I'm making a visual novel about animal mages.

[bronto.rex]

I'd like to make the species of animal rats, as I'm decent at drawing them, rats are awesome, and I have IRL rats to use as a reference if I need to. However, I'm thinking that nobody will play a novel about rats unless they like rats themselves, because generally people's reactions to rats are either "OMG YES" or "Ew! Eek!". I could also easily make the novel about cats, or squirrels, or some other animal, and I haven't done the art yet. What do you think? Rats, or something else? I know that this is kind of a weird subject for a visual novel (they seem to be mostly romance games...).

[Ammeh]

I am 100% behind a game about rat mages. =D And if that's the idea you find appealing, that's what you should do!

[fleet]

Follow your heart and make the VN you want to make. Hell, a few people even play the VNs that I make.

[MaiMai]

You can do anything you want in a visual novel.

A while ago, there was a person who had a VN that used animals as their characters in development and it had a very intriguing art style and story. However, it never got finished as far as I can tell.

[Laniessa]

I'm the type of person who goes 'eWWW' at rats, but uh, I'll be fine if it's 2d, so go for what you want to do? If you want to add variety, then you could add other animals too.

[bronto.rex]

Hehe! Thanks, guys. I was kind of afraid that people would say "no! don't do that!" but I can see that really isn't the case!

[MaiMai]

Also, keep in mind of who you want your audience to be! Maybe fans of Lackadaisy Cats would be more open to anthropomorphic rats than say the usual VN audience who want light fluffy romances.

[bronto.rex]

That's a good point. There are different audiences who are interested in different things.

[Shaples]

I'm an OMG YES! rat person, so I'm all on board for this

[blankd]

Off the top of my head some major things with rodent MCs that are well-respected and commercial successes:

-The Redwall series (not exclusively rats but still)
-The Great Mouse Detective
-The Secrets of NIMH (movie or novel take your pick!)
-In Dark Souls 2 there is a whole covenant and lore dedicated to rats

There are actually a lot more so don't be afraid of people somehow finding rats disgusting, especially in fiction! Do your best and the right audience will surely appreciate your work.

*The bit with the mages also certainly opens up a lot of possibilities so dive right in.

[Caveat Lector]

Aww, I love rats! (Also, just to add to the list above: Ratatouille) I'm just going to echo the others and say go for it.

[gekiganwing]

Overall, I'd say write the story that you want to write. If you're trying to sell the final product, then you need to find an audience. But if you're just writing it for entertainment and practice, and releasing it at no cost, then create whatever you want. Feel free to put rats into heroic roles, and give them magic. Your freeware story can be avant-garde, unconventional, genre-bending, absurd, and so on.

It's kinda frustrating how much overlap there is between visual novels and romance games. However, the following offbeat VNs might be inspiring:

* Ibn al-Nafis: Historical and biographical story.
* The Thirty Nine Steps: Based on a novel / movie / play created decades ago.
* The World to Reverse: A pair of short, unsettling stories with minimal graphics.
* Ewe of the Falklands: "You are a pacifist sheep trying to stop the Falklands War in the 1980s."
* Crimsoness: A girl has nearly unlimited power, but only for three minutes.

For what it's worth, in the movie Cat City, there are both antagonistic and sympathetic rats.

[xiaomao]

As a guinea pig owner, I would love to see more games with cute fluffy rodents. So another "Yay rats!" person here.

[LVUER]

Aren't there plenty of movies featuring rats? Ratatoile, Mouse Hunt, Stuart Little, and countless other rat movies... IMO, there are more rat movies compared to other animals.

And don't forget about Mickey Mouse, and Tom and Jerry...