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So for the last year I've been really getting into VNs and have been wanting to write my own. I've come up with a general story idea and was wondering about whether I should pursue this idea or another story (I have multiple ones in the works).


To begin with, the protagonist of the game is a very introverted boy. He is around the age of 17, and lives by himself with financial support from his family. His family is a very influential, well known and wealthy family. The family is also one of the few remaining lines of lineage which have the ability to manipulate and create magic, however practice of this, whilst recommended, is very optional. The protagonist is faced with the death of a very close friend at a young, so as to prevent harm to anyone he loves he undertakes magic and combative training, hoping to become strong in the guise of a typical anime hero. However his talent is almost non existent, and he can only manipulate mana, not use spells and such. His inability to gain any significant strength, coupled with his constant comparison to a very talented younger sister means he soon begins to develop psychological problems, as well as an inferiority complex. After a while the emotional and psychological burden causes him to snap and lash out at his unsupportive father, which results in him being hospitalised for a year and a half due to massive injuries caused by a magic battle. He eventually leaves the hospital, however with a severely weakened body, and a very cynical attitude, introverted personality and seems to be cut off emotionally, instead using logic to dictate choices. The story begins with the protagonist a few years after he has moved into his own flat, and looks at how his seemingly estranged family, lack of strength and acknowledgement that his goal is impossible constantly effects his mentality. It will also look at how visits from the family only causes these problems to escalate, due to the negative emotions and love towards them creating even more conflict in his mind.

After watching a lot of anime I noticed the whole "protect my friends and family by becoming strong" trope to be very overused as a main characters motivations, so I wanted to create a story in which the protagonist actually miserably fails this goal, and just how it affects them.

I have outlines for three branching paths in the story. The first is a more traditional redemption of the protagonist, the second has him being stuck in his current state and focuses on the other characters far more, and the third revolves around him sinking deeper into his psychological spiral. I also intend the third route to have a bigger emphasis on his psychology and for it to be darker than the other two routes.

I've only played about with RenPy as well, so have no ability to fully make a game yet, and was wondering if it was worth sinking the time into learning how to use the engine for it. Any feedback is appreciated since I'm new to actually making one.

Hey!

I think your idea sounds great, I love psychological stories and the main character sounds interesting. You should just go for it and write the script. Learning the basic coding for Ren'Py is pretty easy. I'm new to this whole Visual Novel thing too and I'm also trying to make my own VN using Ren'Py. The best advice I've been given so far is to start with small projects first and see if the medium is for you and to get some practice! It's really easy to get too ambitious with your first project, I made this mistake... So don't be like me and try and make your first VN as simple as possible, but still interesting of course!

I'm by no means a pro, just a noob ahaha. So feel free to ignore me. I just thought I'd quickly comment on your thread as it interested me.
Good luck with your project! D

I'd like to say that I'd really like to play a game that works as the one you've described.

TheJerminator15 wrote:The first is a more traditional redemption of the protagonist, the second has him being stuck in his current state and focuses on the other characters far more, and the third revolves around him sinking deeper into his psychological spiral. I also intend the third route to have a bigger emphasis on his psychology and for it to be darker than the other two routes.

If the main character fails, what does that mean? Do you want it to be seen as a tragedy? Do you want it to be seen as a deconstruction?

In my opinion, both options are viable, and both options have their flaws. I think that a tragedy can fall apart if the audience does not think the protagonist made poor choices and did not overcome their flaws. A deconstruction can fall apart if it does not address a specific topic, or if the story focuses only on making its world seem nihilistic.

That said, ask yourself what sort of story *you* want to write.

gekiganwing wrote:

TheJerminator15 wrote:The first is a more traditional redemption of the protagonist, the second has him being stuck in his current state and focuses on the other characters far more, and the third revolves around him sinking deeper into his psychological spiral. I also intend the third route to have a bigger emphasis on his psychology and for it to be darker than the other two routes.

If the main character fails, what does that mean? Do you want it to be seen as a tragedy? Do you want it to be seen as a deconstruction?

In my opinion, both options are viable, and both options have their flaws. I think that a tragedy can fall apart if the audience does not think the protagonist made poor choices and did not overcome their flaws. A deconstruction can fall apart if it does not address a specific topic, or if the story focuses only on making its world seem nihilistic.

That said, ask yourself what sort of story *you* want to write.

I saw it overall as more of a deconstruction. Since so many anime protagonists have this generic motivation of "I want to save/protect everyone" and always do t without fail. Because of this I decided to write a character who had this ambition, with a legitimate reason for having it, but failed miserably in finding the strength to protect the ones he loved. This then causes him to gradually develop psychological problems, to the point at which the story begins with him alone. Because of this I saw it as more like a deconstruction of the generic character protagonist than anything else.