Number of Renders for Initial VN Release

[Mikethe3DGuy]

I'm working on my first VN, using Daz and Ren'Py. Trying not to overload myself, and this release is basically 2 chapters of what is around a 10 chapter story arc. But I'm curious as to what's a typical number of renders for an initial release? I expect to have around 600 renders and 11 animations in mine but I'm wondering if that's too light?

In the earlier scenes I tended to often use a single rendered image showing two characters when one said something and the other answered or replied. That, coupled with a concern that I haven't included enough close-up face shots, makes me wonder if I should go back through my earlier stuff and split some of those conversational exchanges into two renders by adding some face close-ups. This would add to my workload but not too much since in most cases it would just be dropping a face camera into the scene, positioning it and maybe adjusting lighting slightly.

 

[MissFortune]

The number of renders don't matter nearly as much as you're thinking they do. It's the content of what the renders are representing. It's all about instinct here, imo. Do you feel the current renders do the job? Then go with it. Do you feel like there needs to be some more movement, head orientation, or hand movement(s)? The go in and add them (or spot render them in.), but at the end of the day, the only one that can answer that is you (and I suppose any beta testers/proofreaders you might have looking at it.).

But for the sake of comparison, 0.1 for my current VN was about 560 renders and 0 animations, and nobody said anything about it being too short. Though, there was complaining about the lack of animations, iirc (though you really shouldn't be taking a leech's opinion over a Patreon's opinion, something I and likely quite a few others have had to learn the hard way.). That all said? The more content, the better. People will appreciate a long initial release as they'll get a better feel for the characters, which route(s) they may or may not follow, and where the story is going. But if you're already done and have the first release wrapped up, then there's no point in forcing more in. Save it for the next release.

 

[noping123]

Let me tell you my guy. Lol.

Do not worry yourself about shit like that.

The first thing you should focus on is maximizing each render - that is, you want the most gameplay you can get out of as few renders as possible.

That's a bad way to word it. You're not looking to stretch the renders out for the sake of having as few as possible, but you are looking to maximize their impact. If you can fit 10 lines of dialogue in a single render and it makes sense? Do it. It could mean you create less renders, which means getting it out quicker - or it could mean you spend more time adding more dialogue/events/whatever instead - whatever works for you.

The whole "Render count" feels good from an advertising standpoint, but that's about it. The truth is, particularly when it comes to dialogue, 10 renders or 2 is going to provide the same amount of gameplay and take the same amount of time - so you should only be creating new ones when it makes sense, and actually adds to the experience. Sometimes that means you create a new one for every line, and sometimes that means a single one drags for 10 lines - The biggest question you should ask is what sort of impact will this image have? The smaller the impact, the less relevant it is.

Sometimes your idea of a face closeup sort of thing makes sense and enhances it - when displaying emotion/reactions/etc, and sometimes its just completely pointless and a waste of time because it doesn't add anything.

But you shouldn't be looking at render count, or animation count, or anything like that - it's not what's important. You could get an hour of gameplay out of 100 images, or 10 minutes out of 1000 - it's all about the story you've built, the way you've designed everything, and how you put it all together.

In general you want a decent sized initial release (mine was ~300 images, ~15 or so animations which I personally felt was on the short side, if I could go back I think i'd increase it, but at the same time I got valuable feedback that helped me improve things a lot from the early release, so it has it's pros and cons) but stuff like render count is NOT something you should ever be concerned with. What matters is how you use the images you have, not how many you have.

 

[Mikethe3DGuy]

The number of renders don't matter nearly as much as you're thinking they do. It's the content of what the renders are representing. It's all about instinct here, imo. Do you feel the current renders do the job? Then go with it. Do you feel like there needs to be some more movement, head orientation, or hand movement(s)? The go in and add them (or spot render them in.), but at the end of the day, the only one that can answer that is you (and I suppose any beta testers/proofreaders you might have looking at it.).

But for the sake of comparison, 0.1 for my current VN was about 560 renders and 0 animations, and nobody said anything about it being too short. Though, there was complaining about the lack of animations, iirc (though you really shouldn't be taking a leech's opinion over a Patreon's opinion, something I and likely quite a few others have had to learn the hard way.). That all said? The more content, the better. People will appreciate a long initial release as they'll get a better feel for the characters, which route(s) they may or may not follow, and where the story is going. But if you're already done and have the first release wrapped up, then there's no point in forcing more in. Save it for the next release.

Thanks for the perspective, and the example figures! Sometimes you just need reassurance

 

[Mikethe3DGuy]

Let me tell you my guy. Lol.

Do not worry yourself about shit like that.

The first thing you should focus on is maximizing each render - that is, you want the most gameplay you can get out of as few renders as possible.

That's a bad way to word it. You're not looking to stretch the renders out for the sake of having as few as possible, but you are looking to maximize their impact. If you can fit 10 lines of dialogue in a single render and it makes sense? Do it. It could mean you create less renders, which means getting it out quicker - or it could mean you spend more time adding more dialogue/events/whatever instead - whatever works for you.

The whole "Render count" feels good from an advertising standpoint, but that's about it. The truth is, particularly when it comes to dialogue, 10 renders or 2 is going to provide the same amount of gameplay and take the same amount of time - so you should only be creating new ones when it makes sense, and actually adds to the experience. Sometimes that means you create a new one for every line, and sometimes that means a single one drags for 10 lines - The biggest question you should ask is what sort of impact will this image have? The smaller the impact, the less relevant it is.

Sometimes your idea of a face closeup sort of thing makes sense and enhances it - when displaying emotion/reactions/etc, and sometimes its just completely pointless and a waste of time because it doesn't add anything.

But you shouldn't be looking at render count, or animation count, or anything like that - it's not what's important. You could get an hour of gameplay out of 100 images, or 10 minutes out of 1000 - it's all about the story you've built, the way you've designed everything, and how you put it all together.

In general you want a decent sized initial release (mine was ~300 images, ~15 or so animations which I personally felt was on the short side, if I could go back I think i'd increase it, but at the same time I got valuable feedback that helped me improve things a lot from the early release, so it has it's pros and cons) but stuff like render count is NOT something you should ever be concerned with. What matters is how you use the images you have, not how many you have.

This advice really helps. When I consider the renders/dialogue exchanges I mentioned, adding close-ups would probably NOT improve game experience, though I'll go back through them and see if maybe I missed some chances to effectively dieplay an emotional reaction with a close-up. The reason I was considering adding close-ups is I was mentally comparing my shots with what I expect the shots to be if it were a feature movie. But that's all subjective guesswork.