Thread for discussing English language visual novels and their development.
Do you have a question about an originally-Japanese visual novel or a translation of it?
/vn/ is ready to answer it. We are not them.
>Developer Resources, Getting Started:
pastebin.com
>Recommended Reading:
vndb.org
pastebin.com
>For Developers. Huge collection of guides on everything:
lemmasoft.renai.us
>Ren'Py Download:
renpy.org
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first for we're all gonna make it (unless you're a slut, slut's place is in the trash)
He reminds me of my senpai
>browsing Veeky Forums with noscript
do you seriously refresh the page every time you want to see new posts?
>tfw can't download the demo
;_;
i do
how often does one want to see new posts anyway
No, I whitelisted some features of course. I usually go to other boards and only check evn if I see more than 2 new posts in the thread watcher anyway (because a single post is likely a lonesome bump).
>I used a cheat code to make an event happen in a dating sim that was never meant to happen and I didn't get a special custom storyline based around that!!! This game is so fucking lazy!!!
I want to witness this stupidity first-hand, where is the link famalam
you just click the update button tardlet
hitting f5 takes less effort than clicking
Oh shit those hands
you might actually be clinically retarded
Please forgive my shilling, but I was waiting to catch the start of a new thread to post this. We put out a new blog post showing off some progress and stuff, any and all feedback would be appreciated.
>Sam
Advance Wars?
That NVL-mode screenshot fucks with my eyes really badly
The brightness of the background coupled with the text just destroys me
I follow your blog in a bookmark folder that I check almost daily. Good stuff, hope to see more.
your point?
>He's not perfect, but in terms of writing, Aura is leagues beyond any other Western visual novelist, and probably most of the japs as well.
This desu.
Has he done anything since KS?
I'd be lying if I said some inspiration hadn't been drawn from there, yeah.
Hmm. I understand what you mean about the juxtaposition there. I'm not sure there's a whole lot we can do about it right now, but I can say that that's not a typical BG, or even one that gets used again after that point.
Hey, thank you! Considering how often we update though, almost daily is probably overkill.
I suspect 'leagues beyond ANY other' suggests not being widely read, but it's definitely far above average
ITT using a thesaurus and trite metaphors puts you leagues beyond those other evns
>ITT using a thesaurus and trite metaphors puts you leagues beyond those other evns
The voice he uses comes across as pretentious from time to time, now that you mention it.
Fancy language != good writing
trips of truth
But I follow a *lot* of other projects, so I usually see a new update at least every other day from somewhere.
I don't remember Rin's route having fancy language. Rin talked in riddles at times, but it never felt out of character or pretentious.
From what I remember of Aura's posts in the wake of KS' release, he probably put a lot of himself in Rin. He isn't really pretentious, just eccentric and chronically misunderstood.
The fact that this is what you take away from Aura's writing says everything.
Rin's route was a cut above the rest for a few reasons, and "vocabulary" and "metaphors" are not what come to mind. First and foremost, the character writing was rock solid. Both Hisao and Rin were heavily flawed, and when they constantly sabotaged themselves and each other, it never feels like the author is forcing it to happen. Everything that happens, happens because of who the characters are.
Another thing is how Aura works with the overarching narrative. Rin's entire ordeal is a direct mirror of Hisao's, right down to being fed fruit. That's the kind of thing that amateur writers don't even think about, because they're only thinking about the immediate plot.
It also has some awesome setpieces, like Rin and Hisao lying on the floor of the studio passing the cigarette back and forth.
The whole just comes together very well.
It also helped that Rin was just an interesting, and somewhat novel, character. It wasn't hard to sympathize with Hisao's misplaced desire to "solve" her.
drink some beer
beer is the worst
tastes like hot garbage and has barely any alcohol
I would sooner take straight shots of vodka
why should I
...
from the thumbnail I thought it was a picture of that stereotypical tumblr SJW with blonde dreadlocks
>fed fruit
It's been years since I read KS, what fruit?
Using a thesaurus isn't what makes someone a good writer. Even without using big words, he still captures description very well. The best example I can think of is his description of cutting an orange in the third act, which manages to capture the experience beautifully even through the use of simple words.
His use of metaphor also does solidify him as a skilled writer. A key part of good writing is being able to say something without saying it directly - a process which is usually boiled down to "show don't tell." The number of clever symbols and metaphors Aura fills his script with to accomplish this is insane - using art as a metaphor for Rin, the sky and flowers as symbols for change, the passage of time as a symbol for being trapped in life, and characters' synchronised steps as a sign of their mutual understanding. I'm sure there's plenty of others that I've missed. The net result is being able to say a lot more, with a lot less, in a much more memorable way.
I haven't read every EVN, but even then whenever this is bought up I can't think of many candidates for better writers. He's considerably better than Jeremy Miller, who is often held up as one of the best. The only other names which have come up are Christine Love, the guy who wrote UAB, and Moacube's writer.
What's-her-face fed Hisao an apple while he was in the hospital in the beginning, then Hisao fed Rin an orange(I think) in the apartment.
>Moacube's writer.
The writing itself is great, but whoever comes with the plots... god. It's like a really polished turd.
>Jeremy Miller, who is often held up as one of the best.
when? by whom? EVER?
i have literally never seen anyone call him the best writer.
Different user, but who would you nominate instead?
Christine Love is very hit and miss. Has done some good things, has done some things so awful even she tries to pretend she didn't write them. I'm still not sure what to expect from this upcoming bondage porn affair.
Someone's been in here a few times trying to hold up ebi-hime as the best EVN author. I've also seen people mention fervent studios and whoever wrote that We Know The Devil game.
>trying to hold up ebi-hime as the best EVN author
Literally who? She's pretty okay at best.
>I'm still not sure what to expect from this upcoming bondage porn affair.
A bait and switch where you think you're getting a silly sex game but end up with preaching about gender and sexuality.
I'll agree with in that I thought Cupid was well-written, though like most EVN producers there isn't really a large enough body of work to be sure about the overall skill level or whether it was just a happy accident.
>I'm still not sure what to expect from this upcoming bondage porn affair.
A bait and switch where you think you're getting a silly sex game but end up with preaching about gender and sexuality, but actually end up with a silly sex game after all.
I can handle a little bit of preaching if the rest is fun, the balance remains to be seen.
A bait and switch where you think you're getting a silly sex game but end up with preaching about gender and sexuality, but actually end up with a silly sex game after all, but then there's a bunch of meta chewing you out for not being able to handle the issues brought up.
Ebihime is a goddess, I dream of her penetrating me with her giant cuck.
So did Aura ever write anything else?
I guess that's a "no".
...
...
>This isn't an opportunity, don't call it an opportunity. Don't call it a goddamn opportunity.
>A special school. That's...
>An insult. That is what I want to say. It's a step down.
Replaying Katawa because of the discussion, and man, I forgot how fucking miserable Hisao is in the beginning. Nigga is straight up SAVAGE with the cripple vitriol.
How would you feel if you got sent to retard school?
>Finally, I'm surrounded by people less competent than I am.
>implying
Well, that's how I would feel in response to the news. Then I would get there and realize that everyone is still more functional than I am, and I'm still human garbage.