Why are there are so many Visual Novel style games?

[lonelyloser]

I don't mean any offense by this as everyone should enjoy and deserves to enjoy what they enjoy on this site. I just would like to know why this site has such an abundance of Visual Novel games(games made with Renpy, RPGM, etc).

Personally, the VN element doesn't do enough for me. After an hour or two of clicking/ reading dialogues I get a grand ol' prize of a picture of a rendered pair of tits (Many of these visual rewards aren't animated). I look and the most trending game on this site is Milfy City, and it is also in VN style. Perhaps I am too harsh in how I view these games/vns but I really enjoy games like Wildlife, Faplife, (Sims4, Skyrim and Fallout4 w/ mods), Rabbitburn, Shades of Elysium, Breeders of the Nephelym etc. But the problem with most of the games on this list is they usual aren't finished and/or are lacking in narrative/ immersion (Which I believe many VNs particularly excel at). Games that end up being sex simulators also have this problem ex: Honey Select, Klub17. I wish there was more of a medium, but I understand how ambitious that can be.

Why are these games so popular? Why do you like them?

 

[polywog]

not enough coders to make stories into a game

 

[kytee]

It's the easiest and most direct form of adult content that dev's can produce, other than just rendering the sexual acts themselves. When I play adult games, I don't play it for the "game" aspect; there's plenty of really good games on steam for me to play, many of which are way better than the games put up on here anyways. I have a limited amount of time to play adult games (and have a fap) and the VN medium is the quickest to digest and get into.

 

[Adabelitoo]

If you want to play/make a game with a story, then VNs are everything you need.

 

[riktor]

Why are these games so popular? Why do you like them?

for me it's simple. story. most of the non-VN titles here (at least those that I've tried) have next to none. though I'm not a fan of kinetic novels at all, for much the same reason as I'm not a fan of comic books. If there are no choices that matter to the plot then I'd rather just read a novel.

 

[Lockheart]

I don't mean any offense by this as everyone should enjoy and deserves to enjoy what they enjoy on this site. I just would like to know why this site has such an abundance of Visual Novel games(games made with Renpy, RPGM, etc).

Personally, the VN element doesn't do enough for me. After an hour or two of clicking/ reading dialogues I get a grand ol' prize of a picture of a rendered pair of tits (Many of these visual rewards aren't animated). I look an the most trending game on this site, Milfy City, and it is also VN style. Perhaps I am too harsh in how I view these games/vns but I really enjoy games like Wildlife, Faplife, (Sims4, Skyrim and Fallout4 w/ mods), Rabbitburn, Shades of Elysium, Breeders of the Nephelym etc. But the problem with most of the games on this list is they usual aren't finished and/or are lacking in narrative/ immersion (Which I believe many VNs particularly excel at). Games that end up being sex simulators also have this problem ex: Honey Select, Klub17. I wish there was more of a medium, but I understand how ambitious that can be.

Why are these games so popular? Why do you like them?

Maybe you just haven't experienced a visual novel with a story that speaks to you yet.

Writing a Visual Novel to me was a huge step up from writing a simple word for word novel. It allows me to show you what I see. And sometimes what I see can be very compelling. My goal is to entertain you. If I write a Visual Novel and you are not entertained with the visuals and /or the words, then I have failed as an artist. And if you need more stimulation to be entertained, such as movies or grandiose special effects, well, we're not quite there yet. But we're getting closer!

If you're here for video games, such as big titles like Skyrim or The Witcher, then surely you've come to the wrong place. We're not trying to make video games such as those, certainly not on that scale. We're a relatively small community of like-minded individuals here to share our work.

 

[Zachy]

In my opinion, Visual Novels are becoming the new "RPGM" of this community (and I mean that in the bad way). Repetitive gameplay, lacking mechanics, but a decent storyline.

Let me tell you something, not just to you, but to everyone. If you want to be a developer, you must give your all in every single aspect of your game. I'm so tired of that "I have a cool story but have no coding knowledge stuff, who wanna help me pls".

You can't lead a project by only having a story. You need coding knowledge you want it or not, as you'll be shaping your story depending on the engine you'll be working with, and your skills.
Nowadays, there's more and more tutorials about Phyton and Daz, that make the process of "making a game" easier, but because of that most devs focus on what those tutorials say, and neglect some aspects of their games. Or they go way too ambitious and end up by abandoning their projects (that even happened to me on my early days).

I won't point my finger at anyone, but there's some people saying that Visual Novels are the most direct form of porn games, as they're simple, and can tell you a very detailed story. But that's for porn. If we consider them as GAMES, Visual Novels lack of the most important aspect-- gameplay.

Soooo... Why are they so famous now?
It has been confirmed that new "gamers" are getting way more used to playing easy games. Like, clicking two times and getting your prize. I don't really see the fun in that, but that's how people like it now. I mean, I've never heard anyone saying "Hey, that Visual Novel is real hard!", or course not, as they don't have any real gameplay. And that's what make them "fun" for people.

 

[Lockheart]

You can't lead a project by only having a story.

I strongly disagree. I've spent the majority of my life playing video games. And, I'll tell you something, I saved the princess. I slew the dragon. I got the cool sword.

Sometimes I really do just like to kick back, let someone tell me a story, admire the beauty of a naked woman. And there's nothing wrong with that. You talk about visual novels as if there's nothing but black screens and button mashing. And that's simply not true at all. There's value in a story. A visually stunning render can be awe-inspiring. The right words can draw a tear.

Everyone tells stories differently. Some use artwork, some use words and some find a way to use puzzles and game play. But there's no wrong way to entertain people. As long as your audience is having fun with your work, it's good work.

 

[I'm Not Thea Lundgren!]

Supply and Demand

 

[Zachy]

I strongly disagree. I've spend the majority of my life playing video games. And, I'll tell you something, I saved the princess. I slew the dragon. I got the cool sword.

Sometimes I really do just like to kick back, let someone tell me a story, admire the beauty of a naked woman. And there's anything wrong with that. You talk about visual novels as if there's nothing but black screens and button mashing. And that's simply not true at all. There's value in a story. A visually stunning render can be awe-inspiring. The right words can draw a tear.

Everyone tells stories differently. Some use artwork, some use words and some find a way to use puzzles and game play. But there's no wrong way to entertain people. As long as your audience is having fun with your work, it's good work.

You're saying the exact opposite of what I said. I talked about mediocre games, that only focus in storyline and completely neglect art/gameplay.

Your game is an example of an amazing Visual Novel, that makes use of the right words in the right moments, and gives the user an incredible experience. But when compared to, let's say, a platformer game-- it completely lacks gameplay. That's what I meant. Nowadays, people prefer a good storyline over a fun gameplay.

 

[Lockheart]

You're saying the exact opposite of what I said. I talked about mediocre games, that only focus in storyline and completely neglect art/gameplay.

Your game is an example of an amazing Visual Novel, that makes use of the right words in the right moments, and gives the user an incredible experience. But when compared to, let's say, a platformer game-- it completely lacks gameplay. That's what I meant. Nowadays, people prefer a good storyline over a fun gameplay.

Gah. I'm sorry. I might be misunderstanding. >.<

Thank you for the compliment too! I appreciate that.

I can't think of a Visual Novel where I really appreciated the gameplay mechanics. Heck, that's why I pretty much went straight for Kinetic Novel for my VN! I'd love to hear more about this though. What do you think would make for great gameplay in a visual novel? The only thing I can really come up with is some sort of mystery that you have to solve. I guess General Practitioner comes to mind too.

 

[Stompai]

It's complicated, renpy is a good engine for visual novels, mainly using a basic scene, choice and variable system. It's meant for visual novels and trying to create some gameplay with this is quite limiting, and there are other, more fitted, engine out there for this, but then it wouldn't be a visual novel anymore.

An idea would be to maybe push the visual novel concept further, like telltales games, or david cage's one. Integrating this basic make a choice -> change a variable -> variable influence future scenes.
Telltales used their famous "xx will remember this" thing to give this tiny bit more life to their characters, and giving the players the feeling that, this is their story, different from the one other player play.

Even something small at first glance, unlike most vn "games" here where it's pretty linear ; pick item -> use item -> unlock scene. Meaning the story don't go forward until you pick and use that item.
While changing that to : The story continue no matter what, but having that item will change the scene a bit, or unlock an option to use it in a scene. But that scene would happen whether you have the item or not.

It's a bit hard to explain but it's basically giving more life to the vn, giving the player the feeling that he is "playing" that story, instead of just watching. "Books you are the hero of" style

 

[Delmach]

Its hard to make an actual game with good gameplay, hence people go with VN's. I love the 3d games, the platformer, the RPG's but I also know thats a lot more work to get right, especially with added adult content. And since there are quite many people solo trying to make something, probably most projects actually, the work load is just too damn high. Add in that they are mostly amateurs.

And to clarify, thats all not necessarily a bad thing, and I played many dozens of VN's and will continue to do so, but what exactly do you want to do when you can code, but everything else is new to you? Every other game type would need art, sound, and much more coding on top of other things.

Also, when its about 3d games, not everyone has a good enough computer to make or play them, thats another point.

 

[PrivateEyes]

Simple- it's the easiest method. If you try to make an actual game around the adult content, consideration of many more factors arise such as...

1) Balancing
2) Deciding on the ratio of adult content to gameplay for each release (a bigger problem for Western games that give periodic updates rather than release a full game immediately)
3) Determining how to mix adult and non-adult content in a way that maintains the audience's interest

I would equate the average Western adult VN game to the average Japanese RGPMaker game- adult content with very basic game mechanics (usually already incorporated by the game engine). Unfortunately, the Western scene has yet to release something on the levels of Eushully, Ninetails, or the top-quality DLsite games (such as Princess Sacrifice or Naedoko Dungeon Chronicles). Probably one of the reasons why the English kickstarter of VenusBlood actually hit and surpassed its rather sizeable target.

As to why they are popular? Simply because there's not many alternatives to play. Finding and setting up a machine translator is an arduous task that the average player isn't willing to go through just to get some barely legible text lol

 

[hgameartman]

I took rpgmaker as a base for an action -rpg with time management elements. Top down VH/Zelda/ Rune factory style.

Original goal- 3 weeks to edit/ find/ make scripts, then 3 months of illustration practice and release v1 with lots of stuff!

It took me 4 months to properly get a 1 hour first release most of which was spent modifying scripts and building systems

It's no wonder I launched with subpar art, rpgmaker hates doing what I made it do, and not even my SE degree was enogh to do it in the proper time. ( I've gotten lots more practice post-release to update with!)

and that's without building UI, background/tilesets, too many sprites, props, messaging systems, inventory, saveload functionality, or parts of the combat and management systems I could find scripts for.

This isn't even talking about finding music and SE(I try not to think too much about those either ...)

to build something unique is a true undertaking for a single developer.

 

[KekKoo]

Also, when its about 3d games, not everyone has a good enough computer to make or play them, thats another point.

Entirely this. People that DO also make 3D games, more often than not, the optimization is complete and utter SHIT.

 

[gamersglory]

ton's of reasons first major one is budgeting time and money on a monthly release cycle. VN's you can make with minimal people with somewhat low overhead most cost comes into buying assists and PC Parts same on any other type of game but when you go to a fully 3d game with all kinds of features you will need a good-sized team and it will require them working Full-time plus so they need to be paid. Patreon is not very conducive to that kind of game. When you add in Adult content that adds a level that makes it hard to get 3rd party funding to develop that game as a Patreon might help a bit with money but you really would need an investor.

 

[Deleted member 1370694]

When it comes to adult content I prefer story and character development in its more classic form. VNs are a good choice for that. When I want rich gameplay I prefer story to be subtle and in the background to not hinder the gameplay.
Or maybe I haven't played an adult game yet that has gameplay that same time doesn't hinder the character development and erotic story AND also presents an interesting and rich gameplay. I think this is almost impossible.

Some VNs have some gameplay. LLTP for example but its gameplay is more of that style that is well known for working well with story like similar to point and click, sleuthing, multiple choice, puzzling.

But i can't imagine an adult game which really rich gameplay where gameplay is the focus and not being repetitive and not missing the erotic and hurting the story because of this.

 

[alex13_zen]

I assume VNs are cheaper and easier to create from a technical perspective (though I'm sure they're neither easy nor cheap). They are also mostly easy to play and don't usually require a lot of brain power to learn the gameplay. This is important to me because when I come home after work I want to switch my brain off a little and relax. Getting aroused by the hot girls in lewd VNs is also a big plus
Also these games can focus on storytelling and building relationships with the other characters which creates immersion and helps with taking a break from the real world.

 

[freedom.call]

I only play VNs. If I wanted battle, combat, running around clicking on everything there are probably better options available than what's in here.