Hi everyone!
March already! Lets jump into answering some of your questions on visual novel development! As always, you can send in your questions here.
Hi! I've just gotten started using Ren'Py and have loved reading your blog posts about visual novel creation. My question is this: you've mentioned using google docs to outline your script. How do you format this for diverging storylines and scenes that correspond to player choices. Do you do multiple files or all in one long document? Also, do you ever use any flowchart software for plotting your games? I saw some people recommending twine, yEd, etc and was wondering what your opinion was on plotting with those types of software. I am very overwhelmed by the prospect of starting a project so all of your posts have been very helpful.
Thanks so much for your question!
This is actually a very fantastic point. I use a bit of a mix – I tend to keep common route and character routes in their own files (just so I don’t end up with a document that takes forever to load, and it’s easier to find what I’m looking for!). Otherwise, I keep branching choices and scenes that correspond to player choices within the one document.
However, I have the advantage of my games being *reasonably* linear. Yes, there’s scenes that go off in different directions, some that only happen if you made a specific choice previously, etc. etc., but in general the story comes back to the same string at some point.
If you’re making a game that has completely branching storylines, something more like “The Letter”, then doing it like this would probably just make it much too complicated.
I definitely recommend using a flowchart software. I actually created a flowchart for the choices of The Divine Speaker *after* writing, so that I could track where points were added to certain characters and make sure they were about equal. I can definitely see the advantage in creating one of these from the start, especially with a branching storyline, to plan out your narrative and plot points.
I have one part of The Divine Speaker that branches out a lot and I really enjoyed writing it, so this is something I want to work on more in the future.
The way I write the diverging storylines is pretty simple:
This is obviously branching depending on a choice you make then and there, but later on if certain scenes should only play depending on a previous choice, I just use “If x happened”. Being the programmer too, I don’t need to leave many notes for myself.
I’ve personally used Twine, and messed around with Google Flowchart a little for shorter things. I’ve also heard good things about Arcweave and Articy, although I haven’t tried them out!
Any general tips for a successful Kickstarter? Like what to offer as rewards, how to promote it, how long it should be or the best time to launch a campaign etc?
This is a pretty big question, so I’ll try to answer it in parts. This is all just based on my experience, and I’m sure you’ll find other people who do things in different ways, and there’s nothing wrong with that either!
Rewards
There’s a lot of different rewards you can offer for your Kickstarter, but one of the first things you should think about is… do you want to do physical rewards? They’re popular, but you will need to deal with manufacturers, samples, and a lot of shipping and packing. Will you limit your physical tiers to domestic only, or are you happy to do international shipping? You’ll need to weigh everything and be certain of the postage costs, lest you end up out of pocket when the fees are double what you expected!
For digital rewards, I like to offer: backers name in the credits, digital copies of the game, the soundtrack, the artbook (although keep in mine this is another thing you will have to create!) and pc/phone backgrounds, access to early builds of the game, NPC design, and lead director credit. There’s a lot out there you can offer where you don’t need to deal with shipping, so I think these are what you should plan for first.
For physical rewards, there are SO many things you could go with! Take a look through this website and you might get some ideas.
Here’s some of the things I like to offer: Prints (A4 or postcard size), dakimakura or small pillowcases, keychains, physical artbooks (although mind how heavy these can be), stickers, standees and washi tape. This barely scratches the surface of physical items you could offer.
How to Promote your Kickstarter
The most important thing here is to know the audience you’re trying to attract, and to make them aware of your Kickstarter. Easier said than done sometimes, especially if you’re new to the scene and still building up a following. There’s a few things I think you should definitely do, though:
- Have social media accounts long before you run your Kickstarter.
- Start posting about your game regularly and early on. This can be previews, backgrounds, CGs, script… anything that you can think of.
- Consider hiring some external artists to create promotional illustrations and have them post a link to your Kickstarter alongside it. As long as you talk to the artists beforehand about what it will be used for, of course!
- Make use of hashtags (#vndev, #vnlink, #gamedev, investigate!)
- Create a demo and try to get it on both Steam and Itch.io at least.
- Consider making a website, since it will make you look more professional.
- Make a Discord, if you think you’re able to keep up with it. It’s a great place to connect with your fans and create a personal connection with them.
- Make a press kit and do some research into streamers and youtubers who play games similar to yours. Email them a week or so before your Kickstarter launches and you should have some traffic from there.
- Find websites and forums you can post a link to your Kickstarter to.
- Make a mailing list for your big fans to join.
How Long Should It Be and Best Time to Launch a Campaign
There’s been a lot of talk around the best amount of time to run a campaign. The standard tends to be 30 days, which is probably your best bet.
For The Divine Speaker, we went for 45 days, and this is probably what we’ll continue with as we’ve had success with it before.
As for the best time, you want to avoid the lead up to Christmas as players won’t have as much spare income, and they’ll be looking for products that will be *out* by Christmas. I’d also avoid January. From March is usually pretty good.
As for day of the week, a lot of people say a Tuesday is best, but honestly there are a lot more important factors that go into your launch being successful than the day of the week. The reason Tuesday is so popular is because big companies usually launch then – once you account for that, the lead disappears.
I’d just avoid weekends and try to start it during the week at a time that accommodates as many timezones as possible.
Hopefully that helps! Try to get a decent following before you launch your campaign, be reasonable with your goal (especially if it’s your first project, as the trust isn’t there yet), and you should do just fine.
Hi! I've really enjoyed reading your tips on marketing, so I really hope you will do some more posts on that! My question is, do you have any marketers you're a fan of or could recommend?
Hey, thanks so much! I’ll definitely do some more in-depth articles on marketing in the future. If you have any other specific questions on it, I’d be happy to answer!
I have two favourite marketers I’d love to recommend:
Victoria Tran
Website | Twitter
Victoria is the community manager for Innersloth (Among us), and it’s an absolute delight to watch her talks and read her articles.
I really recommend her if you’re looking for articles and tips that feel very real. Take a look at her work if you’re interested in finding out more.
Chris Zukowski
Website | Twitter
Chris has got a website and mailing list filled to the brim with ideas, tips and tricks. In particular, I think his talks at GDC (here’s one I love!) are very simply laid out for anyone new to marketing/copywriting.
He also writes some great tips about Steam I think a lot of people would benefit from.
(Also, he convinced me to make a mailing list!)
Thanks once again for all your wonderful questions! Feel free to drop any others you have in our CuriousCat, and we’ll try to answer them next time.
Gabby