Scrolling text

Scrolling text (also known as a crawl, roll, or ticker) is an effect where text is animated to move on its own without player involvement. In general, a “crawl” is scrolling text used at the opening of a story that acts as a prologue (ex: Star Wars opening crawl), a “roll” is used at the end for credits (ex: the end of nearly every movie), and a “ticker” is a horizontal scroll of text at the bottom of the screen to display information not necessarily directly connected to whatever else is happening on screen (ex: the text crawl bars on a news network). Usually, VNs won’t use an opening crawl as it’s better to let players read through a prologue at their own pace, but it may be worth considering if it fits your theme. (ex: a parody of the Star Wars opening crawl may work well for your game if it’s a quirky space opera or a comedy/parody.)