Why tell a story through a game instead of something else?

[ProfKranc]

Here's a question: Why choose to make a visual novel game, or any game for that matter?

I am someone who has the resources and time available, but question why I should make a story in a game format when it could also be done in a different way. Examples would include films, comics, audio plays.

What I would like to as all of you is what drives you to make a visual novel specifically?

[RotGtIE]

It's cheaper than buying an animation studio.

[trooper6]

If you would prefer to make your art in a different medium, then you should. I don't think this medium is better then any other medium. It isn't worse either.

I think one of the most important things necessary to do good work is internal motivation. You have to actually want to do something yourself. I have reasons why I want to make a visual novel over some other medium, but those are my reasons and they are specific to my internal motivations. Find your own motivation. And you might decide that you'd rather do a film instead. And that's cool, too.

[SundownKid]

It's kind of a labor of love I guess.

It may very well be that doing a different medium is more profitable but if you are not a particular fan of those mediums compared to games, why bother? If you asked a musician "why make music instead of be an investment banker" you'd probably get a similar answer.

I think the main appeal of visual novels or games to me is that they give you freedom to explore and interact, even if it's just basic choices.

[Zelan]

I think the main appeal of visual novels or games to me is that they give you freedom to explore and interact, even if it's just basic choices.

This seems to be the big one. Obviously that changes once you get into KNs, but since there are already threads on that I'm not going to touch that topic for now.

For me, it has to do with where my strengths lie as well as where my preferences lie. Writing is my strength - and I mean prose writing. This would make comics and audio plays, to use your examples, more difficult for me to take on. Visual art is something that I quite simply suck at - for a comic, I would have to hire a long term artist, and I'd be limited to writing what can fit into speech bubbles which fit into panels. That's not a writing style that I'm used to. For audio, I'd have to be good at mixing (which I'm decently good at, but not great), I'd have to have my own music and/or search for fitting free music (which is one part of making my own VN that I'm not looking forward to), and have good voice actors on hand (which I don't). And I don't think it's news to anyone that films are quite simply expensive and require decently sized teams to create a product of decent quality.

In other words, since writing is my strong suit, I'm trying to play to that strength. The obvious question here would be, "why not write a book?" That's a fantastic question, and in fact, it's something that I am hoping to do eventually. There are a couple reasons that I'm pursuing a VN instead of a book. For one thing, it frankly seems to be a lot easier to self-publish a VN than a book. There are so many places to release indie games, including VNs, and with engines like Ren'Py it's even more accessible for your average non-programming creator. Books have all sorts of hoops to jump through. And, although I don't have personal experience to back this statement up, it seems like it's much easier to generate interest in a self-published game than a self-published book. Furthermore, I just like pretty art. Even though I'm not an artist, I like when I can see the story. I absolutely love when the cover of a book that I enjoy is awesome and badass and not just half-assed colors with a title. At the very least, I like to know what my protagonist looks like. For me, VNs have the potential to be the intersection of cool stories and amazing art.

To back it up a bit, if my strengths were different (say, if I were an artist), I might choose differently. A comic might be easier for me, since there doesn't have to be as much emphasis on the writing and programming and sound become unnecessary. It all goes back to playing to your strengths and finding people to cover what you can't do. If you can't find those people, you'd better choose a different medium or learn those skills yourself.

[Parataxis]

Shadow City was originally going to be a TV show, but once the medium shift was suggested it turned out that there were many things I liked much better about the VN genre. For one, I liked the ability to use parallel routes to really integrate different keystone characters into the main character's arc. While I was definitely going to develop all the major characters in their own episodes, the ability to change who the main actors are in the climax of the story would be impossible in a way that it simply isn't for VN's. It really helps to give the story a sense of thematic breadth that I enjoy.

[PyTom]

I think one of the big advantages of games and visual novels is that they allow you to inhabit the story, rather than merely observing it. That has to do with interactivity, but it also has to do with the sort of emotional bonding that interactivity brings.

There's a game - and I can't remember the title, but it came out in the past couple of years - where you're tasked with managing a lesbian wedding. You choose what to spend money on, what to schedule each week, and so on. Depending on what you do, the ceremony can come out great, or it can fail entirely. And the thing was - playing it - I felt an almost fatherly emotion. I wanted to do my best to help these girls succeed.

I just can't see that level of engagement if I was experiencing the story as a reader or viewer. I might be interested, I might be rooting for them. I wouldn't feel responsible or invested. And I think one of the big advantages of VN is that it can create that.

(A lesser advantage is that VNs are one of the few first-person visual mediums out there.)

[Mammon]

I'd have to second Zelan here, VN's have strenghts and weaknesses compared to other formats. Real life movies immediately have to compete with Hollywood productions to most people and look shoddy in comparison, and animation is even more requiring in terms of resources and time to get at a presentable minimum, so I'll just disregard these two on account of not having millions in disposable income.

I'll compare the VN's with the only other format that can really be done by indie low to no budget developers, the webcomic. Like Zelan already said, this would limit you to just a line or two per panel, and the sentences would be short. Good if you're planning to throw around one liners and deliver what you want to say through visuals (f.e. fight scenes really need this), but you should try to avoid or compress dialogue as much as possible. Also it will require a lot more art, so it's more something for beginning artists rather than beginning writers. With the VN you'll have to try to avoid those fight scenes and other heavy-visual things but you can write to your heart's content. But unlike a book, a VN has the advantage of BG, sprites and background music to support your story. Especially music can elevate your scene higher than a book can.

[gekiganwing]

Why create your story as a visual novel? One reason might be the baggage that a creator is willing to accept. In other words, the audience's assumptions and expectations. Perhaps your audience assumes that a live action film will have documentary style realism unless it's established early on that the fictional characters can jump over buildings. Perhaps your audience assumes that an animated film is limited to G or PG ratings, and they will be shocked if there's violence with consequences.

In my opinion, there are several examples of visual novel baggage. These include romantic relationships / polygons, characters portrayed through 2D drawings, and not many major characters over the age of 25.

There are a couple reasons that I'm pursuing a VN instead of a book. For one thing, it frankly seems to be a lot easier to self-publish a VN than a book. There are so many places to release indie games, including VNs, and with engines like Ren'Py it's even more accessible for your average non-programming creator. Books have all sorts of hoops to jump through.

Growing up, I often heard that self-publishing prose fiction was not well-regarded. It was often regarded as stories which were rejected by several editors for legitimate reasons. In other words, stories that weren't turned down because of a whim, but because of a lack of consistency, coherence, or conflict. On a similar note, I heard that vanity press publishing was also not well-regarded.

At the same time, I heard that self-publishing comics was considered a legitimate way to tell a story. I got the impression that people published their own comics in order to send a message such as "They don't have to be limited to funny animals and superheroes." If you're interested in one creator's thoughts about the movement, consider reading The Comics Journal's Jeff Smith interview from 1994.

... for a comic, I would have to hire a long term artist, and I'd be limited to writing what can fit into speech bubbles which fit into panels.

For what it's worth, Prince Valiant didn't include speech bubbles in 1937. There are other comics which find other ways to convey dialogue and narration.

[FriendlySenpai]

Like others have stated, visual novels have the potential to allow the player to completely immerse themselves in a story by molding it to how they want it to turn out. Choose-your-own adventure books are usually quite limited and require a ton of flipping around, while not having the added benefit of scene-appropriate music and something pretty to look at, and I would imagine that a choose-your-own-adventure comic would be tedious for the reader, given that they would have to load a new page (Assuming it's online) every time they make a decision. Meanwhile, a movie or animation would be completely out of the question - when the visual novels I make have 30+ hours of gameplay, how on Earth would I afford that kind of production cost?

Other types of RPG games, such as Star Wars: KotOR and Heavy Rain, allow you to do something similar in terms of story customization, but they require a budget that is pretty unrealistic for a small team that doesn't have any major publishers to back them.

That, and I simply enjoy visual novels; I want to make something that I would enjoy as a consumer.

[mard]

Well for me, I've spent the last 14 years writing in prose. I went from complete amautureish writing, quite literally the writing of an eight year old, and have developed it into the level of near professional writing. The only reason I say it isn't professional level is I've never really considered trying to publish anything, as I write because I enjoy it. I also have loved to draw for years, though I'd still consider myself at most mediocre there.

Visual novels allow me to tell a story in a different manner, and to tell stories of a different style. I want to make something someone can truly enjoy.