List of VN creation resources
From VNDev Wiki
Game design, Writing, and General Resources
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| Creator | Link | Price/ License |
Type C | Type B | Type C | Guide | Tool | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Art, Characters, Backgrounds and Animation
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| Creator | Link | Price/ License |
Sprites | BG | Animation | Guide | Tool | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Audio, Music and Voice
| Creator | Link | Price/ License |
Music | SFX | Voice | Guide | Tool | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (author) | Soundcloud | Free | Yes | Belgerum's CC partial VA samples. | ||||
| FulminisIctus | LSF | Free | Yes | FulminisIctus' CC audio pack II | ||||
| (author) | (Link) | Free | Yes | Kevin MacLeod's library of CC music. | ||||
| (author) | Itch | Free | Yes | Custom voice lines of 15 voices with 100+ lines each. | ||||
| (author) | (Link) | Free/Paid | Yes | Yes | High quality stock videos, music, and sound effects. | |||
| (author) | (Link) | Free | Yes | Guideline for voice acting rates for indie games. | ||||
| (author) | Bandcamp | Paid | Yes | Sam Haynes' royalty free horror/Halloween music. | ||||
| (author) | Youtube | Free | Yes | ProZD's "How Do You Get Into Voice Acting", a video with his perspective on how to enter the industry. | ||||
| (author) | (Link) | Free | Yes | Tom Lehrer, an American musician and satirist, donated all of his music and lyrics into the public domain. | ||||
| (author) | (Link) | Free | Yes | Royalty free music library. Site is in Japanese. | ||||
| (author) | (Link) | Free | Yes | Royalty free music of fantasy and modern genres. | ||||
| (author) | (Link) | Free | Yes | 50+ GB of royalty free sound effects. | ||||
| (author) | Soundcloud | Free | Yes | Royalty free metal, progressive, and alternative music. | ||||
| (author) | Itch | Free | Yes | Itch devlog "The (Budget-Friendly) Journey to Get Good Music for an Indie Game and Our Experience with iLicenseMusic" by the Minotaur Hotel dev team about the pros/cons of various music licenses and services. | ||||
| (author) | Free | Yes | Yes | Spreadsheet of audio plugins, SFX, and resources. | ||||
| (author) | (Link) | Free | Yes | Sound Effect Lab's library of SFX. | ||||
| (author) | (Link) | Free | Yes | Free SFX packs for explosions and guns. | ||||
| FulminisIctus | LSF | CC | Yes | Yes | Audio pack | |||
| FulminisIctus | Patreon | Free | Yes | List of public/free audio assets | ||||
| Orpheo Fenn | Soundcloud | CC | Yes | |||||
| Jeff Penny | Tumblr | Free | Yes | Guide to audio files | ||||
| Jeff Penny | Tumblr | Free | Yes | Guide to audio effects | ||||
| Bensound | Bensound | Free | Yes | Royalty free music | ||||
| Arthur Mostovoy | Medium | Free | Yes | Guide to optimize high quality audio for Unity. | ||||
| midi.city | midi.city | Free | Yes | Online synthesizer with 100+ instruments. | ||||
| Notion | Notion | Free | Yes | Yes | Yes | Notion page listing 80+ sources of background music, sfx, and VA tracks (with/without singing). | ||
| Patricia Taxxon | Bandcamp | Free | Yes | |||||
| Sideways | YouTube | Free | Yes | Video essay on how a a leitmotif can tell a story | ||||
| Jake Butineau | YouTube | Free | Yes | Video essay on how glitched music conveys horror | ||||
| Spotify Code | Spotify Code | Free | Yes | Yes | Create codes that people can scan to instantly hear your VN's OST (if it's on Spotify) | |||
| Lee Rosevere | Bandcamp | Free/Paid | Yes | CC license varies per album | ||||
| MAHO! Cody | YouTube | Free | Yes | Yes | Working with Voice Actors as an Indie Dev (3-part video series) |
Programming, UI and Engines
- Main article: Visual novel engine
| Creator | Link | Price/ License |
Programming | UI | Fonts | Guide | Tool | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jaime Scribbles | (Link) | Free | Yes | Yes | Tutorial on how to create customizable characters with layered images in Ren'py. | |||
| Lovetospar | (Link) | Free | Yes | Screenshots of game UI. | ||||
| (author) | (Link) | Free | Yes | Yes | Library of public domain/CC pixel fonts and pixel font creator. | |||
| (author) | Free | Yes | An OFL (free) Japanse font compatible with Latin fonts. | |||||
| (author) | Unity | Paid | Yes | Unity narrative tool "Discourse". | ||||
| FulminisIctus | Youtube | Free | Yes | Video essay on how to make dialogue mechanics more involved than basic skill checks. | ||||
| minute | Free | Yes | minute's accessibility pack for Ren'py to include text, sound, and visual options. | |||||
| BaiYu | Itch | Free | Yes | A Ren'py GUI template. | ||||
| (author) | Github | Free/Paid | Yes | Github's documentation tool. | ||||
| (author) | Github | Free | Yes | Multimokia's DDLC mod that allows a Ren'py game to reflect the player's local weather and sunrise/sunset. | ||||
| (author) | (Link) | Free | Yes | Korean fonts. | ||||
| (author) | Free | Yes | OFL Google fonts inclusive of 75+ non-latin based languages. | |||||
| (author) | Github | Free | Yes | Multimokia's utility that allows a Ren'py game to reflect the player's local weather. | ||||
| (author) | (Link) | Free | Yes | Yes | Themed lorem ipsum generators (tv, film, pets, food, industry buzzwords, etc) | |||
| (author) | (Link) | Free | Yes | VN GUI. Site is in Japanese. | ||||
| (author) | (Link) | Free | Yes | Yes | Posters with design accessibility guidelines. | |||
| (author) | Itch | Free | Yes | Foleso's Bridal Style VN GUI. | ||||
| (author) | Gamasutra | Free | Yes | Yes | How to design menu screens for visually impaired gamers. | |||
| (author) | Apple | Free | Yes | Yes | Apple's guide to UI design | |||
| (author) | Free/Paid | Yes | Yes | Yes | Everest Pipkin's google doc/github list of open source, experimental, and tiny tools for game dev/design. | |||
| (author) | Free | Yes | Yes | Oneirocritica Games' free Custom Pronoun System for Ren'py that prompts the player to customize their pronouns. | ||||
| (author) | Youtube | Free | Yes | Yes | Katy133's tutorial on creating noir lighting in Ren'py. | |||
| (author) | (Link) | Free | Yes | Yes | The Game Accessibility Guidelines provide basic/intermediate/advanced suggestions to balance the development cost, gameplay improvement, and player reach of accessible game design. | |||
| (author) | Youtube | Free | Yes | Yes | "Make UI That Looks Good in Unity", a video on UI design/implementation in Unity. The broader design aspect is useful for non-Unity UI. | |||
| (author) | (Link) | Free | Yes | A free font by the Braille Institute with distinct characters and increased readability for low vision readers. | ||||
| (author) | Github | Free | Yes | Kinetic (moving) text styles for Ren'py. | ||||
| (author) | Free | Yes | Yes | The Game UI Database contains 30,000+ screenshots from 700+ games. | ||||
| (author) | Free | Yes | npckc's Pronoun Tool for Ren'py. | |||||
| (author) | (Link) | Free | Yes | Yes | Open source Bitmap Font Generator creates bitmap fonts from TrueType fonts. | |||
| (author) | Github | Free | Yes | Yes | Yes | Shawna-p's "Mysterious Messenger", a framework for creating calls, texts, chatrooms, and emails in Ren'py. | ||
| (author) | Free | Yes | Boba Date, a cutesy font inspired by shojo manga. | |||||
| (author) | Free | Yes | Yes | M.'s short video "How To Make Great Looking UI for Visual Novels" Part 1. | ||||
| (author) | Itch | Free | Yes | Yes | r3dhummingbird's "Ren'py Rhythm Game", an open source template for rhythm games. | |||
| (author) | Free | Yes | Yes | M.'s short video "How To Make Great Looking UI for Visual Novels" Part 2. | ||||
| (author) | Itch | Free | Yes | Yes | J Tuason's "Twine to Ren'py", a tool to convert a Twine html file into a Ren'py rpy file. | |||
| (author) | Free | Yes | Arcade Spirits' custom pronoun code. | |||||
| (author) | Paid | Yes | Sakeozo's "Secret ASL Font" for personal use. | |||||
| (author) | Unreal | Paid | Yes | Yes | Unreal Engine plugin for a visual novel framework. | |||
| (author) | Notion | Free | Yes | Yes | Library of resources, articles, and videos about UI/UX design. |
Production, Business and Marketing
| This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. |
| Link | Information | Price | Tags |
|---|---|---|---|
| DeviantArt | Invoice Guide for PayPal | Free | |
| Shopify | How to write a freelance contract | Free | |
| Youtube | Portfolio Design - How to Build a Portfolio | Free | |
| Google Docs | Spreadsheet of over 400 open calls, residencies, grants, galleries, etc. for creative endeavors (Source (Twitter)) | Free |
VN jam guides
Due to the popularity of jams, ideas, tips, or useful articles pertaining specifically to VN Jams have been created. These usually come in form of "how tos", or specific approaches on jam participation. Common themes include:
- proper planning (including margins)
- adjusting on the fly (e.g. cutting content)
- smart use of resources,
- pacing oneself
- prioritizing finishing over perfection
Below are specific case studies or full guides designed to give insight and support with jam participation or some of its aspects, usually authored by single individuals.
| Name | Author | Year / Update | Description | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reflections: Developing for the Long-Term | shibalist | 2022 | article discussing VN jams and their effect on long-term projects | Link |
| The ultimate VN jam advice | mikey | 2022 | short article about the concept of planning under the assumption the jam is half its actual length | Link |
| How to survive NaNoRenO | Vimi | 2022 | video showing two teams with different planning approaches and what happens when disrupting events occur | Link |
| Enamored Risks Postmortem | Arimia | 2020 | article detailing the planning, coordination, production and promotion of a NaNoRenO VN | Link |
| The last-minute VN | mikey | 2015 | article on how to create a very short VN by focusing on location first, and characters last | Link |
