Common routes?

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dfbreezy
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Common routes?

#1 Post by dfbreezy »

I had some debate with fellow intellectuals about the nature and purpose of common routes. So i thought i'd ask the community, writer and non-writer, what you expect to see from common routes.

I am of the opinion that common routes are "tools" utilized solely for story progression and minor doses of eventful scenes and character development. A sequence of events leading to the heroine routes.

I mean, if you're gonna have character development in the common route, why do you need a heroine route (minus the gracious ability to be with your waifu of choice).

What do you all think?
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Re: Common routes?

#2 Post by Valhalla »

I'm personally of the opinion that the common route in a branching game should be used to give you a feel of what to expect when you get to the branching routes. So it should be showing things like the characters personality and troubles.
Also, I think the common route is a good place to do your world building, since you want to focus on the character whose route you're on once you hit the branching route.
It's also good for establishing the overarching conflict in the story.
That's my opinion anyway =)
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Re: Common routes?

#3 Post by Shinoki »

I feel that the common route should be like an introductory arc. The setting should be explained, and the characters should be roughly introduced. Their general, everyday personalities should be developed and some sort of not-a-stranger relationship should probably be developed.
However, their traumas, sad backstories, etc. should be left off, hinted at, but not delved into too deeply as that would probably be route material.

It's probably best if the common route blends easily into the character routes. Some games have an event that always occurs that starts the character routes. Other games pass an event during the common route that differs between who you interact with the most and starts the character routes.
The better things flow, the less it seems like common route + character route and the more it seems like story.

Rather than thinking about the common route as a super concrete thing, it's probably better to think of it as: the time in which you get to know a girl before confessing/getting confessed to/going out with her.

Most of the time, you're probably not going to find out a girl's tragic backstory/etc. so simply.
It's kind of a: Get to know her. And once you're dating, you get to know her even better.
I suppose that people have an easier time confiding in people that they love/are intimate with than with random friend A. If you're a lover, then you'll probably find out more about the girl than if you're just a good friend.

I wonder if this makes sense because even though it makes sense in my head, I'm getting the feeling that it doesn't make sense.

Given that I've never written a branching script (and the only long story I've written is a parody isekai fantasy story), take my advice with a pinch of salt.

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Re: Common routes?

#4 Post by dfbreezy »

So far, the two opinions from Val-sama and Shinoki generally align with my thoughts.

I feel a good common route should contain;
- Basic to medium worldbuildig
- Minor character building
- display protag/heroine dynamics (i.e do they always fight, or are they awkward?)
- Heavy story events (route foreshadowing and setting up the stage for your story)

Am i wrong when i say that Heroine routes (even in KNs since there's one route) are the main facet of the story for VNs? I'm curious.
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Re: Common routes?

#5 Post by Imperf3kt »

I'm not really into dating sims or otome VNs, but I think a 'common' route still applies to many other genres. Its the part of the story that all characters share, hence why it is called 'common route' and not 'character route'.

In my case, I am creating a VN in which the story is mostly a kinetic novel.
This is my 'common route'. Up until a certain event, the story is the same no matter what my choices.
From this route, I can access any of the branch routes.
After this event, the story branches out into many possibilities and endings - branch routes. From these branches, I cannot return to the common route, nor access any other branch routes from the common route as the story has taken a new direction that isn't shared (common) with the other routes.

The use of the word 'branch' is not without reason. A (generic) VN's story should be like a tree.
Start at the base and work your way up. There is a single trunk. It is usually very straight.
At certain points you may find one or more branches, which, if taken, usually lead to an ending.

You could continue world building on a branch route, but you have already deviated from the common route. Anything you add now, is not shared among all branches and thus, not 'common'.
If you write it the same way, then you are only going to annoy the player when they finish that branch and start on another, only to find that they're read most of this already, just with a different character.
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Re: Common routes?

#6 Post by gekiganwing »

dfbreezy wrote:So i thought i'd ask the community, writer and non-writer, what you expect to see from common routes.
Going along with what others have said, I expect a common route to introduce the fictional world, characters, and conflict. I think it makes sense for one to represent a story up until the point of no return. In other words, the place where the protagonist needs to make (at least one) story-altering decision. This concept can apply to any genre of fiction. Think about whether a mystery tale or an action-adventure story could be divided into a common route and then several possible plot directions. The routes might represent the protagonist allying with a faction, or choosing to uphold the law rather than becoming a vigilante.
dfbreezy wrote:I mean, if you're gonna have character development in the common route, why do you need a heroine route (minus the gracious ability to be with your waifu of choice).
You can avert the notion of "common route = several scenes of character development" if you want. Perhaps you want to minimize a common route. If so, then let the protagonist make a plot-altering decision during one of the first scenes. It could help the protag seem more proactive, and accelerate the pace of your story. Or perhaps you would rather write a kinetic novel with one ending, and maybe a few choices that just show the world and don't really alter the story.

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Re: Common routes?

#7 Post by Mammon »

There are a few advantages to a common route:
1)Getting a story finished. Lots of people start a project only to give up on it because it doesn't work. If you were to start branching right away you've got to keep track of multiple timelines right away when you're still in the exposition and character establishing phase, don't expect to actually get halfway that script. You use the common route to get a sense of the story yourself and make an investment into the project. A story is easier to give up when you feel like you're 1% done than when you're 50% done.
2)Getting a story finished. Yes, this is both my first and second most important point. If you're brancing right from the start, you're going to be having a near insurmountable amount of branching and endings, impossible to keep track of for both you and your reader. And you'll be repeating virtually the same scenes a lot in the beginning with minor adaptations per route, which is no fun at all.
3)World building and such, others already went over this.
4)Giving the reader an idea which route they'd like to take first. The first time you play through a game tends to be the best one because no skipping and no knowing what's ahead. But just like 3) others already discussed this.
5)The reader first playthrough reading a story relying on something that's been established elsewhere but not yet in that story. They won't know what's going on or will not like it.
6)Getting a story finished. If you have an idea with tons of branching, you're easily giving yourself a workload 5x the size you expected and 10x the size you can manage. The common route will temper those idealistic expectations before you as the writer get to these branches.
7)GETTING A STORY FINISHED! Perfect project of your dreams later, realistic project now. Even big productions with a whole writing staff use a common route to crop the size because they can't handle such a rediculous scope in terms of writing and planning.
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Re: Common routes?

#8 Post by hikarinakano »

dfbreezy wrote:Am i wrong when i say that Heroine routes (even in KNs since there's one route) are the main facet of the story for VNs? I'm curious.
I've always felt that the reason VNs tend to have heroine routes is because most VNs either have a harem or otome casting (one guy, three+ girls/one girl, three+ guys), or else they're romance VNs.

So, if you made a VN that focused on the story more than the characters, you might not want heroine routes.

Another potential situation is having a single important character. While this is more typical of a Hollywood action movie than your average VN, it's still something that can be done. In this case, you wouldn't have heroine routes because there aren't any heroines. There would be other characters, who may or may not have had a role in the MC's life, but they wouldn't need their own routes.


Too misworded; didn't read:
Heroine routes are not the main facet of a VN story, because a VN is a format, not a genre. However, many VNs are romance VNs, and as a result of this happen to have heroine routes.

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Re: Common routes?

#9 Post by Jackkel Dragon »

Hopping in to mention some things about routes that I think are important to keep in mind. As has been mentioned, a VN doesn't always have "heroine" routes, and doesn't need to have romances to have separate routes. For instance, my fangame Corpse Party D2: Zero Hope has 5 routes despite not focusing on romance (or even a single viewpoint character). The routes happen to still focus on specific characters (and how their choice affected the outcome), but I don't list them as "X's route" in the game and it's not about a romance with the character in question.

As for common routes, it's important to keep in mind how the branching works as much as what happens in it. In Zero Hope, the common route leads all the way up to the happiest ending (5 of 6 chapters), but can be branched from very early (as soon as chapter 2). The Devil on G-String has a similar branch system. Other games branch from the end of the common route only, even if choices beforehand may modify certain scenes. Games like Katawa Shoujo or my current project use this system. So you have to keep in mind what the player knows from each type of common route (whether it's one of these two or a more unique system). In the former, some routes have less time for developing the world and characters before the story shifts to the route-specific plot. In the latter, a lot of information will be in the common route, saving space in the specific routes but also making it a slog to replay the game without using skip.
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Re: Common routes?

#10 Post by dfbreezy »

Jackkel Dragon wrote:Hopping in to mention some things about routes that I think are important to keep in mind. As has been mentioned, a VN doesn't always have "heroine" routes, and doesn't need to have romances to have separate routes. For instance, my fangame Corpse Party D2: Zero Hope has 5 routes despite not focusing on romance (or even a single viewpoint character). The routes happen to still focus on specific characters (and how their choice affected the outcome), but I don't list them as "X's route" in the game and it's not about a romance with the character in question.

As for common routes, it's important to keep in mind how the branching works as much as what happens in it. In Zero Hope, the common route leads all the way up to the happiest ending (5 of 6 chapters), but can be branched from very early (as soon as chapter 2). The Devil on G-String has a similar branch system. Other games branch from the end of the common route only, even if choices beforehand may modify certain scenes. Games like Katawa Shoujo or my current project use this system. So you have to keep in mind what the player knows from each type of common route (whether it's one of these two or a more unique system). In the former, some routes have less time for developing the world and characters before the story shifts to the route-specific plot. In the latter, a lot of information will be in the common route, saving space in the specific routes but also making it a slog to replay the game without using skip.
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Re: Common routes?

#11 Post by sociohat »

They're mostly used as a backdrop for the more specific and heavier themes that the character routes explore later on, and they tend to be the least interesting part of the overall narrative because of it.

Visual novels have a problem of being overwritten, and it's partly because the common route tends to contain most of the fluff and little to none of the content that makes the VN good.

Tonal inconsistency is also a problem, but I won't get into that because I need to nod off.

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Re: Common routes?

#12 Post by Xandra »

I agree the main function of the common branch should be to introduce the characters and your world. I like common routes where players make a set of choices that determine which route they end up on, as opposed to selecting a route from the beginning. But I also worry that this structure runs the risk of the common becoming too repetitive in subsequent playthroughs, especially when you have 5+ routes. Thank goodness Ren'py has the option of skipping text you have already read, but I'm trying to further remedy this problem in my game by creating more miniature divisions and "detours" within the common route once all the character introductions are over. I'm curious to know if anyone else has more ideas for giving the common branch more replay value.
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