel that is appealing to men and women? Or that appeals to a slightly older demographic?

[trooper6]

I would say, make the art you want to make and make it of as high quality as possible. If it is good it will find an audience.

[RumRat]

Well, it really depends on how you go about it, but I personally think a gender option might broaden your audience, rather than take away from the appeal.
"Loren: The amazon princess" for example, has a gender option, and some gender specific, as well as bi-sexual romance options. The story itself seems appealing to both genders, the game being a fantasy rpg.
Now if your story revolved around some gender-specific considered themes such as say, shopping sprees, or magical princess ponies, or if your art was incredibly cute and frilly, it might be difficult to make it appeal to the older, or male demographic. (Not to say there aren't people who like this, regardless of age and gender) But, if your visual novel is made without pushing an idea of the player being a certain gender, I don't think you should have a problem with this.

If you want to appeal to a more 'mature' demographic, I guess characters that look in the range of the age of the audience you're aiming for and a 'deep' story that people with the mindset of your targeted audience can relate to would help, but If you have an idea in mind, you should just focus on expressing it in the best way you can and being satisfied with the outcome, yourself.

[Iylae]

I came here expecting an idea about the PC/protagonist being gender-neutral, but that's not what you're proposing.

Giving someone the choice of a male or female character is sometimes the only choice someone makes, and has nothing to do with affecting gameplay, just for the player's/reader's preference. I think as you stated your romance is optional and relatively short, then this shouldn't be a problem at all.

If you were making a romance novel, then I think it's too hard to pull off in a gender-neutral and (unfortunately) believable way.

[Ghost of Crux]

I would say, make the art you want to make and make it of as high quality as possible. If it is good it will find an audience.

This.

Basically, write maturely.
The idea of "writing for no particular gender" is nothing new. Just take a look at the literary world. It would help if you don't delve too much into romance or provide varied romantic interests, but honestly, good writing is what would most likely appeal to all. Art style can sway people through screenshot, but if your story is good, then that's what people would talk about when they talk about it to others. If you read the threads here, most people praise good visuals, but rarely do they point out less-impressive ones, while they will most certainly point out a weak or repetitive writing.

[Kinmoku]

Have things that appeal to both male and female audiences.

Men can like romance stories, but often when it's not the only thing going on. Women can like war stories, but often when there's a more personal side to it.

These are generalisations, but I hope it gives you an idea! Anime/ Games that I think do this one way or another are: Virtues Last Reward, Hotel Dusk, Escaflowne, Mass Effect, Phoenix Wright, Persona, Fire Emblem etc.

[SundownKid]

It's hard for a pure romance game to appeal to both genders. But an adventure game can definitely do so. And with your selectable main character you can take advantage of it by having different gender romances for each.

[RotGtIE]

This is an issue of scope. When you broaden your content, you gain superficial flexibility at the cost of detail. In the case of romance, you can give the player the ability to select the gender of the protagonist as well as the ability to woo romantic interests regardless of their own gender, but you will find yourself with the problem of having to choose between multiplying the number of stories you write or simply not being able to differentiate these stories from one another in a meaningful way.

I will use Dragon Age: Origins as an example of the shortcomings of the broad scope approach. The player is permitted to choose the sex, race, and sexuality of their protagonist, and all of the characters who can be romanced remain the same regardless of these decisions. The result, with very few exceptions, is that a romantic relationship between, say, a female elf and the suave elven rogue who later joins your party will be no different than if the player chose to romance the same character using a dwarven male protagonist. This is not how relationships, especially ones as complex as the romantic, work. People do not live in a world where everyone simply romances and/or sleeps with whomever they like, whenever they like, with absolutely no biological or cultural influences whatsoever. In a medieval fantasy setting, the likelihood of there being no individual or cultural inhibitions to interracial or homosexual relationships is so laughably low as to make the aforementioned situation something akin to an act of pandering to a progressive audience. The cost of this to the story is that it defies the world building of the established setting and makes it practically impossible to fully explore these relationships in depth when so many are offered up to the player. A story about a protagonist who must conceal her homosexual relationship with an apostate mage in a medieval setting might very well make for an interesting one, but without being able to focus on all the implications that come with it (due to having to also provide for the possibility of every other combination of protagonist and love interest available), the result will most likely be a cheapened sideshow, lacking in the crucial depth necessary to tell a compelling story.

Adding to this, the target audience matters in any story, but especially so in a romance story. Men and women, generally, approach romantic relationships differently and want different things from them. Homosexual relationships have their own complexities which differentiate them from heterosexual relationships significantly, as well. Romance stories must appeal to the desires of the audience (especially in visual novels, which present themselves as a form of self-insert escapism), which is much easier to cater to when you narrow down the scope of your story.

For the above reasons, as well as for reasons of personal preference, I would recommend against a wide-scope approach in such a story-driven format as the visual novel. If you do want to give the reader more options, I would suggest that you take every additional option as an extra workload. By that, I mean that if you wish for the player to be able to choose between two types of protagonists, then you should write stories for two separate and complete protagonists, each with their own character development unique from one another, and each with their own different (if similar) stories, even if they were to have access to some of the same characters to romance. This is certainly doubling your work at the very least, but if you want to take on double the audience while pleasing them to the same degree as a more targeted story, then why wouldn't you have to do that much more work?

As an aside, I would not describe the 18-25 demographic as being particularly old. This is the standard demographic for a great deal of anime and visual novels where romance is concerned. Much of it romanticizes and idealizes the high school experience, which specifically targets an audience who is recently familiar with that kind of setting and wants to relive it with more of a focus on what would be (or could have been) more enjoyable about it. I wouldn't say that an older audience is being targeted until you go further than this demographic on the age scale.

[neowired]

If it's only romance you can pretty much write the whole script without a specific gender in mind. You can relatively easily avoid using any gender pronouns entirely, or if you prefer you can use a variable for gender pronouns and code that into the dialogue, both work.
Your only real issue would be the graphic of the main character, but you could make him/her completely androgynous and with an unclear gender. If the characters are only doing something like kissing it can work fine.

If you want to appeal to both men and women at the same time, that's more tricky. But if you will keep the characters acting in a mature and human way I think it should work out fine.

People do not live in a world where everyone simply romances and/or sleeps with whomever they like, whenever they like, with absolutely no biological or cultural influences whatsoever.

I think mature people in modern world/setting could have a similar romantic relationship regardless of gender, while there are statistical differences between how different genders act, there are always exceptions to this. You have women who act very "manly", and men who don't. I don't have a problem imagining a romance play itself the same way regardless of the gender of the participants, it may be rare, but that doesn't make it unrealistic, it only makes it rare.
And especially if you don't exaggerate how the characters act based on their gender, but rather have them act as humans, individuals, with their own goals, feelings, emotions, not cardboard cutouts of a male or a female, but real, breathing, sentient beings, I think you could easily switch their genders either way and still have it work out in a realistic fashion.
Remember, even if something is usually this way or that way, even in the real world, it doesn't mean it's always this or that way.
And that still disregards the possibility of how things are different in a different self-constructed world... they can be completely different, entirely reversed, speculative fiction is pretty great.

On the other hand, if you want to go into topics like sex or pregnancy, making a gender-neutral script may give you some challenges... still, it can be done with some story-splitting trickery.
Furthermore, pandering to a specific demographic will likely give you more fans, because that's what people usually look for, things which pander to their tastes.

[EJ107]

For the above reasons, as well as for reasons of personal preference, I would recommend against a wide-scope approach in such a story-driven format as the visual novel. If you do want to give the reader more options, I would suggest that you take every additional option as an extra workload. By that, I mean that if you wish for the player to be able to choose between two types of protagonists, then you should write stories for two separate and complete protagonists, each with their own character development unique from one another, and each with their own different (if similar) stories, even if they were to have access to some of the same characters to romance. This is certainly doubling your work at the very least, but if you want to take on double the audience while pleasing them to the same degree as a more targeted story, then why wouldn't you have to do that much more work?

I don't see why the story should be completely different based on the protagonists gender. It's set in modern times and the characters have much bigger concerns than whether the protagonist is a guy or a girl. Their character development is whatever the player decides to give them, since the player controls almost all of their dialogue and decisions.

Adding to this, the target audience matters in any story, but especially so in a romance story. Men and women, generally, approach romantic relationships differently and want different things from them. Homosexual relationships have their own complexities which differentiate them from heterosexual relationships significantly, as well. Romance stories must appeal to the desires of the audience (especially in visual novels, which present themselves as a form of self-insert escapism), which is much easier to cater to when you narrow down the scope of your story.

As I said in my initial post, the romance is a small aspect of the game and not the focus at all, and quite frankly I don't want my Visual Novel to be an escapist power fantasy. In fact, my frustration at how VN's always seem to have a "true ending" where everyone lives is what drove me to try to make my own. If you have to choose between the life of character A and character B in my game then you have to accept that one of them will die.

As an aside, I would not describe the 18-25 demographic as being particularly old. This is the standard demographic for a great deal of anime and visual novels where romance is concerned. Much of it romanticizes and idealizes the high school experience, which specifically targets an audience who is recently familiar with that kind of setting and wants to relive it with more of a focus on what would be (or could have been) more enjoyable about it. I wouldn't say that an older audience is being targeted until you go further than this demographic on the age scale.

Maybe it's just me speaking on a personal note, but I'm 21 and I don't feel like most romance Anime and VN's are aimed at me at all. I find the obsession with high school (and high school girls/boys)... uncomfortable. I think that saying they are aimed at the "18-25" demographic is a bit misleading, as it seems to to be a very niche group of 18-25 year old's they are aimed at. If you like that sort of stuff then that's fine, but I'm definitely not targeting that group.

[gekiganwing]

Write the sort of story that you want to create. Let it represent who you are, and the things that you enjoy. Your visual novel can be any genre, any style, and any type of fiction. It does not need to include character sprites or backgrounds.

In fact, my frustration at how VN's always seem to have a "true ending" where everyone lives is what drove me to try to make my own. If you have to choose between the life of character A and character B in my game then you have to accept that one of them will die.

Make sure it's clear to the reader that the main character's choices will matter. If the lesson for the reader is "The person can not save everyone, or keep them alive," then think about how to convey that message.

Maybe it's just me speaking on a personal note, but I'm 21 and I don't feel like most romance [animation] and VN's are aimed at me at all.

* Think about what you like in your favorite books, or movies, or other formats.
* Always remember to be creative.
* If it helps, write two lists: "Things to include in my story" and also "Things to exclude / avoid in my story."
* Remember Sturgeon's Law: for every one interesting entry in the seinen or josei demographics, or their equivalents in other forms of media, there will be nine other entries that are forgettable at best.

Here's an off-topic and personal aside:

When I was twenty-one, I was already starting to feel alienated from video game and comics fandoms. I sometimes enjoyed experimental, violent, or downbeat stories. However, my primary interest was in humorous and mostly positive fiction. That was over a decade ago. I still tend to avoid fiction that focuses on horror, anger, bleak realism, and similar themes.

[Kinjo]

You can choose to focus the story on multiple characters, some male and some female. That way you've got characters the audience can relate to no matter who they are.

[Katy133]

If you write the protagonist as gender-neutral, you can avoid accidentally writing gender stereotypes than if you write a male and female protagonist.

[Sleepy]

The problem with trying to create something specifically for both men and women is you can never tell the audience you're going to get (or worse, your quality of work suffers or it feels like pandering than telling a good game). Chances are, the story you want to tell will appeal to someone, particularly if you approach it from the point-of-view of 'I don't see many VNs that do X, which I really want to see. This is what I would do to fill it'.

Maybe it's just me speaking on a personal note, but I'm 21 and I don't feel like most romance Anime and VN's are aimed at me at all. I find the obsession with high school (and high school girls/boys)... uncomfortable. I think that saying they are aimed at the "18-25" demographic is a bit misleading, as it seems to to be a very niche group of 18-25 year old's they are aimed at. If you like that sort of stuff then that's fine, but I'm definitely not targeting that group.

This, for example, is an interesting point. One of the games that have interested me the most in modern years is Catherine (not a VN but still) because it's uniquely appealing to a specific age bracket with certain life experiences. The developers have acknowledged that part of their aim was to specifically appeal to an audience usually not appealed to while still being appealing to other types of gamers. Which is was, based on how well it sold and what other audiences picked it up.

So I think if you're trying to make something that appeals to you, rather than the ones you're used to seeing, you'll do better than just trying to make something gender-neutral. It will also make your game, hopefully, feel more meaningful in implementation than just a check off list of appealing features and traits.

[RotGtIE]

I don't see why the story should be completely different based on the protagonists gender.

Because men and women are different.

It's set in modern times and the characters have much bigger concerns than whether the protagonist is a guy or a girl.

The same is true of G-Senjou no Maou. Can you imagine replacing Kyousuke with a female protagonist and having nothing else change?

Their character development is whatever the player decides to give them, since the player controls almost all of their dialogue and decisions.

That sounds like a task of astronomical proportions for the writer.

As I said in my initial post, the romance is a small aspect of the game and not the focus at all, and quite frankly I don't want my Visual Novel to be an escapist power fantasy. In fact, my frustration at how VN's always seem to have a "true ending" where everyone lives is what drove me to try to make my own. If you have to choose between the life of character A and character B in my game then you have to accept that one of them will die.

I would recommend against using a contrary driver as your motivation. You may very well have complaints about the way certain VNs execute what they do, but I would suggest focusing on the story you want to tell, rather than the aspects of other works you want to avoid. It just won't push you to completion, because it's a lot easier to complain about something than it is to make said something, and the energy of frustration runs dry faster than from inspiration. I think you will be better served trying to emulate works you like than you will in spiting works you don't.

Maybe it's just me speaking on a personal note, but I'm 21 and I don't feel like most romance Anime and VN's are aimed at me at all. I find the obsession with high school (and high school girls/boys)... uncomfortable.

Your subtext has not been missed here. Might I recommend holding off on the making of accusatory implications for a moment? Because you're suggesting a pretty heinous intent in the minds of those to whom eroge in a school setting are targeted; namely, wanting to chase jailbait skirts. That is not what escapist fantasies in these settings are about, or their protagonists would be adults creeping on teenagers instead of teenage students themselves. It's fairly well-known that adults look back on their teenage years longingly, and it doesn't take a genius to realize that there can be a market for those who want to indulge in brief escapist fantasies where they can revisit the environment of their youth. There is no reason any of this has to be about being a creeper, and frankly, it's pretty rude to imply that it is.

I think that saying they are aimed at the "18-25" demographic is a bit misleading, as it seems to to be a very niche group of 18-25 year old's they are aimed at. If you like that sort of stuff then that's fine, but I'm definitely not targeting that group.

The anime viewing community is itself a niche, and VN readers are a niche within that niche. What concerns me is your level of discomfort with something as benign as an escapist fantasy about being a teenager in school. Judging by the implications you make, I think you might be overly concerned about being the recipient of such implications yourself, and are engaging in virtue signalling behavior as a defense mechanism against that.

I think you need to consider the state of your mindset at the moment. I don't think you're in a good place for creating a visual novel as it stands. Your focus on things you don't like strikes me as a spiteful motivation, and your aspirations are to provide a player with such a volume of choice as to make a writer weep at the task set before them. I think you're spending a lot of brain bytes on insignificant political and personal concerns and that, I am certain, will get in the way of your ability to produce a quality story. When your biggest concerns are about the prevalence of true ends, allowing the player to choose the gender of the protagonist, and what kind of "obsession" makes you "uncomfortable," I think it's safe to say that you are way down in the weeds, and need to step back to take a breath of fresh air so you can look at the big picture and remember what matters most in a novel: telling a story that the audience will enjoy. Don't let all these niggling little concerns drag you down. Focus on the important stuff and let the details fall into place when and where you need them.