How important are sound fx and music?

[dellcartoons]

How important are sound fx and music? I almost always mute the sound fx, and always mute the music

I don't actually need sound fx and music for my game, so should I just leave them out?

[+ ali3nn +]

How important are sound fx and music? I almost always mute the sound fx, and always mute the music

I don't actually need sound fx and music for my game, so should I just leave them out?

in my opinion, music & fx set the mood of the game. if you mute the sound, you might just be reading a book, not playing a visual novel.
most people would probably play the game with sound. so, you probably should include some somewhere.

[isobellesophia]

For me, some sound fx are common in visual novel games, like glass breaking, gunshots, and etc.

Music is also important, just to suit the game that you played, without all of it, you might just reading it silently or just talking to the main character normally.

With music and sound fx are always the good idea, with some games, dont also include music and such.

So i think with sound and music are the best, it might be a little boring without it.

[GNVE]

I know where you're coming from. I almost never play games with sound effects and/or music. As a developer however it is important as releasing your game without sound might make your game feel unfinished or rushed to players. (Not that my first one had any music…)
You also have an opportunity to set a mood with music and sound making it easier for you to direct players towards certain feelings.
You don't need to spend an enormous amount of money on this either as there are great free music and sound effect sources out there. (just make sure it has a CC-BY licence or is in the public domain.)

[Imperf3kt]

I have one thing on the Google Play store which I made with Ren'Py.
It isn't a VN of sorts, but rather a demonstration build of a gui I made available freely.

I'd have to say, music isn't important to it at all, but it still feels odd having complete silence while running through it. I always wondered whether people would question if the game was broken or if their volume was muted.

In hindsight, I should go back and add something