Opening Movies in Visual Novels

This is something I need to tackle eventually, so I'll blog about it now.

Most EVN do not have opening movies. It's even questionable whether or not they SHOULD have movies, given their potential quality (or lack thereof). However, I'll admit that a lot of OP movies seem to have a decent amount of effort put into them. I'll give a list of some I knew of / could easily find just to show a variety of what is out there:

@CameliaGirls Doppelganger Doppelganger (2) duplicity Dy ...

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Mystery Discussion

First off, I'm probably gonna ditch the forums since they're dead and all. These blogs posts have been working out as better vehicles for discussion anyway.

Now, writing a murder mystery is not easy. While it is quite fun to think of all the ways the culprit could go about committing murder, there are a few things I've noticed in my progress:

1. Occam's Razor -- the simplest solution is usually the best. That is, a solution should not prompt more questions than it ans ...

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Writing For Fun

I'm going to start this off with a quote a friend of mine from Black Witch Project said: "Writing something because you enjoy what you are writing and want to tell the story will always make for the best writing you can write."

This is very true, and over the past two years the notion has been firmly cemented in my head. Usually I first noticed that I was not enjoying the end product, and I asked myself what I could have done better. But that was backwards thinking. Because I wasn't h ...

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Presentation in Visual Novels

Now I've talked a lot about writing in my previous blog posts, so I'd like to mix it up with some new topics. Starting off, since it's relevant to what I'm working on: presentation. Making a VN look good before you release it (and I'm not talking about the graphics).

What I find is that the majority of EVNs (there are a few notable exceptions), even if they have decent writing or art, aren't presented well. I would say that this is because of a lack of programming expertise, as well a ...

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Character Development

That's what I've been doing and currently am working on.

One thing most EVN lack is character development. One reason may be that most EVN are short stories, often ranging from 5 to 30 minutes, in which there is hardly time to develop a character. However, a more prominent reason may simply be that most EVN writers don't know HOW to develop characters.

It's a bit confusing, I think, but let me explain it like this: when you have a character concept, it always makes sense in yo ...

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Website Stuff

Not much worth reporting, but I figured out how to set up a poll. Should be interesting to see people's responses. Have fun with it.

We also have a Twitter now. Check it out at the top-right along with Facebook!

Oh, and the comment colors should be fixed. I think the issue was that the color no longer exists as a choice so it reverted to black, or whatever. Weird.

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No Reason To Post

But I will anyway.

Really happy to say that VN progress is going well. Managed to reprogram a few neat functions and finished writing the main story. Just need to touch up some things here and there and we're all set! (although that takes far longer than what one might think...)

One thing I was discussing in some previous posts was interactivity. Ultimately, after taking into consideration everything that was said, Detective Butler won't be having any interactive parts. Trying ...

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Revisions

I'd like to post more often about progress, but I've unfortunately been kept busy due to REAL LIFE! Although in my spare time I have been relentlessly editing the game in ways that should definitely be worth the effort. I'll have more time to do things in the latter half of next month, but I am doing my best to get as much done as possible before then.

One technique I find particularly helpful is keeping a text document of changes I plan to make. Then whenever I have some spare time, ...

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