Thoughts on a visual novel with no save features?

[lettuce196]

By no save features, I really mean none, no saving/loading at all.
The VN I'm working on is very short, around 15 minutes give or take depending on the route. So I'm considering leaving out save features completely, especially since it's not really meant to be replayed (there are technically multiple endings but the difference between them is minimal).
Do you think it would be kind of interesting, or just be super annoying? I'm interested to hear some opinions if you've got any!

[fleet]

I think it would be annoying. If players learn there are multiple endings, they will usually want to reply it.

[jeffster]

Replaying different branches should be possible with some rollback. So multiple saves are not necessary, if it's short & mostly linear. Still, one save/load slot might be handy, to save progress when you want to exit and go do other stuff.

TL;DR: Some saving can be handy. No reason to take that option away from players.

[Crimfinity]

I wouldn't call it 'interesting', that is I don't think not having a save feature is going to make people want to play, but with a 15 minute run length, most people will probably tolerate it.

However, from the way you describe it, I'm assuming there are choices that make small differences, so without saves, a player could possibly play the whole thing and, expecting a vastly different ending, spend another 15 minutes playing pretty much the exact same VN and feel that their time was wasted and leave a bad impression even if they enjoyed it at first. I think it'd be okay for something short that's either linear, or has bigger differences in endings (though at that point it might be annoying to not have saves.

[bubble6066]

Is there a reason you couldn't block rollback right after each choice? I.e. the player can save up until the choice, but can't rollback past the previous one. That might be a good middle ground.

Removing the ability to save altogether would probably just be frustrating. Even if it's 15 minutes, people could get interrupted and want to come back to it without continuously running their computer.

[lettuce196]

Is there a reason you couldn't block rollback right after each choice? I.e. the player can save up until the choice, but can't rollback past the previous one. That might be a good middle ground.

Oh that's a pretty good idea, thanks for the suggestion! Yeah, it seems to be pretty unanimous that no save = annoying and frustrating, so you're right, no rollback seems like a good compromise.