Would you say a visual novel 'needs' pictures of characters?

[Robosparks]

Hi, everyone! I'm pretty new here, so if this post is in the wrong place or anything, I apologise.

Basically, I wanted to ask you whether you think the visual novel 'needs' to have pictures of the characters (Sprites). The reason I'm asking this is because in my first visual novel, I've yet to find someone to create sprites for me, so I've basically just decided to go without them. Do you think that the VN will still be OK? Obviously it'll be fine if you read books often as I'll supply you with enough detail to get a pretty good thought on what they look like, but some people still like seeing the characters for immersion or something.

So, what is your opinion on the matter?

Thanks for reading (And replying, if you do)!

[chocoberrie]

This is a great question! I suppose it depends on the kind of story you're telling, but if your story has a lot of characters, I think it would be difficult to not have sprites for them.

[Robosparks]

This is a great question! I suppose it depends on the kind of story you're telling, but if your story has a lot of characters, I think it would be difficult to not have sprites for them.

Thanks for responding! Luckily for me, there are only about 4-5 characters that are going to be in my visual novel, so I think I can go without them.

[chocoberrie]

Thanks for responding! Luckily for me, there are only about 4-5 characters that are going to be in my visual novel, so I think I can go without them.

You're welcome! Oh, I see; it's worth a try, go for it! Best of luck to you on your VN

[MaiMai]

Then you might as well be writing a novel then, one without pictures and such if all you have is text to go on. Still, I think it's possible to make one with the bare minimum of background pictures and good atmospheric music. There was a translated Japanese VN that had only that and the name escapes me, but it did a good job using just those mentioned elements.

Another visual novel that succeeded in this with only text, background pictures, and sound effects is Sakevisual's appropriately named, Text.

What these stories had in common was a small amount of characters. As chocoberrie said, if you have a larger cast, a VN without sprites would be highly lacking and unsatisfying.

[miraiparasol]

I've seen one or two without sprites where it's all just text of characters talking back and forth (with some sort of background in the back).
It's not the most eye-catching but it works.

As for my opinion, I do believe it is important to see characters. I would liken it as a book compared to a movie. When you read a book you imagine it there is no limit to how you create that mental image, it's interpretive. Where as a movie, all the visuals are there for you to see, the director/author is telling you 'this is what it is, and this is how you see it'.
I think it's also important because many people will judge a piece based on how it looks (upon first impressions). So if you're going to do this, the selling point, you really, really have to be confident that your writing ability alone will drag the viewer in.

so in conclusion, I think visuals will enhance the telling of the story.

as for looking for someone to do sprites, I would recommend you make a post in the recruitment form (to that effect it would be important that you already have a large part of your script/coding done)

good luck with your VN!

[Obscura]

Saguaro is really inventive about making VNs that don't use standard character sprites. I'd advise you to check them out if you haven't already, to see how far you can push storytelling without sprites.

Device 6 (a mystery game on iOS) isn't exactly what most people think of as a visual novel, but it also does a pretty amazing job of telling an interactive story without sprite art.

The examples above show that you can make good use of things like writing, music, sound effects, animation and other artistic elements to make some pretty amazing VNs.

[LateWhiteRabbit]

Basically, I wanted to ask you whether you think the visual novel 'needs' to have pictures of the characters (Sprites)?

Well - it is kind of in the name visual novel.

If you cannot do art at all, an interactive fiction game may be more suited for your story. There are some really good ones out there.

I think it is about setting player expectations. If someone is starting something called a visual novel and aren't getting pictures, they may be more biased against enjoying the experience, versus starting an interactive fiction game where they know it will be all text.

Just my two cents.

[Shinoki]

Well, I've played a game called Narcissu (go check it out)...
It's been a while, but I feel like most of it was just the voicing, the text, and a portion of background, changing depending on the situation. The only moments when the characters showed up were when there were CG of important moments-some characters didn't even show up at all, so not that much... but that was more of a kinetic novel. I really liked the way that they did it, but I don't know if your's has choices and if it'd word on a more branching type or otome if you're making that

[fleet]

No sprites? Just write a short story.

[Mad Harlequin]

I don't think that's entirely fair . . . I think there's room for VNs without sprites if having no sprites suits the narrative.

[SundownKid]

In most cases, yes, people will probably want sprites. If you are completely unable to get sprites, you might want to stick to interactive fiction of some sort where people don't have that expectation.

[blankd]

It probably depends on story but a lack of sprites can serve an interesting purpose. Bear in mind that you don't necessarily need sprites all the time, they can be very basic ones and sometimes very stylized and selective use of sprites can give a VN it's own flavor or even atmosphere. If you can supply more details about the story this might help a bit with suggestions since it's pretty vague at this time.

[Alte]

My favorite example of a visual novel without character sprites would be, Night of the Forget-Me-Nots [al|together 2006] [Genre: Horror] (Windows, Mac, Linux)

With atmospheric music, compelling story, and sounds garners the reader's attention.

From what I seen, it can be done without pictures or characters but the work doesn't get enough recognition... (imo, depending on the audience) Don't let the factor bother you.

If you really need help on finding character sprites I can help you with find silhouette-styled sprites for starters if that's suitable to what you're making. (If you can't find someone to make the sprites, you can use royalty-free graphics as long you give credit.)

[trooper6]

The game Face Time had no sprites and a really bold and abstract art style which I really liked. I thought the game was excellent.
http://games.renpy.org/game/face-time.shtml

Christine Love's Digital a Love Story also has no sprites and works really well.

Cave Cave Deus Videt has an amazing art style that avoided the sort of traditional sprite thing we are used to seeing.
http://games.renpy.org/game/cavecave.shtml

So, I think you certainly can have a game without traditional sprites...but it has to be an intentional and artistic choice. It has to be part of a larger artistic and design decision. Having a traditional background+sprite sort of background, but then no sprites? That would come off strangely...like you just couldn't draw sprites or find someone to draw sprites for you.

So...I'd say the lack of sprites is fine if it is an artistic choice, but works less well if you really wanted sprites but they are just missing.