In a visual novel with a lot of different decisions, it\u2019s import to make sure that players learn certain important information no matter which choices they make, essentially putting that info on every possible route. There may also be situations where certain scenes or conversations have the potential to take place at multiple points in the story, depending on the player\u2019s choices. Now there\u2019s nothing really wrong with that, but when replaying the game and making different choices, it can sometimes get rather repetitious, especially if the text is just copy\/pasted. That\u2019s something I always disliked, so I\u2019m doing my best to avoid any copy\/pasting in Aurora\u2019s Nightmare.
\nOne strategy I employ is ensuring that the three main story paths have to be completed in a set order. There were actually a few reasons I made that choice, but one of them is it lets me minimize repetition across the paths. If a key plot element is explained in detail on the first path, I can skip or gloss over it on the other routes.
\nBut that doesn\u2019t remove all need for repetition. For example, in the part of the script I\u2019m working on right now, Ars is having a conversation with another character and can choose between three different discussion topics. Later on, they have another conversation and the player can choose between either of the two topics they didn\u2019t discuss the first time around. No repetition there\u2026 Unless the player later replays that section and wants to try out other options. Since there\u2019s two different points at which each topic can be discussed, it would be simple to just write one version of each conversation and copy\/paste them. But players looking to try out all the different options would end up reading each conversation twice, something I\u2019d prefer to avoid. While I did need to ensure that both versions of the conversation convey the same information, I went the extra mile and rewrote all the dialogue so, even though they\u2019re coving the same material, they both feel different from each other.
\nThat type of approach takes a bit more work, and doesn\u2019t really constitute a major improvement to the game as a whole, but it\u2019s a touch I always appreciate when playing visuals novels, so it\u2019s something I want to do in my own as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a visual novel with a lot of different decisions, it\u2019s import to make sure that players learn certain important information no matter which choices they make, essentially putting that info on every possible route. There may also be situations where certain scenes or conversations have the potential to take place at multiple points in … Continue reading Avoiding Copy\/Paste<\/span>