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The most interesting novels The best visual novels. Getting started with the program

Recent months have brought a sea of ​​scandals related to the sexualization of women in video games, some of which were downright ridiculous, and some of which were self-evident, although they still provoked heated protest from part of the public. For me, the most exciting game for girls is the Devil May Cry fighting game of any year of publication. Dante is so hot that driving him through a series of frenetic combos is like watching the lithe vampire from Bloodrayne jump on her victims in the past, or playing Lara Croft for a man in the past. All these things are, of course, very individual. I was wondering if there are games where only men are eroticized, and the woman chooses. In other words, this is not about the beauty of the male body, which is a side effect in games, because the torsos and muscles of the characters primarily symbolize strength. No, it's about games where men are objects to be possessed, about an exclusively female adventure. All released games are suitable for female players, but one sector remains uncovered for them. For men, there is a whole range of straightforward erotic games ranging from sexy beach to rapist simulator. For women, the situation is different - they are offered either creepy abstractions of sex in The Sims, or narrative branches of relationship development with companions in role-playing games (say, Bioware). In RPGs, companions are not objects, but individuals, parts of the plot, so the comparison will not be correct.

The new image of Dante made the fans nervous.

The only nation I know that makes romantic and erotic games for women are the Japanese. This is all the more surprising because Japan is an extremely conservative country in relation to both social and gender roles. This regimentation and conservatism has various enchanting side effects in the form of absurd humor, unusual subcultures, exotic ways to relieve stress and, of course, porn culture - from panty shots (pictures of girls' panties) to hentai.

The most harmless and beautiful relationship games for women are otome (visual novels and/or romantic dating sims). A visual novel for girls is an interactive slideshow where the main character's romantic adventure with one (or several, which is less common) of a set of basic anime male characters equally ready to become her chosen ones fits into the plot. A mysterious Byronic brunette, a merry boy, a shy half-child, and so on. men are inscribed in the storyline (escape, schooling, fantasy story, search for artifacts, war of the kingdoms, etc.). Plots can be different - from detective or fantasy to everyday life, but the main character of the story is a girl who falls in love with someone in the process of narration. Romantic otome novels are sublime, serene, their world is devoid of serious adversity, and they are oriented for the most part to young girls who are able, with the help of imagination and the flimsy support of a series of pictures, to experience romantic passions. However, if you are no longer a young girl, but have retained the ability to easily fly into reality with unicorns, princes and tragic love, then you will like it too. The plot is presented with the help of text comments and is accompanied by static shots of the characters, and the heroine can periodically make a choice to captivate this or that handsome man. It all ends with a chaste kiss.

Of course, women playing otome are also streaming and posting walkthroughs on Youtube, which is a very peculiar sight. Comparing the passage of horror by a grimacing cheerful man and the passage of "Dandelion" by an unknown girl is priceless. Seeing this, you can be sure that the world will surprise you with nothing. Here, . As you can see, games cause genuine emotions, lol.

The key pivot here is the plot, because otome novels are, rather, not games, but interactive books, where the girl is given the opportunity to choose some forks of the plot. You can compare them to an interactive comic. There are otome that are ironic about the canons of the genre, but still in general they are similar to each other and cover the same sector as the romantic television series. Some otome novels have simple gameplay and economics - to win the right handsome man you need to work, work and work (Always remember me) and / or train various characteristics in the spirit of "creativity", "discipline", etc., in order to win a certain male character. This gameplay is repetitive and often completely kills the romance, but can fuel the desire to finally end it and get the right hero. Stat-based games are much more boring and less eventful than simple visual novels, but with the right combination of boredom of routine and the brightness of occasional plot flashes, they can reach a nuclear effect. Getting stat based otome heroes can be difficult, but even a loss in this genre is framed as light sadness and the expectation of something new. In other words, the classic otome is full of cats and love to the brim. There is no eroticism in them, but because of the romantic tension, it definitely unfolds in the head of the playing girl. Otome cling to the imagination and make it work for a while after the game is over.

Let's look at some easily accessible examples. I chose them because of the ease of installation by beginners. "Yo-Djin-Bo" is a great example of a romantic visual novel (VN), which combines adventure with the ability to choose a romantic line with one of the mildly rival characters. In addition, the game is available in Russian, so it's perfect for parsing.

VN is a small interactive book, which for coloring is provided with music, images of the main characters and their voice actors (seiyu), making the characters more alive and impressive. "Yo-Djin-Bo" is entirely focused on girls and their experiences, the heroine is a girl from the modern world, who finds herself in the body of a princess of the past. They try to kill the princess, and she is protected by a whole set of attractive men, from which you can choose the one who will stay by your side until the very end. The characters are: 1) a handsome effeminate womanizer, 2) a daredevil-virgin, brave at heart, but not too diplomatic, 3) a handsome man who looks much younger than his years, 4) a courageous bodyguard older than the heroine, 5) an eccentric, obscene, healthy monk, 6) contemptuous and a skinny bespectacled killer wrapped in bdsm belts. Most of the characterizations are classic for both anime and romance novels, although they are usually limited to fewer options.

"Yo-Djin-Bo" are good in that they make fun of the canons of the genre right "in the frame", giving out idiotic jokes, but at the same time they honestly work out sublime dramatic romanticism, which even in such a frame hurts. Separately singled out lines of characters are executed very well, they individual and interesting in their own way, although the "good" endings are over-sweetened.But the same thing happens in romantic comedies from the TV screen.

From the point of view of romance, the usual tricks are involved in the game:

1) competition between men, the ability to choose.
You play as a girl who interests everyone in the company, they gently (or in the form of clumsy jokes) allude to this in conversations among themselves, creating excitement. Competition, fights between several men - a classic theme of successful (and not so) women's novels.

2) the experience of anticipation, daydreaming, which is triggered by an accidental fall into an embrace or the need to cling to a man during an escape.
In Yo-Djin-Bo, a number of these experiences are deliberately funny (and, by the way, completely exclude the male audience) - for example, when the princess thinks about the warm smell of a man's back when she is being carried by a bodyguard. But when done correctly, it still works.

3) the ability to choose the appropriate "stereotype" of the development of relations.
Everyone, no matter how he refuses, has it. Or there may be several. Some girls like to seduce the innocent, someone wants to be in the nets of a ladies' man, who suddenly became a model of fidelity only with her alone, someone gets turned on by someone else's coldness, and someone just needs to re-educate the bad guys, putting everything at stake. Any of these options is possible and well-designed. I, as it turned out, like bespectacled killers:

4) the presence of risk and drama.
In Yo-Djin-Bo you can lose your bodyguards, you can die. It comes to the ridiculous - when everything is fine, for characters with whom no special troubles have happened, a branch is launched in the spirit of the capture of the princess by a terrorist, and so on. The plot takes care of women - the victory should not be insipid, although sometimes this happens at the expense of common sense.

5) experience of "erotic danger".
In almost all such games, there are moments when the hero suddenly finds himself extremely close to the heroine, making the erotic threat palpable and desirable. Then this feeling is reinforced by demonstrating the train of thought of the heroine. For example, in Yo-Djin-Bo, everyone stops by the bathhouse, jokes for a long time about the possibility of sharing a bath with the princess, and then she washes alone, thinking that there are so many naked men around, ah, ah, no, it seems she already blushing. In otome games, the number of falls of the heroine on a man, participation in nightmares, during which he can grab the heroine and pull him to him, and so on are incalculable.

7) stylish villains.
They want you dead, they are pompous and mean, but their guile is attractive. In several endings of "Yo-Djin-Bo", the princess manages to influence even the villains with her beauty and courage.

Japanese otome VNs have one clear feature - as a rule, interest in several characters is not encouraged here, you must choose (and preferably immediately) one of them. Therefore, Western players accustomed to RPGs often get lost, wanting to chat and find out more about all the heroes, and then lose. It is customary to go through the lines of several or all characters in sequence. In this way, bonuses are opened and hidden parts of the story become clear.

If we talk about the sexualization of characters, then VMs affect three types of perception: some of the characters openly exploit their sexuality - we see Jin's press (the acquaintance itself begins with a conversation about nipples), Ittosai is almost naked, etc.; the other part - appearance (Bo - bisenen, Yo - a young asexual boy), the third - the classic "male" qualities that also evoke a response in women (reliability, courage, readiness for self-sacrifice, fidelity). In other words, straightforward sexualization of the body is combined with personal qualities. A hero becomes desirable not only because he is attractive, but also because he behaves correctly. Also, the way the story is presented encourages fantasy. The main idea of ​​the approach is well understood here:

But that doesn't change the fact that the writers gave each character a great story. For example, I spent several pleasant hours playing the game during the study. In addition, visual novels are good for those who do not have serious gaming experience, because there is nothing to do here other than choosing lines that trigger a certain fork of the story. Those. low entry threshold.

Another good example of a genre is the novella. (P)lanets: the life of normalcy has ended(You can also download it in English there). The novella is not very inventive, although it is nicely drawn, but the plot and dialogues in it are worked out pretty well. Also in the novel is an extremely businesslike and sensible heroine, not inclined either to overestimate someone else's beauty, or to be too impressed by someone else's rudeness. Most often, the otome heroine is shy, and this is not suitable for everyone.

The schoolgirl falls, hits her head - and acquires the ability to telepathy. Once she realizes that hearing people's thoughts is terrible, she is taken from her home by Kai, a surly tsundere whose thoughts she cannot read. Kai, along with the friendly, cheerful Ryu and the shy, handsome Lukan, study at a special school for children with amazing abilities. The heroine will have to learn how to block the ability to hear other people's thoughts, and at the same time make friends with the guys, unravel their secrets and fall in love with someone. The school atmosphere, friendship, hope for the best are well conveyed in Planets, and all the boys are great guys with whom you always want to stay. Not for any finals, but just as a pastime in a sun-drenched classroom.

As for romantic lines, (P)lanets: the life of normalcy has ended! choose almost immediately. Kai behaves like a jerk, he is cold, offensive, lonely and has an incomprehensible power that everyone around fears. Some women are not able to resist such an alignment if the balance between "asshole", "mysterious" and "smart/powerful" is properly set. He responds to all attempts at contact immediately - and not at all in the way that a romantic girl could expect. Planets is successful in that the main character reacts to everything adequately and with humor, without turning into a rag. If you insist for a long time, Kai will open up, save you, all his strength, soul and body will belong to you, lalala. In this, games are much better than reality, where such characters are not villains with a heart of gold, but simply boring unpleasant people. Anyway, Kai is great. His dislike is well-written, and winning at the expense of hardship is a lot of fun.

The other two characters are much more friendly and affable, they are ready to support you and are more open, so it is much easier to communicate with them. Lucan is the most popular guy in the class and has long blonde hair, piercings and an embarrassed face. He himself does not seem to enjoy the waves of attention from girls (who even organized his fan club) and is constantly trying to hide from them. Therefore, meeting the main character, who talks to him like an ordinary person, almost immediately makes Lukan her friend. If in order for Kai to recognize you as a friend, you have to run the whole game, then Lucan does not need to be persuaded. Shyness turns him into a child, which not everyone finds attractive, but Lucan also has an unexpected secret. Ryu laughs and has fun, but this superficiality also hides the drama.

Planets is a nice, light thing, similar in mood to "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time" by Mamoru.

As a leveling game, consider Korean Dandelion: wishes brought to you.. This is an unusual dating sim with beautiful art, many tragic endings and an unusual plot. At the same time, it is a diabolical, long juicer with monotonous gameplay, a tiny number of story scenes and the need for hours (!) to perform the same actions in order to pump "femininity" or "knowledge of the art." I think the previous sentence exhaustively describes this type of game.

What role did Reiji play in this route? He served her a shit ton of alcohol:roll: And at the end he’s all like “i’ll comfort you…with my penis.” So they end up at his penthouse (lol?) and do it…and not even in a romantic way! He pushes her against the freaking glass for the whole world to see sigh. God damnit Tiaramode.

I am her fan. We need more such bloggers in Russian.

Against the backdrop of the development of the genre of interactive cinema, in the presence of such things as Life is Strange, The Walking Dead and other high-quality samples, the visual novel genre somehow faded and diminished.

But, nevertheless, this does not mean that he disappeared completely. The portal site presents to your attention the TOP 10 visual novels that you should pay attention to in 2017.

10.

The earth is no longer habitable. Earth is no longer trusted as a home, and now the colonization of new planets falls to the crew of the Everett ship, consisting of the brightest and best people from Earth.

Quantum Suicide is such a Danganronpa . There is a ship. There is a player. There are a bunch of characters stuck on this ship with the player and the ability to socialize, build relationships, make plans, and... die.

Of course, there is also a mastermind. Everything is in place. And even a little character customization is also present. How long you manage to survive on the ship is only your concern.

9.

It just so happened that for all the wildest dreams and goals, money is needed. And the main character of World End Economica found himself in a similar situation.

What made this visual novel famous are its authors, among them Isuna Hasekura, the author of the much-loved Spice and Wolf manga.

Of course, there are similarities in these two works - World End Economica is such a rethinking of "Spice and Wolf" in the modern, capitalist world. This is what makes the novel unique and worth reading.

8.

Va-11 Hall-a, although it tries very hard to position itself as a "bartender simulator", but, nevertheless, there is much more of a visual novel in it. And mixing various cocktails is rather a way to get to know the characters and their taste preferences better than a separate well-developed layer of gameplay.

This game flaunts a special aesthetic that incorporates at the same time , anime and retrowave. This cozy pixel art picture hides many stories about your bar patrons and their past.

It is worth saying that getting to know them and communicating with them is really interesting - as well as mixing a variety of cocktails for them. Va-11 Hall-a is quite a good field for experiments and a good way to relax.

7.

In the near future, Anonymous;Code shows us, a second layer of reality awaits us - just like in The Matrix, it will be layered on top of the real world .

Simulation of the real world with people living there has become the main theme of Anonymous;Code, a new work from the authors of the legendary Steins;Gate.

This visual novel is distinguished by colorful characters, among which anyone can find their "favorite" and get to know him better. While it looks like The Matrix, the visual novel doesn't try to rest on its laurels and delivers its own intriguing plot.

6.

Another wild fantasy about the future - with the only difference that in this case we are dealing with the human psyche.

In PSYCHO-PASS: Mandatory Happiness, a continuation of the atmospheric anime series, players will have to deal with a strange and slightly paranoid future world in which every person has a chip with his mental characteristics.

To overcome the dominance of maniacs and crime, the government thus monitors the mental state of people, "cutting off" those who show at least some kind of instability. The main characters will again have to understand the secrets of this world and what it is - a "psycho-passport".

5.

Hatoful Boyfriend appeared - and thundered with a flurry of funny letsplays, in which gamers really did not understand what was happening around, and why they had to flirt with ... pigeons in this dating sim.

But yes, it is the pigeons in this game that are a replacement for the usual set of male characters. Hatoful Boyfriend, like some other projects, poked fun at the dating sim industry in its own way, and did it in such a memorable way that it naturally shot into the visual novel market.

Playing this strange life simulator in which only pigeons learn, and you are the only person among them, is worth at least and poking fun at the huge pile of stereotypes surrounding the visual novel genre. Maybe you will see ... the bird of your dreams.

4. Amnesia: Memories

No, no, wait, no need to remember Amnesia: The Dark Descent. The visual novel Amnesia: Memories does not belong to this universe in any way, despite the similar name.

This is an otome novel, and the genre implies that you will be a beautiful heroine choosing from a bunch of male characters for her only one. But, despite the stereotypes of "harems", Amnesia: Memories differs significantly from them, as psychology plays a major role in the novel rather than anything else.

According to the plot, the main character loses memory of her name, hobbies, tastes, lifestyle, family and everything else. And it is her decisions and actions that will be the very lever that will return her memories.

3.

Yes, yes, another short story with cute Japanese schoolgirls. But Tokyo School Life did not just get into third place in this TOP - believe me, there is a reason.

This is the story of an ordinary Japanese schoolboy who moves to a new place and meets a trio of girls who will meet him here and there.

Tokyo School Life features elaborate 3D animations of the heroines, due to which the sprites in this game are not soulless images, but living 3D models.

The picture here is nice to look at; in addition, the plot is equipped not only with the usual , but also with kind, sincere humor that will brighten up any cold evening.

2. Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator

"Dream Daddy" was as loud and funny as Hatoful Boyfriend - partly because of the banter inherent in the idea of ​​​​the game, partly - because of the unusual concept.

You are a dad who comes to a quiet town for the Best Dad competition, and you are ready to prove that you are the Best Dad. There are enough contenders for victory among the contestants, and in order to bypass them all, you will have to recognize your opponents by sight.

Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator is worth attention because of the unusual picture, drawing style and an absurd plot in a good way, in which there are enough memorable moments.

1.

And there was no need to even doubt the gold medalist of this TOP. The Danganronpa franchise is a wild fantasy about a school of assassinations, filled with unique, well-developed characters, and everything as a director is run by - at first glance - an ordinary plush toy.

It sounds like nonsense - but, believe me, it is played very cheerfully and exciting, given the presence of truly unique, inimitable characters.

In the new part of Danganronpa V3 Killing Harmony, the madness seems to be gaining momentum and reaches a climactic ceiling with the mystery of all the previous parts revealed at once.

Video: Danganronpa V3 Killing Harmony trailer


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Whether you like anime romance or bloody thrillers, there's a visual novel for you.

Visual novels are full of clichés, but the scope of the genre is not limited to the hot romance or everyday life of Japanese students. Over the past few years, more and more really talented Developers have been creating experimental short novel-like games and clever reimaginings of typical anime tropes, and that's when it all started. Now visual novels are super cool.

However, choosing where to start can be difficult. For those who have sat in a tank up to this point and now want to understand what's what, we have compiled a list of the best visual novels on PC - from traditional Japanese games that started the genre, to ambitious and unique experiments with the format.

Undeniably, this is a complete list, and every visual novel deserves your attention. We heartily recommend trawling itch.io looking for hidden indie gems under the "visual novel" hashtag. But, if you want to get started, this list contains the best options.

In the west, Clannad only came out a couple of years ago, but in that time it has become one of the most popular visual novels ever released. Here and anime, and cinema, and manga, even an audio drama. The novel tells the story of Tomoya Okazaki, a "delinquent" (this is a quotation, these are not my words) who is trying to cope with an existential crisis. He meets Nagiza Furukawa, another "delinquent" with whom he has a lot in common, and they start working together to restart the school's drama club, inviting students to join along the way.

Clannad is the game you need if you like visual novel stereotypes. It was released back in 2004, and therefore shows the first shoots of the genre, even if it may seem familiar to someone in this regard. What really stands out about visual novels is the quality of the writing, the interesting characters, and the point of view that you can't help but draw in. Even without the minutiae of modern games, Clannad does the job admirably.

This is a story about a young man who learns to create his own happiness. Tomoya's story can be seen as analogous to depression, without falling into the wide traps of sexy girls, but with a search for something marked with a tragic label. It may sound cliché, but it's not because the idea is unoriginal, it's just that people have been copying Clannad for the last ten years.

If you like getting your hands dirty with puzzles, the Zero Escape series might be the best choice for you. There are three games in the series: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors; Virtue's Last Reward and Zero Time Dilemma. The first two were only translated to PC in 2017 (with overhauled visuals and new voice acting) in a package called "The Nonary Games". Zero Time Dilemma was released as a standalone game.

In each game, nine people are trapped in some place by a mysterious man named Zero. Each of them has a wristwatch with some number on the screen, and each is given the opportunity to escape after solving puzzles on 9 doors. Everything becomes like "Saw" when people start to die very terribly - for example, standing under an acid shower or because of a bomb implanted in the stomach.

However, you are not only reading all the time. Point-and-click pieces make you solve puzzles to get through each door. Some of them become more difficult as you continue: for example, you will have to decipher an unknown language made up of characters. They never seem to be easily passable, and rarely is there something as simple as, for example, the Tower of Hanoi put together in an unlimited amount of time.

Zero Escape is dark, but the story is eerily entertaining and well told. The choices you make are reflected in the different endings, and the puzzles fit in like no other visual set. The way you as the player (as opposed to you as the character) know something the characters don't is played with dark irony when thinking about different timelines and endings.

The full title is: "My twin brother made me switch clothes with him, and now I have to deal with Geeky Stalker and Pretty Dominant who want to tie me up!!" But try not to think about it. As something that could be called a visual novel in a classic style, Ladykiller in a Bind is all about the social manipulation of a group of horny teenagers. The setting is what rich kids call a school trip, and what the rest of us call something that happens only once in a lifetime, on a cruise. You are The Beast, a lesbian who is not shy about flirting or luring you into your bedroom. For mysterious reasons, her twin brother, a manipulative jerk, forced her to pretend to be him on a cruise, and she really wants to "walk around", but keeping her appearance so as not to arouse suspicion.

Social manipulation is the main essence of the game. You need to choose the right words and phrases in the middle of conversations to keep up the illusion that you are your twin brother while trying to connect with every woman on the cruise. This mixture of social manipulation and the role of a jerk (the heroine herself is very overacting) is executed just fine, and if you're lucky, it will lead to more than a few hot scenes with other students.

Without a doubt, Ladykiller in a Bind is a game for adults. While the sex scenes can be turned off and the nudity hidden, you'll get to know the characters much more closely than any well-written sex scene - though it doesn't have the calf tenderness you'd find in an aunt's library.

Steins;Gate is a time travel story that explores the intricate connection between cause and effect. Rintar Okabe, the mad scientist who plays the role of the protagonist, has created a time machine that can send messages to the past. Using it, he and others begin to work to improve the future by influencing actions in the past.

Unexpected, branching lines are a must-have for the genre - Zero Escape does a great job of showing how this can be used to great effect - but Steins;Gate takes the time travel theme in a completely wild way. Cause and effect become confusing, future actions affect the past and place the characters in completely unpredictable circumstances. All major events can change even if you pick up the phone.

However, the storyline never confuses so much, which is very cool. Each ending of Steins;Gate gives meaning to each ending - even the ones where you royally screwed up. Therefore, you can see the characters from different points of view - from the best to the worst. After that, they seem so complete that you understand: otherwise it would not have been possible to achieve this.

Perhaps Danganronpa is responsible for making visual novels more popular outside of Japan. At least partially. Like Zero Escape, it combines visual novel and puzzle elements, and follows a group of students who realize that Japan's most prestigious private school is actually a bloody arena.
To survive, a student must kill another and go through a trial arranged by their peers. When other students start killing each other, it's your job as protagonist Matoko Naegi to collect evidence, interrogate suspects, present a case, and find the culprits.

Court sessions are not just a series of dialogues, but real monologues. You, armed with bullets of truth, each representing a piece of evidence found, you can defend or question other students' claims. For example, if you found a murder weapon, you can argue with someone who says it wasn't there by clicking on the text as it appears on the screen. You need to be attentive to inconsistencies in the testimony, and understand well what evidence proves your case.

Both the script and the character design are very funny, in contrast to the morbid atmosphere of the game about students who kill each other out of hopelessness, and the mysterious and antagonistic Monobead goads them more and more violently. The characters are surprisingly absurd, but next to such a dark setting, it is obvious that they are wonderfully written.

The visual novel genre isn't as limited as it might seem, and Simulacra is one of the best proofs that it doesn't have to fit the style you expect. The game is described as a "found phone", a genre that has recently gained popularity in games like Bury Me, My Love and A Normal Lost Phone.

You find a mobile phone on your doorstep. Very soon you realize that it belonged to a woman named Anna and she is missing. A short video taken shortly before her disappearance tells that evil is coming, and interruptions and interference in the video leave you bewildered. Every video and every image has one. From the interface to the selfie video, the attention to detail is amazing.

After a while, you are already texting her friends, exploring social media accounts, even talking to people she flirted with through a dating app. It's terribly frustrating. Simulacra will push you endlessly into the abyss of voyeurism, making you wonder how deep you can go to make it possible - only possible! - save her life.

The story is only a few hours long and there are multiple endings that vary depending on how successfully you achieve your goals. You can pretend to be Anna, ask questions of her friends, trying to portray her character, or be honest, open-minded, and look for her. Turn off the lights and your phone and immerse yourself in the voyeuristic work of an aspiring detective for one night, because the atmosphere is definitely worth it.

Although this place could be filled by a couple of other games from Hanako, Long Live The Queen remains their most successful in every sense of the word so far. You are given the right to manage the princess, who will soon be crowned and become queen. Oh yeah, she's still quite a baby.

It sounds very nice, but the throne is also needed by other people who are ready to do anything to win it - including killing a 14-year-old girl. Her coronation is only 40 weeks from now, and it's up to you to spend day after day with her to make sure she survives.

As part of the game, you will have to learn with her and control aspects of her life, turning the princess into a queen, giving her the skills to rule with splendor and courage. Like Crusader Kings 2 or Dwarf Fortress, Love Live the Queen is a great game for creating jokes as you control something that will definitely lead to a scary but funny ending.

It is not necessary to survive these 40 weeks - it is enough to fill in the absence of subtext with your own imagination. There is also depth here. Life or death is not as simple as a die roll, and as the weeks go by there are different stats to keep an eye on.

VA-11 Hall-A is told from a bartender's point of view in a utopian future and gives you a unique perspective on life, from which you see people at their best and worst, their ups and downs.

VA-11 Hall-A has a well defined world (and later well explored in 2064: Read Only Memories, a phenomenal point-and-click game from another Developer, but in the same world), but its main point is in the stories from various buyers. In Glitch City, corporations and the White Knights enforce the law through nano-machines and brutality, and constant surveillance reveals that the mythical independence of the virtual future is long gone.

Of course, as a bartender, you hear people talking when they're not under surveillance. Rumors, personal stories, fears and dreams of every person. Where Simulacra is voyeuristic, VA-11 Hall-A lets you feel privileged as these people open up to you over a cocktail you've made from cyberpunk alcohol.

Because of this somewhat dispassionate approach to storytelling, VA-11 Hall-A is not a single story, but a series of vignettes from the lives of grim denizens. However, this trek is fickle, as each visit can always be tainted by the possibility that they will never return.

Sometimes half a genre fits a genre and the other half doesn't. The Yawhg is just one of those. It's a pick-your-path game for up to 4 local players, each playing as a character living in a town that will be destroyed by Yawhg in 6 weeks.
The townspeople and your characters don't know that Yawhg is coming, but you, the player, do. Will you live day after day as if nothing had happened? Or will you start telling everyone about it, calling on people, fulfilling the role of the prophet? Each decision can lead to dramatically different consequences.

The Yawhg bypasses the usual rules of a visual novel, but still has a bit of heartfelt storytelling in it - which is why it's here. You are given scenes that are more like improvisation than paragraphs of text, and are supported by great art and an incredible soundtrack.

This makes The Yawhg unique, as other games offer you to play as an already created character. Here you can create your own. In total, there are 50 endings, and none of them can be called "correct". They vary depending on the choices you or your friends make. The situations created by the game are interesting, unexpected, and leave just as much leeway as needed to add your own perspective to things. The Yawhg is a prime example of how a visual novel can create something completely wild, and perhaps the perfect representation of a tabletop RPG.

One of the few programs designed to create visual novels. It allows you to add a variety of multimedia inserts to the narrative (music, videos and even mini-games). The only thing it doesn't have is a visual editor for editing the game - everything is done in a notepad-like editor using a special scripting language.

I will start, as always, from afar, so that you are imbued with the idea deeper :)))

It was in the distant 90s, when they still didn’t dream of computers in every home :))) I somehow fell into the hands of (then still a five- or fourth-grader) one magazine ... I don’t even remember the magazine itself, but in memory firmly settled addition to it! And it was called uncomplicated: "History-quest."

The whole story was placed on 30 pages of A5 printed text. These pages had to be cut and stitched in the right sequence, after which it was possible to start reading ...

The whole point of the story was that its plot developed depending on your own personal choice! In fact, you became, as it were, the main character of the story, and the ending of the story depended on what you choose to do at one time or another! That is, having read the next page to the end, you had to choose one of the available actions and, depending on this, proceed to reading the specified page.

Thus, the beginning of the book had one thing in common, and whether you reach the happy end depended on you!

At that time, my comrades and I read the book to the holes (in the literal sense of the word :))). Some of us even tried to come up with our own quests. And now, after so many years, I came across a program that allows you to create similar games, but already on a computer!

She is called Renpy(and, to be absolutely precise, then Ren'Py) and is intended for creating visual novels (or visual novels, if translated from English more precisely).

What is a visual novel?

A visual novel is a computer game-quest, which is a story in pictures with several characters (they are superimposed on the background in the form of sprites), whose lines reveal the storyline. The storyline itself, as in other text quests, has several branches, the transition to which depends on the choice of the player!

In fact, this is something like a comic book, but, firstly, here the characters' lines are usually written at the bottom of the screen (and not in "clouds", as in classic comics), and, secondly, the player, as has been repeatedly emphasized, can influence on the course of the game, making their choice in certain situations.

This genre of computer games is most often associated with anime and manga, since visual novels originated in the Land of the Rising Sun, where these styles were most popular. However, this is not canon, because you create your own game from scratch and are free to decide how it will look!

Briefly about how games are created in Renpy

If you have already been inspired by “great feats” and decided to make a “super-mega game”, then I hasten to disappoint you a little ... The fact is that Renpy is not a visual editor !!!

This means that the game will have to be written manually using a special scripting language based on Python. True, the language is not too complicated and with due diligence you will master it in a couple of days (not all, of course, but basic functions).

And yes! Drawings for the game will have to be done in a separate graphics editor, since there are none in Renpy ...

If you still have not changed your mind about creating your game, and learning a new scripting language does not scare you, then my further article with an example game, I hope, will be a good tip for you in mastering Renpy.

Getting started with the program

To start working with the program, you need to download the archive with it to your PC and unpack it into any folder convenient for you. In the archive, in addition to the folder with the program itself, you will find the “Bonus” folder with a couple of Russian-language manuals for Renpy, which may be useful to you when mastering the scripting language, as well as the source code for the game I created, which I will describe below.

After unpacking from the archive, Renpy is ready for use, so let's go to the folder of the same name and run the program using the renpy.exe file. The Control Center window will appear in front of you:

This window consists of two sections: in the upper part there are items for managing the currently selected project (by default "Demo"), and in the lower part - the menu of the program itself (items coming after the title "Renpy").

To get started, I propose to run a demo game that will introduce us to almost all the features of Renpy. To do this, press the "Launch" button in the "Demo" game menu:

A pretty girl in anime style will take you on a tour of all the features of the Renpy program. To navigate through the frames of the game, the usual left mouse click is used. It also serves to select the desired item in the game menu. We practically do not use the keyboard (except if the game provides for the input of any data, for example, your name).

Start creating your own game

If you have already familiarized yourself with the demo game, and the desire to create has not left you, then let's start creating your own visual novel.

I decided to create a learning game for young schoolchildren to help them memorize the multiplication table by 2 :). The main character of my game is Pikachu, and the plot will naturally revolve around a duel with another Pokemon, to defeat which you need to know the multiplication table by 2 :). So let's get started...

First of all, we need to return to the Control Center and click the "New Project" button there. We will first be prompted to enter the name of our game. I entered the first thing that came to mind - "PikaPikaBum" :). This name does not affect the course of the game itself.

After entering the name of the project, we will need to choose a theme for the dialog boxes and the game interface in general:

We will see the appearance of the topic in the window on the right when you hover the mouse over the name of the topic in the list on the left. You can apply the design you like by clicking the mouse (later you can change the theme at any time in the Control Center in the “Select Theme” menu).

A couple of seconds after creating the resources needed for the game, Renpy will redirect you to the Control Center, but now it will not be a demo game at the top, but your own!

You can start it right now, but there is nothing in it besides standard menus and pre-installed replicas:

Editing game options

Now we see only, so to speak, the tip of the "iceberg" (that is, the outer shell of the game). The rest of it (that is, all the content that we will edit) is hidden from us in a folder that can be accessed by clicking the "Game Folder" item in the Control Center:

By default, there are 6 files here, two of which store all possible information about the game. The "options.rpy" file stores the appearance and theme settings for your visual novel. In the file with the name "script.rpy" we will prescribe the entire plot of the game.

You can open these files for editing in any Notepad, but it is better to use the built-in text editor with Renpy syntax highlighting. You can launch it by clicking the "Edit script" item in the Control Center:

An editor window will open, in which there will be two tabs (like in a browser) with both files we need. Using the buttons on the toolbar, you can split the window view into two parts, and open both files for viewing at the same time (see screenshot above)!

I suggest you immediately pay attention to the options.rpy file. If you know English and have at least a little understanding of programming (even at the HTML level), then here you will find a lot of useful things that will help you completely personalize the look of your game. I want to pay attention to a few of the most basic parameters:

  1. Line "config.window_title = u"A game based on Ren'Py""(see screenshot above) allows you to set the title of your game window (it's to the left of the "Minimize", "Maximize" and "Close" buttons). Here you can enter the name of your visual novel. Please note that here and further before the line in Russian you need to put the English letter "u";
  2. If you add a line below "config.windows_icon", then with its help you can set the game icon, which will be displayed to the left of the window title;
  3. Line "mm_root" sets the background of the main menu of the game. You can set the background as a picture or a specific color in RGB format (see screenshot below);
  4. The string "gm_root" allows you to specify the background of game dialogs. The data format is the same as in the previous line:

As I already said, in the options you can correct at least all the parameters, but we have considered the main ones, so we will assume that our acquaintance with the settings was successful :). Now let's save the settings and move on to editing the game script itself.

Declaring game sprites and characters

Every game script in Renpy must start with the "init:" service part:

Here we must declare all the images and characters that will be used in your game (except for those backgrounds that you have already specified in the settings).

Declaring an image (and video) is quite simple:

  1. First you specify the data type (image);
  2. Then, after a space, the alias of the picture (or video), by which you can call it in the game (any name in English);
  3. Equate all this to the name of a real image in quotes (preferably in the format .png /.png (with alpha channel - for character sprites) or .jpg (for backgrounds)).

Note that for convenience, background aliases should be prefixed with "bg".

When all images are declared, a list of characters is written under them:

  1. The first step is to put the "$" sign. This tells the program that you are creating a character;
  2. Further, through the gap, the character's alias is written to call him in the game;
  3. All this is equated to the official word "Character", after which the following information goes in brackets:
    • the name of the character that will be displayed above the replica, in single quotes (if the name is in Russian, do not forget to add the “u” symbol before it);
    • character name color (set as in HTML: color = "#RGB").

This concludes the preliminary part of the game. But before proceeding with the analysis of further code, I want to draw your attention to the fact that the Renpy scripting language is hierarchical!

In practice, this means that all data related to the same section, scene, block must have the same indent from the left edge of the editor window. As they say: "Step to the right, step to the left - execution!", - that is, a code error. So be careful!!!

Script writing

To write the script, we use scenes and menus:

The scene always starts with a name, which is given by the service word "label". It is best to start writing a scene (if it is not nested in another scene) from the very edge of the window (on the left) without indentation. The scene name is always followed by a colon!

The next line always sets the background of the scene. To do this, the service word "scene" is prescribed, after which the alias of the desired image is indicated. The background of the scene and all its subsequent elements (replicas, functions, transitions, etc.) are indented (best done with the "TAB" button).

Characters are added after the background. Their appearance is given by the service word "show". To hide the desired hero, use the word "hide". The syntax here is simple: first, the service word is indicated, and then, after a space, the alias of the character's sprite (that is, the desired image).

For the “show” parameter, you can set the place where our hero will be displayed using the word “at”. By default, the character sprite position is set to "center", which aligns the image to the bottom of the window and to the center. If you want our hero to be displayed in the center point of the screen (as it was done in our test game), then you need another parameter - "truecenter".

Also, the position can be set using arbitrary coordinates. To do this, after the character sprite alias, we write “at Position”, after which we set the necessary parameters in brackets:

  • xpos - horizontal position (specified in pixels or tenths of the game screen);
  • ypos - vertical position (the units are the same);
  • xanchor and yanchor - anchors of the image-sprite anchoring horizontally and vertically, respectively (the point that will be considered the center of the image);
  • xalign /yalign - horizontal/vertical alignment.

The last thing about working with characters is the effects of their appearance and disappearance. To add an effect, at the very end of the hero's description line (after marking his position), the service word "with" is written, after which any of the possible options for displaying them should be indicated. All options you can see in the demo game.

After specifying all the visual parameters, you can start writing replicas directly. Replicas can be either personalized or not belonging to any of the heroes of the game.

Reply in Renpy is always written in quotation marks. If we put the character's alias before the quotes (indicated before "Character"), then the name of the hero we need will appear above the replica. If you leave the line without additional parameters, then the phrase will not belong to anyone.

Menu structure and transitions to desired scenes

To create a situation for choosing the further development of the plot, Renpy uses a menu system. The menu is part of the scene structure (that is, starts with a tab) and contains a number of buttons that can be pressed by the user.

The menu has its own hierarchy. This means that all items are tabulated already from the menu initialization line. The structure itself is as follows:

  1. The service word "menu:" defines a new menu in the current scene. The menu must necessarily belong to the scene, that is, it must begin with an indent, like replicas. At the end, do not forget to put a colon;
  2. The second required menu component is a button with an answer option (that is, a menu item). A button is a word (or several words) enclosed in quotation marks and indented relative to the inscription "menu:";
  3. If we want the character’s replica to be displayed at the bottom while the menu is displayed, then it must be placed before the first menu item (see screenshot above). It will differ from the paragraph only in that before the words in quotation marks we will have the pseudonym of the character we need, to whom this remark belongs;
  4. Additional actions and remarks that appear after pressing the menu button are tabulated relative to the menu item to which they belong.

Additional actions also include the function of jumping to the desired scene. With its help, through the menu, we can create unlimited branching scenarios. Usually scenes in Renpy follow each other in the order in which they are written in the script, however, if we need to "jump" to an arbitrary scene and continue the story from it, we can use the "jump" command.

After the command, we just have to add the name of the scene we need to get to and that's it :)

Using the menu, you can create quite complex effects. For example, in my game, I used only the menu (!) to organize the Pokemon battle system! Here's what I ended up with :)

A little naive, but, nevertheless, colorful :). And, keep in mind that it was done in one day!

Game release

Once you've finished creating your game and it's fully functional, you can release it to the public! To do this, you need to go to the Renpy Control Center and click on the "Game Release" item:

The function of checking your game for errors will start, after which (if no errors are found - read the lint.txt report), you will be offered to continue creating the game. Naturally, click "Yes":

In the next window, we will be asked for which platforms you plan to release your game. By default, all available operating systems are selected (Windows, Linux, Mac), however, you can uncheck the boxes and leave, for example, the game only "for Windows" :). After that, we just have to click the "Game release" button and wait until the archive with it is created. You will find this archive next to the working folder of the game.

You can distribute the finished archive with the game as you please. You can put it on the Web for public access, you can distribute it in torrents, or you can burn it to disk and sell the game in transitions :).

Advantages and disadvantages of the program

  • ready-made free engine for creating visual novels;
  • wide functionality;
  • a fairly easy-to-learn scripting language;
  • the possibility of releasing commercial games;
  • Russian language support.
  • no graphical interface for editing games;
  • there is no sane manual describing all the built-in functions of the program;
  • knowledge of English and HTML is required to work with the settings file.

findings

Renpy, unlike other game builders, does not have a graphical mode for working with the project! Is this good or bad? On the one hand, of course, it’s bad :(. It would be much easier if it were possible to set up all the scenes in visual mode. However, on the other hand, the program teaches you and me that without difficulty, neither here nor there :)) )

Although this is not full-fledged programming, it still gives us the opportunity to look at the process of creating a game through the eyes of a programmer and understand “how they do it” :).

If you are full of ideas and desire to create, if you want your story (or even novel) to see the whole world, then Renpy is just the right program that can give you the opportunity to express yourself and your talent!

P.S. It is allowed to freely copy and quote this article, provided that an open active link to the source is indicated and the authorship of Ruslan Tertyshny is preserved.

A visual novel is a subgenre of text quests, where the gamer takes little part in the gameplay, mainly being an observer, a spectator. Sometimes he is required to make a decision that will affect the further development of events.

What genre

visual novel is not a virtual dating simulator, as it is characterized by a large gaming audience. In such entertainment, the player mainly follows the development of events on the other side of the screen. The plot is revealed thanks to text inserts, pictures, animation, sound accompaniment and musical compositions. Also, fragments of anime-style videos began to appear in the novels.

A genre appeared in the land of the rising sun. It also develops and is popular mainly among teenagers.

Peculiarities

Visual novels have unique features that distinguish them from dating sims.

  1. Several genres can be included in a short story: fantasy, horror, science fiction, love story.
  2. The story is an important part of the gameplay, unlike quests.
  3. The presence of ecchi scenes (anime with erotic elements and explicit scenes with a hint of sexual intercourse, without showing it).

With the advent of the Western market, games of the romance genre began to be transferred to portable devices. for Android and consoles with the removal of erotic scenes.

Game process

The story is told in the first person, the protagonist is the observer of the development of events. The visual part consists of a background that changes every day, part or location, and sprites - actors. Often the story is divided into days rather than chapters, which makes it possible to evaluate progress every evening.

Important moments are accompanied by the rendering of large images with a lot of small details and may differ in style from the main scene. These inserts can be viewed at any time after opening them. To see them all, the game will have to go through the game several times, making a different choice at the points of branching of the plot.

Some representatives of the genre (Symphonic Rain is an example) require the user to solve a simple task, made in the form of a mini-game. In this case, you need to play the specified melody on an unknown musical instrument.

Branches in the genre

Novels are divided into several types, among all we consider the most popular.

Sound

A very mediocre picture is actually completely replaced by high-quality sound. The music is often written specifically for the game, and the roles of the characters are voiced by professional seiyuu. There are very few such games in Russian.

Adventure (ADV)

Text is displayed in a small window in the corner (usually from the bottom left), the rest of the space is occupied by the background with characters. Brief frequently changing sentences, colorful effects, beautiful windows for choosing actions are the characteristic features of the subspecies.

Otome

Games for girls, where one lady is surrounded by bisonen men - young and femininely beautiful.

Kinetic

The player is only a spectator, due to the lack of plot ramifications, he is unable to influence the course of events.