Gameplay

Gameplay is something a visual novel does not require, but it is generally considered more marketable to non-visual novel players if it includes some sort of game-like elements, such as timed choices (a timer counts down to when the game will make a choice of its own) and QTEs/Quick Time Events (click the correct button at the right time) or actual mini-games, such as match-3 (ex: Huniepop), point-and-click/scene examination (ex: the Ace Attorney series and Collar x Malice), or interactive segments (ex: poem writing in Doki Doki Literature Club). Many visual novel purists tend to dislike games with heavier gameplay and claim they’re not visual novels. As such, you may wish to consider enabling some way to skip gameplay for those players, especially as some industry sites/blogs won’t cover games that “aren’t VNs”.