I'm starting to work on a visual novel, any thoughts?

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So since I got two different responses to the character question, I'm trying a poll instead. ^^

Faceless character, the screen will be your eyes.
18
62%
Pictured character, where I will try to have 2 feminine options, and 2 masculine options the player can pick from. (Maybe more if I can get it to work properly)
11
38%
 
Total votes : 29

I'm starting to work on a visual novel, any thoughts?

Postby ButtSlut23 » Wed Jul 21, 2021 3:47 am

I'm starting to work on a visual novel with vore themes, I'm using Ren'Py, and I will be doing the script and art myself.

(Mainly anal vore, oral vore, and some cock vore and unbirth. And I am making disposal scenes a choice, if the player picks no disposal it'll be more absorbtion)

I am struggling with the decision regarding the player character however.

Would most people prefer a faceless character, so you only pick your own name and pronouns? Then all the art will be more shots focusing on the 'camera' your eyes.

If this one is better, what person should the script be written in? First, Second or Third?

Or would most prefer a pictured character, you can still choose the name and pronouns, but there will be 2 maybe 4, if I can manage to make it work properly, choices of character design.

If this one is better, what person should the script be written in? First, Second or Third?

I am not that far into the project yet, and just wanted to hear what you all think will work better.

Thank you for any and all feedback!
Last edited by ButtSlut23 on Thu Jul 22, 2021 1:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: I'm starting to work on a visual novel, any thoughts?

Postby Shugoki » Wed Jul 21, 2021 12:54 pm

I think a first-person POV would be fine, but it'd be nice if we could have the option to look down and see the PC's belly, and maybe have the option to pick between a male and female character to decide what we see when we look down. That's something I always wish first-person vore games like this had.
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Re: I'm starting to work on a visual novel, any thoughts?

Postby JohnOfAllTrades » Wed Jul 21, 2021 2:40 pm

I think first person text with a third person view of your character (showing different angles) is probably best. I feel like a first person view wouldn't allow for as good of views of all the stuff people want to see, with it mostly just focusing only on appealing to the most pred minded people. Also, I feel just having a feminine and a masculine body type with a breast toggle would probably cover most options, but it would of course take extra work (I am all too familiar with the difficulties of art that accounts for alt bust sizes...)

Separate from that though... Are you planning for there to be bone disposal or is disposal just going to be scat?
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Re: I'm starting to work on a visual novel, any thoughts?

Postby ButtSlut23 » Wed Jul 21, 2021 3:20 pm

I was thinking scat, mostly just cause I don't understand the appeal of bone disposal myself.
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Re: I'm starting to work on a visual novel, any thoughts?

Postby JohnOfAllTrades » Wed Jul 21, 2021 3:33 pm

ButtSlut23 wrote:I was thinking scat, mostly just cause I don't understand the appeal of bone disposal myself.


The fact that the prey is all gone except for their bones is very VERY appealing to me personally (in the actual bone disposal AND before it quite gets to that point when the belly is full of mostly digested meat and the bones) as is the imagery of a girl pushing the bones out. I can't speak for everyone that likes it though. Also gets past all the bad parts of scat
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Re: I'm starting to work on a visual novel, any thoughts?

Postby Chessa » Wed Jul 21, 2021 3:34 pm

ButtSlut23 wrote:I'm starting to work on a visual novel with vore themes, I'm using Ren'Py, and I will be doing the script and art myself.

(Mainly anal vore, oral vore, and some cock vore and unbirth. And I am making disposal scenes a choice, if the player picks no disposal it'll be more absorbtion)

I am struggling with the decision regarding the player character however.

Would most people prefer a faceless character, so you only pick your own name and pronouns? Then all the art will be more shots focusing on the 'camera' your eyes.

If this one is better, what person should the script be written in? First, Second or Third?

Or would most prefer a pictured character, you can still choose the name and pronouns, but there will be 2 maybe 4, if I can manage to make it work properly, choices of character design.

If this one is better, what person should the script be written in? First, Second or Third?

I am not that far into the project yet, and just wanted to hear what you all think will work better.

Thank you for any and all feedback!


I'd *Heavily* encourage you to move to the Godot engine and use the new Dialogic add-on. It has a large amount of possibilities and less restrictions to your code. You could have a visual novel that has the undertale combat system with it, as an example, and it wouldn't be monolithic to code, the code for it is already there and just needs to be adapted, even. It continues to expand, I'm half-way through making the start of a visual novel as well and it has impressed the hecc out of me.
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Re: I'm starting to work on a visual novel, any thoughts?

Postby ButtSlut23 » Wed Jul 21, 2021 4:15 pm

JohnOfAllTrades I'll consider putting in a bone disposal choice too then, and I'll try looking into the Godot Engine
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Re: I'm starting to work on a visual novel, any thoughts?

Postby JohnOfAllTrades » Wed Jul 21, 2021 4:26 pm

ButtSlut23 wrote:JohnOfAllTrades I'll consider putting in a bone disposal choice too then, and I'll try looking into the Godot Engine


Very much appreciated! And good luck on it. I don't know how much I could do, but if you ever find yourself needing help on the art side let me know.
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Re: I'm starting to work on a visual novel, any thoughts?

Postby ryanshowseason3 » Wed Jul 21, 2021 5:35 pm

Looked up dialogic and godot.

It looks pretty nice, a drag and drop interface for character presentation and dialog. It's pretty simple to make a scene. Where things start to get fuzzy is persistent saves and loading it comes out of the box with renpy and I wasn't sure how that is handled with godot dialogic. There's nothing in the video for it at least. If that isn't present I hope it is a short game that can be played in a single sitting!

Then signal emitting seems... ok. Feels awkward and clunky to extract data from scenes like that. Why not just set variables and use those to decide what happens next?

Managing all the images for a character this way seems pretty convenient but if you're trying to do anything programatic then I don't think dialogic would really work well. Say for instance you want a character to say "I'm going to eat you" but who that character is depends on a variable and it could be any number of options. Well in dialogic you'd have to create a scene for every single one then choose which scene in the main script. In renpy you'd just set the character var and make the text call for them to say the line. Easily just a few lines of code but in dialogic, separate scenes for every one of them.

For instance I've got a side project of a truth or dare game where the person asking truth or dare can be anyone of four girls or the player. This would be a nightmare in dialogic because I'd have to make separate scenes for each girl. Also the goal is for the girls to have randomized appearances. All but impossible in dialogic so renpy it is for me.

If it's going to be simple then I'd say dialogic is a good option. Anything advanced and you might want something like renpy.

This directly affects your desire to perhaps have a variable main character appearance. I estimate dialogic would make that difficult because characters have static image sets it seems.

In my opinion a faceless character is best in a prey game. A player as pred game though people definitely want to see the results of the vore so an appearance is needed. Does it need to be variable? In my opinion no. If only for the reason that making these games isn't our jobs, most of us making them for the vore community are doing it for fun and to give back. I implore you not to make it so much work you'll be burdened by it. Think small and expand at your willingness.

Sorry to turn this into a developer thread.

EDIT: Other things missing from dialogic visual novel wise...
Rollback?
Skip text?
Developer console? Might be there dunno
Built in preferences for sound text speed etc
History?
Auto text mode?

Just a lot in renpy out of the box *shrug*
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Re: I'm starting to work on a visual novel, any thoughts?

Postby ButtSlut23 » Wed Jul 21, 2021 6:26 pm

Looking at the mess that is my chart for what endings go where, and what routes take you to what endings...etc, I think this project might get really big, I have 3 settings you can pick from at the start, and I have 23? or so endings just for the first of those 3, and I intend on keeping them all similar in length and with at least 20 different endings for each. And I already have to write the script in a way that let's any pronouns the player chooses work, and I don't know if there is an easier way to do this, but considering I want the player to pick if they have a vulva or penis, and I want to give them the choice between scat endings or absorption... I think I have to have 4 seperate copies of all of those routes and endings with re-writes depending on genitals and disposal preference.

It's not going to be a small or short game.
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Re: I'm starting to work on a visual novel, any thoughts?

Postby Chessa » Wed Jul 21, 2021 6:28 pm

That's true but Renpy is very limited in the programming side of things. Also a developer has a save/load system out for Dialogic rn.

The Godot engine also has another visual novel system called Rakugo, which aims to mimic Renpy in near every way, but I dunno how to work that thing honestly, maybe look at that too.

It's totally okay to just go with Renpy, I'm just trying to bring another option people usually don't consider and has a lot of possibilities to the table, it charmed me at least.
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Re: I'm starting to work on a visual novel, any thoughts?

Postby ButtSlut23 » Wed Jul 21, 2021 7:07 pm

Thanks for telling me Chessa, I'll try and look more into what I can do with Godot. My main issue with renpy right now is trying to make my choices work without making way too big a game file.
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Re: I'm starting to work on a visual novel, any thoughts?

Postby ryanshowseason3 » Wed Jul 21, 2021 8:10 pm

Chessa wrote:That's true but Renpy is very limited in the programming side of things.


Not sure how, you have the entirety of python at your beck and call. It's not a closed scripting language. Only barrier is learning python but you could essentially even shove a python chatbot into renpy if you cared to.

ButtSlut23 wrote:Looking at the mess that is my chart for what endings go where, and what routes take you to what endings...etc, I think this project might get really big, I have 3 settings you can pick from at the start, and I have 23? or so endings just for the first of those 3, and I intend on keeping them all similar in length and with at least 20 different endings for each. And I already have to write the script in a way that let's any pronouns the player chooses work, and I don't know if there is an easier way to do this, but considering I want the player to pick if they have a vulva or penis, and I want to give them the choice between scat endings or absorption... I think I have to have 4 seperate copies of all of those routes and endings with re-writes depending on genitals and disposal preference.

It's not going to be a small or short game.


That's ambitious.

You'll have to insert variables into the dialog whenever a pronoun is used. That goes for either option, renpy or godot have solutions for it.

The vulva vs penis is more complicated as you simply don't do the same things with those different equipment. You'll probably be if/else 'ing dialog and narration based on it. Same goes for scat / absorb.

This isn't hard, just tedious.

I don't think either option will make 60+ endings easy to track and maintain. It does sound straightforward enough though that you aren't going to be doing anything terribly complex coding wise. Godot might be the right choice.

I'd recommend making the first scene, decision and branching path in both and decide which feels right. As someone who codes for a living renpy feels at home for me. For others though godot's drag and drop might feel much more friendly and less error prone. (renpy is unforgiving on syntax!)
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Re: I'm starting to work on a visual novel, any thoughts?

Postby ButtSlut23 » Thu Jul 22, 2021 5:55 am

I have tried to get my script into godot, with the rakugo thing installed. And first major issue is there is limited to no help anywhere for rakugo. With renpy I can just google my issue and I'll find several ways to fix said issue, or people sharing how they accomplished some things that I can use for my own game. But Rakugo has very little of that sort, meaning it will take me much longer to figure things out myself, so what do I do if I run into more issues? Rakugo seems to be too new of a program to work for someone who is just starting out with game making. Renpy is still more user friendly for those just starting out
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Re: I'm starting to work on a visual novel, any thoughts?

Postby Chessa » Thu Jul 22, 2021 9:07 am

Don't feel compelled to use anything but what you're comfortable with, I just thought since it was helping me it might be worth mentioning, thank you for looking tho ^_^ And good luck
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Re: I'm starting to work on a visual novel, any thoughts?

Postby HoneyCookie » Mon Jul 26, 2021 3:42 am

Would most people prefer a faceless character, so you only pick your own name and pronouns?
A: Yes, own name and pronouns! Thats great!

Then all the art will be more shots focusing on the 'camera' your eyes.
A: Perfect!

If this one is better, what person should the script be written in? First, Second or Third?
A: How about first person, but second to show NPC thoughts, and sometimes third?

Or would most prefer a pictured character, you can still choose the name and pronouns, but there will be 2 maybe 4, if I can manage to make it work properly, choices of character design.
A: To much work, but if you want, that will be great.

If this one is better, what person should the script be written in? First, Second or Third?
A: How about first person, but second to show NPC thoughts, and sometimes third?
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Re: I'm starting to work on a visual novel, any thoughts?

Postby NightRoller » Mon Jul 26, 2021 9:22 pm

Chessa wrote:
ButtSlut23 wrote:I'm starting to work on a visual novel with vore themes, I'm using Ren'Py, and I will be doing the script and art myself.

(Mainly anal vore, oral vore, and some cock vore and unbirth. And I am making disposal scenes a choice, if the player picks no disposal it'll be more absorbtion)

I am struggling with the decision regarding the player character however.

Would most people prefer a faceless character, so you only pick your own name and pronouns? Then all the art will be more shots focusing on the 'camera' your eyes.

If this one is better, what person should the script be written in? First, Second or Third?

Or would most prefer a pictured character, you can still choose the name and pronouns, but there will be 2 maybe 4, if I can manage to make it work properly, choices of character design.

If this one is better, what person should the script be written in? First, Second or Third?

I am not that far into the project yet, and just wanted to hear what you all think will work better.

Thank you for any and all feedback!


I'd *Heavily* encourage you to move to the Godot engine and use the new Dialogic add-on. It has a large amount of possibilities and less restrictions to your code. You could have a visual novel that has the undertale combat system with it, as an example, and it wouldn't be monolithic to code, the code for it is already there and just needs to be adapted, even. It continues to expand, I'm half-way through making the start of a visual novel as well and it has impressed the hecc out of me.



Okay, this is super awesome information to find. There's a lot of recent game development posts here, and learning more about what's out there for Godot is awesome for me.
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Re: I'm starting to work on a visual novel, any thoughts?

Postby Heedless » Sun Aug 01, 2021 5:57 am

You might want to check out the free demo of 'Voronica Cleans House' (disclosure, my game) viewtopic.php?f=79&t=60992 and the public build of 'It's a gluttonous life' viewtopic.php?f=79&t=60758

These give examples of vore visual novels from a third and first person view point respectively.
VCH is pred focused and IAGL is prey focused, which, in my opinion, is the best choice for their respective themes (i.e. pred works best with third, prey works best with first)
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Re: I'm starting to work on a visual novel, any thoughts?

Postby Cielie » Sun Aug 01, 2021 3:55 pm

ButtSlut23 wrote:I'm starting to work on a visual novel with vore themes, I'm using Ren'Py, and I will be doing the script and art myself.

(Mainly anal vore, oral vore, and some cock vore and unbirth. And I am making disposal scenes a choice, if the player picks no disposal it'll be more absorbtion)

I am struggling with the decision regarding the player character however.

Would most people prefer a faceless character, so you only pick your own name and pronouns? Then all the art will be more shots focusing on the 'camera' your eyes.

If this one is better, what person should the script be written in? First, Second or Third?

Or would most prefer a pictured character, you can still choose the name and pronouns, but there will be 2 maybe 4, if I can manage to make it work properly, choices of character design.

If this one is better, what person should the script be written in? First, Second or Third?

I am not that far into the project yet, and just wanted to hear what you all think will work better.

Thank you for any and all feedback!


I would have vote for the pictured version if there was more than 2 gender's available or more customization on them. But that would make the project way more complicated.
Second person would be my personal preference.
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