
Long sections of dialogue are part of the charm of Visual Novels but, if talking scenes are too long and there’s not much happening visually, a player might lose interest. After you’ve cut down on your dialogue, you might wonder what you can add to make your story more visual.
Many Visual Novels rely on sprites appearing and disappearing when the speaker changes to keep things moving. This is a great first step, but it can risk players feeling like they’ve landed on a night club dance floor where Visual Novel Characters flash at them like strobe lights. There are also other tools you can use that might be more novel for players.
Here are five of my favourite directing tools used by Visual Novel Creators.
The Zoom
Zooms can help draw attention to a particular story moment and establish POV for certain lines of dialogue. I used zooms in my short Visual Novel Photos, when I wanted to enter the mind of the lead character throughout scenes and show the audience what he was thinking. Zooms were also useful for introducing the love interest, making his arrival feel more cinematic.
Zooms can be useful for highlighting background elements too, such as clues in a detective story.

The Whip Pan
Fast paced conversations can be challenging in Visual Novels as having a character speak off screen can be disorientating for a viewer.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney solves this problem with the Whip Pan. The Whip Pan is a classic film technique, where the camera whips from one subject to another without an edit in between.
In Phoenix Wright, the camera whips between speakers throughout the lengthy court room scenes, allowing players to keep track of who is speaking, establish the placement of all the characters in the space, while building tension and avoiding the dreaded flashing of sprites on screen.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Capcom
The Insert
Studio Clump’s Stillwater makes excellent use of the insert throughout its gameplay. Sometimes, without even any particular plot progression, inserts of poignant props appear on screen to break up conversations. They function similarly to a close up in a movie. The added benefit of inserts, as opposed to CGs, is they’re less expensive to illustrate.

The Button
Visual Novels are still video games, and buttons are a simple way to keep conversations engaging without needing extra art (buttons are, in many cases, free).
The player in Phoenix Wright doesn’t greatly affect the slabs of information they get out of their interrogations. However, by simply giving the player the choice of which order they ask questions, the player is placed in the characters’ shoes, and the conversation is broken into smaller, manageable sections. Midnight Scene: A Safe Place does a similar thing, allowing the viewer to choose the order of action.
Sure, narrative purists might say choices should have consequences, and it can be frustrating making choices when it’s not clear what the differences are but, if the options are logical, players are likely fine having some level of control.

Animation
Animation is a great way to add visual interest to your novel. Characters blinking, backgrounds moving, animation can lift the production elements of your visual novel without interrupting the narrative flow. Sure, animation costs money but, if it means you don’t have to use other elements to keep your scenes interesting, it might end up saving you money (and time!) in the long run.

Do you have Visual Novel directing tools you like that I’ve not mentioned here? I’d love to hear about them below.
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