Visual novels are a great genre, and the learning curve for #renpy is super accessible, so a lot of folks try to do them solo.

If you insist doing Literally Everything for your #VN, here’s a thread of tips, from someone with many, many, solo projects that died bc of burnout.

This should go without saying, but this is entirely what I find works for me, based off mistakes I’ve made. Everyone works differently.

If you check my itchio, you won’t see much there, and those mistakes are why; they built up over time & lead to project abandonment.

# 1: Scope.
Scope scope scope!
Think of the smallest version of your game, the least complicated mechanics, using the least amount of assets.
Now cut that in half.
That’s your project now.
Your goal is to Finish something.
Game dev is like writing; you can polish later.

# 2: Routine.
Chances are, you’re doing game dev as a hobby; most of us have to rely on other stuff for income.
But- especially if you’re solo- you NEED to establish some sort of schedule. Create “shifts” for yourself- a start and end time for your work for the day. (1/3)

(# 2 Cont)
I’m bad at this, and still learning; especially with Ohohohoujo-sama!, a project I feel so excited for, I have to FORCE myself to stop working at 9pm.
With The Skin You’re In, I made the mistake of NOT doing this, and that’s 1 reason it’s still in development. (2/3)

(# 2 Cont)
Try to do 1 Tiny Thing daily.
Break every “simple task” down, step by step, & check off each box. Something as “simple” as “make new menu buttons” are more involved than you realize; this method helps me feel less frustrated if I don’t finish something “simple”.(3/3)

# 3: Accountability

This one is hard for anyone working on any solo project, and you have to know what you personally respond to. For me, what’s helped an extraordinary amount is joining the @VN_Devtalk server, and seeing everyone else working hard on their projects. (1/3)

(# 3 cont) I know a few people who respond better to having a one-on-one “buddy check” system; because it’s one thing to disappoint yourself if you miss your goal for the week, but disappointing KIM? Perish the thought! (2/3)

(# 3 Cont) Lastly- and it’s something that NEEDS to be brought up in the context of solo devs- if u have a Patre/on, you already have accountability Built In.

You’ve promised patrons a Service: seeing your work progress. And that’s an obligation you have to fulfill. (3/3)

Speaking of accountability, I’ll come back to add more tips to this thread later; rn I have to prepare talking points for a winter jam team meeting, lol.

# 4: Determine an Order of Operations

when you’re in a scenario where Everything is your job to do, then it’s incredibly easy to jump around and peck at whatever... And that isn’t a Bad way to work, but it leaves you open to problems down the line...(1/?)

(# 4 Cont) sometimes you’ll get down to the programming, realize you didn’t do something, and your workflow comes to a screeching halt bc you realized you forgot to draw a certain expression for a character sprite, or didn’t get a suitable sound effect for something. (2/?)

(# 4 cont) This is where deciding a workflow order is useful. Personally, I start with an outline.

List your main scenes and break it down to the Absolute Essential beats/scenes.
More can be added later, but using this, you can get a good idea of what assets you'll need. (3/?)

(#4 cont) Worth noting- a lot of times when I start a project, I'll only have a vague idea of a premise or mechanic;
Figuring out your characters and their motives is a part of the writing process, but that's not necessarily what I'm going over here, lol. (4/?)

(# 4 cont)
I always try to figure out things in terms of Scenes and Visuals.

as an example, I'm going to show two outlines, one from my horrendously over-scoped horror project, "The Skin You're In", and some scenes from my ongoing winter jam project, "Ohohohoujo-sama!". (5/?)

(# 4 cont) The Skin You're In provides a great example of DRAMATICALLY overscoping, and generally, what Not to do for a jam.

Before I even had an idea of the rest of the game, or how it ended, i was writing things in the script for CGs...dummy! you have to DRAW those! (6/?)

(# 4 cont) if you've played the demo for The Skin You're In, (first, thank you. secondly,) you'll notice this is literally the script i use in the demo.
it's basically unchanged, but the it's delivered with WAY less assets...and guess what?
It's actually BETTER that way! (7/?)

(# 4 cont) ...i'm rambling about scope again, my bad.

My point here is, for TSYI, I didn't really HAVE an order of operations, so I was all over the place, and the project suffered for it.

(# 4 end) Okay so this tip got away from me, but the point is this:
Finding your "Right" order is a personal journey, but with a VN, script is king.
Finish that, then worry about the rest.
You can work on BGs, UI, sprites, whatever, AFTER you've worked out what's happening.

# 4 Bonus:
If you want to know what a considerably Better outline looks like, Here's some of the outline for "Ohohohoujo-sama!"

As I'm working with others on this one, I wrote "discuss assets" here, because as much as I WANT a CG here...there's other places I want a CG more.

# 5: Cheat!

this is something i also encourage teams to do, particularly in a game jam scenario....take shortcuts! Reuse assets! Cheeze it! If it saves time, do it!

For example, here's a discussion in the "Ohohohoujo-sama!" discord about a background, featuring @knickers_pj :

(# 5 cont) When you're editing your script, think about where you can reuse assets-
Does this scene really NEED to have a separate BG, or can it happen in a place you were earlier?
If it's an incidental CG, try to use it at LEAST twice.
Get creative!

# 6 EMBRACE THE COMMUNITY!~

The VN dev community is here for you!
Lemmasoft forums has a whole forum for free assets. There's a number of dev discords where people will help if you're stuck.
Don't be afraid to ask for help, or reach out! It's fun!

https://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/ 

A lot of might seem like basic, no brainers to some ppl, but especially when you're getting into dev work- or getting BACK into dev work- it's easy to overextend yourself, and feel like a failure because you couldn't finish something.

And that's why i made this thread, lol.

I've literally been making things using Renpy on and off since 2010, and only THIS YEAR have I ever published anything even NEAR finished online...so it's never too late, okay?

Build your confidence, one step at a time. Make tiny games that make YOU happy.

Anyway, if you liked this thread, check out my team's Winter VN Jam game, "Ohohohoujo-sama!", and look forward to playing it sometime at the end of December! https://bluerosesonata.itch.io/ohohohoujousama