Arimia, she/her, 20+ ♦ artist, marketer, visual novel dev & card gamer ♦ game dev at
@CrystalGameWork
♦ marketing at
@vnstudioelan
♦ reads too much shonen
"it's good... for an rpg maker game" "the story is actually interesting... unlike other visual novels" please throw away your fear of liking something. it's okay to like a medium unironically. it will make you happier as a person when you stop belittling the things you like 💜
"people shouldn't enjoy this [media with questionable content] media because it has bad things in it, people should enjoy this [media with differently questionable content] media instead!" is such an interesting (and worrying) trend
"Steam only rejects visual novels because they have graphic content" Steam once rejected a build for one of my VNs because they didn't understand how choices work. It’s not always a content issue.
for some reason I spent hours on this last night- introducing the yugioh anime/manga/games iceberg filled with everything I could remember. what level are you on it
as an indie visual novel dev, it's always very telling when someone sees VNs and thinks they're "easy to make" or that they're innovating them by making one that's "not an eroge".
VNs are a wonderful medium to create in, but please look at all the incredible games made already!
note how it's always joke dating sims rather than general visual novels, because it's inherently funny to gamers that anyone would sincerely, unironically want romance games.
So, like, you're making a visual novel. But you shit on every other VN while pitching yours. Other VN devs aren't going to help you because you called their works shit. VN players aren't going to back you because you shat on what they like.
So who the hell are you making it for?
most indie VN devs I've met are passionate about the medium and were inspired by countless VNs that came before them- there's a true love for the craft there.
please don't take a random guy saying something like this every so often as indicative of all indie VN devs.
I'm really glad they got one of the S tier animators to direct this episode- with less detail and attention this could have easily come off as melodramatic (since obviously Jou will eventually come back) but here we can really see the pain in everyone (except Kaiba)'s faces
I feel like a lot of the "otome isn't diverse" sentiment comes from how often newbies are recommended the same 5 Japanese otomes and rarely recommended more than 1 indie otome.
When first getting into games, most people don't even know itchio exists, much less get indie recs!
ace attorney games 1-3 and both great ace attorney games are on sale on steam, easily over 100 hours of gameplay. for less than $35 you can permanently change your brain chemicals
VN devs aren't your target market but it sure helps to not piss off everyone who could potentially help you ✨
Anyway read my blog for actually decent VN marketing advice 🥰
it's always funny when gamers / general game devs get into visual novel development and 1) try to shoe horn game play into VNs because it *has* to have some and 2) assume VN players hate reading??
I've been watching a lot of deep dives/overviews of obscure games the past few days and its wild how so many of them will praise rpgm games and then end the video with "it's actually pretty good for an rpgm game!" with no thought process on what they're saying
I played over 100 visual novels in October and here's my advice to dev (NOT CLICKBAIT) [REAL]
yeah so I read a shitton of visual novels this month and I compiled a bunch of advice from pitfalls I saw over and over again. enjoy!
read it here:
(you are not above enjoying media with "questionable" and "problematic" content. if you scrutinize any piece of media against every culture and viewpoint in the world, you will find something objectionable in it)
not surprisingly, it looks like they changed a LOT to make it PG for the dub. I haven't watched the dub version in a few years but sounds like they removed most of the horrified faces and actual references to death
some people asking why devs do this - 99% of the time that I see these statements, they're made by people with a bit of a game dev background who went into visual novels because they think they're easy to make, easy to sell, etc.
(thread) my biggest advice to new devs: take this 🔪
this is your scope-cutting knife. cut your scope in pieces, slice it up, take out all the extra parts that aren't needed. if you don't cut your scope, your scope will come back and cut you.
"My visual novel isn't like other VNs" 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩
"This VN is totally original and like nothing you've ever seen before" 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩
"Tired of VNs with no story that are waifu bait?" 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩
I'm glad of the steam visual novel fest is a thing but it really just highlights how outdated steam's categorizing system is for players.
meanwhile on itchio, it's easy to search for VNs with a variety of tags, play time, platforms etc.
need more? there's related collections.
indie game dev is about making the most niche games imaginable and finding the 5 people who will rave about them to their friends until they're sick of hearing about your OCs. hope this helps
want to make a visual novel in 2024? I updated my how to make visual novels post with new resources and a brand new section—misconceptions about visual novels.
apparently people got interested from this so 😳
I write about making and marketing visual novels for devs who don't have thousands to spend and want to make cool stuff.
here's some of my best articles:
compiled a lot of my previous VN dev articles to make it easier to find the better stuff I've written. I also included a few articles/talks from others that are great.
✨ check it out:
✨show off your visual novel in 4 screenshots!✨
I want to see your VNs!! share 1 of your VNs with 4 screenshots to show it off and give a lil blurb~
this is Asphodelium, a gay lite horror slice-of-life VN about doppelgangers and stopping cults.
This year Otome Jam is growing even larger with our latest addition- the first ever Josei Jam, which will be a sister jam running alongside Otome Jam!
Make a game for a female audience- BL, GL, non-romance games and more accepted! 💜
Sign up:
aniplexUS refuses to make a single tweet about it but mahoyo, the first type-moon visual novel to be officially localized, releases next week on steam.
it's one of the most visually impressive VNs ever made and you should play it:
imma be honest
I hate seeing new large-scale games and studios pop up who put all their money into character sprites and none into backgrounds, GUI, graphics, etc.
visual novels do not stop at the character sprites.
"90% of our customers will not be affected" doesn't begin to acknowledge how drastically this will change the industry.
games will be deleted. gaming preservation will change. publishers will be so much stricter. platforms will alter pricing schemes.
this will affect EVERYONE
We want to acknowledge the confusion and frustration we heard after we announced our new runtime fee policy. We’d like to clarify some of your top questions and concerns:
Who is impacted by this price increase: The price increase is very targeted. In fact, more than 90% of our…
visual novels made with AI generations look like shit. I would much rather see someone make a VN with pencil scratches from a middle schooler's sketchbook than to see more wonky backgrounds, bad hands, questionable legality etc
✨ new article ✨
making a visual novel is already hard, but whats even harder is making one in a weekend. is that even humanly possible?? probably???
read my advice here:
Otome Jam starts in just 5 days from now!
Make a romance visual novel with a female lead and male love interest(s) in 2 months ✨ Solo games, team games, long games, short games and more are accepted!
Sign up here:
[RT 💜] CALLING ALL VN REVIEWERS!
I'm doing a massive project to make a list of every and any visual novel, otome, interactive fiction, etc. reviewer / youtuber to make it easier for devs to contact! Feel free to add yourself and others here and use it!
Join us for 2 months of love, laughter, heartbreak, and drama...
Otome & Josei Jam are back again this year! Join us in May & June for our visual novel jams centered around otome games and games for women 💜
Otome Jam:
Josei Jam:
I think my biggest personal fear about losing Twitter (aside from the obvious mass loss of history, accessibility for oppressed people getting awareness, etc.) is the loss of a central network for indie creators, especially LGBT+ ones. Twitter is the current primary way of (1/6)
✨new article✨
In January I was able to talk to the lead developer of
@Patch_Games
, the creators of Our Life, about their philosophy for designing such a highly customizable game & their wildly successful visual novel Kickstarter!
read it now:
Otome Jam is now OVER! 🎉💖
Congrats to everyone who worked on an entry for
#OtomeJam
- this year, we brought 73 more otomes into the world!
💕 Check out all the entries here:
Biggest turn off on visual novel crowdfunding pages: "this isn't like other visual novels because those are boring, we're going to improve them!"
It shows me
1. You don't read enough VNs
2. You don't care about other VNs
3. Your VN will probably be very basic
Things you do as a game dev that people don't normally say:
- maintain a website
- make press kits
- remake the same assets 5 times
- attempt to network on Twitter
- moving UI in place a pixel at a time
- "does sword_slash_23.mp3 convey this better than sword_slash_34.mp3?"
[thread]
Otome & Josei Jam are live!
Each year we hold Otome Jam, an event where you make a girlxboy romance game in 2 months. This year we're also hosting Josei Jam, an event where you make a game for adult women!
Otome:
Josei:
BTW this was an oooold rejection message, we got it resolved after resubmitted with detailed instructions on getting the endings... in a 1-2~ hour long game.....
It was for this game, something I made with a team in a month for NaNoRenO!
absolutely wild how people will see a game come out without hearing of it prior and just go "they didn't do any marketing because I specifically don't know about it" and assume they're right??
don't be an asshole to indie devs if you can't understand how many hours goes into it.
🫠
if you stumble onto an article like this ~please~ do not walk away from it deciding you don't have to market your indie game. we did ~so much~ marketing
1 thing people should note about the "Views" stat- it's not "how many times someone looked at this" but rather the Impressions the tweet received.
Impressions = the amount of times it appeared on someone's feed/search/etc and they MIGHT have actually looked at it
Being an adult is realizing you don't want to make a game that everyone in the world knows, you want to make a game that's just popular enough to get a Nendoroid
it's very easy to avoid this-
play visual novels. talk to VN players and listen *before* assuming things about us. there are plenty of devs who get into VN dev and immerse themselves in them first but there will always be some like this who don't bother to test their assumptions.
I'm glad games like Our Life are bringing tons of new people into visual novels, but if you as a player want to help show otomes can be diverse, you have to be adamant about recommending indie otomes.
Often our games are vastly overlooked on store algorithms for JVNs. Help them!
"use ai to name your characters" "let ai come up with titles" it will be a cold day in hell before you take baby name sites and fantasynamegenerators from my hands
Hot VN dev marketing tip of the day: always stress how unique and "not like other VNs" yours is by belittling other VNs rather than researching why people actually play and like VNs, trust me I'm the marketing gal nothing will go wrong
I just want players to realize that when you leave a not recommended review w/ the comment "this game is good and still worth experiencing but not what I thought it'd be!" it's still a negative look to others & the algorithm. you're hurting a game thats "still worth experiencing"
Otome Jam has STARTED ✨
Make a fem x male romance visual novel in 2 months! Multiple love interests, customizable protagonists and more are accepted 💜
Sign up:
Artwork provided by
@studioeverium
it's game jam season so I see a lot of bright eyed devs jump headfirst into their first project or crowdfunding campaign, so...
🧵thread on misconceptions about making indie visual novels
idk who needs to hear this today but if your game's scope is too big, it's becoming too hard to manage and a slog to work on... you can cut stuff out. you can take out endings. you can remove characters. it's your game, especially if you're making it for free. make what you enjoy
@CCharmanderK
Nope, it's not that rampant but there are some vocal few (novices) like this. For every beginner dev that says something like this theres a hundred other devs who are passionate about the medium. I can name so many fellow devs who love doing this and don't belittle each other.
what the fuck is this statement. "We understand it might be really distressing for them to suddenly graduate after a long hiatus. Anyway, thanks!"
how do fumble the bag this hard with 2 streamers people liked who just got model updates. how.
Otome Jam starts in 5 days!
Make a game focused on romance with a female lead and male love interest(s) in 2 months! Non-female leads & non-male LIs accepted but please read our rules first.
This jam does not have a theme, any otome are 🆗
💖 Join now:
explaining to non-yugioh fans how the current meta allows for so many monster summons in a turn that there is now a card that can destroy all monsters only if your opponent has special summoned 5+ monsters in one turn is like trying to explain the electoral college
already tired of fake dating sim announcements? a lot of new visual novels and dating sims will be coming out today & tomorrow and it's not an april fools' joke- it's an annual game jam ending!
nanoreno already has 65+ VNs submitted with more to follow:
as AI generations seep into more of our world, it important to do 2 things:
1. be vocal about your distaste of them to companies who refuse to pay artists
2. be vocal about art you enjoy that's made by actual humans and share their works
my itch account hit 100k total downloads today.
I've been making visual novels for over 8 years now and have met so many wonderful people in the process. here's to another 100k!! 🎉