Log line

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Revision as of 15:49, 9 December 2023 by Tale glider (talk | contribs) (the definition that seemed to be taken from Wikipedia without credit seemed a bit general, so I edited it and linked to the original, then added examples)

A log line or logline (as explained in Wikipedia's article about log lines) is a brief (usually one-sentence) summary of a story, to give people an idea why they should be interested the story.

They should be long enough to give people an idea what type of story it is and whether they're part of its audience, but short enough to be read in a couple of seconds and included in lists (such as the lists itch.io has for each genre and tag).

VN Examples

Some examples from Spooktober VN Jam entries:

  • The game Undo the Mustache Curse, Witch!, from Spooktober 2023, has this:

    The princess has been mustachioed, and the royal ball is TOMORROW!

    It gives people an idea what the story is about, and by using the made-up word mustachioed it sorta implies that it's a comedy VN.
  • Another 2023 Spooktober entry, No Body To Go With, has this:

    You are a sad, poorly drawn ghost. You want to go to the Spooky Ball, but you have nobody to go with!!!

    Between the pun in the title and the "poorly drawn" in the logline, it's not hard to figure out that it's a comedy VN that might contain puns and doesn't take itself super seriously.
  • Kingdom Of The Ants, from Spooktober 2022, has this:

    a visual poem of doom

    Just enough to tell us that we might like it if we enjoy poetry and horror.
  • And another 2022 Spooktober entry, Spectral Phantasy, has this:

    Trapped in a haunted house with a cute ghost boy?!

    The word trapped makes it seem sorta likely to be horror, but the word cute makes it seem like it might turn out to be romance. It's more of the latter, but it does have scary parts.