Displaying non-present characters and tight spaces

[agnidevi]

Hello,

I'm wondering guys how do you handle distant (eg. phone) conversations in VN? Say your MC is walking down the street and suddenly got a call from a friend. How to display this type of interaction? The other character is not present here, so you couldn't show his sprite in contrast to face to face conversation. I tried simple text but some players said they're missing other party reaction.

Another issue is how to display scenes in tight spaces? Like cars, planes etc. Normally you'd simply put an interior BG and display other characters in it. But in small spaces there would be a scale problem. The car interior just isn't big enough to cover the whole screen without making your characters look small. Should you use a custom image (CG) there would be an interactivity problem, unless you have a bunch of variations (which is a waste of resources for casual scenes).

Thanks!

[sugarsaw1]

For the phone conversations problem, the first thing that came to mind was to split the background in half (one half being the place MC is in and the other being the place the friend is in) and show it that way. I also thought you could put a sort of bubble with the friends face in it on the screen but that may involve drawing new pictures for the bubbles.

I don't have any ideas for the car interior. If it were me I probably would have placed that conversation in a different setting or just settled for whatever weirdly scaled background I could get.

[MoonByte]

For the phone call, I honestly think that it is the POINT to miss the other persons reaction. When I'm calling my mom, I'm not seeing hers as well (heck, despite regulary using Skype, I almost never use its video call function).
Of course you can do split screen or show a "shadow face" a la Coming Out On Top, but I don't see anything weird in not seeing the caller.
In fact, I often even go the path where you don't even hear what the caller is saying and thus only catch one side of the conversation.

About tight spaces...
I either have just the background without sprites (so the character-room relation can't be seen) or I make a CG that shows the characters being stuck in a cramped space (such as the car ride in Silver Chaos: Artificial Mermaid). Alternatively, position the character close enough to each other that they overlap with a tight looking background.

[agnidevi]

Thanks for your thoughts guys!

It seems there is no common way to do it so you've to experiment and test what works for you and what doesn't.

[Ghost of Crux]

It seems there is no common way to do it so you've to experiment and test what works for you and what doesn't.

It also depends on what you're going for. If you're going for first person, then it's only logical that you get both sides of the conversation. Expressing reactions could be through using text properties, perhaps, as an alternative to having a sprite? Like a sudden increase in size for a shout, a gradual increase with italics for increasing panic...

In third person, I think expressing other party's reaction could be done through player actions, like:
""You don't have to shout!""
"She holds the phone away from her ear, cringing at the shout from the other end."
""You sound like you're in puppy heaven.""

I think missing some parts of the reaction is part of the package-- you can only guess how the other party is actually feeling. But I don't think it means that you should miss the reaction entirely.

[Keinart]

Traditionally for visual novels when you want to add a character talking but that person is not in front of the main character or the "camera" at that moment of narration the usual is to go with a side image with his face. Same thing for "tight spaces" or situations where it wouldn't make any sense to see a person in front of the "camera". For example: you display a CG of an awesome sight from the top of a mountain. In that moment the main character is looking from the border of a cliff so he's not looking at the person besides him, but he's talking with that person. Then you just put a side image of text of that person while talking and there you go. It makes clear where the main character is looking and how the scene is being displayed without having to add any extra narration, and at the same time you can see this other guy expressions.

In case of phones, displaying an image of a phone in the screen is also something I've seen a lot of times before. You can even add the name of the caller in the phone screen, or make it light up when the main character receives a call or something.

[RotGtIE]

For your situation, I strongly recommend the cut-in frame. Similar to comic book panels, these can be used to take up a small portion of the screen without replacing an entire background or creating a whole CG with variants for the elements of the scene.

G-Senjou no Maou executes this excellently. Here are a few examples:

With cut-in frames, backgrounds or CGs can be used to give your audience a feel for the overall surroundings while enabling you to bring them up close to focus on individual elements within the scenes, and also circumvent the need to create a complex CG with a lot of moving parts. Depending on your needs, you may even be able to use frames across multiple different scenes with as little as a time-of-day or lighting change, and you can even use frames in conjunction with a lack of a background/CG, or negative space, to create a feeling of isolation or focus at a crucial moment.

Frames are a great middle ground which can help you accomplish a lot without breaking your resources. They're suitable for times when you need more than just a background with sprites, but you don't quite need a full CG with variations.

As for the matter of a phone conversation with a character who is distant from the main site of the scene in question, there is also a middle ground between the options of not displaying them or fully showing a closeup of them talking. You can use a frame which cuts off the view of their face such that only their mouth can be seen speaking into the receiver. This kind of shot can help you make the discussion very personal while also emphasizing that the character doing the speaking is beyond immediate reach or even perhaps hiding something important or being deceitful - you could even use it to partially conceal a major character who is yet to be introduced in person.

[Rossfellow]

For your situation, I strongly recommend the cut-in frame. Similar to comic book panels, these can be used to take up a small portion of the screen without replacing an entire background or creating a whole CG with variants for the elements of the scene.

G-Senjou no Maou executes this excellently. Here are a few examples:

I... Never thought of that. That's really cool!

[agnidevi]

Thanks again guys! Really appreciate your input and thoughts.

Ghost of Crux, that's a good point. If you've some kind of mysterious character or someone you won't reveal yet, a text without sprites would be great to keep your players guessing.

Keinart, that's a good one too!

RotGtIE, many thanks for your thoughts and samples! It's quite surprising that visual novels have borrowed some ideas from comics.