Settings that you would appreciate

[Argeus_the_Paladin]

Unfortunately, this setting is as obscure as it is interesting. It would be... difficult to write, much less market, such a visual novel. But hey, I can dream, right?

Have the characters have coitus after every two scenes of political intrigue and back-biting, and it will sell. I mean, it worked for The Tudors and Game of Thrones, right? A backdrop of Great Civilizations always makes everything seem more sexy.

That's exactly what I'm trying to do, minus the coitus part.

I'd like to see more settings set in the native locations of VN creators.

Good if you come from a place with rich history. Not so great if the Spaniards happened to have wiped out most of that history and all that's left are oral tradition tales that don't make any sense. Colonial times could be interesting though (if not overbearing). Hmmm... perhaps Japanese Occupation? I've had great uncles who fought on both sides and my grandfather's farm was near the field where they launched Kamikaze attacks. It would be f-in epic... but unfortunately it would require the research and interviewing relatives and have an insane art budget (realistic style, uuggghhh, or at least something dreamy like Mushishi) and I don't think will give any great return in terms of attention, even if the resulting product were free.

Not to mention, this can lead to quite a few political cans of worm that should have no place in a visual novel, misplaced nationalism, apologism and revisionism being the prime offenders.

I spent a few years in TWC. I know how bad this can get, especially for folks from the Carpathian/Balkan regions.

I believe it's best to keep visual novels AWAY from your country of origin, if you're not from the States, Britain or Japan. And sometimes, IMO, even that doesn't apply.

[LateWhiteRabbit]

Have the characters have coitus after every two scenes of political intrigue and back-biting, and it will sell. I mean, it worked for The Tudors and Game of Thrones, right?

You'd be amazed how much more interesting conversations are when the two characters are having sex the whole time. Or someone is having sex behind them. All those Senate scenes in the Star Wars prequels might have been interesting if Padme was having sex during them.

[Auro-Cyanide]

-Steampunk. Come on. That is an artists paradise, even if it is fiddly as. There is something about the mix of past and future that makes it very appealing and romantic.

While I think steampunk as a genre is really neat, I think it wants a great writer and an artist with understanding of technology to pull it off, or else it will remind me of that dumb Etsy phenomenon where everyone just makes stuff that's sort of bookishly nostalgic somehow and calls it steampunk to sell it.

I think that goes for any setting where people can not fill in with personal experience and knowledge . I always wish there was a bit more innovation in fantasy settings. One more dragon... it's always a dragon >_>

World building takes a lot of work and it needs to be thought about well before anything definite is done, but when people do it right *sigh* It's so amazing to be lost to another world. Especially when it comes to art and you can SHOW them the other world.

[Obscura]

I like anything realistic, hopefully not in a high school setting. I don't have a problem with HS settings, it's just that this seems to be the ovewhelming majority of games here because of the age distribution.

Even just somebody working in an office is cool.

The reason I play VNs is so I can role-play relationships. That's pretty much it, so I don't need fantasy or scifi or any kind of extraordinary setting.

[Anna]

Anything fantasy! I love grand epics and the medieval-ish settings with castles and knights and ah <3. Someone, please, make more fantasy ;-;~

I'm already working on those kind of settings myself too.

Other than that, I find steampunk and victorian settings extremely awesome as well. It's an artist's paradise.

[clua]

I would apreciate Latin America setting, but done right!
(Not placing Chichen Itza pyramid on Machu Picchu please!, Also there are a lot of spanish names besides Pedro and María)

I like fantasy settings ºqº
And apocaliptic/end of the world too

[Carrogath]

I like anything realistic, hopefully not in a high school setting. I don't have a problem with HS settings, it's just that this seems to be the ovewhelming majority of games here because of the age distribution.

High school settings can be fascinating if done right; they just come off as very bland and boring because no one knows how to treat them--or rather, people don't consider anything other than the school itself when they're writing. I think high school settings would be fine if they were explored in a broader context. For instance, parents never seem to be mentioned in these games, and heaven forbid these kids do anything outside of school...

It seems like lots of people here would appreciate historical or historical fantasy settings. I would kill to see a VN set in post-WWII America (or China or Brazil or South Africa or... anywhere else, for that matter), though settings like the Silk Road or the Age of Exploration, anything with commerce as the driving force behind it, would interest me as well. Giving the game a sense of authenticity (or at least immersion) seems like it would be hardest, though. I think that goes for any game in an historical setting.

[Gambit74]

Personally, I like peaceful areas and backwater villages/towns. Whenever I look at such places, I feel like I want to go live there just to get away from the stress of today's society. I could lead a carefree life and live out the rest of my days without having to worry about so many things that technology is gonna do to us one day.

My current story takes place entirely within a secluded forest town. Despite being a common setting in most RPGs and whatnot, I actually have to do a lot of research due to the fact that I've hardly ever gone to any forests in my life. Such things I have to look up are: weather conditions, how the air is like, how dark and/or how light it would normally be, and whether if this or that would be possible in such a place.

[Sapphi]

High school settings can be fascinating if done right; they just come off as very bland and boring because no one knows how to treat them--or rather, people don't consider anything other than the school itself when they're writing. I think high school settings would be fine if they were explored in a broader context. For instance, parents never seem to be mentioned in these games, and heaven forbid these kids do anything outside of school...

Right, or you could even cross it with a period piece. For instance, Grease is a movie about high school, but it's awesome because it's high school in the 1950s.

I agree that if high school were portrayed as they really are, the stories would be fascinating... it's just the generic use of high school as an excuse to meet dates that is stale and tired. High school in real life is a terrifying and exciting place. It really is its own world. There is much more to it than "WILL HE DATE ME?!"

I'll venture to say that I think the reason most games set in high school are bland and boring is that they are written mostly by high school students who do not realize the value of their own experiences, but are writing with generic anime school settings as their models. Eventually it gets ridiculously derivative. Why settle for that when you can be original and tell a story based on your personal experience in high school?

[Glasskitten]

The Glasskitten would add that it likes steampunk, but judging by the previous posts, this would appear to be a mere side effect of having a pulse. 0_o
It used to like epic fantasy worlds as a general rule until it got sworded/magicked/dragoned out. Then it realized it still likes epic fantasy, but mostly just in sufficiently weird settings like Overside (or where a LOT of thought has gone into bringing an old world to life like the Goblins comic). It seems to like the sensation of, "That is soooooo bizarre...yet so vivid and contextually appropriate that it feels real!" Strange but logical cultures fascinate it. (It was interested to learn that wearing glittery "diamonds" in Second Life is considered tacky; the perfectly sensible reason is that it is very easy to make a glittering gem in that environment, whereas something more wabi-sabi would require more artistic effort/skill. It makes perfect sense, but it's a very exotic social norm when viewed from the outside.)
Then it discovered Romantically Apocalyptic and discovered it also likes post-apocalyptic settings.
Then it discovered that it is addicted to webcomics. Please stand by while it finds a 12-step program.

[LVUER]

First and foremost, I prefer modern (present day) setting (or a little bit more modern than that, but still in present day setting), since I can connect with it immediately. After that, I like steam-punk. Hack GU, Dark Cloud 2, Steambot Chronicle, FF6, FF7, etc.

[HotLimit]

Cyberpunk! It is the greatest genre for shmups*, so of course it would be great for VNs, too! "Hey so today I saw this girl I like.... AGHHH, someone is hacking my braiiiinnnnnn....!"

*Arcade shooting games like Gradius or Raiden or whatever.

[Crocosquirrel]

Obviously great minds think alike. The settings that I have my heart set on doing one day/would fall over myself to draw for are:

-Space. I will blame Mass Effect for this one but I would really love to do a proper sci-fi story in space. I would like to try designing aliens.

My preferred sort of setting-- I write a lot of sci-fi, and One of the coolest thing to do is build history and worlds to suit your needs, while hanging on to the science as we understand it. It's a fine balancing act, but once you've got it just so, it like no other feeling in the world. Note: It's about time to try it again, only this time with aliens that aren't immediately out to destroy everyone. It'll be an interesting exercise.

-Fantasy. I would like to do this one both to work with the stereotypes I enjoy and also subvert the hell at some things.

Anne McCaffrey did this very well in the Dragonriders of Pern. The hints were there from the very first, but it didn't hit you what was going on until not long before she explains to you exactly what happened and why. I personally loved the technique. Turning it inside out was entertaining to try. I'm not sure I did it anywhere near as well as Ms. McCaffrey, but it's a start.

-Steampunk. Come on. That is an artists paradise, even if it is fiddly as. There is something about the mix of past and future that makes it very appealing and romantic.

Steampunk is the ultimate Post-Apocalypse setting, as people revert to behaviors they can read about and emulate easily, and technology that can be maintained without the need for hard-to-obtain fuels and raw materials. Yes, it can be very fiddly, but It's a realistic way to do business, and rebuild the technology we lost when whatever killed us in vast numbers was done.

The main draw for all of these is the chance to design. There is only so much you can do with a realistic present setting. Everyone know what the world looks like right now. There isn't much opportunity to world build and be creative with the settings and characters. THAT would be amazing.

Oh, and maybe outback Australia. I could have kangaroos and sheep everywhere :B

Design's the best part. What's the fun in a High School setting if we can't turn it into Nightmare Fuel for H.R. Geiger? Or maybe a school designed like the one River Tam found herself in?

Now put it on a planet where the grass is a brilliant blue, and the sky a vibrant violet. A herd of eight-legged insectoid horse analogues running the plains towards mountains capped in lime green snow. At the edge of those mountains is a set of ruins in constructed in silvery metals and blood-red marble. No one knows who left them there, but it's been off-limits for centuries...

[Tentacles]

I've always find the very very near future police state to very compelling.

I think the setting would work best for a full length visual novel, due to the fact that character development is very important.

Some authors also add elements of alternate history. The ones I like most depart very little from the real world, except insofar as to show the worst case scenario.

The downside is that this kind of story takes a ton of research, in them military, in the government, in the medical field, and other stuff.

Ways I go with the dystopia

Near Distant Future (2081-2108)
Powerful Government (In This Case Powerful Corporations)

Ways I deviant from the traditional Dystopia

Lead character has cynically learned not to pry people from the government, simply to last as long as possible.

[Hijiri]

A setting I would greatly appreciate is one created by the writer. It can be a mix of any number of settings to make one new one. I myself set a lot of my works in a pseudo-realistic si-fi world. Both are two settings I enjoy, and combiningbthem together I get some of the best things from both worlds. This also allows me to set my own rules of the setting without getting called out for having a tangent from the two settings