I wanted to share this video with ya’ll, made by the veteran game developer Matthew Vimislik, because he talks about a big aspect of visual novel development.
As most visual novels these days are made with Renpy, and so many developers whose products we review are spending the minimum effort to make their products commercially viable, it’s high time to discuss how to take the medium to the next level. This video goes over several things that could be done to make visual novels more artistically interesting.
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Also see our writeup on getting your first eroge done, What Erodevs Can Learn From SteamWorld Dig.
Fair warning, this video is intended for advanced users of Renpy. If you’re an amateur developer, I plead to you, don’t get too excited. Make one complete commercial release first before making things complicated for yourself! It makes perfect sense to have your first few games be a “minimum viable product”, so that you can get into the swing of things, because there’s a loooot to learn. Figure out the annoyances and limits of both software and creatives (their management can be quite the hurdle!) before complicating your process. That all said, I hope the video inspires you!
