Since I originally planned Aurora\u2019s Nightmare as a traditional novel, I needed to make a number of changes to the story in order to convert it into a visual novel.\u00a0 Namely, there wasn\u2019t enough of it.\u00a0 An unchanging linear story is all well and good for a novel, but a visual novel needs lots of places where the player can make choices and those choices have to change things.\u00a0 Some of that is pretty easy to do.\u00a0 Make the right choice and the story continues, make the wrong choice and it\u2019s game over.\u00a0 In other cases, I took what might have normally been a single conversation and broke it apart into several different topics so the player can decide which one he wants to pursue.
\nBut that\u2019s all relatively minor.\u00a0 To make a good visual novel, you need decisions that drastically change the story.\u00a0 Aurora\u2019s Nightmare now has three distinct story paths (each containing a number of smaller decisions).\u00a0 The first follows the plot of the original novel pretty closely but the others take things in very different directions.\u00a0 Planning them out involved a lot more than just thinking where the story could changes.\u00a0 Tia, for example, had a relatively small role in the original story, despite her importance.\u00a0 So I made sure to give her a much larger one in the other story paths.\u00a0 Of course, giving her a larger role meant that I needed to spend a lot more time developing her as a character (personality, motivations, etc.) as well.\u00a0 It meant more work, but she\u2019s a stronger character because of it.
\nTia isn\u2019t the only character who got a major increase in screen time and two entirely new characters were created as well.\u00a0 Then there\u2019s the world building.\u00a0 While the original story revealed the truth behind the mysteries of Lucerna, it only covered the basics.\u00a0 Having additional story paths allowed me to dig much deeper into the truth behind the world and characters, adding a number of additional twists and elements which will be progressively revealed as players progress through the game. \u00a0 While completing a single story path will leave you with a \u201ccomplete\u201d story with a satisfying conclusion, you\u2019ll need to play through all three to truly understand the world and characters.\u00a0 I wish I could give an example, but I\u2019m trying to avoid heavy spoilers in this blog. \u00a0 Anyway, in the end, converting Aurora\u2019s Nightmare into a visual novel hasn\u2019t been an easy process, but it\u2019s allowed me to greatly expand the story, creating a far deeper and more engaging experience than I could have done with a regular book.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Since I originally planned Aurora\u2019s Nightmare as a traditional novel, I needed to make a number of changes to the story in order to convert it into a visual novel.\u00a0 Namely, there wasn\u2019t enough of it.\u00a0 An unchanging linear story is all well and good for a novel, but a visual novel needs lots of … Continue reading The Creation of Aurora\u2019s Nightmare Part 3: Adding Interaction<\/span>