Features

Visual Novel

Deep dives into every tool on stage

Visual Novel

The Visual Novel system turns an AI chat into a full interactive visual novel experience — backgrounds filling the screen, character sprites with shifting expressions, music setting the mood, branching choices, inventory, objectives, and even minigames. It's an entire game engine layered on top of the conversation.

Think of it like directing a stage play. You build the stage — choose the cast, paint the backdrops, pick the music, outline the story — and then the AI performs live. Every playthrough is improvised. Every decision matters. No two runs through the same VN are exactly alike.

The Visual Novel system is a content type, just like characters, presets, and lorebooks. You create a VN, publish it, and anyone can play it by opening a chat with it. The AI reads your cast, locations, story beats, and objectives, then weaves them into a living, breathing narrative that responds to the player's choices in real time.

How It Works

The core concept: you provide the raw materials — characters, places, music, story waypoints — and the AI improvises a narrative using them. You're the playwright, the AI is the troupe of actors performing your vision on the fly.

You build the VN world
    ├── Cast (characters + sprite expressions)
    ├── Locations (backgrounds + ambient audio)
    ├── Story Beats (narrative waypoints the AI aims for)
    ├── Objectives (goals the player works toward)
    ├── Items (gifts, key items, collectibles)
    ├── Music & Sound Effects
    └── Map (navigable locations)

A player opens the VN → chat activates
    ├── AI sees the full cast, locations, and story beats
    ├── AI writes dialogue + embeds stage directions
    └── The stage renders everything live:
         ├── Background image fills the screen
         ├── Character sprites appear with expressions
         ├── Music and ambient audio play
         ├── Dialogue appears in a styled text box
         ├── Choice prompts appear at decision points
         └── Inventory, objectives, and map update

The AI doesn't just write text — it also controls the stage. When a character gets angry, the AI changes their expression. When the scene shifts to a moonlit garden, the AI swaps the background and starts the night music. When a critical moment arrives, the AI presents the player with choices. All of this happens seamlessly, woven into the narrative like stage directions in a screenplay.

The Four VN Modes

Every visual novel has a type that shapes how the AI approaches the experience. Choose the one that fits your story best.

Mode	What It Is	Best For
Dating Sim	Romance-focused with affinity tracking, relationship stats, and a gift system. The AI monitors how the player's choices affect relationships with each cast member. Characters react to gifts — some love them, some hate them. Multiple romance routes emerge naturally from player choices.	Romance, slice of life, relationship-driven stories
Visual Novel	Classic branching narrative with key decision points. The AI guides the story toward your beats while honoring player choices at critical moments. Think of visual novels like Steins;Gate or Doki Doki Literature Club — a strong central narrative with meaningful branches.	Story-driven experiences with a clear narrative arc
CYOA	Choice-driven with heavy player agency. The AI presents frequent choices and the narrative is shaped primarily by what the player decides. Less linear than Visual Novel mode — the story sprawls in the direction the player pushes it.	Adventure, sandbox-style stories, exploration-heavy narratives
Kinetic	Linear cinematic experience with no choices. The AI tells the story start to finish, using all the visual and audio tools — backgrounds, sprites, music, transitions — but the player is along for the ride. Think of it as an animated short story.	Cinematic showcases, emotional set pieces, story demos

You pick the mode when creating the VN. The AI adjusts its behavior accordingly — a Dating Sim AI tracks affinity and suggests gift opportunities, while a CYOA AI presents choices more frequently and gives the player more control over the narrative direction.

Creating a Visual Novel

The VN Editor

The editor is organized into five tabs that walk you through building your VN from the ground up.

1. Overview

The front door. Set the basics:

Field	Purpose
Name	The title of your visual novel
Tagline	A short hook shown on the Discovery card — your elevator pitch
Description	A longer summary of what the VN is about
VN Type	Dating Sim, Visual Novel, CYOA, or Kinetic
Genre	Genre tags for Discovery browsing
Content Rating	All Hours, Late Night, or After Dark
Cover Image	The main image shown on the VN's page
Banner Image	Wide banner for the VN's detail page
Estimated Playtime	How long a typical playthrough takes (in minutes)

Think of the Overview as your VN's movie poster — it's what convinces someone to click "Play."

2. Cast

Your characters. Every person who appears on screen — protagonists, love interests, NPCs, even a narrator voice — is a cast member.

Each cast member has:

Field	Purpose
Character	Links to an existing RoleCall character card
Role	Protagonist, Love Interest, NPC, or Narrator
Display Name	Name shown on screen (can differ from the character card)
Sprite Set	The visual assets — a collection of expression images
Character Details	Personality, appearance, background, motivations, relationships, speech patterns, quirks, and secrets
Hidden	Whether the character is hidden until revealed during the story

The Character Details fields are especially important. They give the AI a dense, structured understanding of who this person is — how they talk, what they want, what they're hiding. These details get compiled into a format the AI can reference during play, like a cheat sheet for each actor.

3. Locations

Every place the story can visit. Locations are the backdrops of your VN — the coffee shop, the haunted mansion, the rooftop at sunset.

Each location has:

Field	Purpose
Name	The location's display name
Description	What the place looks like, feels like, smells like — for the AI's reference
Default Background	The main background image shown when the scene is set here
Background Variants	Alternate versions of the background — night, rainy, sunset, damaged, etc.
Ambient Audio	Looping background sound — rain, crowd noise, forest birds, ocean waves
Default Music	A music track that plays automatically when the scene shifts here
Connected Locations	Which other locations are reachable from this one (for navigation)

Background variants are powerful. A single "Town Square" location can have a daytime version, a nighttime version, a rainy version, and a festival version. The AI picks the right variant based on the story's current state — if it's raining in the narrative, it uses the rainy background automatically.

Connected locations create a navigable map. If the "Town Square" connects to "Tavern," "Market," and "Castle Gate," the player can move between them. The AI uses this network to make navigation feel natural — characters suggest walking to the tavern, or the story flows from one connected location to the next.

4. Story

The narrative backbone. This tab has two key sections: Story Beats and Objectives.

Story Beats are the heart of how the AI approaches your story. They're explained in detail below.

Objectives are goals the player works toward — also explained below.

Together, beats and objectives give the AI a map of where the story should go and what the player should be striving for, without locking anything into a rigid script.

5. Assets

Your media library. Upload and manage:

Asset Type	Purpose
Background Music (BGM)	Looping music tracks for mood setting
Sound Effects (SFX)	Short audio clips — door slams, thunder, laughter
Ambient Audio	Environmental loops — rain, wind, city hum
Vocal Clips	Character voice clips (optional)

Each track has a name, a category, volume level, and whether it loops. You can tag tracks with keywords so the AI can find the right music for the right moment — tag a track "romantic" and the AI will reach for it during tender scenes.

Cast Members

A great VN lives or dies on its characters. Here's what makes a cast member work well.

Expressions Are Everything

Expressions are the visual vocabulary of your character. When the AI writes that Elena blushes and looks away, it changes her sprite to the "embarrassed" expression. When Marcus slams his fist on the table, his sprite shifts to "angry."

More expressions means more visual range. A character with only "happy" and "sad" will feel flat. A character with ten or twelve expressions feels alive.

Recommended expression set (minimum 6-8):

Expression	When It's Used
neutral	Default resting state, general conversation
happy	Smiling, pleased, amused
sad	Disappointed, melancholy, grieving
angry	Frustrated, furious, confrontational
surprised	Shocked, caught off guard, amazed
embarrassed	Flustered, blushing, caught in a lie
smug	Confident, teasing, self-satisfied
thoughtful	Considering, pondering, serious
worried	Anxious, nervous, concerned
loving	Warm, affectionate, tender

You can add as many custom expressions as you want — "crying," "evil_grin," "exhausted," "disgusted," whatever your character needs. The AI sees the full list and picks the best match for each moment.

Outfits

Sprite sets can also include outfit variants. A character might have casual clothes, formal attire, battle gear, and sleepwear. The AI can swap outfits when the story calls for it — a gala scene might trigger the formal outfit, while a sudden fight triggers battle gear.

Character Details

The structured detail fields give the AI a deep understanding of each cast member:

Personality — Core traits, temperament, how they carry themselves
Appearance — Physical description beyond what the sprite shows
Background — History, origins, how they got here
Motivations — What they want, what drives them
Relationships — How they relate to other cast members
Speech Patterns — How they talk — formal, casual, accented, terse, verbose
Quirks — Distinctive habits, tics, mannerisms
Secrets — Things they're hiding (the AI knows, but won't reveal them prematurely)

The Secrets field is particularly interesting. You can tell the AI that a character is secretly the villain, or secretly in love with the protagonist, or secretly a spy — and the AI will weave subtle hints and foreshadowing without blurting out the truth. The reveal happens naturally, driven by the story's momentum.

Roles

Each cast member has a role that tells the AI how to treat them:

Role	Purpose
Protagonist	The main character the player identifies with
Love Interest	A potential romance partner (especially relevant in Dating Sim mode)
NPC	Supporting characters — friends, shopkeepers, mentors, rivals
Narrator	A disembodied voice that provides narration without a sprite

Hidden Characters

Cast members can be marked as hidden — they won't appear on screen until the AI reveals them during the story. This is perfect for surprise entrances, mystery characters, and dramatic reveals. The AI knows the hidden character exists and can foreshadow their arrival, but won't show their sprite until the right moment.

Locations

Locations are the visual foundation of your VN. Every scene happens somewhere, and that somewhere needs a backdrop.

Background Variants

A single location can have multiple background images that the AI swaps between:

Town Square
    ├── default    → Sunny afternoon, market stalls, fountain
    ├── night      → Moonlit cobblestones, lantern glow, empty stalls
    ├── rainy      → Overcast, puddles, merchants under awnings
    ├── festival   → Banners, lights, crowded with people
    └── destroyed  → Rubble, smoke, broken fountain

Variants can have trigger conditions — logical rules that automatically activate them. You could set the "night" variant to trigger when a flag called is_nighttime is true, or the "destroyed" variant to trigger after the player completes a certain objective. The AI can also switch variants manually when the narrative calls for it.

Ambient Audio

Each location can have its own ambient sound loop — the gentle hum of a coffee shop, the chirping of crickets in a forest clearing, the distant rumble of city traffic. Ambient audio plays automatically when the scene shifts to that location and creates an immersive soundscape underneath the music.

Locations can be connected to each other to form a navigable world:

    Castle Gate ←→ Throne Room
         ↕              ↕
    Town Square ←→ Castle Courtyard
         ↕
      Tavern ←→ Back Alley
         ↕
      Market ←→ Harbor

When the player is at a location, they can see and travel to connected locations. The AI uses these connections to make movement feel natural — suggesting the player head to the tavern to meet someone, or having a chase scene flow through connected streets.

If you set up a Map, players can also navigate visually by clicking on locations in a map image (more on that below).

Story Beats

Story beats are the single most important concept in the VN system. They are not scripts. They are not dialogue. They are narrative waypoints — things you want to happen eventually, described in plain language. The AI reads them and weaves toward them naturally, at its own pace, improvising the actual dialogue and events along the way.

Think of story beats like a screenwriter's outline. The outline says "Elena reveals her secret in the garden" — but the actual scene, the dialogue, the emotional buildup, the specific words Elena uses — that's all improvised by the AI in the moment, informed by everything that's happened in the story so far.

What Makes a Good Story Beat

Field	Purpose
Name	A short label — "The Betrayal," "First Kiss," "The Truth Revealed"
Description	What should happen. Be evocative but not prescriptive.
Priority	Essential (must happen), Important (should happen), or Optional (nice if it happens)
Order Hint	Rough sequence — beat 10 happens before beat 20. Leave gaps for flexibility.
AI Notes	Private guidance for the AI — tone, pacing, things to emphasize or avoid
Suggested Characters	Which cast members should be present for this beat
Suggested Location	Where this beat should happen (optional)
Mood	The emotional tone — "tense," "romantic," "comedic," "bittersweet"

Example Story Beats

Beat 1 — "The Arrival"

Description: The player arrives at Thornwick Academy for the first time. They meet their roommate and get a tour of the campus. Establish the atmosphere — old stone buildings, ivy-covered walls, students in robes. Priority: Essential Mood: Curious, slightly intimidating Suggested Characters: Finn (roommate), Dean Ashworth (brief appearance)

Beat 5 — "The Library Incident"

Description: Something strange happens in the restricted section of the library. Books move on their own. A cold wind blows through sealed windows. The player catches a glimpse of something — or someone — that shouldn't be there. Priority: Essential Mood: Unsettling, mysterious AI Notes: Don't reveal what the player saw yet. Leave it ambiguous. Build dread, not answers.

Beat 8 — "Rooftop Confession"

Description: One of the love interests asks the player to meet them on the rooftop at night. An emotionally vulnerable conversation. Could lead to a romantic moment, or a painful truth, depending on the player's choices leading up to this. Priority: Important Mood: Intimate, vulnerable Suggested Location: Academy Rooftop (night variant)

Beats vs. Scripts

The key difference between story beats and traditional VN scripting:

Traditional VN Script	RoleCall Story Beat
"Elena says: 'I need to tell you something about my past.'"	"Elena reveals her secret"
Every line of dialogue is pre-written	Only the narrative goal is defined
One path through the scene	Infinite variations depending on context
Replay is identical each time	Every playthrough improvises the scene differently

This is the magic of AI-driven visual novels. You outline what happens. The AI figures out how it happens, when it feels natural, and what the characters actually say. The result is a story that feels authored but alive.

Objectives

Objectives are goals the player works toward. They appear in the HUD and give the player a sense of direction and accomplishment.

How Objectives Work

Each objective is tied to a specific cast member and has a natural-language completion condition that the AI evaluates:

Field	Purpose
Name	The objective's display name — "Win Elena's Trust," "Find the Hidden Key"
Description	What the player needs to do, in human-readable terms
Character	Which cast member this objective revolves around
Completion Prompt	A description the AI uses to judge when the objective is complete
Priority	Primary (main quest), Secondary (side quest), or Optional
Trigger Condition	When the objective becomes visible (can be immediate or conditional)
Hidden Until Triggered	Whether the objective stays invisible until its trigger fires
Rewards	State changes and items awarded on completion

Objective Lifecycle

Hidden → Triggered → In Progress → Completed
                                  → Failed

Hidden: The objective exists but the player doesn't know about it yet. The AI can foreshadow it.
Triggered: Something happened that activated the objective — it now appears in the player's HUD.
In Progress: The player is actively working toward it.
Completed: The AI determined the completion condition was met. Rewards are granted.
Failed: The objective can no longer be completed (optional — not all objectives can fail).

The AI evaluates objective progress naturally during the story. You don't need to script exact conditions — the completion prompt is a plain-language description like "The player has convinced Elena to share her secret" or "The player has collected all three map fragments." The AI reads the story so far and judges whether the condition feels met.

Rewards

Completing objectives can trigger:

State changes — Set flags, increment counters, change relationship values
Item rewards — Give the player specific items

This ties the narrative to game mechanics — the player feels rewarded for reaching story milestones.

Items and Inventory

Items add a tangible, interactive layer to the narrative. They live in the player's inventory and can be gained, used, gifted, and lost during the story.

Item Categories

Category	Purpose	Example
Gift	Something you give to a cast member — affects relationships (especially in Dating Sim mode)	Bouquet of roses, handmade bracelet, rare book
Key Item	Important to the plot — can't be discarded or consumed	Mysterious locket, ancient map, access keycard
Consumable	Single-use items that trigger state changes when used	Healing potion, disguise kit, truth serum
Collectible	Fun to find, optional to the story, rewards completionists	Postcards, rare coins, journal pages

Gift System (Dating Sim Mode)

In Dating Sim mode, the gift system is central. Each gift item defines relationship effects per character — the same gift might make one character ecstatic and another uncomfortable.

Item: "Bouquet of Red Roses"
    Elena: affection +15, trust +5
    Marcus: awkwardness +10, affection -5
    Sage:   affection +8

The AI handles the gifting scene — the player offers the gift, and the AI writes the character's reaction based on the defined effects. A character who hates the gift won't just say "thanks" — they'll react authentically, and the relationship stats shift accordingly.

Item Rarity

Items can have rarity tiers — common, uncommon, rare, and legendary. Rarity is cosmetic by default (affects how the item appears in the inventory UI), but you can use it narratively — the AI might treat a legendary item with more reverence than a common one.

The map system gives players a visual way to navigate between locations.

Map Image

Upload a custom map image — a hand-drawn fantasy map, a floor plan, an overworld view, a city diagram. Then place hotspots on the image that correspond to your locations. Players click a hotspot to travel there.

Each hotspot has:

Field	Purpose
Location	Which VN location this hotspot links to
Shape	Rectangle, circle, or polygon
Coordinates	Position on the map image
Label	Optional text label shown on hover

Grid Fallback

If you don't want to create a custom map image, the system can generate a simple grid layout from your location list. Each location appears as a card in a grid, and the player clicks to navigate. It's less visually immersive than a custom map, but it works out of the box with zero setup.

When the Map Appears

The map can be shown:

When the AI triggers a navigation moment (the story reaches a point where the player should choose where to go)
From the pause menu (if enabled)
As a persistent overlay (if enabled)

Playing a Visual Novel

When a player opens a chat with your VN, here's what they experience.

The Player-Side Interface

Playing a Visual Novel uses a dedicated interface at /play/{characterId}/{chatId} — a completely separate shell from the standard scene chat. The moment you open a VN, the scene environment transforms: the chat input disappears, the standard wing panels are replaced with VN-specific controls, and the stage takes over the screen.

The layout has four visible layers:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                                                     │
│              Background Scene Image                 │
│         (fills the entire screen)                   │
│                                                     │
│   [Sprite]                          [Sprite]        │
│   Character A                       Character B     │
│   (happy)                           (neutral)       │
│                                                     │
│                                                     │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Character Name                                     │
│  "Dialogue text appears here, line by line,         │
│   in the styled dialogue box anchored to the        │
│   bottom of the screen."                            │
│                                          [Continue] │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
        ♫ Scene music track playing

Background — a full-bleed scene image that sets the location. Swaps with transitions when the scene changes.
Character sprites — one or more character images positioned across the stage, with expression variants that change mid-dialogue.
Dialogue box — styled text area at the bottom showing the speaking character's name and their line.
Music and audio — background track set per scene, with ambient audio layered underneath.

VN mode is turn-based. The AI's response is anchored to the current story position, not to a continuous scroll. You tap Continue (or click anywhere in the dialogue box) to advance.

VN-Specific Wing Panels

The right rail in VN mode contains a set of panels that are specific to the VN interface:

Panel	What it does
Save Slots	Explicit save points — numbered or named. Tap a slot to save your current story position. Tap a saved slot to restore and replay from that point. Separate from autosaves, which happen automatically in the background.
Story Director	The VN-aware story director panel. Shows current narrative state, active story beats, and lets you nudge the AI toward specific beats or adjust pacing.
Cast	Active speakers — shows which characters are currently on stage, their active expression variant, and their sprite position. Useful for tracking who's present in multi-character scenes.
Stage	Sprite swap controls. Each cast member shows their available expression variants. You can manually swap expressions rather than waiting for the AI to call a swap. Useful for testing sprite sets or staging a specific look for a screenshot.
Choices	Your choice history — a log of every decision point the AI has presented and what you selected. Useful for retracing narrative paths.

Save Slots

Save Slots are VN-specific explicit saves. They work alongside the automatic background autosave, which captures your position continuously.

Each slot can be:

Numbered — Slot 1, Slot 2, Slot 3, etc. Simple and fast.
Named — Give the slot a meaningful label ("Before the confession," "Garden scene, good ending path") for easy recall.

Restoring a save loads the full narrative state at that point: the background image, active sprites and expressions, the music track, your inventory and objective states, any relationship values, and the conversation history up to that moment. The AI picks up exactly where the scene was.

Use saves liberally. VNs have branching paths, timed choices, and states that can close off options later — save before entering major conversations, before presenting a gift in Dating Sim mode, or any time you want to be able to revisit a moment.

Sprite Swapping

Each cast member ships with one or more sprite variants tied to emotional expressions. The AI calls expression swaps mid-dialogue to match what's happening in the scene — when a character is angry, their sprite shifts to the "angry" variant; when they blush, the "embarrassed" variant appears.

The Stage panel exposes this manually. You can see every available expression variant for every on-stage character and tap any one to swap immediately. This is useful for:

Browsing a new character's full expression set before playing
Staging a specific look for a scene screenshot
Correcting an expression the AI picked if it doesn't match your reading of the scene
Testing your own VN's sprite set during development

Manual swaps apply immediately and stay active until the next AI-generated swap.

Choice Presentation

When the AI reaches a decision point, the dialogue box hides and a choice overlay takes over the screen:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                                                     │
│           Background + Sprites (visible)            │
│                                                     │
│   ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐   │
│   │  "Meet her on the rooftop at sunset."       │   │
│   └─────────────────────────────────────────────┘   │
│   ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐   │
│   │  "I'm busy. Maybe another time."            │   │
│   └─────────────────────────────────────────────┘   │
│   ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐   │
│   │  "What is this about?"                      │   │
│   └─────────────────────────────────────────────┘   │
│                                                     │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Tap any option to select it. The story continues from your choice. The Choices panel in the right rail records every decision point and what you picked, so you can see the path you've taken.

Choices can be:

Standard — Pick from a list, story continues.
Timed — A countdown appears; if you don't pick in time, the scene defaults to a no-response outcome.
Conditional — Some options only appear if certain flags are set or relationship thresholds are met. You may see the same choice list change across playthroughs as your story state changes.

Music and Audio

Each scene can have a music track. The AI calls a music swap when the scene's emotional tone shifts — a quiet piano track during a tender moment, a tense strings loop during a confrontation. Music fades between tracks smoothly rather than cutting abruptly.

As a player, you have three audio controls:

Mute — Silences all audio (music + ambient + any voice)
Volume — A slider for overall playback volume
Track display — The currently playing track name appears in a small overlay, so you can identify pieces you like

If the VN has TTS voice configured for specific characters, dialogue is read aloud as it appears. Voice is per-character — each cast member can have a distinct TTS voice from the configured provider. A mute voice toggle lets you silence TTS while keeping music and ambient audio.

Differences From Standard Chat

VN mode is built differently from the standard scene shell, and it's worth knowing the differences if you're used to regular chat:

Standard Chat	Visual Novel
Continuous scroll of messages	Turn-by-turn stage display
Swipe for alternate AI responses	No swipe — each response anchors to a save slot
Continue generates additional text	Continue advances the scene turn
Wing panels: Preset, Lorebook, Persona, etc.	Wing panels: Save Slots, Stage, Cast, Choices, Story Director
No background or sprite system	Full background + sprite stage
Music optional, manual	Music driven by AI scene calls

The biggest behavioral difference: there is no swipe in VN mode. In standard chat, swiping lets you regenerate the AI's last response to get a different take. In VN mode, every response is a story-state commit that can be saved and reloaded. If you don't like where the story went, restore a save from before the branch point and make a different choice.

When a player opens a chat with your VN, here's what they experience from the creator-documentation perspective.

The Stage

The screen transforms into a visual novel interface:

┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│                                     │
│          Background Image           │
│                                     │
│   [Sprite]          [Sprite]        │
│   Elena             Marcus          │
│   (smiling)         (thoughtful)    │
│                                     │
│                                     │
├─────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Elena                              │
│  "I've been meaning to tell you     │
│   something. Can we talk later,     │
│   just the two of us?"              │
│                                     │
└─────────────────────────────────────┘
        ♫ Gentle piano BGM playing

Background: A full-bleed image that sets the scene — a classroom, a moonlit forest, a busy train station
Sprites: Character images positioned across the stage, with expressions that change during conversation
Dialogue Box: Styled text area showing who's speaking and what they're saying
Music & Audio: Background music and ambient sounds creating atmosphere

Choices

When the AI reaches a decision point, it presents choices:

┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│                                     │
│        Background + Sprites         │
│                                     │
├─────────────────────────────────────┤
│  What do you do?                    │
│                                     │
│  ┌─────────────────────────────┐    │
│  │  "I'd like that. The        │    │
│  │   rooftop at sunset?"       │    │
│  └─────────────────────────────┘    │
│  ┌─────────────────────────────┐    │
│  │  "I'm busy. Maybe another   │    │
│  │   time."                    │    │
│  └─────────────────────────────┘    │
│  ┌─────────────────────────────┐    │
│  │  "What's this about?"       │    │
│  └─────────────────────────────┘    │
│                                     │
└─────────────────────────────────────┘

Choices can be:

Timed — A countdown forces a decision (or defaults to no response)
Conditional — Some options only appear if certain flags or relationship thresholds are met
Free text — The player types their own response instead of picking from a list

The HUD

Depending on the VN mode and what you've configured, the player may see:

Element	What It Shows
Inventory	Items the player has collected, with descriptions
Objectives	Active goals and their progress
Relationships	Affinity levels with cast members (Dating Sim mode)
Map	Navigable location map
Stats	Custom counters and flags relevant to gameplay

Scene Transitions

When the story moves between locations, the screen transitions smoothly:

Transition	Effect
Fade	Smooth fade to black and back
Slide	The new scene slides in from one side
Iris	A circular wipe (classic film technique)
Dissolve	One image gradually replaces another
None	Instant cut — sometimes the most dramatic option

Stage Directions

Behind every visual change on screen is a stage direction — a structured instruction the AI embeds in its response. You never see these as a player; they're parsed out and executed by the VN engine before the text reaches the screen.

The AI has access to these stage directions:

Scene Control

Direction	What It Does
Set Background	Changes the background image — can target a specific location and variant
Navigate To	Moves the story to a different location (triggers background, ambient audio, and music changes)
Transition	Plays a visual transition effect between scenes
Show Map	Opens the navigation map for the player

Character Control

Direction	What It Does
Set Expression	Changes a character's facial expression
Move Sprite	Repositions a character on the stage (far left, left, center, right, far right, or offscreen)
Reveal Character	Makes a hidden cast member visible for the first time

Audio Control

Direction	What It Does
Set Music	Starts a music track (with optional fade-in)
Stop Music	Stops the current music (with optional fade-out)
Play SFX	Plays a one-shot sound effect

Interaction Control

Direction	What It Does
Show Choices	Presents the player with a set of options to choose from
Give Item	Adds an item to the player's inventory
Remove Item	Takes an item from the player's inventory
Gift Item	The player gives an item to a cast member (triggers relationship effects)
Set State	Changes game state — sets flags, increments counters, adjusts relationships

Objective Control

Direction	What It Does
Trigger Objective	Activates a hidden objective — it appears in the HUD
Complete Objective	Marks an objective as successfully completed, grants rewards
Fail Objective	Marks an objective as failed

Minigames

Direction	What It Does
Start Minigame	Launches an interactive minigame — quizzes, puzzles, card games, stat checks

The AI decides when to use each direction based on the story's flow. You don't need to script when backgrounds change or when music starts — the AI reads the emotional context and makes those calls. A tense confrontation triggers dramatic music. A peaceful morning triggers the gentle ambient track. A character storming out moves their sprite offscreen.

UI Themes

The VN player's visual style is fully customizable through UI themes. A theme controls everything from where the dialogue box sits to what fonts are used to how choices are styled.

Preset Themes

Theme	Style
Classic VN	Traditional visual novel layout — full-screen background, sprites centered, dialogue box anchored at the bottom
Mobile Messenger	Chat-bubble style — dialogue appears in a phone-like interface, good for modern/casual settings
Cinematic	Widescreen letterbox with minimal UI — focuses on the visuals, dialogue is understated
Side Portrait	Character portrait on one side, text area on the other — good for dialogue-heavy stories
Custom	Full control over layout, colors, fonts, and styling via a grid-based configuration system

Theme Customization

Each theme lets you adjust:

Colors — Primary, secondary, accent, text, and background overlay colors
Typography — Font family, dialogue text size, character name size
Dialogue Box — Position (bottom, inline, right, top), padding, border radius, backdrop blur
Choice Buttons — Layout (vertical, horizontal, grid), hover effects (glow, scale, underline)
Transitions — How dialogue appears, how sprites enter, how backgrounds change
Custom Assets — Upload your own dialogue frame, choice frame, and name plate images for a fully branded look

Minigames

Minigames are interactive moments that break up the narrative flow — a quiz, a card game, a stat check, a puzzle. They interrupt the story briefly, then feed their results back into the game state.

Available Minigame Types

Type	What It Is
Quiz	Multiple-choice questions with a pass threshold
Card Game	A simple card game with configurable rules
Puzzle	A puzzle challenge with hints available
Rhythm	A rhythm-based challenge at configurable BPM and difficulty
Stat Check	Roll-the-dice style check against a player stat — pass or fail based on difficulty
Custom	A freeform minigame with a description and custom data — for unique one-off games

Each minigame defines reward state changes (what happens when the player wins) and failure state changes (what happens when they lose). This means a failed stat check might lower a character's trust, while a won card game might earn a rare item.

Title Screen and Menus

Your VN can have a custom title screen — the first thing a player sees before the story begins.

Title Screen Options

Field	Purpose
Background Image	Full-screen art behind the title
Logo Image	Your VN's logo or title art
Subtitle Text	A tagline or quote below the title
Music Track	Background music for the title screen
Button Style	Minimal, bordered, filled, or custom
Button Layout	Vertical or horizontal arrangement

During play, the pause menu can include:

Save and Load functionality
Settings adjustments
A Gallery (for unlocked CGs and artwork)
Custom menu items (trigger minigames, toggle flags, open external links)

Emotion System

The emotion system controls how character expressions change during the story. There are several modes:

Mode	How It Works
AI Mandatory	The AI must specify an expression for every line of dialogue. Maximum visual expressiveness.
AI Optional	The AI can specify expressions when it wants to, and the current expression holds when it doesn't.
Keyword Fallback	The system automatically infers expressions from emotional keywords in the text. If the AI doesn't specify an expression, the engine looks for words like "smiled," "frowned," "blushed" and maps them to sprites.
Off	Expressions stay on their default and never change automatically.

For most VNs, AI Optional is the best balance — the AI changes expressions at dramatic moments and lets them hold during quieter dialogue. AI Mandatory is great for highly expressive, fast-paced stories where you want constant visual feedback.

Integration with Other Systems

The Visual Novel system doesn't exist in isolation — it connects with RoleCall's other major systems to create a richer experience.

With Story Director

When the Story Director (DM) is active during a VN session, it takes on the role of a game master behind the scenes:

Arc Planning: The DM tracks narrative arcs across the VN's story beats, deciding when to advance toward each waypoint
Foreshadowing: Seeds planted by the DM manifest as subtle details in the VN — a raven on a windowsill, a character's offhand comment that means more than it seems
Pacing: The DM monitors the story's rhythm and adjusts — if there's been too much action, it suggests a calm scene; if things have been quiet too long, it nudges toward tension
Shadow World: NPCs in the VN have lives off-screen. The DM tracks what they're doing when the player isn't looking, so their behavior feels consistent and alive

The DM and VN system complement each other beautifully. The VN provides the visual stage; the DM provides the narrative intelligence.

With Compendium

The Compendium handles context management — what the AI remembers about previous sessions. In a VN context:

Session Continuity: When a player returns to a VN they paused days ago, the Compendium reconstructs the narrative context so the AI picks up seamlessly
"Previously On..." Recaps: The Compendium can generate a recap of what happened last session, presented as a visual summary before play resumes
Long-Term Memory: Key events, relationship milestones, and player choices from early in the story persist and influence later scenes, even across multiple sessions

With Immersion Trackers

The VN's game state syncs with the broader immersion tracker system:

Relationships tracked in the VN (affinity, trust, romance) can appear in the Relationships tracker panel
Inventory items show up in the Inventory tracker
Objectives map to the Quests tracker
Map locations sync with the Map tracker

This means the sidebar tracker panels — the same ones used in regular chat mode — display your VN's live game state. Everything stays in sync.

Tips for Great Visual Novels

Story Design

Write evocative story beats, not scripts. The beat "Elena reveals her secret under the cherry blossoms" gives the AI more to work with than "Elena says: I have something to tell you." Paint a mood. The AI will paint the scene.
Use the priority system wisely. Mark 3-5 beats as Essential — these are your story's spine. Everything else should be Important or Optional. Too many Essential beats make the story feel rushed.
Leave gaps in your beat ordering. Use order hints like 10, 20, 30 — not 1, 2, 3. This gives the AI room to breathe between major beats and insert organic character moments.
Set objectives sparingly. 3-5 active objectives at a time is a sweet spot. More than that overwhelms the player and dilutes focus.

Cast and Visuals

Give characters at least 6-10 expressions. Happy, sad, angry, surprised, embarrassed, smug, thoughtful, worried — the more visual range, the more alive they feel.
Create background variants for key locations. A "night" variant for every major location goes a long way. "Rainy" variants add atmospheric depth.
Use multiple locations. Even a short VN benefits from 4-6 distinct locations. Visual variety keeps the experience from feeling static.
Use connected locations to build a world. Even if the player never uses the map, location connections help the AI make navigation feel natural.

Audio

Curate a small, high-quality soundtrack. 5-8 well-chosen tracks with distinct moods is better than 30 generic ones. The AI needs to match music to emotion, and fewer tracks with clear identities makes that easier.
Use ambient audio for every major location. It's subtle, but ambient sound transforms the experience from "reading text" to "being somewhere."
Tag your music tracks. "Romantic," "tense," "battle," "peaceful" — tags help the AI choose the right music for the moment.

Mode Selection

If your story is...	Use this mode
Romance-focused with multiple love interests	Dating Sim
A strong narrative with key decision points	Visual Novel
Exploration-heavy with lots of player agency	CYOA
A cinematic experience meant to be watched	Kinetic

General

Test your VN by playing it. The best way to find issues is to experience the story as a player. Does the pacing feel right? Do the expressions change at the right moments? Does the music match the mood?
Use the Dating Sim mode's gift system thoughtfully. Give each gift distinct reactions per character. A bouquet of roses should make the romantic character swoon and the brooding character uncomfortable.
Hidden characters are your secret weapon. A cast member who doesn't appear until act two creates anticipation and surprise. The AI foreshadows their arrival without showing them.
Use AI Notes on story beats for tone guidance. "Don't rush this scene," "Let the silence speak," "Build tension before the reveal" — these private notes shape how the AI approaches each moment.

Current Status

The Visual Novel creator is currently in beta. You can access it at /create/visual-novel and start building. The player engine, stage rendering, action parsing, and all four VN modes are functional. Expect continued improvements to the editor, theme system, and minigame framework as the feature matures.

Published VNs appear in Discovery alongside characters, presets, and lorebooks — browse, play, fork, and share.

Visual Novel

How It Works

The Four VN Modes

Creating a Visual Novel

The VN Editor

1. Overview

2. Cast

3. Locations

4. Story

5. Assets

Cast Members

Expressions Are Everything

Outfits

Character Details

Roles

Hidden Characters

Locations

Background Variants

Ambient Audio

Connected Locations and Navigation

Story Beats

What Makes a Good Story Beat

Example Story Beats

Beats vs. Scripts

Objectives

How Objectives Work

Objective Lifecycle

Rewards

Items and Inventory

Item Categories

Gift System (Dating Sim Mode)

Item Rarity

Map and Navigation

Map Image

Grid Fallback

When the Map Appears

Playing a Visual Novel

The Player-Side Interface

VN-Specific Wing Panels

Save Slots

Sprite Swapping

Choice Presentation

Music and Audio

Differences From Standard Chat

The Stage

Choices

The HUD

Scene Transitions

Stage Directions

Scene Control

Character Control

Audio Control

Interaction Control

Objective Control

Minigames

UI Themes

Preset Themes

Theme Customization

Minigames

Available Minigame Types

Title Screen and Menus

Title Screen Options

Pause Menu

Emotion System

Integration with Other Systems

With Story Director

With Compendium

With Immersion Trackers

Tips for Great Visual Novels

Story Design

Cast and Visuals

Audio

Mode Selection

General

Current Status