Visual novel spin-off series: Possible? and which engine should I used for this?
Akira here!
You see, I churned out several potential ideas for the whole Carmine Blood metaseries recently, and aside from the RPG Maker MZ (scheduled)-made spin-off series Hidden Children, I also have ideas of a potential visual novel spin-off game series, starring my avatar in the whole metaseries: Kurisu Kamui (神居九美子)! (Also known as "Chris" or "Kris" (not that Kris from Deltarune) if you break down the kanji for her given name and read them under different Japanese kanji readings)
This series will revolve around Kurisu's adventure in her dreams through strange and bizarre worlds, and these adventures actually are not made by the REAL Kurisu, but they are the adventures of Kurisu's astral copy, copied through her ability of bilocation (that means the worlds she travelled in are not the worlds in her imagination, but the worlds in the imagination of others she visited during her dreams). Tasked with the mission of gathering analyzing the data about the humans' thoughts through trips to their "Dream Worlds" in order to find out what do the humans suffer mentally, and to help Megumi Kiyono (who else?) improving their lives by giving the feeling of comfort to their minds and show their benevolent love to the humans.
I'm deciding which visual novel engine should I use to create this spin-off series (if possible). My current choices are Ren'Py, TyranoBuilder and Visual Novel Maker. Here are the pros and cons of these engines:
Ren'Py:
Pros:
Free, which means I don't have to pay for this engine (plus, I have it already on my PC)
Support localization through generating translations through an easy-to-use interface
Powerful scripting language (Python; I heard Python is going to integrated in my school's curriculum) which is easy to learn
Comprehensive documentation online
Have been known to use in successful games (Doki Doki, Long Live the Queen, etc.)
Is a supported Engines & Tools option on itch.io and Game Jolt.
Cons:
Uses a scripting langauge, non-programmers must take an amount of time to master it (I know next to nothing about scripting using programming languages)
Does not support web export like TyranoBuilder.
TyranoBuilder:
Pros:
Easy to use, scripting is not neccessary (even non-programmers can be able to make a game easily)
Drag-and-drop interface for scripting events
Affordable, cheaper than Visual Novel Maker.
Also support localization through an external add-on which can be downloaded, and the localization process is also easy.
Cross-platform export.
Support web export, which means you can play games made by this instantly from the game's site
Is an available Engines & Tools option on itch.io (I also published my games on itch too).
Cons:
Incomprehensive documentation (there used to be things like Live2D Support documentation but currently these are erased from the online documentation)
Localization requires a downloadable add-on (as I said above), which means if we are offline at the time we want to localize our game, we cannot download that add-on. And localized versions of games created by this are not integrated with the main game, the localized games are standalone executables that does not share the same directory as the main game (But I might bypass this by including the original and localized game folders in a zipped file).
Visual Novel Maker:
Pros:
Easy to use like TyranoBuilder, no programming knowledge neccessary.
Also with drag, drop or click interface to script events.
Supports localization without an add-on like Ren'Py.
Cross-platform export.
Comprehensive documentation like Ren'Py.
Cons:
More expensive than TB (TyranoBuilder).
Is not a supported Engines & Tools option on itch.io. (That means you can only know what I use to make these games through the Game Jolt page, not the itch page)
Does not support web export like TyranoBuilder.
So what do you think? Is it possible for me to create a visual novel spin-off series, and which of the engines I listed above should I use to create this spin-off? Vote for me for deciding which engine should I use, and leave a comment for supporting ideas on whether I should make a visual novel spin-off series or not!
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