Greetings, I am new to visual novels. I find it fascinating the level of detail and complexity that can be achieved with a few common tools. Any tips on getting started are welcomed.
First of all welcome!
Although I don't have much experience making a VN... As a player I can give you a few pointers.
- Plan what you intend to make
I think you already know what types of novels you can make (Kinetic, multi choices) yet, you have to be sure what road to take and make it the main focus of your novel (is it gameplay focused? Story focused? Or porn focused?) heck maybe you might think of adding something revolutionary!
- See what makes a VN great and bad
Look at the reviews of your favorite VN's what do players praise? What do they find lacking or hate? Try to improve upon those reviews and avoid what players often hate in a VN (grind is often a turn-off, characters that stay on character is important too) For this I might recommend videos on story telling...
- While you can't please everyone you have to make a Novel that you like and try to appeal to the ones who would like it, find a target audience what Story Genres will it include? What Fetishes will it include? Will you intend to make them optional? Force too many fetishes in a game or genres and it will be a mess, example making a cute game with a random horror end, at least set up the scenario and plot right in the beginning or hint about it... (Higurashi comes to mind also a certain Novel about a Club...) Thinking of it, it has to have a good reason for turning 180° and a compeling one too! This is really hard to do unless you know how to surprise the reader without making them angry.
- 3D, 2D, Text-Based
Choose your visual focus hopefully something you are really good at!
I hope these work for you, best of luck in your endeavors, curious to what you have planned...