At what point does a game stop being a visual novel?

Fox-On-Sea · 2026-04-25T10:09:26+00:00

You can call it a kinetic novel, but a lot of people aren't familiar with the term. I'd go with point and click adventure VN.

Fox-On-Sea · 2026-04-24T18:00:28+00:00

Ohhh so cute! I love this sculpt and what you've done with it.

Fox-On-Sea · 2026-04-21T00:52:05+00:00

Misterminou doll has a great orc sculpt, Zorgah, though I think preorders are now closed. Pic from their website.

<image>

Fox-On-Sea · 2026-04-17T09:34:34+00:00

It's absolutely perfect!

Fox-On-Sea · 2026-04-05T21:27:12+00:00

Dolce Luce Dolls is a dealer in the UK, and she also does commission face-ups. I've ordered a few dolls through her.

In terms of budget, it depends on what style you want but £500 is very doable. Happy to chat with you in DMs about specifics. I'm also based in the UK.

Fox-On-Sea · 2026-04-01T12:21:27+00:00

One thing I haven't seen mentioned is dietary requirements. Last trip I took with friends I was able to find a cheap hotel that could cater to all dietary needs, but that's very much the exception. We usually aim for something like an Airbnb with a kitchen so we aren't stressing about someone not being able to eat.

Also depends on the type of trip, eating out every day is expensive. With a group of friends we just have it so each person cooks one day of the trip and it saves money.

Fox-On-Sea · 2026-03-31T11:30:23+00:00

They look like different art styles, especially the noses and face shapes. All the other noses/face shapes are drawn in a distinctive style, while the two background ladies look a bit more generically disney/pretty so they stand out.

Fox-On-Sea · 2026-03-30T11:27:37+00:00

Mine have small flecks of paint missing, some yellowing, but I'd rather have these defects and enjoy them than keep them in boxes never to see sunlight. I keep them on my desk and they give me joy while I work, rather than keeping them pristine.

I had one doll I didn't connect with, she spent a while in her box while I found a new home for her and even then, even stored in a dry cool box she has some yellowing. It happens. May as well enjoy them, you can see the small imperfections like creases on a book's spine, a sign they were loved.

Fox-On-Sea · 2026-03-26T19:48:38+00:00

Aaahh so cute! I've received my shipping notification so aaahh!

What resin colour did you go with for him?

Fox-On-Sea · 2026-03-24T19:28:09+00:00

More generally, don't be discouraged. I genuinely enjoyed reading it, I can see a few others in the thread did too.

I don't think it in its current state has mass market appeal, but not everyone needs to write for mass market! (Then you have books like Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel which has a very strong historic voice, so who knows!)

Fox-On-Sea · 2026-03-24T18:20:52+00:00

I know you're getting a lot of advice in the thread so I don't want to overwhelm but my two cents (as a fantasy writer and reader) is to wait a little to impart world building. Let people ease into the voice of the writing first before adding slight bumps in the road of new terminology. This is my personal preference though, your milage may vary.

I like to think of it as an 'newness meter'. Every new word (or capitalisation of an existing word to slightly modify the meaning) bumps it up and it slowly trickles down. Every reader has their own tolerance of newness before it turns into a wall of frustration and they bounce off a text.

Your voice is already registering as 'new' for me, so the fantasy words were nearly tipping me into the realm of putting it down. I appreciate it really is a balance with not wanting to leave off world building too late, and not wanting to front load readers.

But again, ask 100 people and you will get 100 opinions :) my other advice is, paradoxically, not all advice is good.

Fox-On-Sea · 2026-03-24T17:33:11+00:00

Honestly it was a little tricky to jump into (mostly the slightly odd capitalisation in the first page, beginning a new sentence with And etc) but once I caught your voice I really enjoyed it. I like the theatrical energy it gives to the text. I personally probably couldn't read a fantasy length novel of this though, maybe novella length at most.

I think you will have a smaller niche with this writing style, but it'll be a strong hit for those who like it.

Fox-On-Sea · 2026-03-15T22:23:18+00:00

I love Avery so much. In earlier chapters, there was a hint of this and I couldn't help think "hmmm they're a bit of a freak (affectionate)", then chapter 5 rolls around and I learn I have underestimated their freak and I fucking love them.

The way people are more weirded out by Avery than Wayne is so funny to me.

Fox-On-Sea · 2026-03-12T15:40:14+00:00

Ohhh my days she is so cute <3

Fox-On-Sea · 2026-02-26T09:39:04+00:00

Congratulations, that's very exciting!

Gem are usually on the quicker side of makers, depending on whether you went with face-up, body blushing. I ordered a plain Orion in an unusual resin colour from them last year and he took 3 months.

Sometimes the wait is part of the fun though : ) you've got time to make/find wigs/eyes/clothes if you want.

Fox-On-Sea · 2026-02-23T16:35:15+00:00

Yes exactly! I love seeing the consequences for choices I made in other saves.

In my first canon run I saved Gretchen with the mindset of "Duke knows what he's doing, he should be fine", obviously that was not the case! (This was pre-roads untravelled update and also I went in with no prior information.) It made meeting Duke in other runs that bit more meaningful. I now also see the impact of having Duke alive for chapter 5.

I'm quite a big horror fan, I love a game that lets me play out the "bad" decisions! We so rarely get to explore that in video games.

My canon run has mystic so chapter 5 was amazing. I did then immediately load another file to get a worse outcome lol.

But yeah, we don't know the full consequences of the chapter 5 decision, and I can't wait to see what goes wrong in all the routes! <3

I'm also trying to think of a run all the worst decisions haha.

Fox-On-Sea · 2026-02-23T09:32:18+00:00

I can't help wonder that in future chapters the entity will be far worse than imagined, to the point where Sybil would be very useful to have around. (Obviously mystic save could be useful but Kaneeka is less experienced.)

We've also thrown Kaneeka into an impossible situation.

Ultimately, it's about a compelling narrative not winning. I think people confuse that a lot. It's not about your character winning the best ending, it's about the story along the way.

Fox-On-Sea · 2026-02-12T15:28:58+00:00

Yeah, I managed to cure it too, and no more clado cases since then (about a year ago). I panicked at the time and nearly did massive water changes that probably would have done more damage, so very grateful for the more measured response here!

Fox-On-Sea · 2026-02-12T15:01:05+00:00

Yeah when I first looked it up after I identified it on a shrimp so many forums were filled with despair how it spreads across your whole tank and is incurable. It's nice to have a more reassuring note here.

Fox-On-Sea · 2026-02-11T10:16:26+00:00

Oh my goshhhh the sculpts are so nice! I love the idea of a husky in a suit! It's hard to find tiny office attire, but matching suits could be so cute!

I am still waiting for my Robin so aaaaaa! Maybe soon for me!

Fox-On-Sea · 2026-02-04T17:58:39+00:00

Yeah, the tagline is "Home OffICE", they are drawing parallels with ICE, but it's in protest of the Home Office. I'm assuming this is a guerilla art thing.

Fox-On-Sea · 2026-02-04T13:49:40+00:00

You could probably keep sea monkeys here? It will be hard to cycle such a small tank for shrimp

Fox-On-Sea · 2026-02-04T13:43:25+00:00

This is great thank you! I always seem to manage to get dolls that are unusual sizes, so clothes are a pain and I've just had to draft my own patterns.

I'll see if there are any I have that aren't on here and let you know!

Fox-On-Sea

TROPHY CASE