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I'm now trying to write/create a visual novel after being inspired by one!

ClearDragon

Troubadour
It's a sudden turn in direction of what I'd normally do.
I would have never considered creating a visual novel if not for some odd events!
It started because I like bats and would look up photos and video of them. I also found some nice bat artwork.
Then I found artwork of a anthro vampire bat I thought was really cool. I saw that it was a character from a visual novel called Blackgate. So after reading about it and seeing how popular it once was I decided to try (read) it. Well I was not prepared for the emotional impact of the story and the tragic death of the bat character! It was the saddest and most tragic thing I'd ever read! I think the sounds, music and visuals added to it. Basically the story is this: A ordinary human guy accidently gets pulled into another universe. Actually a pocket universe as it's pretty small. Anyway this universe has a town full of anthro and furry creatures. There is a big conspiracy, a giant Lovecraft monster sleeping underneath the town and tensions between different species. Nobuddy is in the town by choice, they all got pulled there from other worlds. So the town is always night as there is no sun only two moons. The place also has a lack of maintenance and most things are run down. The music and sound effects are truly great. Anyway you have a bunch of choices that effect the story. By what you chose you end up with a verity of possible partners. I went and got the bat. He is apparently thousands of years old, used to be a king in the world he came from. As a vampire he would drain peoples blood and the victims would become zombies under his control. It's implied that he can only drink blood, he can't eat or drink regular food. Now in the story he acts all proper and friendly but loses control of his instincts and killed all his friends and lovers without meaning to. He has a mansion in the town full of zombie servants that are what's left of his friends and lovers. He is a police officer of the town and if you chose to become a police officer you can get him as your partner. Anyway you learn that he's really depressed about killing his past lovers and even though he wants a friendship with the human, he's afraid of killing him too. Theres a part where you actually have to run away from him as he starts acting feral and talking about how he can smell your blood. Fast foreword to a part where police are informed about some kind of disturbance at the edge of town. When you and the bat arrive their immediately attacked by this weird wolverine like thing. The bat (his name is Krane) is horribly injured in the fight and saves the human from the freak. Now it's shown that he has regeneration powers that can heal any injury, but only if he gets enough fresh blood. Now in one possible outcome when the human offers his blood Krane refuses saying how he doesn't want to kill another friend and has lived long enough. His actual death scene and what happens after was the most heartbreaking thing I've ever read! The emotions where portrayed incredibly vividly! Then in the alternate rout he pulls out his own teeth so he can't bite you. But the pain and blood loss leave him really weak and you have to care for him for the rest of the story. Then on the monster attack night after the fight and he's horribly injured again you get the option to forcibly give him blood! Because he has no fangs this time he can drink and not kill you! Unfortunately the novel ends after they wake up the next day. And it doesn't look like it will be finished anytime soon.... So since all possible routs end with cliffhangers I started making up my own ending, that morphed into a completely different story! I decided to make that story a reality and create my own anthro visual novel based and inspired by Blackgate. I know this is long and kinda incoherent but it just had a huge impact on me and showed me a new possibility for my writing and publishing prospects. So my regular writing is now on hold and creating Dragongate is what I'm doing now.
 

Chasejxyz

Inkling
I'm working on a visual novel, too, mostly because of how I had Hot Opinions on the Zero Escape games (namely, the mechanics of some of the puzzles). I am not a visual artist, a musician, or a programmer, but I know enough to do really basic python scripting. I know I'm going to need the help of a lot of other people to make this happen, which is very different from my "regular" writing projects, in which I have full creative control of everything and make everything myself.

Writing a vn is sooo different from a novel. You have to think about the story in a totally different way. What images are being shown? What sounds? What is the pacing of the text showing up on the scream? What will happen if a player chooses this or that? In a novel there is only one way to read it and only one story, but in a vn there can be any number of routes, and you might want your player to play it more than once. If they do route 3 before route 1, will info from 3 change how they see/what they think of 1? Just the mechanical differences of writing a script (as in, like a movie script) is wildly different than regular prose. It's very challenging! It's given me a huge appreciation for people who've made games like this by themselves.
 
most people don't try to make visual novels - or any other mutli-media project by themselves. Mostly because its usually actually far better if you get talent that specializes in a single area- but also because it breaks the project up into discrete parts that can be creatively held in the mind/soul etc. Some people may be geniuses at all things and can hold it all at once, but most of us mortals can only do one or two things well, and only one at a time.

So if you are serious I would consider writing & maybe directing, but hiring out the visuals +audio... which could be like 10+ people depending on how nice you want it to look and sound.
 

ClearDragon

Troubadour
I'm working on a visual novel, too, mostly because of how I had Hot Opinions on the Zero Escape games (namely, the mechanics of some of the puzzles). I am not a visual artist, a musician, or a programmer, but I know enough to do really basic python scripting. I know I'm going to need the help of a lot of other people to make this happen, which is very different from my "regular" writing projects, in which I have full creative control of everything and make everything myself.

Writing a vn is sooo different from a novel. You have to think about the story in a totally different way. What images are being shown? What sounds? What is the pacing of the text showing up on the scream? What will happen if a player chooses this or that? In a novel there is only one way to read it and only one story, but in a vn there can be any number of routes, and you might want your player to play it more than once. If they do route 3 before route 1, will info from 3 change how they see/what they think of 1? Just the mechanical differences of writing a script (as in, like a movie script) is wildly different than regular prose. It's very challenging! It's given me a huge appreciation for people who've made games like this by themselves.

Oh I know it's going to be different, but I think thats part of what excites me about this! I have unending creativity when it comes to plotlines, having a way to get multiple plots of the same story from different points of view should actually satisfy my talent, lol!

post: 320824 said:
most people don't try to make visual novels - or any other mutli-media project by themselves. Mostly because its usually actually far better if you get talent that specializes in a single area- but also because it breaks the project up into discrete parts that can be creatively held in the mind/soul etc. Some people may be geniuses at all things and can hold it all at once, but most of us mortals can only do one or two things well, and only one at a time.
So if you are serious I would consider writing & maybe directing, but hiring out the visuals +audio... which could be like 10+ people depending on how nice you want it to look and sound.

I'm sure I can't do it all by myself, but I can do a lot of things! I don't think I'll need ten people, maybe three. Backgrounds, sound effects, music, I can do it! Programing is what might trip me up... Thanks for the advice though.
 
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