NaNoRenO

NaNoRenO (often capitalized as just Nanoreno or shortened to Nano) is a visual novel jam that takes place annually in March (starting on the 1st and ending on the 31st) where VN devs are challenged to create a VN, start to finish, in the span of a month. It launched in 2005, making it the first ever, and longest running, visual novel jam in existence.

In visual novel spaces, the word "Nano" generally refers to NaNoRenO, although it may also refer to NaNoWriMo, on which NaNoRenO was based.

NaNoRenO

Theme	Original VN jam; make a VN in a month
Timing & Duration	March; 1 month
Status	Ongoing
Most Participants	924
Most Entries	187
Year Started	2005
Creator(s)	rioka, chronoluminaire
Current Host(s)	sakevisual
Cumulative Participants	5,054
Cumulative Entries	1,336
Record(s) Held	4th (tie) most entries, 6th most participants, 1st most cumulative entries, 1st most cumulative participants
Detailed Stats	More Stats
Most Recent Jam Page	https://itch.io/jam/nanoreno-2025

Rules

The following rules are taken from the NaNoRenO 2024 itch.io jam page:

• Takes place during the month of March.
• Final visual novel must be finished on or before April first. The jam deadline is slightly longer to allow for internet outages or other emergencies that prevent you from uploading your finished visual novel.
• You can only begin actual production of your game in March.
• Allowed before NaNoRenO begins:
  • Brainstorming
  • Plot Outlining
  • Sketches that do not lead to direct production of assets
  • Team Building
• Not Allowed until NaNoRenO begins:
  • Sketches of sprites, CGs, backgrounds, or anything else that leads to production of assets
  • Writing or coding any portion of the game
  • Production of assets to be used in the game
• Use of Creative Commons material is okay.
• Any premade assets used must be publicly available (either free or paid) on or before the first day of NaNoRenO.
• Generative AI to produce assets (art, code, writing, audio) is not allowed at this time.
• There are no "winners" here. Everyone who manages to release their game has completed NaNoRenO!
• You may release a buggy version of your game by the deadline and fix it up later or release a demo for NaNoRenO.
• While other game elements may be present, the final piece should be largely identified as a "visual novel."

History

Inception

The idea for NaNoRenO is traceable to a post in a Lemma Soft Forums thread on November 18th, 2004 by user rioka. On learning that Mikey had developed and released a game in 3.5 weeks, rioka had the idea for a month-long visual novel game jam. Just a few days later, rioka made a separate thread to discuss the idea, which eventually led to the first occurrence of the jam. rioka cited NaNoWriMo and NaNoMangO as similar events on which NaNoRenO could be modeled.

2020

Due to global circumstances at the time, several participants requested an extension on the jam and the submission deadline for NaNoRenO 2020 on itch.io was shifted back by 2 weeks. This is the first instance of an extension to NaNoRenO, with the intent to give participants more time to complete their game.

Size

NaNoRenO was the largest VN jam (as measured by submitted entries) every year from 2015 to 2020, and in 2022. In 2021 and 2023, only Spooktober had more entries.

External Links

• NaNoRenO website: https://www.nanoreno.org