I have played visual novels before (thus what drew me to Ren'py quite a long time ago) and many of them i played have had a section where the main character goes into a monolgue about themself or their history. I like it like that because it helps give the main character a bit more depth.
And now that i've started my first VN i'm struggling to find a location for the introductory monolgue of the main character.
I don't know whether i should put it after the introduction (after the main menu and a short intro, but before the story starts so it's the first thing the player reads), shortly into the game (after a small scene whenever the main character has time to his/herself to think back to their history and recount it to the player. Or just not to do it at all.)
I'm wondering what you think would be best or whether their is a way round it i have not thought of.
And i hope i explained it well enough for people to understand
Well, it's a very personal thing, but I like stories where introduction are rather self-explanatory. But maybe this is more about behaviour and personality than what happened in the past of a person, so... if there really is something we can't guess about the protagonist, it has to be told.
Is he/she the only one to know about it? If not, you could have some other character remember the facts in a dialogue, maybe. Otherwise, I don't think there's much choice... it has to be told during internal monologues;.. or told through a flashback of sorts.
In general fiction the rule is "show, don't tell." In other words, it's best if the protagonist is defined through conversations with the other characters, or by things they say about the protagonist among themselves.
One of the reasons the whole "girl I grew up with" is so popular - she knows almost as much about you as you do, and so is believable when she says things like "Remember when you were 5 and you used to..."
*grimances* This one is tough. You want the main character introduced early on, but...how early, and how much? That's a personal decision. Two examples: In Garden Society Kykuit, you found out about the character, as time went on. You met the charcter right at the start, but didn't know his name until someone went up to the main character and started talking. It made it interesting, and made it fun. In Ori, Ochi, Onoe, you find out a fair amount of the character before the game really started. Both worked well...
So...it really depends on how you feel. I prefer earlier, but with a hint of mystery, as there was in GSK.
A friend is one that walks in when the world walks out.
It depends on whether the main character is "you" or is already defined. I put my main chara's introduction at the beginning of the game, interspersed between the dialogue as sort of an "internal monologue."
It doesn't make sense when you read into it too much like "hey, why am *I* telling myself about me?" But it's standard practice in movies, comics, etc. Self-narration. Yeah, that's what it's called.
Because my main character is "you," though, I didn't have to explain too much other than the setting and how "you" met the first person "you" talk to, a friend.
