Visual Novels: A form of literacy you may not be familiar with

Good morning.  Since I seem to always blog about the somewhat obscure, I'll continue that trend with today's blog.  Visual novels are, to put it simply, downloadable stories that mix visuals along with large amounts of text.

This is from a visual novel titled Katawa Shoujo, an indie visual novel that is available for free to download.  The story presentation is usually portrayed in this way in visual novels, though the text can also be show in multiple different ways, such as taking up the entire screen with images behind it.

The visuals, however, usually go along with the emotions that are going on in the dialogue, the character models changing accordingly.  Often times there is also voice acting and music to go along with the narrative.

The visual novel is primarily something created in Japan, as Westerners mostly rely on old fashioned reading or the kindle.  However, the main problem is that the visual novel is often seen as a game, since it comes in the form on a PC or sometimes on video game consoles like the Playstation 3 (in Japan).  This messy circumstance keeps it from becoming too popular in the U.S. (beyond the Phoenix Wright series for the Nintendo DS), gamers too impatient to play something that is simply clicking through a series of dialogue, though there are often many choices presented to the reader in a visual novel, kind of like a Choose Your Own Adventure story.

Despite its lack of popularity, I find visual novels fascinating.  From a certain standpoint, I see it as a healthy alternative to actually reading a novel, as people today can be too impatient and be more visual orientated.  And the literary level of a visual novel can be quite high, many being just as long as an actual novel in how long it takes to finish one.  Though the market is small in the U.S., that's what fan translators are rectifying by making their own translations available.

Before I leave, I would like to mention that an ordinary person can make their own visual novel with little to no effort.  Ren'Py is an incredible source in creating your own visual novels.  Granted, the coding takes getting used to, but the forum is very active with very helpful members to get your project off the ground.  Also, the site has over 100 user created visual novels (Katawa Shoujo being one of them) on it to download, ranging from the most basic visual novel to a full-blown simulation game, though not all of the games are free of charge.  However, if you would like to work with a much simpler program, I would recommend Novelty, a very streamlined, easy to use program, though it does not have as much support as Ren'Py.  And even if you aren't an artist, there are several resources out there, which some can be found on the Ren'Py site, that you can use, such as free to use images, sound effects, and music.  I personally have used Ren'Py for my visual novel needs, and I continue to improve the more I get used to the format.  Also, it may be a good idea to write out a script you've been working on, say like a movie script or something to that extent, and get a good gist of how it may play out visually, though that might be stretching it a bit.

This is an early test I made while using Ren'Py.

Visual novels are very interesting in a literary standpoint.  They aren't simply a child's picture book, but a medium that can be enjoyed by many different people.

-Tyler Trosper