What's your work process like when creating a VN

[Sakura02]

What's your work process like when creating VN games. How do you break up and organize the different stages of the game.


What's the first thing that you create? Title, characters, story, endings, beginnings?

Do you write the game in order from start to finish or do you jump around depending on what you feel like working on?

Do you write the entire story out first or, do you write it as you develop the game

Do you have all the endings thought out or, do you figure out later


Do you draw out all the different story paths first or, do you do them as you go?


How organized are you will all your files? Are you really organized or is everything in places only you can find it

Do you end up spending more time polishing the sprites and the art or the story and dialouge?


How much research do you do prior to your creation? Do you research what your target audience likes and how to improve your VN


For those who have worked in large projects, how do you keep everything organize? Any advice on how to keep the team working together, or how to deal with set backs?

How do you manage your script? Do you break it up or do you write everything in one go?


Any other Advice or suggestions in how to efficiently and effectively create a VN so that it makes it to completion.

[LVUER]

What's the first thing that you create? Title, characters, story, endings, beginnings?
The theme, the concept, or main gimmick of the story. After that, I'm thinking what makes my VN unique from other (or at least, from my other VN).

Do you write the game in order from start to finish or do you jump around depending on what you feel like working on?
Most of the times, from several moments after the beginning. Sometimes from the very beginning. But after that, I'm just jumping around.

Do you write the entire story out first or, do you write it as you develop the game
For short story, I write the entire story first. For longer one, I write for about one chapter and then develop the rest on the fly.

Do you have all the endings thought out or, do you figure out later

Usually only the main ending first (or at least the normal one). If there is multiple character, then I think all main ending for each character first. After that, I think about rest of the endings (if I planned it to have multiple endings).

Do you draw out all the different story paths first or, do you do them as you go?
As I go. Usually I only think one main path for the main character first.

How organized are you will all your files? Are you really organized or is everything in places only you can find it
I cramped it all in one folder, though I periodically make "back-up" version (only copy+pasting and place it in different folder).

Do you end up spending more time polishing the sprites and the art or the story and dialouge?
Both are time-consuming and I spend equally same effort (though I never really measure how much time I spend). If I think it's ready, then it is. And only after that I move on to the next step.

How much research do you do prior to your creation? Do you research what your target audience likes and how to improve your VN
I research lots of things before making a VN (only if I need it). I research what I need to know and all additional info I could manage to find along the way. But I never research things like target audience (since I never make a commercial VN... yet). Basically, I just make things that I like/want and try to make fun/engaging VN/game.

For those who have worked in large projects, how do you keep everything organize? Any advice on how to keep the team working together, or how to deal with set backs?
I never work in large group, so I can't say anything...

How do you manage your script? Do you break it up or do you write everything in one go?
I break it per event. And for how I write it... I write the basic/main concept first. And then the beginning/opening chapter (or chapter 1). I rarely write it all in one go (except for short story).

Any other Advice or suggestions in how to efficiently and effectively create a VN so that it makes it to completion.
Try to make a short, simple VN first, one which could be made/ended in one or two month of production. Don't make ambitious project as your first. You're bound to fail.

[Lumen_Astrum]

What's the first thing that you create? Title, characters, story, endings, beginnings?
Characters. Usually my idea of stories grow from the characters themselves. When creating a story, I make a character design, then when I'm finished with that, I make a back story and thus I make the story flow, add more characters in relation with the first one, and there. Instant story. ^^

Do you write the game in order from start to finish or do you jump around depending on what you feel like working on?
Usually what I feel like doing. I start with the story, and when I am comfortable with my progress, I jump. Usually when I'm uncomfortable with my storyline I jump.

Do you write the entire story out first or, do you write it as you develop the game?
Entire story first. To lay out the script better and faster, I do the story first so that branching storylines are easier to follow.

Do you have all the endings thought out or, do you figure out later?
Usually the true ending first. But then, in the certain points of my story, I slowly create the other endings in my mind, write it out in paper, then when time comes, I'll be laying it out in the script.

Do you draw out all the different story paths first or, do you do them as you go?
Do them as I go. Because when I jump then arrange them in advance your progress in the whole thing gets super confusing.

How organized are you will all your files? Are you really organized or is everything in places only you can find it?
Organized. When I don't organize it, I tend to repeat stuff and it'll take longer time.

Do you end up spending more time polishing the sprites and the art or the story and dialouge?
Story. Actually, more on the art, but they are just some sketches of my ideas, so it doesn't count. ^^

How much research do you do prior to your creation? Do you research what your target audience likes and how to improve your VN?
Yes. I research on how to do stuff like that, and maybe improvement on the storylines. I also sometime research some story line flow softwares to help me write.

For those who have worked in large projects, how do you keep everything organize? Any advice on how to keep the team working together, or how to deal with set backs?
(I haven't finished anything yet so I won't answer this)

How do you manage your script? Do you break it up or do you write everything in one go?
(I have slow progress on the script so I won't answer this)

Any other advice or suggestions in how to efficiently and effectively create a VN so that it makes it to completion?
ALWAYS use your time wisely. Don't waste it on some unrelated stuff. And work well and responsibly with your team~

[YuukiCrossPudding]

What's the first thing that you create? Title, characters, story, endings, beginnings?
Well I make the story first with the character, and prepare the main ending, the various ending just go with the flow

Do you write the game in order from start to finish or do you jump around depending on what you feel like working on?

Well I write the game with the flow, but I think I write it from start to finish
Do you write the entire story out first or, do you write it as you develop the game
I think about the main story then I write it as I develop it with the flow

Do you have all the endings thought out or, do you figure out later

Hm..some endings are figured out, some just popped out later

Do you draw out all the different story paths first or, do you do them as you go?
I do them as I go.


How organized are you will all your files? Are you really organized or is everything in places only you can find it
I make the backup files(copy paste) in other folder with different name, and I put the main data in one folder

Do you end up spending more time polishing the sprites and the art or the story and dialouge?
Well I can't make sprites and the art yet, so I just make the story and dialogue, with the pic and sound from many sources just for see that it's good or not


How much research do you do prior to your creation? Do you research what your target audience likes and how to improve your VN
I ask my friends and family to test it. Maybe you can test it too? I search as many critics as I can to improve it, because I'm still newbie.


For those who have worked in large projects, how do you keep everything organize? Any advice on how to keep the team working together, or how to deal with set backs?
Not yet have large project

How do you manage your script? Do you break it up or do you write everything in one go?
I write everything in one go, but in order so I'll not confused


Any other Advice or suggestions in how to efficiently and effectively create a VN so that it makes it to completion
Practice, trying, experimenting, never give up
Because I'm still learning things too.

[Applegate]

What's the first thing that you create? Title, characters, story, endings, beginnings?
I start off with a theme. "What do I want to convey?" There's no point to me if I don't have anything I want to convey. Maybe it's a story of a boy surmounting incredible odds to be with the girl he likes. Maybe it's just an unrequited love and the danger of never confessing. The actual characters and the title come last - I feel that you need to know the environment before you can write a character, as man is the product of not only himself, but also his surroundings.

Do you write the game in order from start to finish or do you jump around depending on what you feel like working on?
I write start first, then finish, then I decide the "key points" and finish by just connecting the dots. It works quite well, so long as you can map out start to finish properly.

Do you write the entire story out first or, do you write it as you develop the game
I write it out first. I used to think I was a genius who could tackle things as they came, but, that is just not the case.

Do you have all the endings thought out or, do you figure out later?
Thought out, as above.

Do you draw out all the different story paths first or, do you do them as you go?
For a current project with some friends, we decided we'd write the story paths one by one, and plan them beforehand. Planning is, as always, key.

How organized are you will all your files? Are you really organized or is everything in places only you can find it
It's all in the "Visual Novelry" map.

Do you end up spending more time polishing the sprites and the art or the story and dialogue?
I usually end up reading my writing a few times and then immediately disliking it, haha. If I end up doing anything with it, I rewrite sentences until they sound completely natural.

How much research do you do prior to your creation? Do you research what your target audience likes and how to improve your VN?
I make a basic assumption about my audience and spend the bigger deal of my writing researching the locations, what is feasible, how certain clothing is worn, etcetera. For my first VN, I interviewed a few bus drivers to ask about their schedule and everything - with no knowledge of bus drivers, it would be impossible to write one into the story.

How do you manage your script? Do you break it up or do you write everything in one go?
I write a basic draft in one go, and then expand on it as I go.

Any other Advice or suggestions in how to efficiently and effectively create a VN so that it makes it to completion.
As a novice, aim low. Write something small first, so you can prove to yourself and others that you can do this. After that, go for bigger projects. There's no shame in starting with a small visual novel only a handful of people'll like; you'll have some people then who vouch for your ability. Once you write something bigger, you already know the stumbling blocks you knocked into for your first project. You'll be able to avoid those, and on release you already have word-of-mouth advertising from people who enjoyed your first project.

Mind, you should make sure that first project is good, or at least passably decent so you're not left with just negative first impressions.

[mysterialize]

What's the first thing that you create? Title, characters, story, endings, beginning?

The story concept or characters usually come first. Sometimes ideas for characters will spark an idea in my head, and other times, it will be the other way around. I usually don't start with the idea of "I want to make a visual novel. What should I make it?", though. More often than not, I just get an idea I think is good, then decide to adapt it into something or another.

Do you write the game in order from start to finish or do you jump around depending on what you feel like working on?

For writing, I go from start to finish, but will jump between paths if I start struggling on the one I was working on before.

Do you write the entire story out first or, do you write it as you develop the game

I rarely ever write out anything in a way that will set things in stone. I have too much of a tendency to change my mind about things, or get bored of the story if everything has been predetermined, like that. I've found that planning, in general, tends to work against me rather than for me.

Do you have all the endings thought out or, do you figure out later

I figure out most of the main endings ahead of time, but things like bad endings are usually more spontaneous. Also, as I said above, I don't really set anything in stone, so I'm perfectly willing to change the endings up if I decide I don't like my original idea.

Do you draw out all the different story paths first or, do you do them as you go?

See the above two answers.

How organized are you with all your files? Are you really organized or is everything in places only you can find it?

I'm extremely unorganized with just about everything. My VN files are no exception. The closest I've gotten to organizing anything is me splitting up the script for my current game by day. Aside from that, have fun finding anything.

Do you end up spending more time polishing the sprites and the art or the story and dialogue?

Being extremely critical of myself, I wind up over-polishing just about everything. My writing tends to get it a lot more than my art does, though.

How much research do you do prior to your creation? Do you research what your target audience likes and how to improve your VN

A lot. I research just about everything I don't know in detail already, and even go back to make sure I'm not mistaken about things I think I already know.

I don't research my target audience, though, if for no other reason than being fairly certain I don't even have one.

For those who have worked in large projects, how do you keep everything organize? Any advice on how to keep the team working together, or how to deal with set backs?

When I was working on Vacant Sky, we set up a forum for discussion of everything involved, open for every team member, despite what their official job on the team was. I think it really helped in letting everyone feel involved in the creation of the game, and allowed for quite a bit of internal critique. Aside from that, the best thing I've found to do is to personally get to know the other team members, and be casual about as much as possible. In our case, we were making everything for free, and didn't make the game commercial, so everyone's best motivation was their own personal accomplishments, praise for the game as a whole, and, most importantly, enjoying the process of making it. Deadlines helped too, as much as some of us (Me included) hated having to follow them.

How do you manage your script? Do you break it up or do you write everything in one go?

It's a huge script and story, so it's not really possible to write it in one go. I usually work on it scene by scene.

[Liminality]

What's the first thing that you create? Title, characters, story, endings, beginnings?
The characters. I have an entire binder full of character ideas, because I'm always thinking of new personalities as they make themselves known. I also have notebooks full of settings, interesting lines, phrases, and objects that have caught my eye in the past. First, I select characters I think would bring the genre to life (for a dating sim, I need likable characters). Then, after the roles are cast, I think of a beginning. After I start from the beginning, I let it flow from there.

Do you write the game in order from start to finish or do you jump around depending on what you feel like working on?
I definitely write it from beginning to end. When I start a project, I tend to know the ends from the very start, and know what my goals are, but I don't like to plan out exactly how I'm going to get there. I start from the beginning and start filling in information and rounding out the world as I go. It's more fun that way, otherwise I would lose interest if the entire thing had already played out in my head.

Do you write the entire story out first or, do you write it as you develop the game
Heh... I kinda answered that above. I write it as I develop the game. I start with a skeleton and add onto it until I have a breathing work of art!

Do you have all the endings thought out or, do you figure out later
Also answered that above. Wahhh... I get the beginning, and the endings, and then fill in the rest.

Do you draw out all the different story paths first or, do you do them as you go?
owo Draw them out? Never. I've only done that once, when I was at school and couldn't get to a computer, and the next event for my game was spinning in my head. I had to grab a pencil and write down that portion of the route or else I might have died!

How organized are you will all your files? Are you really organized or is everything in places only you can find it
Well the file names are pretty easy to coordinate. For each day of a game, I have a different file. So one for day 1, one for day 2, etc etc... But as for within those files... I try to keep things as straightforward as possible, but really it's all a matter of me knowing where everything is. Most things go in chronological order because that's how I code them and if it wasn't like that I would forget everything, but yeahhh...

Do you end up spending more time polishing the sprites and the art or the story and dialogue?
Lucky for me, I don't have to worry about both at the same time! Of course, I give my artist guidance so all of her art has to be mostly accepted by me before it can go in the game (because it is my love child), but I allow more errors in the art than the writing. As long as it's nothing TOO obvious, I figure the player will spend more time looking at the dialogue than searching for flaws in the art. There are some things I let slide to save my artist the trouble, but my writing? If there was a flaw, I would kill myself.


How much research do you do prior to your creation? Do you research what your target audience likes and how to improve your VN
Most definitely. Before starting, we did several weeks of research, and after starting, I scrapped the script several times and started over to polish it to suit my target audience and be as authentic as possible. We also scrapped the artwork once because it ended up not being cute enough (but that wasn't my fault, hawah!). Even now, I still do tons of research and try to get as many people to look over what I have so far as I can. I have several files devoted to examples of real VNs we can reference, and documents about creating characters and establishing interesting personalities.


For those who have worked in large projects, how do you keep everything organize? Any advice on how to keep the team working together, or how to deal with set backs?
Heh. I just fire whoever makes me mad. Of course, our project is relatively small (huge for a first project, with quite a few people involved though...). Entice them with promises of profit, tell them exactly what you can offer, set definite deadlines and sincerely be ready to replace them if they're slacking off and holding back the project. That's my motto. Of course, if you're being as cruel as I tend to be, you have to make sure you're doing your fair share of work, if not more than your fair share.

How do you manage your script? Do you break it up or do you write everything in one go?
Write everything in one go? That would be hell. I have to take breaks for at least a few hours every once in a while. I usually work for about five hours, rest for six, come back for another three, then rest for the day. That's on a really good day with tons of free time. Sometimes, I can't stand coding anymore so I have to take a break and come back later.

In order to make sure something works, you've got to set a goal and a deadline for yourself. Work consistently. You have to love the project, and be certain that other people will love it to. Also, if you have other people involved, you'll be a lot less likely to quit because those people are relying on you to finish. If you don't want to let people down, you'll probably do a lot better.

[Robert Kirkland]

What's the first thing that you create? Title, characters, story, endings, beginnings?
Characters, story, title, beginning, endings in that order.

Do you write the game in order from start to finish or do you jump around depending on what you feel like working on?
I jump around and start in the middle, mostly.

Do you write the entire story out first or, do you write it as you develop the game?
I have some of it already written out so I don't get confused, then I develop it as I go along.

Do you have all the endings thought out or, do you figure out later?
I have some endings already planned in advance, then I see possibilities for other endings.

Do you draw out all the different story paths first or, do you do them as you go?
As I go.

How organized are you will all your files? Are you really organized or is everything in places only you can find it?
Not that organized. I have a bunch of stuff scattered around.

Do you end up spending more time polishing the sprites and the art or the story and dialouge?
Both. I'll work a lot on the art but the story is more important, somehow..

How much research do you do prior to your creation? Do you research what your target audience likes and how to improve your VN?
I research for weeks before I even start. And then more research WHILE I'm doing stuff.

For those who have worked in large projects, how do you keep everything organize? Any advice on how to keep the team working together, or how to deal with set backs?
Haven't worked in a large group.

How do you manage your script? Do you break it up or do you write everything in one go?
I write this, then that, and then that, so I guess I break it up.

[Pyonkotchi]

What's the first thing that you create? Title, characters, story, endings, beginnings?
Its always characters. I always start by drawing a cool character. Then i think "Hey! this character is cute, I might use him/her in a story" then I just go on bring him to life, and then I start thinking up a cool story for him

Do you write the game in order from start to finish or do you jump around depending on what you feel like working on?

I jump around. I usually think of the most interesting parts first, Like the intro. Maybe a death scene, a cool fight, some sweet romance. the ending. they just come to me when I'm bored

Do you write the entire story out first or, do you write it as you develop the game
As I go along usually I'm first drawing pictures and writing scripts Usually in class haha! I'm horrible so I tend to go and look up coding for one thing, then draw a sprite, write a scene, redraw a sprite, write another totally random scnene, more coding, I'm not too good at focusing D;

Do you have all the endings thought out or, do you figure out later
I usually have the main ending thought, the other ending I think up as I think up alternate scenes, like A death scene, I might realize that a missing character will change the outcome so i think up a new ending o3o

Do you draw out all the different story paths first or, do you do them as you go?
as I go along. not organized herpderp

How organized are you will all your files? Are you really organized or is everything in places only you can find it
all my drawings are exactly where I need them, they're uploaded online and I have them in folders on the computer. and I have backups for everything already programed, but scripts, I'm a mess, I have a notebook I'm supposed to keep them in, but I never use it, I also never really type out scripts, I usually think them up when I'm bored at school, so most of my scripts are all over the place on loose paper, but thankfully I have a good memory D;

Do you end up spending more time polishing the sprites and the art or the story and dialouge?
I'm not a writer, I'm an artist, so I'm not too confident In my writing. I go over it a lot and even now I'm not too sure, and my art, Oh god, you should see how many redesigns I have for my characters. two particular characters (who were also the first I designed for my current project!) have gone through several redesigns before I even decided on a visual novel, and I've got about 4 sets of sprites for the same character since I didn't like the first, then I might decide on tweaking their story and personality, so I might need some more :< I'm a perfectionist which means I'll be spending a lot of time on characterization and art :<


How much research do you do prior to your creation? Do you research what your target audience likes and how to improve your VN
I usually just do what I enjoy most. I do get a lot of inspiration from other VNs and games I played, And i've skimmed through the forum. Also TVTROPES. Tropes are not bad. Tropes are tools, and I like to look at the different ways to play with them


For those who have worked in large projects, how do you keep everything organize? Any advice on how to keep the team working together, or how to deal with set backs?
I've never worked in a group P:

How do you manage your script? Do you break it up or do you write everything in one go?
I've said it already. It's just all over the place :T

[Anna]

What's the first thing that you create? Title, characters, story, endings, beginnings?
The genre and 'feel' of the story (mystery and dark or fantasy and cute? etc.) and the characters and main story idea influence each other so they come together or short after each other. If I have the characters and such done, I'll write an outline of the story from beginning to end, with multiple branches when needed.
When the outline is done, this is the work order: actual story writing -> proofreading -> finishing story writing with the improvements -> last proofreading and improvements -> name of the VN/title -> character sprites -> backgrounds -> CGs + title screen -> music -> extra's -> testing the game and bug fixing -> bliss.

Do you write the game in order from start to finish or do you jump around depending on what you feel like working on?
Start to finish with an outline, though I do make notes for later events when I get a good idea. When the outline is done, I check it and let a very critical person proofread it, to check for loopholes/moments of insanity XD.

Do you write the entire story out first or, do you write it as you develop the game
I write it out first.

Do you have all the endings thought out or, do you figure out later

All endings are thought out.

Do you draw out all the different story paths first or, do you do them as you go?
I draw them out first.


How organized are you will all your files? Are you really organized or is everything in places only you can find it
I'm extremely organized when it comes to my project folder, or I would get confused by my own mess haha. I have a seperate folder for CG, music, character sprites, script etc. It also gives me a better idea of what is done and what is left.

Do you end up spending more time polishing the sprites and the art or the story and dialouge?
Both take a lot of time and I'm rather perfectionistic, so I won't stop until I'm remotely satisfied with either.


How much research do you do prior to your creation? Do you research what your target audience likes and how to improve your VN
Definitely no research into what they like, I write what I like, though I do pick a target audience to adjust the writing style to. I could never finish a project that bored me. The only things I do research for are things related to the story, such as how an eclipse works or something else which I'd need to improve the overall quality of the VN.


For those who have worked in large projects, how do you keep everything organize? Any advice on how to keep the team working together, or how to deal with set backs?
Have a lot of contact with each other, set deadlines, talk about what you did with each other (just for fun too!), and save the story in chapters instead of one huge file: this will make editting a lot easier and give you a better view of how the story is built and how well it flows.
If you don't feel like working on something, put it away for a while and try again later, or try to visit places which inspire you, OR talk about it to your teammates and try to come up with something together. If you just work on, the things you'll create will most likely be utter crap anyway.

How do you manage your script? Do you break it up or do you write everything in one go?
I write it chronologically and in chapters.

Tips would be to work with someone who knows you well, who has skills you don't have and who you see a lot. Furthermore, try to make it as fun as possible for each other by telling a story you all like working on.
However, don't overlook the bad parts when you notice them, just to be nice. You can be nice and still tell them what they did wrong.
On that topic; just because the other is more skillful in something or has a different task, doesn't mean you shouldn't check the quality of the work. You're a team, so one's mistake is that of everyone's.

[Blue Sky]

What's the first thing that you create? Title, characters, story, endings, beginnings?
Once an idea pops into my head, I usually come up with the overarching plot line, the climaxes, and the characters simultaneously.


Do you write the game in order from start to finish or do you jump around depending on what you feel like working on?
In order... I can't do it any other way. However I will write for different paths at different times, once I get past the common route.

Do you write the entire story out first or, do you write it as you develop the game
As in plot? Well, I think up the major points for each part of the plot diagram... aka, important events in the rising action, the climax, the exposition, and the falling action.... Connecting the dots happens as I write.

Do you have all the endings thought out or, do you figure out later
Usually the ending and climax are the most vivid things in my mind when I think of plots, so yes I think those up first.

Do you draw out all the different story paths first or, do you do them as you go?
I wrote the main premises out a long time ago, though somethings have changed since then. I don't write out all of the details though.

How organized are you will all your files? Are you really organized or is everything in places only you can find it
I keep it all on my Google Docs page, with a doc for character info, general visual novel development info (sprites, bgs, music tracks, etc), and the story itself. Everything else is all over the place on my hard drive though, as I have only made some prototype sprites and a renpy setup.

Do you end up spending more time polishing the sprites and the art or the story and dialouge?
Story. I had four months of planning, detailing of characters, etc before I even started writing, than wrote a first draft, second draft a few months later, and a third draft as well. Then over the summer I trashed the drafts and started the story anew, got some feedback, tweaked it, got some feedback, stopped because I am a shitty person, and have made various changes to the story since then.

Overall I have been working on this for more than a year. Development and breaks taking up the most time, haha.

As for art, fuck it. I am pissed at digital art right now, I need a job so I can make some money for a cintiq. Using a regular tablet is just too rage worthy for me.

How much research do you do prior to your creation? Do you research what your target audience likes and how to improve your VN
Of course. Research is extremely helpful. And I like taking surveys, btw.


For those who have worked in large projects, how do you keep everything organize? Any advice on how to keep the team working together, or how to deal with set backs?
Uh... just don't bail on your team. I suck a lot for bailing and I regret it everyday. Don't get involved with a team if you aren't willing to commit for less than a few months.

How do you manage your script? Do you break it up or do you write everything in one go?
Eek... well I'm not very consistent. I have a lot of mental hurdles to jump over every time I try to write a new sentence to the script, mainly dealing with anxiety + confidence issues and all that. That's why I bailed on my team, actually...

But I'd say ideally one should break it up. Writing too much at one time can cause a lot of crappy stuff to build up in your script. In fact, after writing two paragraphs, I like to go over them about three times for mistakes, and rewrite accordingly. Then I stop writing again for a couple months because I think I'm terrible at living, blah blah blah. It's difficult... lol

[curry nochi rice]

What's the first thing that you create? Title, characters, story, endings, beginnings?

I create the characters first, then the story, the endings and finally the beginnings.
I often leave out the title and will designate the project alphabetically until a formal title is created and designated.

Do you write the game in order from start to finish or do you jump around depending on what you feel like working on?

I do it from start to finish following a detailed plan which is usually a flowchart or algorithm.


Do you write the entire story out first or, do you write it as you develop the game

I write as I develop the game.


Do you have all the endings thought out or, do you figure out later

I have some of them figured out... and some of them added in-development.


Do you draw out all the different story paths first or, do you do them as you go?

I draw them first but sometimes those paths gets twisted or scrapped for a more twisted one.


How organized are you will all your files? Are you really organized or is everything in places only you can find it

It's organized according to subject. It's in the program files to avoid being tampered with by strangers.


Do you end up spending more time polishing the sprites and the art or the story and dialouge?

I'm only the writer, so I end up with the story and dialog.


How much research do you do prior to your creation? Do you research what your target audience likes and how to improve your VN


Yup, research takes a lot of time for me. but to be honest, I did not research about my target market.


How do you manage your script? Do you break it up or do you write everything in one go?


I break it up into days, with very complex events further broken up into separate "hour" files. but for the main game, I plan on a script that shifts back from a heroine's script to the main script and back again to the heroines script.

[Aozora210]

I know this is a bit belated, but hey, it hasn't been a month, right?

What's the first thing that you create? Title, characters, story, endings, beginnings?
In my case with my current project, I create things almost like what you described in your question. Inspiration always comes from nowhere, so there’s almost like no definite beginning or ending of creation. Usually I came up with characters or setting first. After they got definite idea, I continued with the story line.

Do you write the game in order from start to finish or do you jump around depending on what you feel like working on?
Honestly I jump around, and write what is in my mind before it gets too rustic and lost as I wrote the other part. You can always connect them later, and there’s always editing if the scene doesn’t feel appropriate later.

Do you write the entire story out first or, do you write it as you develop the game?
Usually I start with the beginning and the ending. After I got them right, then I wrote the rest as I develop it.

Do you have all the endings thought out or, do you figure out later?
Hmmm, since I start with beginning and the ending, I mostly figure them out now, because you know how do you want your story to end and that’s one of the way to pick up what you can do in the middle. So you can make a story towards to the end. Sometimes if you don’t get the ending first, the story can be go out of the line and ended up nowhere.

Do you draw out all the different story paths first or, do you do them as you go?
In my current case, I do both. I mean, I have been writing some endings and some scene, but some is still missing in the middle of them, so as I write I can see, “oh, it’s maybe better this way” or “I think I can put this up like this.”

How organized are you will all your files? Are you really organized or is everything in places only you can find it?
I can say that I am very organized. I dislike things that don’t go very neat. So usually I put them in the place with certain name and try to not mix them out, unless they can manage themselves (like same type arrangement or sort)

Do you end up spending more time polishing the sprites and the art or the story and dialouge?
I’d like to have both of them good, so I think I will spend a lot of time on both, but since my story is still on development, I do more story right now.

How much research do you do prior to your creation? Do you research what your target audience likes and how to improve your VN?
Indeed, and that’s why I am here right now. There’s not many community outside here (in my place) that likes this sort of stuffs, so I have to really look out what do people that likes to play VN likes, and sometimes I do alter my story to match them, but sometimes I just don’t care and write out what I wanted. As for skill improvement, I gotta look them here, tho, so… yeah. I learn things by doing thou. It indeed needs a lot of research, especially since I'm an uber noob here.

How do you manage your script? Do you break it up or do you write everything in one go?
Currently I’m having the plot script and the game script in a different file. I also write ideas in the plot script and have them developed again as I wrote the script, but I think maybe if it gets a bit too lot, I need to separate them. I’m still in the moment where I can’t separate them yet.

[Twisted-Eva]

What's the first thing that you create? Title, characters, story, endings, beginnings?
For my project, here's the parts that came in the order from first to last: Characters, endings, beginnings, story, title.

Do you write the game in order from start to finish or do you jump around depending on what you feel like working on?
I'll write the story from scratch, but then I might just jump around to parts of the story where it's actually fun to write about (pretty ironic since a VN creator is supposed to like everything about his/her project in my opinion).

Do you write the entire story out first or, do you write it as you develop the game
I'll write the story as I develop the game.

Do you have all the endings thought out or, do you figure out later
I have most of the endings thought out, but a few I have to think later because I'm dealing with multiple endings that are cohesive to the basic outcome of the whole VN.

Do you draw out all the different story paths first or, do you do them as you go?
I might as well do them as I go For me, drawing the whole thing out might make me tiresome of writing the story.

How organized are you will all your files? Are you really organized or is everything in places only you can find it
I put all my stuff in one folder labeled the name of my project within the VN engine folder.

Do you end up spending more time polishing the sprites and the art or the story and dialouge?
I might end up spending just a wee bit more time tweaking the story and dialogue based on constructive critique I receive.

How much research do you do prior to your creation? Do you research what your target audience likes and how to improve your VN
Improving my VN takes some time for me to sift through the comments to see what I'm still lacking. I'm not intending to make a commercial VN since what I'm making is for fun. For my current project which has a historical background to it, I end up doing tons of research on the Internet and in my library to prevent as much discrepancies as I can.

How do you manage your script? Do you break it up or do you write everything in one go?
Truth is, I'm not even using a VN engine that relies solely on scripting so this doesn't apply to me.

Any other Advice or suggestions in how to efficiently and effectively create a VN so that it makes it to completion.
All I know from past experience that is not only related to VN creation but from other things such as academic projects is that whatever project you have going on, make sure to complete one part of it at a time. If it's a large-scale VN, might as well do a chunk of it at a time or you might get sick of developing the VN if you try to do everything in one sprint and not a marathon.

[EternalDream]

What's the first thing that you create? Title, characters, story, endings, beginnings?
Stories, then characters, then endings, beginnings, and lastly the title.

Do you write the game in order from start to finish or do you jump around depending on what you feel like working on
I generally write it in order but when I don't feel like it, I just scribble down random ideas for later scenes on a random piece of paper so I won't forget it.

Do you write the entire story out first or, do you write it as you develop the game
I used to write it as I developed the game, but then I found it to inconvenient and found myself sitting in front of the computer clueless. So now, I write the entire story first.

Do you have all the endings thought out or, do you figure out later
I have all the endings thought out, since I like thinking up of good endings

Do you draw out all the different story paths first or, do you do them as you go?
I draw out the rough outline first, and as I go, I might think of an awesomer one so I just change my mind lol

How organized are you will all your files? Are you really organized or is everything in places only you can find it
I'm... not really that organized. I dump everything on my desktop and then my computer starts to run super slow and I'm always forced to sort through my stuff... ;_;

Do you end up spending more time polishing the sprites and the art or the story and dialouge?
No, for me, I edit my stories and rewrite them like 7 times before I think it's decent. But my sprites... well, if I took time on them, probably 2 days (which is nothing compared to how long I spend perfecting the script)

How much research do you do prior to your creation? Do you research what your target audience likes and how to improve your VN
Not really... I'm not a research type of person but I do tend to want feedback from people so I would post questions on things such as what type of options people like, etc. So I guess in a way, I do research on what my target audience likes.

For those who have worked in large projects, how do you keep everything organize? Any advice on how to keep the team working together, or how to deal with set backs?
Currently working on a large project, but barely started so I can't really say much. I usually work with me, myself, and I with a few exceptions. (I'm more of an individual or small group person than a large group one)

How do you manage your script? Do you break it up or do you write everything in one go?
I break it up into parts... or arcs. So I write them step by step. Ex. Get to knows, introduction, party, etc. And I write them all in separate booklets so that it doesn't give me a headache when I try to search for a specific part