What Even Is a Visual Novel?
Having decided to make a visual novel, I needed to actually understand what one is. Everyone has a rough idea of what a dating sim is, but if you ask "so what is it exactly?" the answer gets surprisingly vague. Dating simulation? Visual novel? Text adventure? Choice-based game? It's hard to tell whether these terms all point to the same thing or different things. If you're going to build something, you need to know exactly what you're building. So I asked AI. Let's Start with Terminology "What's the difference between a dating sim and a visual novel?" That was the first question I threw at Claude. Here's the summary. Visual Novel is a format. You read text, see background images and character illustrations, and encounter choices along the way. A game centered on the act of reading. There are plenty of visual novels that have nothing to do with romance — mystery, horror, sci-fi, slice of life. The content can be anything. Dating Sim (Bishou...