Minigames

[Roboduck]

What's your opinion on including minigames in VNs? Do you think they can add something to a game or are they distracting from the VN experience?

I've been thinking back and forth about including them when it's story-appropriate, like a little jigsaw-puzzle after picking a ripped-up letter from a bin. I guess I could make them skippable but I'd rather not disrupt the flow of the game.

What are your takes on it?

[gekiganwing]

What's your opinion on including minigames in VNs? Do you think they can add something to a game or are they distracting from the VN experience? I've been thinking back and forth about including them when it's story-appropriate... I guess I could make them skippable but I'd rather not disrupt the flow of the game.

In my opinion, it helps if the minigame is A) clearly relevant to the story, or B) clearly relevant to any other gameplay that you choose to create. For instance, if you create a story in which the main character is a competitive swimmer, then it might be a good idea to include swimming as a minigame.

If you do not want to make your visual novel into a challenging gameplay experience, then either make its interactive parts optional, or exclude them. You will probably not benefit by forcing your readers to learn a minigame, especially if succeeding at the gameplay is an essential element to getting a positive ending.

Finally, think about what's thematically appropriate. Minigames might be more appropriate if your story is relatively light-hearted. For example, would it make sense to segue from an intense relationship drama story to a kart racing game?

[fleet]

More comments on minigames in VNs are at viewtopic.php?f=4&t=12471&hilit=minigames

[trooper6]

I like mini games as long as they are integrated into game rather than randomly tacked on.

[Klawzie]

I like point-and-clicks/adventure/puzzle games as well as VNs, so of course I'm open to mini games - as long as they integrate with the story well and don't lock a lot of good content behind being a master at them.

I think it takes a certain amount of talent with the mini game itself to work well. I've seen, "assemble the ripped up letter" puzzles before that I absolutely loved and the same sort of puzzle that just felt tacked on, somehow patronizing, or unnecessary. I do know that sometimes that the difference was that the quality of the puzzle section didn't match the quality elsewhere (so it really did feel like a jammed in afterthought as to something the dev really put some love behind including). Other times the puzzle was so simple and basic that it felt like an outright waste of time and kind of insulting that it was presented as a "challenge". Other times it was inserted at the wrong point in the story/presented awkwardly - like in the midst of an action sequence, and suddenly the music was calm and you had all the time in the world to complete the puzzle. Sometimes the awkwardness came from why the character was doing it at all - in a characterization sense. A leader/boss who has someone with the appropriate skills that they trust is right there... so why is the leader assembling it rather than their trusty companion? And do we often get into the position of playing the leader's companion(s)? If not, why are we suddenly this person for the duration of the one puzzle?

I also have thoughts on the skip option. I do appreciate a skip option because there are just some puzzles that take either real familiarity with to do quickly or I just don't have the patience to do at all. But if you think most of your audience is going to skip the puzzle, why use your time and resources to put it in the game? Don't get me wrong - there are some games where the mini-games are really important to give that right sense of immersion or a sense of accomplishment/identifying with the character(s)... but just make sure you've thought through why the mini-game is there and if it needs to be a mini-game rather than done in some other way. (I want to stress that I am not trying to dissuade you from including mini games at all, just thinking it through and being willing to commit to it.)