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From what I gather, KN (Kinetic Novel) is a visual story with a linear storyline, with little to no interaction needed from the viewer. VN (Visual Novel) are in itself, games, where you control most of the protagonists' actions.

It seems that most people in LSF prefer VNs (please do correct me if I'm wrong), but as a writer, I feel more inclined towards KNs since I find Ren'py as another tool/platform to tell great stories. I believe that this kind of visual storytelling will gain more popularity at the dawn of ipads/tablets/smartphones that just begs for a little bit of interactivity and flashy graphics (besides manga is too small for smartphone *gripe*). Done well, it could be the perfect go-between comics and animation.

Thoughts?

If you have a story to tell which won't benefit from multiple endings or paths, then create a kinetic novel. But if you believe your story will benefit from including decisions and more than one ending, then create a visual novel. Think about what you want to make.

In case you were confused, VNDB.org currently states, "A kinetic novel is a VN that does not present the 'player' with any choices at all; they simply read through a single unbranching story." Wikipedia's article on visual novels might help you understand categories and styles.

There's a lot of ways to tell a story with one ending. Prose, comics, plays, film, and more are all viable options. Kinetic novels are much younger than any of these formats, as they didn't exist until at least the 1990s. (Looking at the "kinetic novel" tag on the VNDB and arranging it from oldest to youngest, I was surprised to see three licensed games as the earliest examples.) If you like the notion of a story with pictures, and if you're not sure if you can create comics, then maybe KNs are right for you.

I tend to like visual novels more. Why is this? Because interactive stories don't really exist outside of gamebooks, video games, and roleplaying. I like the ability to affect the course of a story. Sure, it doesn't always work -- there's plenty of VNs that include poorly designed or fake choices. And there are plenty of examples of unintuitive and frustrating gameplay. Still, it can be done well.

There are interactive stories in book form. I read Choose-Your-Own-Adventure games when I was really young. VNs are an illustrated form of that, while KNs are for most of the books in the publishing world.

Haha, can't believe I found it in a few minutes. I love the internet. This is the exact one I read. It was really awesome since there were bad, gory endings. Well, gory for a kid reading it, but I couldn't put it down!!! A choice branch would be like:

"Turn to page 40 if you choose to claw at your friend's leg.
Turn to page 45 if you choose to fight the spiders."

I would have to use my fingers to hold my place at a choice path in case I died and have to go back. The stories branched out a lot so I would have a whole hand keeping all the choices open, and because I was curious what happened if I took another path. It wasn't the only CYOA book I read, but it's the one that left the deepest impression on me because it was so creepy.

[edit] Oops. I did not know CYOA books were called gamebooks. I thought it was some monster manual for board games. Sorry about that!

gekiganwing wrote:
There's a lot of ways to tell a story with one ending. Prose, comics, plays, film, and more are all viable options. Kinetic novels are much younger than any of these formats, as they didn't exist until at least the 1990s.

Good insight. Thanks for pointing that out. As a disadvantage, I guess people won't readily support such a platform since there are other options available. On the other hand, the market is still unsaturated and there is untapped potential.

gekiganwing wrote: If you like the notion of a story with pictures, and if you're not sure if you can create comics, then maybe KNs are right for you.

That is something I'd like to try, yes, since it can "almost" be accomplished by one person without eating too much time. I used to want to make comics, but being primarily a writer and only half an artist, I found my progress to be frustratingly slow (and quite disappointing).

Solunar wrote:There are interactive stories in book form. I read Choose-Your-Own-Adventure games when I was really young. VNs are an illustrated form of that, while KNs are for most of the books in the publishing world.

Haha! Yes! I do remember those kind of books! I used to read the Goosebumps version of that. And yes, I did use the fingers on pages trick.

KN are way easier, but I like writing VN's more. Dunno why. Probably because VN's are more challenging, or because they allow you to shape the story better.

One reason I like VN is because the interactivity. My choice can shape the story and affect the outcome. Like avoid doing something stupid or not become an idiot not to realize such an obvious hint that that girl is fall in love with you.

Since I'm originally a manga artist, rather than writing KN I'd rather making a comic/manga.

To me, Not KN nor VN. Not novel - it's more like an animated story.
Ren'py is rather suited for Limited animations than just texts. It allows make a limited animation in short term, with just only one person, but faster than manga.