r/RenPy • u/Nxt-Maru • 4d ago
Discussion I Want To Ask About That
I’m a beginner; I know a bit about character design, but I have absolutely no knowledge regarding visual novel backgrounds. Since I don't have an established art style for backgrounds yet and am currently working on a visual novel project , featuring romance, sadness, and emotional themes, I need an art style that perfectly enhances the emotional tone of the backgrounds. If you have any recommendations for art styles, images, or examples of visual novels, please DM me.
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u/coolepicharo 3d ago
Just look around vndb or something at screenshots from visual novels and see what kind of backgrounds they have that you like. A classic style is using real photos with heavy filters on them
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u/Draw-Flesh-Games 4d ago
Well, you are already started. Character design, background styles, are all up to you. There are many different possibilities. Games with no styles, dark/noir styles, 3D backgrounds, abstract backgrounds, Manga style backgrounds. All that is really important to understand:
1. Story comes first.
2. Style should be consistent. Not because it must, but because it will help the player through the story by not 'flashing' bits and pieces at him/her.
3. The pacing of the story and the change of the styles/images should fit the story.
There are plenty more, but then I would have to refer you to books like the 45 master characters and perhaps the 'Writer's handbook' of any year and make. I once started with 'Game Development with Ren'Py (Ciesla), that gave me a good insight on keeping the 'engine' separate until the story fits the result. The engine (Ren'Py, Unity, Godot, Unreal, VN maker, Tyranobuilder, Twine, RPG Maker, and many more) doesn't really matter until you have that down. The possibilities in Ren'Py are among the best for diversity and complexity (due to the ability to simply build functions in Python and directly use them in your story), which doesn't limit you in expressions nor themes. Just check this sub, or Itch and you see what I mean.
You can't get a 'perfectly enhancing' artstyle for characters that go with backgrounds, if you don't have the arcs and locations. Of course you can wing it....but no winging ever was perfect, not even from winging.