How to Make a Visual Novel

This isn't justo for one doing a game, it's for anyone doing business! Nice~

I just want to figure out a way to make a visual novel cheap and easy since I'm on my own and am not tech savvy.

Great video! This really helped me to beat back the overwhelm that a project like this can cause. Thanks!

i am going to start to make a nukige because i want money and this is very useful

Your content isss gold! It really helps imagining more realistically what's the entire scope. Tyvm I'm subscribing!

So many folks have gone to crowdfunding while they're in the mood board / concept phase. Waiting until you KNOW it's going to be completed is such great advice. PLUS - you'll have SO MUCH MORE content to share, so people can know what it's going to look, sound, and feel like.

Hm. I could put together a whole team. Or I could spend years building it myself with free tools…

ah hell nah what riko sakurauchi doin in the thumbnail bruh😭

love all the jojo behind you^_^

And then there's me doing literally everything myself and using public domain assets for what I can't do. 😂

Can this be done without knowing how to develop a game. Like hire someone? Like im an artist, i already know the look and feel i want, but i haven't learned game dev

I'd love to see a video focused on getting jobs/volunteering (just generally connecting and becoming a part of) in visual novels! Going through good ways to market yourself and how to format things to get jobs as a background artist or character artist (maybe music or voice acting too idk).

Oooooh, we've been called "smort" at doing sequels on this vid. Nice.

(Then we went to make a third game that introduce a lot of new systems and mechanics... but hey, it still re-used a lot of systems, concepts and assets from past games, so it still applies!)

Thanks for including us! <3

A pretty great video for anyone who's starting up a larger project. I can see much of this being applicable from any type of game, to things such as novels or comics.

Sound effects are the last thing I want to make from scratch. As fun as it sounds to bring a thousand dollar microphone to a gun range, judo dojo, and horse track, that's a big undertaking. I'll let the audio engineers handle the sci-fi blasters, ion engines, and giant bat spirits. Then you have voice acting which certainly needs more than one person.

I'm glad I found this but man all of this sounds incredibly daunting... I can tell that management is not my thing at all...

I'm still going to try though. Thank you you so much for this video and all your other videos as well. I'm probably going to be referencing it several times at the very least.

Can "transferring" a light novel story (eg your own) to a visual story work? Story, characters, and many other things would be already there, and having an audiovisual experience of the story might be very engaging

will as for me i wonk for a fatdid if you wonk some one how can help with some thing like this make a tep fo novel depening on the tep your makeing may not be so hard if you make it asy a app novel and put it uot your self for free and make so that thos how may wet to take a look at reading it can get a holld fo it to at no cost so make it so the novel can be down lodid for free with no money and no cost will make it simpul for it to got uot ther and go around hav a nices day

YUHHHH

I'm not even planning to make a visual novel you just got recommended to em

I always want to create a hentai visual novel or a fantasy viusal novel.

I really like this video, but I will add that even if you're trying to create/market a game as a business, being risk adverse in terms of genre bending or challenging of conventions, might actually be a lot more harmful then productive. If you're making games in a similar rung, you might be able to get that audience to check out your title, but if you really want to stand out, at a point innovation might be the smart play (and not just a small twist!).

A lot of the games you mentioned as fusions, themselves if pitched alone, would seem completely impractical by this videos advice. It is important to not get too ambitious, and know when to pull back, but I've found from my own experience that as with all things, high risk is high reward. Playing the balance of not trying to stand out while also standing out, might get consistent $$$ overtime, but it's also totally valid if you have the scope and vision, to blaze a path unexplored both as a hobby and as a business, so long as it's feasible.

And for anyone reading the comments who feels similar but is afraid, don't hold back!! Especially in the age of the internet, the idea of appealing to investors for funding isn't really a requirement anymore, and in light of crunch and many other messy corporate structures, you might even be better off blazing your own path. My only advice to that sort of developer is to imagine how a player unknowing of your style of VN could react. Get meta with it. Have fun cultivating a new vibe for them!!

man I'm only a few minutes in and already overwhelmed by talks of teams and money and all that jazz 😵

probably useful for someone, but imma keep drawing people and making them talk to eachother

I just want to say how much of an amazing resource your channel has been! Beginning my first vn has been incredibly taunting, but your videos have been such a good resource for breaking everything down and a lot of good advice that’s hard to find elsewhere. Keep up the great work :)

Man, this video is very very very beautifull

But also
If that marketing only video could cm out for now it would be so usefull

What's the music the began playing around 32 minutes in? I am almost certain I heard it before and it reminds me of a very popular adult VN CAN'T PUT MY HAND ON IT it just keeps playing in my head please help!

I know art is expensive but why its 1200 dollar a week? That is like 4.8k dollar a month. so expensive. I guess I'm lucky I live in 3rd world country and can hire local cheaply at least 1k dollar per month, easy on the budget.

This video is "liquid gold" - I have not seen a such a detailed video in this subject - Just awesome thanks you so much for making it.

I'll be honest this guide sucks... Like the title should be "How to design a highly successful mainstream game." Not a VN as I was expecting the steps to well make a VN not generic advice from the 2000s which bearly applies anymore to game design at any level... Like there is nothing stopping you from downloading unity, GOdot and making a game or my preformed method just make a TT game in your word processor of choice. Which is alot easier to do they quite your day job to be an intern... Which why didn't you include part time game dev? Like work a full time job and game dev on the side/ being a kid? Like this whole video seems out of touch.

It is 2AM and I gotta show tomorrow (?) at work then at uni. AND I STILL CANNOT TURN MY EYES AWAY. Sweet lord, this is like a handbook for my hobby

Funny, that fact about presskit used as article... we learnt that something like that works in comics publishing too!

Hello! Great video! And what about copyright? Do they need to be registered?

God, the business pitch part of the video really just reminded me how much I absolutely despise capitalism. It's so fucking disgusting. :^)

Great video though, lmao.

Thanks for this I'm getting back into this as a hobby and need a refresher. My first renpy project I made as a teen was a mess... But my art and writing has gotten better now as an adult.

This is such a fantastic and helpful breakdown!

Oh no! Taxes!

...This video is for me. lol

I'm very curious about funding a visual novel- If you pitch to publishers or investors, how much of your game should you have done/playable? What publishers specialize in or accept visual novels?

Something I think is good to remember is anywhere you can take on additional roles in development, do it, to an extent, make sure you never get overwhelmed, it's a recipe for failure

Is it possible to clarify how to collect data and send through the internet to a server? I mean game data, not gamer personal data. Decisions made, paths taken, choices, items...thanks!

The 80/20 rule is not always true.

For example, when I create a custom engine, I plan every feature I want to have in in advance, and this engine is already about 40% of the work already, I guess.
After writing the story, designing the structure, drawing the art and creating the music, it's probably another 40% of the work to create maybe 80% of the game.

All the polishing like overthinking which characters appear at which screens and which poses and emotions they will show, will make the game a lot more valuable, while not being too much work.

If you watch out to catch all bugs during development there won't be much to do, when the game looks like it's close to completion.

I found that Deviant Art is a good place to hire artists for VNs. Itch is good for resource packs.

Hi! Will there be a video showing how to create an inventory and/or shop system?

noo not math my greatest weakness D:

Notes--invest in a social media manager 'cause I don't wanna do that shit.

I thought about making a visual novel, but I never actually tried it. Mostly for branching paths, and whether those paths go down entirely new directions or not and how many further paths can come from those. If I have an idea for a story, I don't want paths detracting from what I'm trying to tell. But having a choose your own adventure style story is something people like, I used to read all those Goosebumps books as a kid.

Then there's getting and or creating the assets for all that.