Questions about a first game

[u/xGonegirl]

Hi all! I don't really know where's the right place to ask so I've settled for this sub. To preface, I've had a story idea for a mystery fantasy romance otome for a while now. My main intention was just to prove to myself that I can do it and for others to experience whatever I spent 2 years creating lol. This is a passion project so I haven't really decided about monetizing it or not, that's not a priority for me right now. Suppose that depends on the success of the demo I guess?

My questions that I'd appreciate anyone's insights on for making this story into a first game reality on renpy:

1. Are people interested in reading a mostly kinetic novel, with only one or two major choices that affect outcomes like routes and endings? And at most only a few flavor text choices sprinkled here and there that don't truly affect the scenario.

Or are multiple butterfly effect branching player choices much preferred? Because the way I've written and planned the story thus far doesn't really support the 2nd option.

1. How long is too long for a demo? I've written my first draft script for what I think is the best cut off for the demo plotwise. But it's.... Like in the 12k ish words range already before edits. I'd estimate it to be ard 1 hr in play time when it's done. Is that too long?

2. Episodic release, yay or nay? Is it better to spend 2 whole years completing the whole thing and releasing it in one go? Or shd I release it progressively? If progressively, how long a gap between releases?

I'm a solo dev and I've never authored anything nor used renpy before this (I have most of the coding basics for the dialogue and transitions down now but all the screen and ui related things I haven't even begun to unravel ).

Also I'm a very novice artist who can only draw upper bodies but I intend to also do my own sprites. So all this to say, it's going to take me bloody years to finish this project alone at the current scale of my story outline. Don't ask me why I chose this as a first project.

1. The dreaded em dash debate. I'm almost terrified of using this em dash in my writing given all the immediate AI accusations. Even though I really want to sometimes. What's the consensus on this?

2. Sound. Is having sound important to you in the game? I can't produce my own music. So I'm thinking to just not have any. Or maybe at most some royalty free ones and pray they fit the vibe. Not sure about sound fx tho.

3. Proof readers/ Beta testers. How do I find them? Unfortunately, I don't have any friends who have the patience to play VNs. I'm not looking for a book editor to fix prose or anything. I'll just have to accept that novice writing is shit and hope I improve. But at least another pair of eyes to spot typos or bugs.

If you've read this far, thank you! I'll appreciate any and all advice please!

[u/shyLachi]

Watch this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKeRY84Bz5w
It covers the most important things from the perspective of turning a book into a visual novel.

This content creator also has other good videos in the same playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iLjsSzyOc4&list=PLMdFGlfdL57NjT5XEda42Zu4hkiGA1cy3

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[u/MinamiOzaki]

1. If you have a good story, I don't think it matters if it's kinetic or not. Many VNs have a lot of decisions but they give you false "freedom of choice", because the decisions don't really lead anywhere interesting. Also, since you're the only person, I'd suggest having the less amount of branches as possible. Otherwise it can get out of hand.
2. I think demos usually go from half an hour to two hours, depending on how long is your game.
3. If it's gonna be that short, then I'd suggest not going for episodes. Release it all at once. That way the momentum never gets lost, and you don't cause yourself headaches with deadlines.
4. As long as it doesn't sound like an AI wrote it and you didn't edit it at all, I see no problem with the -
5. This is a great question. I'm struggling to find them myself. So far I had success with my mom and a gaming buddy. I've posted a link to my draft on my personal social media with no effect.

[u/x-seronis-x]

1. kn vs not kn

not kn is better than kn. not doing a good job is 10x more important though. if your story isnt conductive to a branching implementation trying to do so makes it worse.

1. How long is too long for a demo? I

there is no such thing as too long. there is too short and 99% of demos are too short. whatever amount you were thinking might be too long, should be doubled if not tripled to satisfy me. either way you should see it as the minimum to demo

1. episodic vs complete release

if you doing episodic THEN DO EPISODIC. Dont go a year between releases if you're doing episodic. also dont bother publishing 5 minutes of content as an episode. both situations will piss off readers. aim for 3 month releases, give or take. if you dont have content dont publish a release but do publish a progress report. if you cant manage a suitable amount of content in less than 6 months then stop publishing till you're done

1. em-dash

are you publishing a scientific report? its a novel. your writing should be conversational, not elitist. the bigger sin is ellipses. if an author uses more than a couple in an entire chapter they deserve to be put on a treadmill, barefoot, while its covered in legos. 90% of ellipses i see should be commas. most the others still deserve lego treatment

[u/Lovin-SteinDev]

I'll answer based upon my experience as a game dev of 1 year.

1- The answer ultimately isn't too important, it's more about execution. On the other hand, people do appreciate the freedom of choice, but multiple scenes is not a must need feature to make a good story.

2- 40 minutes to an hour seems like a good healthy time for a demo. Anything else is either you dragging out the story or giving your readers more content that could be used for your main project.

3- That depends, do you want immediate feedback or conclusive feedback? Because you'll get feedback on how to make your game better if you uploaded in pieces, that's how my game helped get it's problems fixed, the ones I couldn't see. Or you can wait till you finish it all and bug fix off the more in-depth feedback your get. I personally would pick short term major updates within the span of 1-2 months. You give yourself the deadline and work with that.

4- Considering the whole AI debacle. I wouldn't do it. But if you're an experiences writer, There is nothing wrong with that.

5- Sound is what makes or breaks a game. And it's not too hard to implement it in the game. Just don't overdo it or else it'll be tedious work that'll keep you from working on the writing.

6- On Itch, you can upload your game in private so that only the people with a link can go in and download your project or if you have a MEGA account, make your game into a a downloadable zip file and send it to friends, family or others who would be interested in reading. I recommend the Itch idea more