How to Write Visual Novels

this is really good ideas, I have ideas, and I see how you point out the good outlines.

Thanks for taking the time to patiently explain the basics and making it fun along the way! Takes talent and effort but you made it look easy! Subbed and plan on going through many more videos.

I wrote a novel an drew the first volume of my manga and have scripted scenes for voice actors , it’s been monumental in helping sequence the visual novel but for a vn with branching paths etc that’s the hardest part for me

You have so many good videos. Love you man.

Duuude! Exactly what i was looking for! Subbed! Do you have any opinion on using Midjourney and other AI to create characters? Also, what are some VNs you enjoy that inspired you or you learned from?

Question- If I wanted to make mini games, such as a chracter customization sequnce, other than planning, what channels do you suggest that could lead me onto how to make it? Also, i use Monogatari for my visual novel, i have a hard time looking for tutorials on that, their discord server has been quiet for a few days.

This is also just generally good writing advice! thanks!

This helped a lot, thank you!!

Started watching that because I have this unfortunate tendency to make my VN ideas into just fragmented scenes in an overgrown setting 😅

TAIGA THUMBNAIL LETS GOOOOO

Thank you , I’m trying to make simple visual novel , but I’m still a beginner.

I’m making a tiny visual novel for my friends birthday and I mean there’s no way there’s room to include much of this but it is making me want to make more visual novels

i must get this out of my sistem...

i am currently on hiatus of my 1st "published" interactive novel, I was very discouraged by the lack of options that was given to me, also the bugs erasing my work.

(i got this crazy idea of writing in english when I am an industrial designer and a non english native speaker.😂😅)

but I still do not want to abbandon that "child" of mine. writer's block is serious, people!


your advice and channel is pure gold!❤ thank you!

but i am overwhelmed 😢

i hate how funny the editing is

I was so confused for the first like... five minutes of this video, because you mentioned branching paths and I was GENUINELY wondering why webcomics would have branching paths. It took me five minutes to remember that visual novel is not another way to say webcomic and I about lost it. LOL. Good video though, 9/10, gonna go make a VN now.

Thank you.

I wish the visual novels I have played had watched this video. Too many times I've been up all night scouring the game for some hint of the one good ending (why is that a thing anyway) only to give up after unlocking every other ending and look up a walkthrough and... what the hell? the one and only path to the good ending reads like unlocking a super secret easter egg!!!

I have to add that, from experience, you have to be careful when you're writing your story. Everything you write down is potentially more assets that you're gonna have to add to your VN. Know your limits, and keep them in mind when writing. If you can only afford to commission art for a kinematic VN, and you're thinking of branching paths, then just make sure that the branching paths don't require new art, music, voice acting, etc.

Hey, thank you so much for making this video! I really enjoyed it, I am going to be making my first visual novel. Due the to concept and complexity I have in mind, as well as time pressure, it feels a little overwhelming. However, this video was very encouraging! It was nice to confirm that my approach to writing and planning isn't too off, haha. It was also great to get some advice on how to branch the narrative and maintain an overview - some of the more scary things. So thank you very much :DD

Meltys Quest is the best RPG maker game. Good list though.

great information here

What’s a visual novel?

Starting my visual novel and this video is so helpful! 🤩

Thank you.
This is a video I sorely needed.

Ive always dreamed of making games such as visual novels or RPGs.
And Visual Novels is a main thing I wanna start doing!

I've written 4 visual novels in the past 2 years and never finished any of them cause I am too ambitious and just start doing everything head on without thought. But this time I really want to write it out and plan everything!

My method is like, having a random idea that could connect different endings, and then writing the scenario, and then getting ideas from nowhere

Just wanted to say your channel has been SO helpful for me! I’ve been making my first visual novel for the last year now while I’m still in school. Obviously doing a project like this is so much work but your videos have helped me see a clearer way through all of it. Thank you!

Do Ubisoft, EA and others ever think 2 seconds while copy pasting characters? And do the make money?
Those things not related at all, you can be genius writer and berely make coins to pay your bills.

Lot of useful advice here(especially when it comes to practical stuff like outlining and branches, I have hard time grasping how to write or plan out a branch), though always good to remember that different people have different writing styles, so for me lot of advice here just sounds kinda alien because I never really have issue of "umm what is this character doing here" problem since my writing approach is this weird train of thought which kinda starts from character personal motivations rather than idea of what I want to happen :'D

Other thing I would comment that its usually better to do what you want to do rather than trying to figure out what would be profitable, since besides it being kinda hard to do market research, usually you do better writing anyway if you like what you are doing rather than trying to do something you aren't interested in but you suspect might be more popular.

krumm

Great content, and love your setup.

I'm making mine so i can get better at programming, because visual novels aren't very.. "rich" code-wise.. Well thats what i thought.. I thought it'd be easy to make but its so hard. I'm too prideful to stop now so here we go

Thank you some much for all you are doing

very useful video covering parts i haven’t seen other people go over! ty!

J'aime bien avoir très peu de personnages dans une histoire (elles ne sont jamais aussi longues qu'un roman de 3h00 et je ne fais pas d'histoires épiques avec de l'aventure).
Le mieux est d'avoir un personnage principal sur lequel se concentrer.
Un perso sympa le connaissant et étant assez présent et lui apportant un côté positif qu'il n'a pas par exemple ou qui l'aidera. Notre perso peut apprendre de lui même sans que l'autre lui fasse clairement des leçons de vie.
Un perso déclencheur comme par exemple le Patron dans l'histoire de mon VN en cours actuellement qui va embaucher notre gars dans sa société secrète pour ses aptitudes et surtout sa manière de penser peu commune qui lui plait bien. C'est à ce moment-là que tout commence réellement à devenir intéressant (sa commence très vite car tout est dit et montré très rapidement et simplement en ne parlant des choses importantes pour bien comprendre cette chose qui rend notre gars un peu..spécial (rien de magique, hein) et des problèmes qu'il doit faire face dans la vie de tous les jours ainsi que sa personnalité résumée brièvement et de son objectif un peu flou mais que l'on comprend d'une certaine manière par nous même. Ainsi, le Patron va l'emmener dans sa nouvelle vie et R qui est un perso apparaissant peu de temps après pour une certaine raison est liée au Patron et va beaucoup apporter à notre consciemment comme inconsciemment (c'est le perso sympa à avoir comme je l'ai expliqué plus haut).
Avec tout ça, l'histoire avance toute seule et on va en apprendre plus sur notre gars, R et le P ainsi que leur relation père-fille (idée apparut par la suite qui est l'une des meilleures) et tout ceci, sur un fond de course poursuites avec un embouteillage tombant mal, inventions, problèmes, kidnapping douteux, révélations bien amenées (je pense) et passé influent forcément sur le présent de divers manières.
Il y aura pleins de sujets différents qui vont bien ensemble et il n'y aura pas de: "moi j'ai été adoptée, c'est important, je suis triste mais rien ne se passe par rapport à ça et sa sort de nulle-part pour rien amener"...
Donc, voici des exemples et des conseils faciles qui pourraient vous aider si vous avez du mal sur ces aspects.

(Je me suis éparpillée, je sais. J'ai la flemme de me corriger donc je laisse ça comme ainsi. Peu liront et surtout jusqu'ici donc ce n'est pas grave après tout).
(Je ne me mets pas sur un piédestal ni mon histoire. Je ne suis pas écrivain (plutôt script et pour usage personnel pour l'instant) et donc je voulais juste paraître confiante car même si j'aime ce que je fais car mes persos, je sais que beaucoup pourraient s'y attacher autant que moi et que mes idées restent originales (je déteste les clichés si ce n'est pas pour en rire et le vu et revu quand ce n'est pas agréable et sa l'est rarement) mais je sais pertinemment que mon travail ne vaut pas une bonne histoire écrite par un professionnel intelligent.

I would highly recommend zettlekasteen method for story writing.

In my last visual novel, I got really stuck on the script writing even with clear understanding of character motivations in mind, because I just couldn't see a way for them to resolve the plot as they were. The solution ended up being to go back and change who one of the characters was as a person.
It can feel wrong to tamper with your brain-children like that, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, right?

I'm trying to make a dating sim and this is really helpful!! Thank you!

It's a really good idea to go all the way through first. I keep thinking that you need to think of every path right away.

I kinda hoped for software suggestions, because no (Google/Word/OpenOffice) docs don't really give me the overview of that I need for a Visual novel..

I'm always upset when I look at this sort of videos because they spend all of my time telling me shit i already know in the most obnoxious copy of baby talk that makes me feel like I'm stupid for even asking the question.

They never tell me the things i want to know, the actual technical parts of it, for example how do i format a branching paths script, what software do i use? How many options are too many options? How do i organize such a project in a way that's easy for me to bring other people and not have them confused at a mess of bits of story all over the place?

You know the actual thing that makes this sort of project different from a play, a tv series and so on.

Oh and the worst one they do is the "have an idea" tip, such a general thing that makes no sense for it to add. I can only think of someone being like "wash your teeth" at the beginning of a rust programming language. Sure buddy, i already did that but how does that help me do what I'm asking you to teach me?

This is the sort of stuff you get when a amateur thinks he is qualified to be a teacher. What an awful video.

Nice video, tell me about assets, & sites we can get them from thanks.

u got any good apps for "branching?" xD

DAMN if thé trophy of thé best guide are Real this guide will have it