Intro to Visual Novels

Topics touched on in our intro discussion and continued from time to time–check back on our courses page for updates–

• Bandersnatch, or why movies/streaming content aren’t the interactive medium that games are

• Spike Chunsoft: 999, Virtue’s Last Reward, Zero Time Dilemma, and AI: The Somnium Files

• Or for something a bit lighter, try World’s End Club. Our mini-course covers the game in four discussions:
  • Game of Fate, Round 1
  • Ganbari Go-Getters
  • Camping
  • Human Sheepification Project

“Ah!” said the lion. “A marshmallow at last, at last a marshmallow, at mast a larshmellow.” You can see how nervous and excited he was.

And he picked up the marshmallow. “It’s as light as a feather,” he said.

And he put the marshmallow on his tongue. “Ooh, it’s crispy on the outside,” he said.

And he bit into it with his big teeth. “Ooh, it’s creamy on the inside,” he said.

And he chewed it up.

– Lafcadio, The Lion Who Shot Back, by Shel Silverstein

• Prisoner’s Dilemma and synchronicity

• Steins;Gate, Danganronpa (see Prof Ben’s review and analysis), and other highlights from wikipedia

• House of Leaves

• Ace Attorney series

• Persona series

• Dating sims, waifus and weebos

• Social media mechanics: Redshirt

• Ghost Trick

• Visual novel-adventure game distinction: focus on character vs environment

• Long Live the Queen, VA-11 HALL-A (Valhalla) and other Steam recommendations

• Subversions: Hatoful Boyfriend, Doki Doki Literature Club! Subsurface Circular and Quarantine Circular (Tarantino-esque), Her Story, Event[0]

• Fringe: Interactive Fiction, hypertext novels

• Precursors: Zork, Hitchhiker’s Guide, Starship Titanic

As for suggested readings, why not start with these oldies-but-goodies?

• Aarseth, Cybertext (which we discuss a little in our third NieR: Automata class)

• Murray, Hamlet on the Holodeck

• and everyone they cite, starting with Italo Calvino on literary machines and Mary Ann Buckles’ dissertation, Interactive Fiction: The Computer Storygame ‘Adventure’