Hi my names mayoo!! My pronouns are she/them, but I really prefer using they/them, I’m 18yrs old with issues and addiction /j, I’m asexual but I’m still figuring things out if I’m into romantic things or not. mostly I’m just gonna post my art here and stuff, mainly fan arts, maybe, I just joined tumblr 2 years ago (?) but It’s my first time posting anything here really, so sorry if I don’t follow things correctly ( ˊᵕˋ ; ) just bare with me pls
☾₊˚ ・₊ ₊ ⋆｡˚☆•
These are the fandoms that I’m in !!
⋆.*⃝̥◌ॱ ꒰*ॢ˘̴͈́꒵˘̴͈̀*ॢ꒱ ॱ◌̥ *⃝̣ ⋆
♡ Our life: beginning and always
♡ Blooming panic
♡ A date with death
♡ 14 days with you
♡ The kid at the back
♡ KLEIN v.0.1
♡ Backstage Infatuation
♡ Twisted Wonderland
♡ Keyframes
and many many more (I can’t remember all of them tbh )
Socials
TikTok / carrd(soon) /
I do really hope to draw more stuff and interact more with my the fandoms or communities that I’m currently in to especially the vn community!! (Not the toxic side), My dm’s are on so don’t be afraid to message me or anything ^^! (Im still getting used to tumblr) That’s all byeee
Hihi, big bad dogs cast in my style!! ( -᷅ ·̫ -᷄ )
I tried to make my water mark the T-shirt logo >:3
look at lanes sideburns x))
(Ok so, if you look at lanes sideburns it spells out his names! Cuz I had a dream where some random dude has his lane’s name on it ;-; the dude’s not lane or anything lol)
Contribution for his bday!!! (*^v^*) Ik its not feb 14 here but technically when you think abt it, its 14 in some countries :D Ngl I look delusional posting this ToT it reminded me of 2020 anime edit thing trend lol tihiiii
"I want to make a visual novel but don't know how"
visual novels are one of the most diverse and varied mediums out there and can be so much fun to make. if you've ever wanted to make one, it's pretty easy to get started!!
Overall Guide
this is a lengthy guide I made going over different parts of visual novels and how people make them! now let's go over some parts~
A quick overview on how to make visual novels including terms, engines, communities and more. You can get started making your own visual nov
What Are Visual Novels?
Visual novels are a medium of video games focused on storytelling through the use of static or low-gameplay mechanics. Most can be considered a subsection of interactive fiction. A lot of visual novels have no gameplay or minigames, but some do feature light gameplay. The important aspect is that the gameplay in visual novels is never the focus, and instead the game focuses on a story delivered through dialogue & narration in textboxes on the screen.
Some visual novels are romance, some are fantasy, some are mystery, some are NSFW, some are cutesy, some are kiddie. Visual novels come in all shapes and sizes.
Visual Novel Misconceptions
Visual novels have been around for several decades now, but parts of them are still misunderstood by wider audiences. Here’s some frequent misconceptions about visual novels.
"Every visual novel has sexual content."
Visual novels come in all shapes and sizes, which includes content. Not every visual novel has sexual content, nor is it required to sell well. Visual novels are a medium for storytelling rather than a genre, so they can be anything you want them to be.
"Every visual novel is a dating sim."
Similar to the last one, some people think every visual novel is a romance game or a dating sim. Not every visual novel has romance in it, nor is it required to sell well.
"Every visual novel has choices and multiple endings."
Some of the most popular visual novels out there like Umineko When they Cry don’t have choices. Choices and multiple endings aren’t required to make a visual novel—completely linear experiences are fine.
"Visual novels need to be long."
Some of the top visual novels on itch.io right now are under 25k words, which puts them under 2 hours of playtime. Visual novels don’t have to be a certain length—they can be as long or as short as the story needs them to be. There’s even an annual visual novel jam, O2A2, that focuses on making a visual novel under 1k words with limited assets.
"Visual novels don’t sell well."
This is very much your mileage may vary. Some visual novels sell very, very well, such as how the recent Our Life: Now and Forever Kickstarter gained almost $300k. Marketing is an entire field just like art and writing and isn’t something you can skimp on or push to the end.
"Visual novel players hate reading."
A vast, vast majority of visual novel readers want a visual novel—they want a game that is light on gameplay and heavy on reading. You don’t have to add gameplay to a visual novel to keep people interested. Rather, minigames added at random can deter players. Visual novel players want an engaging story—if you’re worried of losing their attention, then focus on a tighter script or cinematography.
"Visual novels need to be anime style."
Visual novels originated in Japan and most do have an anime style, but visual novels do not need an anime style to sell well. The art style for a game will change the audience for the game—players who want something anime style probably won’t be interested in a semi-realistic style, but other people will be. It’s all about finding the right style for your story and finding the audience who responds well to it.
Visual Novel Terms
Here’s a list of terms you might encounter in visual novel and game dev communities.
EVN / OELVN – stands for English Visual Novel and Original English Language Visual Novel. Two terms used for describing Western VNs that are made in English, although EVN is used more frequently nowadays. An EVN/OELVN is specifically a visual novel made in English first, not a visual novel that has an English translation (and was made in a different language first). There are several variations of this, such as JVN meaning Japanese Visual Novel and RVN meaning Russian Visual Novel.
Kinetic novel – a visual novel that’s linear with few or no choices. Has only one ending. Also called a linear visual novel, linear game, etc.
Game jams – an event where developers have a set amount of time to make a game, ranging from a weekend to several months. Some jams have themes that the games must follow as well as other restrictions while others are more freeform. Nowadays, most jams are hosted on itchio. You can find a list of visual novel game jams here.
Game engine – a piece of software used for developing video games. The most popular ones for making indie VNs in English-speaking areas are Ren’Py and Unity, though Tyranobuilder is very popular in Japan for indies.
Text/code editor – when programming, you’ll need another piece of software to edit and write code that works with the game engine. Some popular text editors are Visual Studio Code, Sublime, Atom, Notepad, and more.
Character sprite – the individual character art that changes expressions and can move around the screen. Can include multiple outfits, pose changes, and more.
CGs – although it typically stands for Computer Generated, CGs in visual novels typically means the cut scene art where no sprites are shown (unless there's a side sprite on the textbox). CGs are usually reserved for special scenes and are the type of artwork you’d see in a CG Gallery or as promotional artwork.
UI / GUI – the User Interface / Graphical User Interface. This is what the player interacts with such as the textbox, main menu, save / load screen, settings, and more.
ADV mode – the standard reading mode for visual novels, short for Adventure mode. The textbox is located at the bottom of the screen. Popular examples of this are Steins;Gate, AI: The Somnium Files, and Amnesia.
NVL mode – a different reading mode for visual novels, short for Novel mode. The textbox covers most of the screen. Popular examples of this are Fate/stay night, Tsukihime, and Umineko When they Cry.
Dating simulator – dating sims are some of the oldest forms of visual novels and are essentially stat raisers where you spend time with various characters with the goal being to romance them by getting your stats high enough. In Western spheres dating sim has become synonymous with a romance game, where stat raising is not involved, but it’s important to note that dating sims refer to stat raisers a lot of the time. Unlike otome, a dating sim doesn’t refer to a specific sexual orientation.
Otome / Otoge – roughly translates to “maiden’s love” and is used to describe games with a female demographic, usually dating sims & romance games which feature male love interests and a female protagonist. Some otome games feature female and other gendered LIs, but male LIs are still the primary focus.
Eroge – an erotic game. If a game has sexual content in it, it’s an eroge. The original Fate/stay night (not the remastered version on Steam) is a popular example of an eroge.
Resources
And now, let's look at some tools and links for actually making visual novels.
Engines & Programming
Ren’Py – free visual novel engine
Twine – free text-based game engine (usually used for interactive fiction)
Feniks Ren’Py resources – various add-ons and tutorials by Feniks
Game Jam & Short Dev Advice
Game Jam Survival Guide - Essential Tips and Tricks
Releasing 8+ games (ft. game jams) and when to take a break
making game development backup plans
Advice for Leading VN Game Jam Teams
How to Make a Visual Novel Solo
How to Finish Your Visual Novel
Design
How to Make Visual Novels
Visual Novel Conference Talks
Visual Novel Cinematography & Design
Art Direction & Execution in Visual Novels
Making Impactful, Impressive Character Sprites
Post-production Techniques for VNs
Vimi’s Visual Novel Design
Writing
Writing Interactive – guides for narrative games writers
Visual Novel Conference Talks
Writing Mystery Visual Novels
How to Design Interesting Choices in VNs
The Intrigue of Ambiguity
Artwork
Clip Studio Paint
Krita
FireAlpaca
Medibang
GIMP
FastStone Photo Resizer – batch photo resizer and editor
FotoSketcher – various settings to apply artistic filters to photos
Marketing
How to Market Visual Novels
Marketing Visual Novels FAQ
Marketing Fundamentals for Indie Game Developers
Marketing your first indie game – What we learned from releasing the same game twice
The stairstep approach to indie game marketing
Marketing your Visual Novel for Kickstarter
Visual Novel Press-Kits
Audio
Eric Matyas music & SFX
Vita-chi SFX & graphics
Free Music Archive
Free Sound
dova-syndrome
Misc.
Lemmasoft Creative Commons Forum
itch.io visual novel resources
Google Fonts – free fonts
Uncle Mugen backgrounds
Canva – browser & desktop graphic design tool
Unsplash – free photos
Wrapping Up
all in all, visual novels are a fun medium to explore and play around with. if you want to make something short as a test run, try joining a game jam! if you want to see how varied visual novels can be, try playing some indies from itchio! at the end of the day there's no bad way to start making your own visual novel. hit the ground running and go for it!!
I've been developing visual novels for over 10 years now, blogging about them on my own blog and releasing visual novels through my studio Crystal Game Works. I hope this guide helped shed light on how to get into the medium!
Im looking for a resource that Im pretty sure I came across either from this post or maybe a response to it or something, but I cant find it.
Its either a website or a program thats designed for eg writing visual novels or any kind of story where you have branching narrative paths that can come back to a meetup point, like you can put in a square and thats like, a question, and then you split from that multiple possible answers, and then you can write a conversation for each part of the tree and bring it back to however the conversation continues. Like index cards, kind of?
Please let me know if you know what im talking about, or if you know something that does the same thing. Ideally free.
I did find this link, which I suspect might be a step to what im looking for, but my browser was refusing to show me the webpage due to some kind of security concern and then it straight up went to 404 not found, so idk whats going on there. follow link at your own risk i guess https://arimiadev.com/how-to-make-visual-novels/
Oh No (I think I'm in Love) - Cove Holden x Reader
It's trying something new-Hour... this is for you, @6okuto
“You were a strange person in a strange place but, in that moment, you were exactly what I needed. Somebody I could talk to freely about what was happening and how it made me feel. And you listened to me, you stayed with me.”
-
“I really like that dress on you,” Cove calls out as you step out of the house, one hand on your straw hat to keep it from flying away.
You’ve already learned that he’ll say anything on his mind, his compliments always sincere. Warmth rises to your cheeks.
“Thanks,” you press through your teeth, unable to look at him for a second. When you do though, you regret it immediately. The summer sun makes his hair look like it’s been woven out of the rarest gemstones.
“You look good too,” you tell him, an understatement if you’ve ever heard one.
He blushes a furious red.
-
“Hey, look at that!” Cove has surfaced next to you, his bright hair clinging to his face in the weirdest shapes. His eyes are alight as he shows you a seashell, its perfection.
“I want you to have it,” he insists, pressing it into your hands with flushed cheeks. You know there’s more to it than just a gift.
You take it, swallowing down feelings you can’t yet name, tucking it under the hem of your bikini top.
“I want to give you something too,” you tell him, escaping his words by dipping back in, searching the ground for something equally as beautiful.
It takes you half the day and you’re almost ready to give up when you stumble upon a polished white stone hiding in the hot sand. It’s shaped like a heart.
“Here,” you press it into Cove’s hands, heart beating. “This is for you.”
He cries like a baby at the sight.
-
Summer will always be your favorite season.
The sun burns down on you as you lay on a beach towel, pretending to read as you watch Cove. The feeling in your chest when he drops down way too close, his cold wet skin pressing into your warmth.
When you want nothing more but to draw him closer, see if his lips taste just as salty as yours.
And you can see in his eyes that he feels and thinks the same, yet you don’t act on it, only your hands folding around each other as if keeping a secret between them.
Getting smoothies with the others, smiling into your drink when Cove shimmies in place next to you, unable to keep still with all this happiness coursing through his body.
Him cllinging to you in the evening as you all sit around the bonfire, how his body goes turns soft against yours after a sip of beer, like all the tension bleeds from his limbs and into the sand.
Those days and months and years that you spend pining and in love, knowing the other feels the same but not yet ready to take that step and the one after and the one after that…
There is no rush to it and maybe that’s the beauty of it.
Your first kiss tastes like the ocean and when you hide your face in his hair right after, all you can smell is the sea.
-
You can smell the summer coming, even five, ten, fifteen years later.
It tastes like the Ocean, like mint and citrus and something else, like kissing after sunset, like taking your sleeping bags down to the beach just to have an excuse to stay close for longer.
There’s sand in your bed, coarse against your legs as you stretch.
Cove’s left arm is slung around you, his nose buried in your hair. He doesn’t move even as you kiss the scar on his arm, so you stay still a little longer, letting him sleep.
Sometimes, in the milky white of early mornings, you still cannot believe that this is real.
But Cove is here, his heart beating warm against your back, his stomach grumbling softly even as he sleeps, justs further proof that he is the way he is… in love with you.
when i realized today was the 16th, and the 5th anniversary of OLBA is in exactly 6 months, i thought, what better way to celebrate the 5-year anniversary of such an iconic visual novel than with a HUGE community event??
the absolute biggest thing you can do to help is spread the word. i want this to become a big thing!! GB patch is amazing and they deserve a gift from their community!!
absolutely let me know of any questions, thoughts or suggestions you have. my askbox is open and i'm happy to answer any!
