Sandbox or Visual novel?

[Xandoren]

Hi

I am thinking about building a project and was wondering which do people like best a sandbox world where you have freedom to go around to different places and discover the story or a visual novel with choices.

 

[Lerd0]

If it's ur first project do a simple VN...
......good luck and have fun....

 

[rk-47]

Agree with lerdo, dont try to overcomplicate on your first game

 

[m00nsh1ne]

I think the biggest problem with sandboxes is you can make it where the player has no idea how to progress, or you provide too many options and spread yourself too thin by trying to develop content for each option. I've played a few games where if it weren't for guides i'd be stuck for waaaaay too long, and I've played some where I like "X girl" and she has little content while "Y girl" who i'm not a fan of has TONS of content. I think VN's are the easier option espescially it it's your first time developing. Tell the story you want to make and focus on the types of characters you want to focus on. Tackle more challenging concepts when you have more experience. That being said, if you're heart is set on a sandbox then just do it. Never want to be stuck working on something you are not enjoying.

 

[Staimh]

If it's ur first project do a simple VN...
......good luck and have fun....

Agree totally (Lerd0 how do you keep getting such early responses on threads ?)
You can always expand a VN (even a completed one) to a sandbox at a later stage.

 

[Lerd0]

(Lerd0 how do you keep getting such early responses on threads ?)

I have no life.....

 

[desmosome]

If you have to ask, don't do a sandbox.

Unnecessary sandbox is how you doom a game from the get go. Think about what your game is about first before even thinking about VN/sandbox. If you want to make an epic adventure where you move around to different regions and fight baddies, making it a sandbox could make sense. If you want to make a life sim game like High-Rise or Love Sex Second Base, then sandbox can be a good choice. If you want to make a "gotta catch em all" game like Corruption or A Spell for All, sandbox can make sense. If you have a generic contemporary story about a kid trying to bang his family, why do we need a sandbox? So that we can walk around empty rooms in the house and take showers?

 

[ddakkal]

Like desmosome said, it heavily depends on what you want to do.
Of course sandbox game is less linear so its harder to create because you need a good tracking system for your game state.
So maybe VN would be the best choice for now.

But still, you could make something decent if you can create a well designed system and make your game systemic, which means that you have various systems in your game that interact with each other and could make your game interesting with much less content than needed for a VN.
It is also easier to expand and add content to it (again, in case it is designed right), every new content you add could've much more impact on your game than just adding some new content to a VN.
Also, in a sandbox game you could get away with shallower story and characters because you have more gameplay than a VN and your players hooked on a different aspect of the game.

I said the above assuming you are not fixed on Ren'py and maybe have some prior knowledge and experience with programming , but if that's not the case I think the systemic design is less flexible and sure, VN is the better choice IMO.

 

[woody554]

VN for story, sandbox for games. people will write you angry comments either way, so listening to them doesn't really help you. only you can decide which form serves your idea better.

that said, sandbox is easily 10x more work. so there's that to consider.

but most games will be abandoned before v0.3 regardless, so I'm not sure if trying save yourself from work by choosing VN is working any better. probably preplanning your schedule and workload is a far bigger problem. or the lack of it.

 

[Mando Logica]

I prefer mixing both concepts based on the current situation in the game. But If I have to choose one, then VN

 

[DuniX]

Gameplay.

 

[yihman1]

There is always the hybrid option. It's possible to do a visual novel with some little walk around parts such as in Being a DIK.

Sandboxes can be great, but they are not often executed properly.

If the game is a trainer type game I think a sandbox style is better. Otherwise a visual novel is usually better. Sandboxes often have big problems, and are buggy.

When you make a sandbox expect that many of your players to either cheat, ask for a save file, or simply rip the renders out and look at them without playing. Expect that.

Very few sandbox games are done nicely, but if they are done nicely it's great. A game like "Rogue Like" or "S.H.E.L.T.E.R." would be examples of well done sandbox games that I enjoy very much. They don't let the code ruin the game play and it enhances it.

Visual novels are straight forward and cut a lot of the bullshit.

Unless you are very confident that you can code a sandbox that you think people will find fun and engaging I'd go with visual novel. A lot of sandboxes are practically unplayable.

 

[konabwo]

sbx.
to be playable it should have solid qol including ingame tips system... or at least walkthrough

cheats - depends. sbxes is time tracking / quests [=not a grind, like brightheaded vn readers think] + grind [anything related to doing some repeatable tasks for cash ...to buy some items ...to raise some relationship points... that sort of datesim element i would cheat caz it is either too burdensome or unnecessary ... unless your game is a datesim/trainer where such would be kinda core gigs...that is why i cannot play datesims/trainers...caz i insta endgame with cheats]

 

[Adabelitoo]

I did this poll way ago.

https://f95zone.to/threads/vn-vs-sandbox-free-roam-the-poll.34602/

I highly recommendo you to do a VN for your first game.

 

[ScrollPast]

I'm someone who loves sandbox games and generally avoid VN games, so I personally would encourage sandbox games. Plus VNs are overrepresented in the adult gaming community already, so you would have a lot more competition if you went the VN route. That said, sandbox games are obviously more complex game design wise, so you need a bit of confidence in your understanding of game design. Even if it's your first game, as long as you have played quite a few sandbox games before and are good at analyzing things, then take a leap and go for sandbox.

 

[LoneWaker59]

Sandbox is such a garbage concept, every game you need to grind money, stats, multiple clicks for basic things, sometimes you need to say the same thing 15 times to progress with some girl, random events... How can you like this concept? VN you just read and make choices, it's the perfect balance!!

 

[DuniX]

Sandbox is such a garbage concept, every game you need to grind money, stats, multiple clicks for basic things, sometimes you need to say the same thing 15 times to progress with some girl, random events... How can you like this concept? VN you just read and make choices, it's the perfect balance!!

Structurally Sandbox games have a "Center" from which all events flow from and where the events being presented are give in smaller doses.
VNs tend to be overly convoluted and I lose track off, especially when I get bored and press the Skip button and never stop as it has no Center to get back to.
I would need to find all characters, events and setting to not be boring and be invested enough for this to not be a problem, which is impossible for most games here.
With Sandbox games I can at least survive with skipping some events.

 

[sexypeanut]

If you want to go the sandbox route, please let us advance the story with quests instead of grinding.

 

[konabwo]

Sandbox is such a garbage concept

VN is such a garbage concept. walls of ridiculous text nobody wants to read and which you just skip until next answer. zero immersion and understanding of what is going on. tons of routes making your head spin. or am i expected to replay it in order to get the content i missed? ...and even read...or read again? How can you like this concept?

every game you need to grind money, stats

more often than not devs tend to overdo that (given that sandbox meant to have those trainer/datesim-ish elements)
i assume to prolong gaming or in some cases to fill the void of lacking actual content
but in 9/10 of cases it is not a problem as either there are cheats(&cheatmods) or u can easily tweak it via saveeditor (renpy,unity) or browser extention (if htmls)

multiple clicks for basic things

cannot say it is something typical, apart from some "femsims" where in half cases you have either some sort of automated routines or even cheats to get rid of those routines

random events

RNG is an ok thing. sometimes indeed overdone.

you need to say the same thing 15 times to progress with some girl,

some shameless exeggeration i assume.

 

[Adabelitoo]

Sandbox is such a garbage concept, every game you need to grind money, stats, multiple clicks for basic things, sometimes you need to say the same thing 15 times to progress with some girl, random events... How can you like this concept? VN you just read and make choices, it's the perfect balance!!

Oh my god! My worst enemy! Multiple clicks!

Jokes aside, saying the same thing +15 times is annoying but that's not usually in a well done sandbox game. The rest of the things you mention are not cons or pros, those are just your personal dislikes.