/jp/ Project

Which style should we use as MAIN way of presenting the text?

Should the text be put in a text window at the bottom of the screen, as is the case in many visual novels (including Ever17, Clannad and True Remembrance), or should the text be overlaid on the screen, as is the case in visual novels like Tsukihime, Fate/stay night and OMGWTFOTL?

Note that this is about the MAIN way of presenting the text, and we can still use the other style even if we're mainly using one style. For example, Ever17 switched to 'text on the entire screen'-style whenever characters where deep in thought or something was explained. I haven't played many text-overlaid-on-screen visual novels, so I can't give a good example of that (although F/sn's Tiger Dojo did use the text-in-window style).

Windowed text in Ever17:


Overlaid text in Fate/stay night:


Overlaid text in Ever17:


Window text in Fate/stay night:



Personally, I think we should go with text boxes, as I just like that style way more than overlaid text, although we could do Ever17-style overlaid text when the character has a monologue (such as in the epilogue in the current plot outline).

Overlaid all the way. Personally, I can't stand text boxes. It makes it feel more like a game and less like a sound novel, as it should be.

Overlaid!

How about fonts and stuff? I guess we can do that later..

Hey, don't forget to vote in the poll...currently all responses have said 'overlaid' while 'text boxes' has 100% of the votes.

Personally I'd like a bottom window messagebox, as I think I have a better vision of the characters that way. But both styles are okay.

How about Narration goes in overlaid while character dialogs go in the text box? (Or vice versa, which ever combination you want)

If you mean switching between overlaid and text box every X seconds, I think that would be damn annoying.

But that does give me an idea. How about we do chapter 1 and 2 (confusion and identity) as overlaid (as there is probably no conversation other than the protagonist talking to himself and the protagonist talking on the phone), then the dialogue-heavy chapter 3 in text box style, then do the "present" parts in chapter 4 as text box style and the flashbacks in chapter 4 as overlaid text?

Alternating per chapter now?

When i think about it, it should look okay... But won't he go to school in the second day or so to find out his identity?

No, because of his lost memory, he fails at figuring out what school he's supposed to go to. After a while, he gets a phone call asking where the fuck he's been the last two days, and is then finally able to ask what school he's supposed to go to, and he goes to school from that point (chapter 3) on.
Oh, and it should be noted that this will probably make chapter 3 longer than the other chapters.

Should Chapter 3 be split into a 3 and 4, then?

If he has a phone, wouldn't he have tried calling people on his contact list the first two days?

Hm, yes, that would be possible. Where would you suggest does 3 end and 4 start?


I'm not sure if this is true for all cell phones, but when I turn my phone on, it asks me for a four-number PIN code. Without knowing the PIN code, you can't use the phone.
And, of course, as an amnesiac, he doesn't remember the four-number PIN code anymore.
If you're talking about a regular phone, let's just say he either doesn't have one or just has a pretty bland one without any additional features like a contact list.

Same thing with his PC, too, as that would probably the easiest way to find out about his school: passworded PCs are fun until you forget your password.