Found this post via Dina on her blog: [dinasoliman.wordpress.com]
Dina: “It turns out that it is indeed possible to make visual novel games without having extensive knowledge of programming (something that I really lack, haha!). There are pieces of software called visual novel engines you can install on your computer, learn how to use, and essentially make visual novel games with. I’ve done quite a bit of research on the best engines for beginners already. So far, I found two highly praised engines: Ren’py and Novelty. Other engines include Belle, BASSnovel, WebStory Engine, and StoryEngine. These engines are all in English; however, there are some that are in Japanese only, such as KiriKiri and TyranoScript. I did come across a translation group that was working on producing an English version of the KiriKiri engine, but I don’t know if they stopped working on it or not. (Their website hasn’t been updated recently.)”
Nice list of engines. I didn’t even know half of them.
For completeness, let me add ONScripter as well. It’s the engine that powered Narcissu and many others great VN.
http://onscripter.sourceforge.jp/onscripter.html
http://nscripter.insani.org/
Aaeru, have you come across any that are specific for iOS visual novel creation?
Both Belle and Ren’Py have Mac versions
i think tyrano script can… http://visualnovelaer.fuwanovel.org/2013/04/tyrano-script-convert-kag3kirikiri-games-into-html5-or-androidiphone/ actually im complete oblivious, ill ask sakamoto
wich of those are the most easirer to use?
Renpy is pretty easy to use. Took me only about an hour to learn the basics. I’ve got 2 on the go right now, so it’s a fun little engine.
What’s the deal with StoryEngine? I ran across this a year ago and haven’t heard anything more about it. It seems like it would be even easier than Ren’py. The website shows a very intelligently designed editor, but no way of downloading it. It’s like they said “Hey here’s this cool thing we made……” and then nothing! Do you have to email them for a copy of it?
I tried to contact the author, but it looks like the mail is dead – gMail is throwing error at me, when I try to send my message.