What is a Visual Novel?
Summary
TLDRThe video discusses the growing popularity of visual novels, a genre of narrative-focused games originating in Japan. With the rise of free engines like Ren'Py, visual novels have become accessible to both novice developers and a wide range of players. These games are also used in education and health for topics like language learning and underrepresented narratives. Despite the genre's popularity, there is no unified academic definition. Through a literature review and analysis, the video proposes a new definition based on 10 core features, aiming to guide future design and research.
Takeaways
- 📚 The visual novel is a widely popular narrative-focused game genre, originating from Japan, and has seen a global surge in popularity.
- 🎮 Free game engines like Ren'Py have made visual novels more accessible to independent designers and novice developers.
- 🌍 Visual novels are accessible to a wide range of players and skill levels, making them suitable for high-impact domains like education and health.
- 📖 Visual novels have been used to teach various topics, including language learning (e.g., Kanji Combat), chemistry, and cooking.
- 🏳️🌈 The genre has also been used to explore underrepresented narratives, including queer stories, as seen in Dream Daddy.
- 📑 Despite the genre's popularity, there is no unified academic definition of what constitutes a visual novel, with definitions ranging from interactive textbooks to multi-ending adventure games.
- 🎨 A systematic review of visual novels and their academic definitions revealed 22 design features, with 10 core features appearing in 95% or more of the analyzed games.
- 🎵 Some key features, such as background music, on-click progression, and menu choices, were often present in games but not consistently reflected in academic definitions.
- 📝 The study's unified definition of visual novels includes a focus on art, aesthetics, and interaction, while acknowledging that story quality and narrative structure are important but not required.
- 🔑 The research presented a new unified definition for visual novels based on analysis of 30 academic definitions and 54 visual novels, emphasizing their versatility and potential for use in educational and research domains.
Q & A
What is a visual novel?
-A visual novel is a genre of narrative-focused games, originally from Japan, that has gained global popularity. It typically blends text-based storytelling with visual elements and player interaction.
Why has the popularity of visual novels increased in recent years?
-The rise in popularity is partly due to the availability of free visual novel game engines like Ren'Py, making it easier for novice and independent designers to create visual novels.
What makes visual novels accessible to a wide variety of players and developers?
-Their simple mechanics and the availability of free development tools like Ren'Py make visual novels accessible to players with different skill levels and to developers with varying levels of experience.
In which high-impact domains have visual novels been used, and why?
-Visual novels have been used in domains like education and health because their accessibility makes them effective tools for teaching and engaging with topics like language acquisition, chemistry, and even mental health.
Can visual novels address social issues? Give an example.
-Yes, visual novels can explore narratives related to underrepresented communities. For example, 'Dream Daddy' is a visual novel that explores queer narratives.
Is there a unified academic definition of visual novels?
-No, there is no unified definition of visual novels in the academic literature. Definitions vary, ranging from describing them as interactive textbooks to adventure games with multiple story endings.
How did the researchers in the script approach defining visual novels?
-They conducted a systematic literature review and analyzed existing visual novels. Through this, they identified a set of key features and used them to construct a unified definition.
What are the key categories identified in academic definitions of visual novels?
-The definitions converged on four categories: art and aesthetics, interaction, narrative structure, and story quality. These were used to help identify the core features of visual novels.
What are some core features of visual novels identified in the analysis?
-Core features include background music, click progression, and action/dialog menu choices, among others. These were present in 95% or more of the visual novels studied.
What does the new unified definition of visual novels emphasize?
-The new definition emphasizes the core features like art and aesthetics, interactivity, and accessibility, making visual novels highly suitable for both entertainment and research domains.
Outlines
📖 Introduction to Visual Novels
The paragraph introduces the concept of visual novels, a popular genre of narrative-focused games originating in Japan. These games have gained widespread popularity globally, especially due to the availability of free visual novel game engines like Ren'Py, which have made the genre accessible to both novice and independent developers. Visual novels are also known for being accessible to players of all skill levels, leading to their adoption in high-impact areas such as education and health, where they are used for teaching subjects like language acquisition, chemistry, and cooking. The genre's accessibility makes it a valuable tool for both entertainment and research.
🌍 Addressing Social and Cultural Narratives
This paragraph highlights the genre's ability to explore complex narratives, particularly those of underrepresented communities, such as queer narratives. An example of this is seen in the visual novel *Dream Daddy*. Despite the genre's growing popularity and accessibility, there is no unified definition in academic literature. Visual novels are variously defined as interactive textbooks, multi-ending adventure games, or through more intricate frameworks involving aesthetics and design. Nonetheless, the fans and players of the genre seem to intuitively agree on what constitutes a visual novel, suggesting a set of common criteria that could be formalized into a unified definition.
🧠 The Need for a Unified Definition
The lack of consensus among academic definitions of visual novels is discussed, with the observation that most definitions only capture a small subset of elements. Players, publishers, and fans seem to agree on what a visual novel is, even though academic definitions remain fragmented. This suggests that a unified definition is both possible and necessary. Such a definition would not only aid in the design and study of visual novels but also improve their use in high-impact areas like education and health, where the genre's accessibility and simplicity could be leveraged for significant benefit.
📊 Research Methodology and Key Findings
This paragraph summarizes the methodology used to define visual novels. The research involved a systematic literature review of existing definitions combined with an analysis of visual novels themselves. The outcome was the identification of 22 design features, with 10 core features being found in 95% or more of the visual novels analyzed. The core features mostly fall within the categories of art, aesthetics, and interaction. Interestingly, while narrative structure and story quality are important to visual novel design, they were not deemed essential for defining the genre.
🎨 Defining the Core Features of Visual Novels
This section delves into the analysis of existing academic definitions, revealing widespread agreement on certain features—particularly interactivity, which was mentioned in 20 definitions. However, there was little agreement on other features. Some elements, such as background music, click-based progression, and action/dialog menu choices, were barely mentioned in academic definitions, despite being present in over 95% of the visual novels in the study. This led to the creation of a new definition that incorporates all 10 core features.
📝 Presenting the New Unified Definition
The final paragraph presents a new unified definition for visual novels based on an analysis of 30 academic definitions and 54 visual novels. The genre's widespread appeal and accessibility make it an ideal medium for various applications and research domains. The unified definition is intended to support further research and development in areas like education, providing a clearer framework for the genre’s use and study.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Visual novel
💡Accessibility
💡Ren'Py
💡Education and health
💡Narrative
💡Underrepresented communities
💡Systematic literature review
💡Core features
💡Interactivity
💡Unified definition
Highlights
Visual novels are a popular and widely recognized genre of narrative-focused games, originating from Japan.
The rise of free visual novel game engines like Ren'Py has made this genre more accessible to novice and independent designers.
Visual novels are accessible to players of various skill levels, contributing to their use in high-impact areas such as education and health.
Visual novels have been used for educational purposes, teaching topics like second language acquisition, chemistry, and cooking.
The genre also explores narratives of underrepresented communities, such as queer narratives in games like Dream Daddy.
There is no unified academic definition of visual novels, with definitions ranging from interactive textbooks to multi-ending adventure games.
Academic definitions of visual novels include small numbers of elements, leading to a lack of consensus on what truly defines the genre.
Despite the lack of academic consensus, players and fans seem to easily identify and agree on what constitutes a visual novel.
A unified definition of visual novels could help improve the study, design, and application of these games in high-impact areas like education and health.
A systematic literature review was conducted to analyze existing definitions and visual novels, leading to the identification of 22 design features.
10 core features of visual novels were identified, which were present in 95% or more of the analyzed visual novels.
The core features primarily focus on the art, aesthetics, and interaction aspects of visual novels.
Story quality and narrative structure, though important in design, are not necessary to define the visual novel genre.
Interactivity was the most agreed-upon feature, appearing in 20 different definitions.
The research culminated in a new definition for visual novels, which incorporated all 10 core features from the analysis.
Transcripts
and i'm presenting what is a visual
novel
the visual novel is a widely recognized
and highly popular genre of narrative
focused games originating in japan its
popularity has been suddenly increasing
in all across the world in recent years
this has been bolstered by increase of
free visual novel game engines like
renpi making visual novels accessible to
a wider range of novice and independent
designers
visual novels are also accessible to a
wide variety of players and skill levels
and this has led to their use in high
impact domains like education and health
they've been used to teach topics like
second language acquisition as seen here
in kanji combat
chemistry and cooking to name a few
examples
[Music]
accessibility for both players and
developers makes the visual novel highly
suitable as a choice of genre for high
impact domains like education as well as
for research
it's worth noting that visual novels
have also been known for exploring
narratives and issues faced by
underrepresented communities and
populations such as queer narratives as
an example which can be seen in dream
daddy
[Music]
despite this popularity and
accessibility there is not a unified
definition in the academic literature
that helps guide design and analysis of
visual novels
academic definitions and descriptions
are not an agreement with definitions
ranging from interactive textbooks to
adventure games with multi-ending
stories
ranging to the even more complex
multi-factor definitions
that account for aesthetics and
design some of which overlap some not
most definitions only contain a small
number of elements leaving out concepts
being central and other definitions
despite the lack of consensus the
players of the genre publishers and fans
seems to both easily identify and agree
on what a visual novel is
so there must be a set of criteria which
is used to identify them which means
that a unified definition and formalized
understanding of visual novels is
achievable
a unified definition would allow for a
more comprehensive view and approach to
the study and design of visual novels as
well as improving the use of visual
novels for various high impact areas
such as education and health
where their accessibility and ease of
use has the potential to be leveraged
with great effect
we go into detail regarding the
methodology in the paper and we
encourage you to refer to that for more
information
but to summarize we use a systematic
literature review to identify existing
definitions
analysis of those in combination with an
analysis of existing visual novels
resulted in a set of features from which
we identified key features based on
further analysis of the visual novels in
the data set
finally the definition was constructed
based on the key features we identified
the academic definitions converged on
four categories of features where each
definition could contain one or more
feature from each category
for this analysis and further detail on
our findings please refer to the paper
in total our analysis found 22 design
features of visual novels
core features were identified based on
whether they were present in 95 percent
or more of the visual novels in our
corpus resulting in a set of 10 core
features
relating the features back to the
definitions the core features are mainly
focused within the art and aesthetics
and interaction categories
we want to note that story quality and
narrative structure are both important
considerations for visual novel design
and this is identified in the academic
definitions however our findings
indicate that neither is necessary to
identify what a visual novel is as a
genre
when examining the definitions from the
literature we can see that while some
features were agreed upon there is very
little agreement across definitions
interactivity required had the most
widespread agreement where 20
definitions agreed but there is little
agreement on other features
on average existing academic definitions
included 2.17 explicit mentions of the
10 core features
the most comprehensive definition in our
sample included 7 of 10 core features
we can see that many of the features
that got little to no mention in
academic definitions were present in
more than 95 percent of the visual novel
data set this includes background music
which was present in three definitions
on click progression which was presented
four definitions
and action and dialog menu choices which
represent in none and two definitions
respectively
this resulted in a new definition for
the genre pictured here where all 10
core features
key features were
present
drawing on analysis of 30 existing
academic definitions in a set of 54
visual novels we presented a new unified
definition of visual novels
visual novels are popular and accessible
to a wide variety of players and
developers and this makes them highly
suitable for a variety of domains and
research
and we hope this work contributes to
supporting those efforts
thank you
浏览更多相关视频
Is This Going To Be The Next Big Low Content Book Niche To Publish On Amazon KDP - Blank Comic Books
What Are Visual Novels, and Why Are They a Thing? - Why, Anime? | Get In The Robot
Top 10 Copied games that are better than Original Games!
The New Player Experience in Any Competitive Game
How to get Japanese light novels FREE and legally. 1000s easily available.
20대 추천 인생 책 모음집
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)