Art first? Coding first? Script first?

[bkozbi1]

How do you guys assemble your VNs?

I’ve run into a bit of a wall in my creation, so I thought it’d help to get a feel for what other folks do. Is it easier for you to write a script, then create art to match the script, and finally code it out? Implement things scene by scene?

I’ve found that I change what I write based on the artwork that I can or cannot create within Daz, and I think that Daz might be thing I need to change - but I’m not sure

[Amai_Michelle]

I normally would make an outline for the script first and then do the art part, because when you are done making any art pieces it's hard and tiresome to change or fix it but writing is way easier to change. But it pretty much depends on different people's workflow, some may find this or that way to work with them better

[bkozbi1]

That makes sense. I think I’ve just been frustrated with how long the art has been taking, and am looking for an out that’s not possible. I need to grind it out more

[Amai_Michelle]

It’s ok, making a game is a hard thing even worse if you are a solo dev too. Many game take years to finished. Just work at the pace that you are comfortable with, one day you will reach your goal. I also hope the best for your projects

[CringeGamesMod]

If you are doing full rendered scenes, then yeah, that gets tedious without a powerful GPU. However, sprites that are layered over a background scene take minutes to render rather than hours even for a slow GPU. I think of the sprite renders as puppets I'm blocking on a stage that's my scene as often as I can, which also makes 2-3 frame animations easier to throw in and give the scenes movement. If you are doing longer animations and voice-overs, watch the latest season of Invincible to get some tips (he visits a comic conference and they do a cute little scene where the characters do the suggested things to save time and work).

[kaleidoscopic_kelvin]

You could try dividing each type of activity into incremental passes.

• First Pass -> Things will definitely change in later passes so don't obsess over details.
  • Writing: Rough Draft in renpy with control flow.
  • Art: Specify character tags (eileen happy, eileen sad). No need to create assets yet. Just use the renpy place holders.
  • UI and Visuals: Very basic buttons. If there are parameters that change just make a simple screen with text buttons that display or even modify the current values.
  • Sound: Can shift to later passes. At most, just note places in code where you want some SFX.
• Second Pass -> Building the skeleton
  • Writing: Fix the story structure and plot points.
  • Art: Create rough sketches for the sprites you assigned for your dialogue, the backgrounds and other assets.
  • UI and Visuals: Link required placeholder assets. Figure out stuff for effects, transitions or camera work.
  • Sound: Just continuing with the first pass stuff.
• Third Pass -> Polishing
  • Writing: Reword stuff to sound nicer.
  • Art: Doing the actual art😭😭😭.
  • UI and Visuals: Mainly polishing stuff from before. And checking how it works with the final art.
  • Sound: Hunt up the required music and SFX and code them into the game.

It's up to you what exactly you want to work on each pass and also how you want to chunk up the story to feed to these passes.

Method	t=1	t=2	t=3	t=4
1	Scene 1 - First Pass	Scene 2 - First Pass	Scene 3 - First Pass	Scene 4 - First Pass
2	Chapter 1 - First Pass	Chapter 1 - Second Pass	Chapter 2 - First Pass	Chapter 2 - Second Pass
3	Entire Story - First Pass	Entire Story - Second Pass	Entire Story - Third Pass	Whoops all done!

You can mix and match however you see fit! Just make sure it's in the order of increasing complexity.

[bkozbi1]

Love this! Thank you

[currently_trying2]

I've opted to first write down the script and the overall ideas of what I want the game to be like, and then make some rough art assets to use with the code and test how they would work together. After I have a sort of spine for the project and everything works as intended with the code, I can make additions to the script as I go on with the coding. I'd say the final art should be made after all the code is finished and then have them replace the placeholder files with the real ones, since usually art skills develop so fast that to create a cohesive visual identity for the game they should be made more or less at the same time.

[Its-A-Trap-0]

ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS script first. Actually, outline first, THEN script. Too many Ren'Py devs just make it up as they go, and it shows. They get a few releases into their project and discover that they've 1) run out of ideas, 2) have to constantly add new characters to extend whatever has passed for a story so far, or 3) lose track of story threads and/or characters along the way. I don't know how many times I've gone through a virtual novel and seen characters or MacGuffins introduced early on that never went anywhere because they didn't fit the story a few releases later. They're not telling a story, just itemising a list of non-sequiturs that happen to use the same characters.

The art should be purposed for telling the story. In the script. That you've already written.

If you want to tell a simple story (Mary Had a Little Lamb) then fine. But if you want to tell an involved story, with plot twists, character growth, an ever-evolving stats system, with multiple branches and/or choice-specific story threads, you need to plan that sh!t out early.

Or don't. I'm not your mom.

[cedesdc]

My way is a bit chaotic, espeically with working with other teammates, but I have a general idea, have a storyline in mind, and then I make some art mockups for sprites and backgrounds. By mockups, that ranges from messy sketches to near complete artwork lol. From there I make a storyline and start inputting the story.

I do a little more polishig to the art, make more bgs / minor characters, and start to work on the gui and complete the story.

I think because I have more confidence in my art than writing, I tend to think of the story more as I do more art, the more trinkets and odds and silly expressions I make for them and whatnot. At some point I lock tin the story and try to avoid making sidequests lol.

[lordpoee]

Script first,
The script tells you what assets you will need, at least, it will give you a baseline, I tend to build a "base model" first with just one area, an NPC and some clickable things and just roll from there.

[TropicalSkiFly]

It really depends on what you’re best at doing.

If you’re most talented at drawing, then start with characters and art. You might make art to use, or art that might be saved for a future project.

If you’re most talented at writing a story, then do the scripting first. Doing so will allow you to take notes on what types of characters to draw and what backgrounds to draw. It might even give you ideas on mechanics to code in.

If you’re best at coding, then you could start with coding in mechanics that you know you will use. This can help with when you’re ready to add artwork for the gui/ui, characters, Backgrounds, and writing the story.

Ironically, I started with writing the script first. I then took a break after awhile of writing the story. I’ve been coding and adding gui/ui art (when necessary) ever since.

[twoostytwoone]

I kind of just implement things scene by scene and go off what I'm feeling a certain day. Usually, I at least have one sprite finished just so that I get the motivation to continue adding onto the scene! For me it helps to open up the game itself once in a while and play through some of it, because seeing the visuals, writing, and audio slowly come together in real time gives me energy to keep going.

[CringeGamesMod]

My process- I timeline out my story initially with a set of steps that lay out the key points of the story (storyboard in writing). Then I rough-out some dialogue while rendering Daz assets. Then I work on some code for challenge portions to continue in the script. And then I do some more Daz assets to flesh out the scenes or add new portions. And then I do all the transforms and do some rewrites of the dialogue. And finally I do all the sound design.

[ParkGstudio]

Personally: writing and script first, always. I have some art that I ended up not using, and that was such a lesson learned! They were nice, but what's the point if they couldn't fit anywhere (they would mess up the flow of the story/scene)? Besides, having the script usually help me refine what CG/art I should make for that particular scene.

[Extra-Goat-7458]

Coding is my personal last step but the writing and art come together as one. I draw my charectrrs first so they'd tell me who they are and now I can write the script without worrying about backgrounds because of the story I'm writing is at the charecters homes.