Drawing Out Emotion in a Short Time
In the previous entry, I said emotion is built by time. But there's a contradiction. A visual novel can't be infinitely long. Player time is finite. You need to generate real emotion from a character relationship within a few hours — a dozen at most. Films make people cry in two hours. Short stories leave lasting impressions in under ten thousand words. How do they do it? And what's the same and different about visual novels? The Concept of Emotional Density Discussing this topic with AI, one concept crystallized: Emotional Density. Emotional density is the concentration of emotional change a player experiences per unit of time. The same thirty minutes can feel entirely different depending on whether nothing happens or a decisive relationship moment unfolds. High density isn't always better. Sustained intensity creates fatigue. Sustained low density creates boredom. What matters is controlling the density — the rhythm. AI drew a musical analogy. The most moving part o...