In my visual novel there will be 5 heroines to choose from but I’m having trouble figuring out how to equally give them all time because I’m doing the game by episodes. I don’t want one girl to barely be shown and another one shown too much. Anyone that has made a vn or played vn’s know how to work around this?
How to handle heroine screen time
- Thread starter Mr. Mayhem
- Start date
Hey, Cpreacy. By heroine, do you mean the protagonist or the love interests?
Either way, I think you’re going to have to bite the bullet and accept that you won’t be able to do an episodic game that lets you show all five per update without a) very little content per character; or b) long update times. If the heroine is a protagonist, you should probably do each of the five full paths in turn to avoid leaving players hanging on. If you meant love interests, just chop and change stories (1-3 girls per update) - players are a pretty understanding lot as far as episodic games go, and once you’ve built up a fair few updates It will be less of an issue.
Either way, I think you’re going to have to bite the bullet and accept that you won’t be able to do an episodic game that lets you show all five per update without a) very little content per character; or b) long update times. If the heroine is a protagonist, you should probably do each of the five full paths in turn to avoid leaving players hanging on. If you meant love interests, just chop and change stories (1-3 girls per update) - players are a pretty understanding lot as far as episodic games go, and once you’ve built up a fair few updates It will be less of an issue.
Yeah I meant by the love interests. its reassuring that I don't have to do all five for each episode I do so thanks for telling me that, takes a lot of stress off when I was thinking about this. I guess I only need to show all five in the first episode right (and maybe last)?
Depends on the size of your piece 
I would highly recommend introducing all 5 in the first release, though. I suggest making that a big release - 2 or 3 times your planned standard update size. V0.1 is by far your most important release - and there are already far too many undersized proof-of-concept v0.1s with no sexual content and nowhere near enough meat to get players itching for the next episode. Take your time to get decent content in (and 5 characters is a nice start!), because even if that delays your release date it will get more attention and do better in the long-term.
I would highly recommend introducing all 5 in the first release, though. I suggest making that a big release - 2 or 3 times your planned standard update size. V0.1 is by far your most important release - and there are already far too many undersized proof-of-concept v0.1s with no sexual content and nowhere near enough meat to get players itching for the next episode. Take your time to get decent content in (and 5 characters is a nice start!), because even if that delays your release date it will get more attention and do better in the long-term.
- May 19, 2017
- 4,065
- 6,295
1)create the scene
2)save
3)render images and animations with heroine 1
4)replace heroine 1 with heroine 2
5)render images and animations with heroine 2
6)repeat with heroines 3-5
you now have day 1 scene 1 and the player has choice of heroine
2)save
3)render images and animations with heroine 1
4)replace heroine 1 with heroine 2
5)render images and animations with heroine 2
6)repeat with heroines 3-5
you now have day 1 scene 1 and the player has choice of heroine
- Jun 10, 2017
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- 16,236
In top of what RanliLabz already said (and he know what he talk about, he've too many characters and, counting the ones not introduced yet, more than 75% of them are forgot in each episode), I want to add that giving them an equal time will not satisfy the players anyway.
You've five girls, which will lead to way to many combinations of preference coming from the said players. And the less civil of them will complain that "this cow" have too much time while "this cutie" don't have enough ; each one having his own definition of "cow" and "cutie".
Therefore, do as you feel it, let the story decide which girl will have what time of presence. In the same time, keep an eye on the community ; if there's a clear consensus that a certain girl is the best one of the game, try to give her a small place in all episodes. But do this without forcing her presence, the goal being to not frustrate the players, not to completely change the story you had in mind.
My game has 5 main girls for a reason, it also has 5 days a week. I try and do something with each girl on one of the days, but don't worry about too much. I know which girls are more popular so I give them more. Don't think about it too much. just let the story flow, if you find one or more girls is getting less screen time, just give her a bit more.