Graphical User Interface

A visual novel's Graphical User Interface, also known as its GUI (pronounced either “gee-you-eye” or “gooey”), is any screen that uses clickable images to let a player interact with the game. This includes things such as: the text box and option buttons (skip, save; etc), choice selections, and all menus (ex: main/title/start, settings, save, gallery, extras; etc).

Ideally, GUI is designed custom for the game to reflect its tone and theme. When in doubt, it is recommended you go simple and no-frills rather than detract from the game by being intrusive. Your GUI artist might not be the same artist you use for your sprites or CGs, as the skill set is different.

Splash Screen

A splash screen is an image or movie that appears when the game is starting up and before it goes to the menu. Usually these are logos or opening videos. Sometimes they are content warning screens/disclaimers.

Textbox

See More: Textbox

A textbox may contain the following elements:

• Name Plate/Name Tag: An area where the speaking character’s name is displayed. Often located at the top left of the textbox.
• Side Image: A character picture that is displayed on the textbox. Usually head-only or shoulders-up. Many games only use side images for characters who are not shown on-screen or for internal thoughts. May be in a different style from the main sprites.
• Click to Continue (CTC): An indicator that conveys to the reader that there is no more text to read, and the reader should click to continue to the next line of dialogue.
• Action Buttons: Quickly access actions like skip or auto mode.
• Menu Buttons: These allow the reader to access menus like load, save, and options.

Save Menu

This menu allows users to save, load, and possibly delete their save data. Saves act as bookmarks that they player can jump to to quickly access some part of the story.

To help the player remember where the save leads to, a game may use the following elements:

• Chapter or scene name
• Time when the save was created
• Screenshot of the game when the save was created
• Notes that the players write themselves

Miscellaneous

A tooltip is a message or icon that appears when the cursor is positioned over an icon, image, hyperlink, or other element in a GUI.

External Links

• Visual Novel Interfaces (Tumblr)

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