discussion Why are VN games so common?

[xghuresh]

I’m all for every genre out here but I’m not the biggest fan of VN and I feel like I see them more than anything else. No hate or negativity towards people who do like them or their devs but I’m just wondering why if there’s even a reason?

 

[misterfluffums]

I mean... the obvious reason is that they're so much more easier to make than other games lol

Especially Ren'py makes it so easy to create a game. Easy as in "doable for a solo dev", it's still incredibly time consuming, mind.

If we assume the least amount of skills you need for a VN you need almost no coding skills, you can use static 2D images instead of animated 2/3D, and you need no team because you can do the coding and assets on your own because it's so easy.

Obviously if you like coding, you can do incredible complicated things with a VN. If you like animation, you can go wild on the visual aspects (looking at you zdagoat ). But that's optional. Any dev can play to their strengths and kind of avoid their weaknesses (up to a point of course).

If you look at lisland (unreal engine), the baseline skills required are so, so much more. So hobby devs that want to release a game similar to that are more likely to quit before releasing any kind of demo because the demo they have isn't even remotely playable yet.

That's at least my quick and dirty analysis.