Let's talk about the amount of character sprites on a screen

[GammaBreak]

Is there a point where it gets too crowded on screen for a visual novel? My previous game only had a maximum of 2 characters on screen at a time, but for my next game, for a brief portion of it, I may be pushing up to 4 before it shifts back to just 2. I'm not set on this yet as there may be some direction and pacing decisions to be made, but I wanted to get a general opinion.

My overall concern is that for even a 1920x1080 game, I'm going to run into a sensation of a crowded screen. If I scale things back and do things like swap/slide characters in and out, it turns into a lot of transformations which may feel distracting.

[parttimestorier]

I don't think 4 sprites would be too many, especially if it's not for very long. But whether it comes across looking crowded could also depend a lot on the dimensions of the sprites as well as how much other stuff there is going on visually at the same time, like if there's also a complicated background or GUI. You could also do some experimenting with the exact positioning of the sprites to see what looks best. In a recent project of mine, I very briefly wanted to have 5 sprites on screen, but two of them weren't as central to the scene as the other three. So I positioned them sort of overlapping off to the side, giving the three more important characters more space, and I think it turned out well!

[Inksword]

Another technique you can use is fading out or darkening the sprites that aren't the main focus or who aren't actively talking. This helps reduce the visual clutter and keeps the focus on the character talking.

[GammaBreak]

I don't think 4 sprites would be too many, especially if it's not for very long. But whether it comes across looking crowded could also depend a lot on the dimensions of the sprites as well as how much other stuff there is going on visually at the same time, like if there's also a complicated background or GUI. You could also do some experimenting with the exact positioning of the sprites to see what looks best. In a recent project of mine, I very briefly wanted to have 5 sprites on screen, but two of them weren't as central to the scene as the other three. So I positioned them sort of overlapping off to the side, giving the three more important characters more space, and I think it turned out well!

Right, and this would be for an introduction segment. So picture the beginning of the game and the player is just sorta encountering the other characters. It's for an adult game, so every time a player meets a new character for the first time, they get a zoom/pan over the sprite. So what you said about what's going on visually, you meet 4 characters very quickly, and each one gets its own zoom/pan. Although technically, since a pair of characters are always acting as a pair, I could probably group them in a single zoom/pan.

Looking back at my script and the direction, that just feels like a lot of transformation for the player in a short time and might be disruptive. But on the other hand, it would only be a one-time thing.

Another technique you can use is fading out or darkening the sprites that aren't the main focus or who aren't actively talking. This helps reduce the visual clutter and keeps the focus on the character talking.

This is actually a good idea, one I hadn't considered. I had already intended on using side imagery with dialogue. Maybe even a combination of the two would work.