Most Difficult Thing About Visual Novels

[trooper6]

For me it is time.

I'm a full time Professor and I don't have tenure yet which means, at this point, all my time is taken up with: class prep; teaching; grading; office hours; programming as a Scholar in Residence; Faculty Meetings (for two different departments and the university as a whole); Scholar in Residence meetings (two different types); I am the Co-Chair of a Study Group for my national society, so there's a bunch of work to do there...and then my "free" time? I need to finish my tenure book and a bunch of academic research articles or I won't get tenure.

So...at the moment my project is on a bit of a hiatus. If I had a block of extra time, I'd really quickly test all the different endings and the timing. Because with that done I could then go and commission an artist and I would know that progress was being made even while I wasn't working on the coding. Maybe during winter break?

*shakes fist at my lack of time*

[PyTom]

For me it is time.

Making the transition from college/grad school (much time, no money) to work (much money, no time) was hugely problematic. Especially over the past year or so, I've been able to become way more disciplined, and get rid of all the timewasting - but that took a long time to get right.

Trying to do it with a tenure deadline over your head - that's tough. I'm glad I decided to go a different path.

[chocojax]

I would have to say writing. I've got plenty of time since I'm still young (heh), but writing is the hardest thing for me.

Everything else is basically how pretty a person is, whereas the writing is that person's innards. And gosh darn it, writing is the lowest skill-set I have for VNs, removing music from the list. It's the most time consuming (for me) and the most important out of everything else.

Art? Criticising and pointing out the mistakes I have in art is really easy. Take a step back, look at it for maybe a minute or two for a pretty good idea of what's bad about the whole thing. Coding? If it... uhh, if there's a problem, then it appears immediately and I can debug it. Writing? Written things take... well, tons of time to go through. Add on more time to actively think about what to change, what's not connecting properly, etc etc. Even asking people to go through my slosh makes me feel bad, 'cause it takes time out of their day.

I applaud all you writers out here. I'm jelaus. :P

[noeinan]

The hard part for me is finding people to work with that have time.

I primarily work as an artist (though I come up with ideas for stories, and can develop them from start to finish, branches, etc. I don't actually write the scenes. I just plan it out.) I tend to get started on a project, put in a lot of hours, get a lot done, and try to keep in contact with other team members on my progress. But if I don't hear back from them for weeks/months it starts to become harder and harder to stick with the project.

When other people are excited and working, that energy kinda bounces off one another, increasing. You're giving each other support, motivation, new ideas. When you feel like you've been doing all the work for months (or in one case for me, years...) and the other team members haven't produced anything, or lose contact, it's disheartening.

I was talking to my sister about this the other day, and she said that once you produce a final product, you'll find more motivated people are likely to join you because you've proved yourself-- and suggested I write for my projects until one is finished. I'm not a writer, but I get the point-- it doesn't have to have great writing because it's meant to showcase your dedication and your art. I may have to try that.

[ketskari]

Although I love writing, it's editing and pulling the story together that's most difficult for me. Sometimes a scene will seem great in the first draft, and I'll be surprised to realize it doesn't work or make sense when I come back to it after a break.

I don't have that problem with art--if I'm not sure, I can pull out a mirror and or flip the image, and I'll see the problems right away. Not so with writing. Even reading aloud doesn't help me see errors clearly. Taking a break from it seems to be the only (?) reliable way to get a fresh perspective.

Coding is a headache, too, especially if I'm getting into it again, but at least it's pretty clear if something does or doesn't work. :\

[sasquatchii]

Definitely writing. Writing/story are the heart and soul of visual novels. You can have a VN with ok/bad art, and if the writing's good, the visual novel will still be good. But it doesn't really work the other way around. You can have a visual novel with the best art, music, and programming in the world, but if the story's crap then the game is going to be crap too.

Plus, there are so many complexities and different elements you have to consider when writing. A good story in a VN will create a powerful emotional experience for readers, have a strong theme(s), three dimensional dynamic characters with values & ambitions, conflict, structure, dialogue, inner monologue, and an immersive world where the story takes place, to name a few. Creating these takes time and a good understanding of how to do so. Then, when you're finally finished with the first draft, you have to go back, and edit, edit, and then edit some more. If you don't edit your entire story at least twice then you're doing it wrong.

[breadslam]

I honestly have my difficulties with staying focused, which ironically kept me away from posting this for about an hour. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that I'm incredibly busy in my public life as a college student and constantly juggling work, but I switch from project to project or even hobby to hobby pretty quickly. I might spend one of my weeks off coding until my fingers ache, and I might spend the next coding for something completely different. The biggest thing I notice this in is with my writing. I literally have a three gig flashdrive that's nearly full with incomplete short stories, game ideas, novels, what have you. But by the time I get anywhere, I'm already bored and move onto something else. The only nice thing is that my interest tends to be cyclical in nature, so I eventually move back to whatever I started with originally.

[SinSisters]

Hmm, while finding time is extremely difficult, I think trying to write unique paths for different characters has proven to be difficult. I have two characters whose voices are very strong in my head and easy to write, and two others... well, I'm trying to avoid stereotypes with this one shy girl, and it's made her personality really inconsistent :s

-Nat

[Ammeh]

Hmm, while finding time is extremely difficult, I think trying to write unique paths for different characters has proven to be difficult. I have two characters whose voices are very strong in my head and easy to write, and two others... well, I'm trying to avoid stereotypes with this one shy girl, and it's made her personality really inconsistent :s

-Nat

I think sometimes the solution to this is to reshuffle some character traits. We can have a tendency to pile all our cool ideas onto the characters who are already our favorites, ending up with a couple characters we adore and others who we either find boring or don't have a good grip on. I was having lots of trouble defining the second female love interest for my still-super-early-on VN until my husband pointed out that "snarky" made a lot more sense for her than the first female love interest I'd assigned it to. I was fond of that character already, so I'd been assigning her my favorite character traits because I liked her. Now I have 2 characters I like.

--
I'm not sure I feel qualified to respond to this topic myself since I'm still very early in production, but for me so far the hardest part is outlining. I didn't realize how much of a discovery writer I was until I tried outlining a high-level sequence of scenes without diving deep into each one to figure out exactly what happens in it.

[SinSisters]

Hmm, while finding time is extremely difficult, I think trying to write unique paths for different characters has proven to be difficult. I have two characters whose voices are very strong in my head and easy to write, and two others... well, I'm trying to avoid stereotypes with this one shy girl, and it's made her personality really inconsistent :s

-Nat

I think sometimes the solution to this is to reshuffle some character traits. We can have a tendency to pile all our cool ideas onto the characters who are already our favorites, ending up with a couple characters we adore and others who we either find boring or don't have a good grip on. I was having lots of trouble defining the second female love interest for my still-super-early-on VN until my husband pointed out that "snarky" made a lot more sense for her than the first female love interest I'd assigned it to. I was fond of that character already, so I'd been assigning her my favorite character traits because I liked her. Now I have 2 characters I like.

--
I'm not sure I feel qualified to respond to this topic myself since I'm still very early in production, but for me so far the hardest part is outlining. I didn't realize how much of a discovery writer I was until I tried outlining a high-level sequence of scenes without diving deep into each one to figure out exactly what happens in it.

Haha, I was making the shy character distant and kind of rude rather than simply nervous to talk to people, which made her seem like an unkind person... when really the male LI is the rude and distant character! I plan on going back and editing the shy girl's character, and I've written character development stuff for her and I even have a cute scene between her and the MC, which should help.
Part of my problem is that there are a lot of important scenes between her and the MC, but I want them to happen in Act II... which means I was writing a lot of fillers for Act I for this shy character.
Yay, editing -.-

-Nat

[noeinan]

My cat escaped and ate a poisonous plant, which can cause death, but she didn't die. T.T I'm so relieved.

[Caveat Lector]

@ daikiraikimi

I'm glad to hear your cat's okay, but I think you've got the wrong topic.

Recently, a much bigger problem is managing my money and balancing finances.

[Milkymalk]

I'm the same as daikiraikimi: For me it's most difficult to find people to work with who can spare enough time regularly to move forward. I'm with my third graphics artist now and it's already disappointing again. While not procrastinating, she has a lot of other, equally if not more important drawing stuff to do. We were supposed to dive deep into gamemaking this month before classes start again, which obviously didn't work

Other than that, it's writing. Not writing per se, but keeping it interesting without losing sight of the big plot. I'm always in danger of advancing the plot too fast and having no believable character development in the end. I call it "GTS syndrome": "Game Too Short"

[Kato]

I was talking to my sister about this the other day, and she said that once you produce a final product, you'll find more motivated people are likely to join you because you've proved yourself-- and suggested I write for my projects until one is finished. I'm not a writer, but I get the point-- it doesn't have to have great writing because it's meant to showcase your dedication and your art. I may have to try that.

From a producer, this is a solid plan. I've had an army of devs requesting I throw my hat into their projects and nothing would impress me more if they had a finished example under their belt before coming to me, regardless how good their sales pitch is. In fact the latest project I've undertaken was because of this.

I guess for me, as I don't actively participate in much aside from production, the hard bit is managing and micro managing everyone's input on our teams projects. Since we are working on multiple projects at once and I'm the sole producer, trying to keep tabs on everyone's contribution and deciding where to put my time has started to fry my brain a bit. I'm starting to think hiring a second me to carry some of the work load wouldn't be such a horrible idea

[xiaomao]

I was talking to my sister about this the other day, and she said that once you produce a final product, you'll find more motivated people are likely to join you because you've proved yourself-- and suggested I write for my projects until one is finished. I'm not a writer, but I get the point-- it doesn't have to have great writing because it's meant to showcase your dedication and your art. I may have to try that.

That's very true. For myself, there was a huge increase in people wanting to pay me for my art after I'd finished my GN. I didn't think my art improved *that* much from last year to this year, but having a complete work to show people can let them know you're a reliable partner who can get the job done.

I'm a professional artist, so luckily I don't have to juggle work and art, since they are the same. I spend about 8-10 hours a day drawing so for me, the most difficult thing about all my creative projects is back pain. It limits how many hours I can work each day and how clearly I can think during those hours. This month I've been writing a story that I hope to make into a VN, but I can only type for so long until the pain gets too bad.