How to Get Started Creating Your Own Interactive Visual Novel with TyranoBuilder on Steam

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

TyranoBuilder, a user-friendly drag-and-drop visual novel/dating sim maker, will be launching on Steam tomorrow. It seems ridiculously easy to use, to the point that even if you've never dabbled in game-making or don't know a lick of code, you could fire it up on Friday and have a playable program for Mac or Windows (or both) by Monday. You could even whip up a last minute entry for NaNoReNo, a month-long event held every March where people develop and share their own visual novels.

But where to start? Just because you have an engine to build your game on doesn't mean you're even close to being ready, so here's what you'll need to start fleshing out a project in TyranoBuilder this weekend:

 

Ideas

Obviously the first thing you need to know is what you're making a game about. The most common piece of advice you'll hear when it comes to finding inspiration is to make the game that you would want to play, or the game you think should exist but doesn't already. Maybe you wish dating sims were a bit less 'fluffy', or maybe you've always wanted an interactive version of a short story you wrote. Just keep your limitations in mind while you're brainstorming that perfect premise, because you likely won't be able to make the action RPG of your dreams in an engine built for visual novels. Something with a focus on story and dialogue will be much more feasible, especially for your first project.

Art

Art is always the hardest element for me. I always want it in place early on so I can get a sense of what things will look like when they're finished, but I also don't feel capable of creating art assets myself. If you do, or you're teaming up with a friend who does, then problem solved. If you're a hack like me, however, you do still have some options. 

Opengameart.org is a site that collects various assets for use in games, from sprites to portraits to backgrounds to concept art, with various free licenses that typically just require that you attribute the work to the original artist if you use it. A lot of what you'll find here would be better suited to pixel-based platformers and RPGs, but there's still plenty that would work in the context of a standard visual novel, like the portrait by Justin Nichol shown on the left. If you want more control over how your characters look, IIcharacter (or even 3D rendering programs with pre-made components like Poser or DAZ) might be a good route as well, though I would recommend staying away from character sets without any known licensing information.

Then of course there's the wealth of images that is Flickr Commons. Just be sure when you're searching there that you choose the appropriate copyright restrictions. Using an image in a game counts as modifying it (or creating a derivative work), and if you think you may ever want to sell your game you'll want to make sure that commercial use is allowed as well. 

Sound

Much like your art assets, if you're not able to compose music, create your own sound effects or work with a talented friend, then you'll need to find public domain or Creative Commons licensed audio which allows for derivative and possibly commercial works or is specifically intended for use in games.

Opengameart.org has some audio available in addition to their visual assets, but the popularity of amateur podcasting has made this search a lot easier than it might have been even 5 years ago. There are lots of artists out there who want you to use their music, you just need to know where to find them. Royalty free music site Jamendo will let you search through their music library based on licenses, moods, styles, instruments, but there are loads of other sources you can go to as well. Do some Googling and see what you find, but always remember to check the license information before you fall too deeply in love with that perfect free jam. I really can't emphasize that enough, and if there's any doubt about whether you can use something just fire off a quick email to the creator and see what they have to say. As for sound effects, the same applies. There's a lot out there available for free, but if you only need a few simple clicks and beeps for your interface then a few minutes fiddling with Bfxr might be the best option.

Writing

You're on your own for this one. Okay, not entirely, but this is the area where I can be the least helpful. Unless your game is a relatively straight adaptation of a public domain work (dialogue heavy plays like Shakespeare, for example) there aren't many shortcuts you can take. If writing's not your strong point it may be time to (yet again) enlist a friend, or just buckle down and get typing for yourself. You don't need to be Hemingway to write a decent visual novel, just try to keep things sounding natural and proofread your work as many times as you can stomach.

As someone who's toyed with game-making tools like Twine and Ren'Py in the past, I'm defiitely curious to test out TyranoBuilder's capabilities for myself. If it offers the same flexibility as these other tools with less of a barrier to entry or even a more visually appealing end result, then it's certain to become a popular choice in the DIY game scene. Naturally if you have any other recommendations that I may have overlooked, feel free to leave them in the comments below.

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Janine Hawkins (@bleatingheart on Twitter, Iris Ophelia in Second Life) has been writing about virtual worlds and video games for nearly a decade, and has had her work featured on Paste, Kotaku, Jezebel and The Mary Sue.

Comments

[val kendal]

This looks awesome. I have a pair of nieces who would be so into this, maybe get them interested in gaming or coding...

[We saw BC Indianapolis Digital Marketing]

Would I be able to use custom characters without having photoshop. Will there be a white background box around my character?