Designing a Sidequest in a Visual Novel - Devlog #2

Current game word count: 14,191

Hi everybody!

Back again with the first proper game development related devlog. Today I'm taking a look at sidequests and how I go about designing them in a visual novel, a game genre in which quests aren't all that common. As a huge fan of old school text-based RPGs, a genre that I'm probably more influenced by than visual novels in and of themselves, I knew early on in development that I wanted this to be an important part of Meanwhile in Riva.

In this devlog I'm going to walk you through the design and philosophy of the game's first sidequest, which is also going to be the simplest and most straight forward of them, since it's the first one you'll encounter (probably!). As such, there will also be very minor spoilers for the game.

Free-time phase, action points and travel screen

First, some context for the image. About an hour into the game (give or take, depending on your choices and how fast you read) you'll encounter your first free-time phase. This mechanic is heavily influenced by the Persona and Danganronpa series of games, and allows you as a player the freedom to do what you want using a set of action points defined by what Day (chapter) you are in. You can choose which character you want to spend time with and ultimately cultivate a deeper relationship with, for example. 

As this is the first free-time phase, you're given a single action point. When you activate certain events the game will tell you that you're about to spend a point. When all points are spent, you automatically progress the game's story. In the case of sidequests, these will for the most part not consume your action points... but there are exceptions.

In the screenshot above I've opened the travel screen, used to switch locations. I've highlighted the classroom area (which has a temporary placeholder image right now which is soon to be replaced by hand-drawn artwork). Let's go there now and see what we'll find.

Starting the first sidequest

When you reach the classroom you'll be given two options, either look around (to see if there's something to interact with) or switch area. In some areas there's nothing to do, in others there are several things to do. For now, let's have a look around.

Your teacher, Mr. Angevin, is frantically searching for his missing notebook. You can choose to help him out or simply leave him in his notebook-less state. If you choose to help him look for it, he'll happily accept your assistance (though he doesn't feel entirely right about "using his students in that way"), and the mission will start. If you carry on the conversation, he will also offer some tips as to where you might start looking.

With the sidequest accepted, it's added to "Things to do" in your RivaDex in-game menu. If you click on the name of the sidequest, helpful information reminding you what to do will pop up on the screen. As the quest progresses, this text will change accordingly.

Sidequest progress

Eventually, you'll find a book lying on the ground on the outskirts of Riva City. At first this doesn't appear to be the right book, but interact with it enough and you'll discover that in fact, is. Meaning that at this point you could theoretically fail the quest by not paying enough attention to what you're investigating!

After this you'll be given a stats choice. These are choices that not only influence the story and how quests play out, but also modify your stats. You have five stats, visible in the screenshots above (and that I'll delve further into in later devlogs), and they all impact the story, and your dialogue choices, in meaningful ways. In this case, Mr. Angevin has implored you to not look inside his private notebook. But if you really want to... you can.

As a player you're given a fairly straight forward choice here, which will either increase your compassion or your immorality. However, playing as a "good" character still offers some temptation here as you might want to know what Mr. Angevin has hidden inside that he doesn't want you to see. Ultimately it's up to you to decide whether kindness or curiosity wins out. For me it's important that you as a player feel that you don't always necessarily should go with what appears to be morally correct, even if you're playing a nice person. Sometimes the "evil" path can offer information and insight instead, at which point you must choose or stick to your guns.

Finishing a sidequest

You'll return to Mr. Angevin and he'll show gratitude to you for finding his book. The choices you made during the quest will have consequences, although they might not be instantly obvious. In your RivaDex in-game menu you will now find a checkmark denoting that the sidequest has been successfully completed. All sidequests will also reward you with special artwork that can be viewed anytime by clicking on the name of the finished quest. You'll have to wait and play the game to find out what the artwork looks like, though! :)

Sidequest philosophy

Ultimately, I think sidequests are a great tool for expanding the scope of a game's story and world. They are all optional, and I hope you as a player approach them with a pure sense of "free will". In fact, if you're aiming to win the affections of a certain character, you might not even want to do exactly all sidequests as different requests from different people may collide. That might hurt as a completionist, but I hope it'll encourage multiple runs! :)

In addition to building on the game's story, characters and world, I also want there to be tangible rewards for spending your time doing these optional tasks. Hidden character stats, information, insights and finally a special piece of art will await you if you help the citizens of Riva with their various needs. And I certainly hope you will. :)

Thank you for reading, and have a Riva-tastic day! <3

/Tymedust