Currency within a Visual Novel - How it's handled.

[DyneWulf]

I've been working on a visual novel for a while now that's seen a lot of success, and I've only dabbled in using currency just a little bit. It's a slice of life novel, and dealing with money can be fairly straight-forward in it. Do a chore, help someone out, get a job, and the MC can earn a little extra cash. It's mundane, but works for what I'm doing since I don't really track it and basically state that the MC has some money to spend.

During my free time, I've been planning my next project, and I'm taking it a different direction now, so I've been thinking about the currency and how I can handle it. It's something that will need to be tracked for spending and whatnot.

So... In visual novels you've played or worked on, how is currency handled? Is it earned by working? Completing tasks? Is currency even a thing? Perhaps the player gets a steady stream of whatever it is? I'm curious to see what other people have experienced, what ideas they have or what works for them!

[Mutive]

I've seen a steady stream, earned for certain tasks/outcomes (i.e. you do a chore and get paid), then subtracted for certain things (i.e. you go on a date and it costs $50 or whatever)

Generally, as with most things that are tracked, it seems to work best when choices made about it are bilateral - i.e. neither obviously good nor bad. (An example might be, you can earn extra money by doing chores, but this means you can't hang out with the love interest after school. But then if you make enough money, you can take LI out on a date with either special CG or earning more affection than just hanging out or whatever.)

[gekiganwing]

I played the three Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side games. In all of them, the protagonist benefits by spending money on more outfits. However, she will have almost no money unless she chooses one of several part-time jobs. (The protagonist also benefits by having a job, because they help her improve relationships with people.)

[Imperf3kt]

A standard visual novel won't use currency (there are exceptions; Danganronpa comes to mind)
It sounds more like you're talking about dating sims.

Sorry, but that's all I wanted to say at the moment.

[DyneWulf]

I've seen a steady stream, earned for certain tasks/outcomes (i.e. you do a chore and get paid), then subtracted for certain things (i.e. you go on a date and it costs $50 or whatever)

Generally, as with most things that are tracked, it seems to work best when choices made about it are bilateral - i.e. neither obviously good nor bad. (An example might be, you can earn extra money by doing chores, but this means you can't hang out with the love interest after school. But then if you make enough money, you can take LI out on a date with either special CG or earning more affection than just hanging out or whatever.)

I played the three Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side games. In all of them, the protagonist benefits by spending money on more outfits. However, she will have almost no money unless she chooses one of several part-time jobs. (The protagonist also benefits by having a job, because they help her improve relationships with people.)

Thanks for the input there! These seem to be the most common ways of handling money in that regard.

A standard visual novel won't use currency (there are exceptions; Danganronpa comes to mind)
It sounds more like you're talking about dating sims.

Sorry, but that's all I wanted to say at the moment.

Be it a dating sim or not, an interactive game that is text-based while using visuals to assist it is still a visual novel. You can still use currency in a visual novel and it not be considered a dating sim. Say you wanted to tell the story of a traveling merchant, buying and selling exotic ware throughout the land, and part of the story is managing their funds to end up with the most magnificent (or dreary!) store at the end of their journey. No dating needed.