What makes you stick with a visual novel — story or scenes?

[HB_studio]

Hey everyone,
I’m curious what keeps you playing a visual novel from start to finish.


Is it the characters and story that hook you in,
or do you just skip straight to the good stuff (NSFW scenes)?


I’m working on my first VN project and trying to balance both — would love to hear what matters most to you guys when trying new games.


Thanks in advance!

 

[Count Morado]

Hey everyone,
I’m curious what keeps you playing a visual novel from start to finish.


Is it the characters and story that hook you in,
or do you just skip straight to the good stuff (NSFW scenes)?


I’m working on my first VN project and trying to balance both — would love to hear what matters most to you guys when trying new games.


Thanks in advance!

Which matters most to you?
Which do you enjoy creating most?
Which do you create better?

Those three questions are more important than anyone else's opinion on your VN. Especially so for your first VN. If you don't know the answers to those three, it doesn't matter what other people say. If you know the answers to those three, it doesn't matter what other people say. In the end, it's your VN and your vision. The whole point of creating something out of nothing is to create something that you want to see come to life. It should be something you have wanted to see created, but no one else has done so well enough to satisfy you.

Because it doesn't matter what keeps players involved with a VN from start to finish if you first don't make sure you do what makes you stick with it from start to finish.

 

[MarshmallowCasserole]

I don't know what makes it hard to grasp for new developers, and they ask it again, and again, and again.

It's both.

If I wanted just scenes, I would not consider a genre that has the word "novel" in its name. And if porn wasn't important, I would just play regular games.

 

[CaptainBipto]

Hey everyone,
I’m curious what keeps you playing a visual novel from start to finish.


Is it the characters and story that hook you in,
or do you just skip straight to the good stuff (NSFW scenes)?


I’m working on my first VN project and trying to balance both — would love to hear what matters most to you guys when trying new games.


Thanks in advance!

Interactivity.
Most VN's are pretty damn boring to me. If I wanted to see some porn, there is an internet full of naked people doing various and sundry nasty things, as well as people creating 2D and 3D stuff of people doing various and sundry kinky things.

So, if I get into a VN it is because it ticks off a lot of kinks, I can interact with 'stuff and things', and you know generally occupy my attention on other things in between walls of text.

A good example, for myself, would be the game Lunar's Chosen. It has things I can go do and interact with (usually repeatable sex), while I wait for the dev to spoon feed the next love interest, for my character to grind through handholding, kissing, oral, then finally coitus uninterrupted. I stopped playing it when it started moving more into bondage play, not because there wasn't anything to do.

 

[chainedpanda]

I've played hundreds of games by this point. It's become increasingly more rare for me to discover a scene that I haven't seen before. Sure, there are different characters involved, but the vast majority play out the same way which is why I generally just skip passed NSFW scenes now.

That said, when a unique scene does appear, it's generally unique because the scenario or setting is unique. So, I suppose the answer is generally story. I've always been more into the stories which have sexual element, rather than just the NSFW part. Whenever I do enjoy a scene, it's likely because it was unique or interesting because the story was unique or interesting.

 

[PsychicStress]

The story is the skeleton of your game - without it, it would be a floppy mess. Scenes grow from the story, much like how spines grow from the main body of a cactus, or branches from a tree. I think that scenes are obviously necessary, but the story is what stays with you longer, perhaps - I'll be sticking with a story, for sure.

 

[HornyMonsterGirlEnjoyer]

As someone who enjoys a good story I want to say story

But as a person a porn site I want to say both.

Honestly a good mix of both works best. Honestly I enjoy sex scenes that include a bit of story. I think if you're making a VN you should focus on story. Just don't take too long getting to the sexy stuff. Honestly sometimes I'm interested in a story, but I lose interest because there's too much build up for not enough pay off.

Anyway, godspeed HB_studio I hope your game helps everyone on this site bust enough nuts to fill a small to medium bathtub. Or something more encouraging and less gross.