Learning minor tools for your game
Your chosen game engine almost does not have everything. And maybe for the better!
After breaking down a game into smaller minigames, I decided to pick one and go for it! Where to start? I’m a big story fan, so let’s go with a visual novel. Not to mention, they’re probably the easiest path at this point (probably not).
That's why my next goal would be to familiarize myself with Inkle.
Inkle, in case you don't know, is a branching narrative system that can be later implemented in other engines. Or so I’ve heard…
That’s why I decided to learn how much Inkle helps accomplish. Ofcourse, it’s not a tool like Ren’py for building visual novels. But I will need it (or an alternative) sooner or later to use it in Godot. I did not change my mind on this one.
In the end, I will probably make a simple visual novel, I might need to play some to get a grasp of the genre (any recommendations outside of Doki Doki Literature Club?).
But in the end, I want to go a little further. I know what I want. Or so I think.
![Dune - The first act [RETRO-1992] - theGeek.games](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F94b07c64-8b94-46f2-92cf-592f9accadc7_1387x885.png "Dune - The first act [RETRO-1992] - theGeek.games")
Not the typical things that come to mind when saying visual novel, right?
I want to achieve the feeling of one, with a little more possibilities, but not sure how they called that mechanic before it was called visual novel 😊
How I see the next steps?
Make something only in Inkle.
Learn how people integrate Inkle with their engines.
All that to answer some questions:
Will it be enough?
Is it really needed?
Wouldn't it be better to implement my own dialogue system?
Time will tell!
What I'd do in your scenario is take something really simple, give it a few narrative branches and outcomes, then focus on answering those three questions.
I'd take something familiar but simple, like Jack and Jill going up the hill to fetch water, take a few hours develop some branches and basic dialogue in that story, then use that as the template story to figure out the stuff I really want to know.
"they’re probably the easiest path at this point" - My thoughts exactly before I started developing my visual novel.
Boy was I wrong!