Scene direction

Scene direction (sometimes simply direction) is the intentional manipulation and sequencing of in-game assets to serve a visual novel's narrative. It is a core responsibility of a project's creative director.

It is a creative process where sprites, backgrounds, music, and sound effects are combined with the written narrative to create a cohesive experience for the player. It also includes camera work (panning, zooming, etc.), scene transitions, sprite expression changes, sprite movement/blocking, sound direction, switching between textbox formats, inclusion of special graphics, and other creative choices.

Purpose and effect on the reader

One unique characteristic of visual novels is that they are an interactive, time-based medium: interactive, because the player clicks to proceed and (often) makes choices, and time-based because the information displayed is not static (e.g., there are animations, text appears and disappears, etc.). Because of the relatively small asset count of a visual novel compared to other media (such as television or comics), it is important to use these assets well and make them feel dynamic.

Visual novel developer & director ingthing explains, "You’re asking your audience for their attention for a significant chunk of their time, the same way a movie or TV series would—and that’s a lot of hours spent in front of a screen if it stays fundamentally unmoving."

Keeping assets moving is a great way to increase player engagement with a visual novel. The non-text assets take up the majority of the visual real estate and all of the auditory real estate - so it shouldn't be wasted. With expression changes, character movements within the scene, simple animations, and cut-ins, a lot of visual interest can be added without requiring lots of assets.

Scene direction is one of the largest contributing factors to a player's overall experience while reading a visual novel. If a scene is action packed, confusing, dynamic, or changing rapidly, quick and sharp movements can accentuate that experience. If a scene is emotional, melancholic, or tender, a slow movement across a background or CG can help pull the reader in. If two characters are at odds, placing them opposite each other can highlight the divide between them. In all these ways and many more, strong scene direction sets the overall tone and experience for viewers .

Implementation and responsibility in development

Scripting redirects here. That term sometimes refers to script formatting or (incorrectly) to programming.

Scripting refers to the process of translating scene direction into engine-readable code.

In some development teams, scene direction and scripting are completed simultaneously by the same team member(s). In others, scene direction notes are created first and formatted into engine-readable code at a later time.

The responsibility for scene direction may shared or assigned differently based on the development team's culture and workflows:

• Many teams will have a dedicated scene director or creative director whose responsibility is to implement the scene direction, usually directly into engine-readable format. This role is sometimes filled by the writer.
• Writers will commonly make notes about scene direction as they work, though these are typically incomplete and sometimes written in pseudocode.
• Teams may utilize a dedicated team member to adjust scene direction notes into engine-readable format.