Process of making a visual novel?

Discuss how to use the Ren'Py engine to create visual novels and story-based games. New releases are announced in this section.
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bokchois
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Process of making a visual novel?

#1 Post by bokchois »

Hello! I am currently having a bit of a crisis as attempt to make a visual novel otome game.
So I kinda started off on my project because I wanted to tell a story using my art in a
different medium? I'm a complete noob with programming and code, and only know how to
draw and write.

My question is this: in what order should I go about with making my game? How did you order
your components in your past experiences and projects? Currently, I'm jumping between writing
and coding, but I'm very frustrated with myself in coding. I'm considering pushing the coding off
until later and focusing on art and story to give the codes something to work with (as of now I'm
using small scenes for the writing and gross sketches for the arts).

This was a long post....forgive me.

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Re: Process of making a visual novel?

#2 Post by NialGrenville »

No need to ask forgiveness. Long posts are appraised as high as possible here at Lemma Soft!

To answer your question. As I am also doing all the things you are. I think it's best to stick with what you know. If you don't know coding, try and learn. If you're in a rut and don't want to learn. We have a recruitment section for that. I am almost certain you can find yourself a beginning programmer to help you out!

If you have any questions on learning code later, you can always ask at the Ren'Py questions section of the forum. While I can tell you I have no order of my own. I can tell you, do what you can do best LAST. Just in my experiences. Because if you do your favorite first. Your least favorite may demotivate you to continue after all the work is said and done.

If you're looking for a place to begin coding. You can get a hold of me through PM's. If you feel a little too intimidated to ask (I was when I first started. It's normal!) I have a whole layman's guide book written to start you off!
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Re: Process of making a visual novel?

#3 Post by Scribbles »

I'm going through this myself in a sense. The further I get in one area the more I know about what I need asset-wise or code-wise.

My advice would be to create a simple story/VN first so you can get the hang of coding.
coding can be a real headache! I recommend writing/coding before art since you're the artist, that way you will know what you need before you start and you won't have to go back to do any add-ons (like expressions, poses, CGs, outfit changes, and such)

nothing wrong with using placeholder images! but you'll have to spruce up the code when you have finals too...

this place has been great for helping me out!

I can try to help you, but I'm more of a writer and less of an artist and coder, but I don't mind sharing any knowledge or code!

try writing out a rough timeline like you would before writing a novel, and you can maybe see what you need code-wise and artwise from there?

I hope this helped ^^
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Re: Process of making a visual novel?

#4 Post by TheJerminator15 »

I have the same problem since I'm a complete luddite when it comes to coding. I've managed to trod along somewhat but I realised that the best thing would be to work on a small game to help get me used to coding.

Me being the idiot I am I completely forgot to and am just coding my main game every now and then instead of gaining proper experience with it, so I do honestly suggest messing with a small game initially. Even if it's only five minutes long.
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Re: Process of making a visual novel?

#5 Post by Mammon »

TheJerminator15 wrote:the best thing would be to work on a small game to help get me used to coding.
This is good advice. I myself did the coding last but I looked at what it was supposed to be before I started to write. But I don't think it's as simple as putting those three in a certain order. What I did:
-Summary of story (writing)
-Start practicing art (which you can probably skip if you're already accustomed to making digital art.)
-Look through some ren'py cookbooks and such for all the possibilities of ren'py (code)
-Learn some essential things that are best implemented directly in the script while writing it. (code)*
-Start writing your story.
-At the same time as the previous step, start drawing. Having an image with your character helps a lot to bring them to life.
-Once you've got a chapter and sketches or placeholders, put a single scene in code. Just the lines and images, no need for anything fancy yet.
-If you're using CC resources, pick them out around now. For backgrounds f.e. it'd be useful to know what locations you have and which you couldn't find. Music isn't that urgent yet.
-Finish writing your story.
-Around this time I had my sprites done and started with the CG's.
-Rewrite the story as often as you need until you're satisfied with it.
-Start putting the script into editra. No code yet, just adding it in there and ordening it.
-When there are brackets around all your sentences, start adding the code. Persistents, scene backgrounds, music, etc.
-When you got your code down, start adding character expressions. Not sure if others would recommend that too, but I think it'd be smart to do it in this order when the yellow-orange codes for menu's etc. don't drown in a sea of show statements yet.
-Finish your story. Maybe rewrite it again as you're coding it because you're also the writer.
-Alpha test it and get rid of all the bugs.

*One particular thing that would be very useful to know would be how to make someone speak. Ren'py has this system:

Code: Select all

me 'When I say something with me at the beginning of the line, the textbox will identify the speaker as Me.'
Me 'However, this is capital sensitive, so if you were to say me with a capital M your game wouldn't know who's speaking.'
If you know this, you can implement it directly in the script as you're writing it. It would be much easier than writing out
Me: <sentence>
You: <reply>
Only to find out that the : are completely useless and might even need to be removed. This is but one example of coding details that would be useful to know in advance so you can write it directly into your script rather than adding it later. other parts of coding can wait for later.
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Re: Process of making a visual novel?

#6 Post by bokchois »

Ahhh thank you everyone for your input and help! I started coding a really brief dating sim to get me more used to coding, and I think I'm getting the hang of....at least making the game itself work. I'm having trouble with the GUI though because a lot of the guides I'm finding are for previous versions of Ren'Py and I get confused....@.@ but that should be a separate topic and thread! Thank you everyone for your help! I'll be referencing the answers frequently on my visual novel making journey probably!

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