Do you want to make your own VN? Well, I have good news! It’s pretty easy.
I’d recommend this guide by Nadia Nova if you just need something to point you in the right direction:
Looking for more resources than that? Well, don’t worry, I’ve split different resources into these dropdown tabs, making it easier for you to find the category of thing you’re looking for:
VN Making tools/platforms
Ren’Py is the easy starter option many people recommend or go with. It is well established, and there are tons of posts, wiki pages, reddit questions, etc of people asking and providing solutions for how to do all sorts of stuff in the engine. That means that it’s easy for you to find out how to do whatever it is you want to accomplish, so I would say this is one of the best starter picks for people who have little or no coding knowledge.
Videotome is Javascript based. The simpler two versions have no saving, but I think the more advanced two versions allow saving in them due to their higher complexity. (I don’t know everything about how Videotome works tbh). One of the main benefits of Videotome is that it runs entirely in browser, and isn’t that hard to host on your own website either. (Atleast VIDEOTOME and Super Videotome only run in browser though)
VIDEOTOME - Simplest version, text just runs a line up the screen.
Super Videotome - More complicated. Allows you to do all the things you see in most visual novels. Players can make choices as well (but can’t save and load).
Videotome:ADV - For making adventure or choice heavy vns.
Videotome Heartbreak - For making stat raising VNs
Godot plugins for making VNs:
If you’re someone who likes or already uses Godot, then those two options might be of interest to you. For code savvy folks, you might find yourself able to make your VNs do all sorts of wild and crazy things that might be harder to do in other engines.
Light.vn - A VN engine that has seen more discussion as of late. To my knowledge, there is less information, wikis, or tooltips in english. However, this will likely change with time.
Beyond these options, some people also make their VNs in various RPG Maker systems, or they make their own engine, or they use something like Game Maker to make their game. There are many options out there, but this is one of them.
Ren’Py Specific Tools
Renpy Docs
This is the link to the documentation made specifically for Ren’Py, and you would be surprised how much stuff this will help you sort.
Also, I just want to make an additional note. There are all sorts of additional Ren’Py resources out there for everything from GUI to downloadable tools for Ren’Py. Many of them can even be found and downloaded off of itch.
Wattson’s Wave Shader
I really love the tools Wattson makes. The wave-shader is a fun tool that allows you to make your screens and images get all wobbly and move around.
Wattson’s Kinetic Text Tags
Another tool by Wattson, which allows you to apply a bunch of neat text effects, from dripping effects, to shaky text, and all sorts of other neat effects. However, this has become a bit outdated with time, and there are now some better and less engine intensive ways to accomplish this for the code savvy folks.
Feniks Itch
Feniks is another person who makes a lot of useful tools for Ren’Py. This links to many different plugins and things of that nature.
Feniks Website
And this links to Feniks’ website, who creates some very helpful guides for Ren’Py.
Ren’Py Dating Sim Engine
Ren’Py Dating Sim Engine, to help make dating sims in Ren’Py.
Ren’Py Gallery Framework
Tool to make it easier to create a gallery in Ren’Py!
Free Photo Assets and Tools
Nadia Nova BGs Guide
Here’s a guide made by Nadia about how she goes through the process of making and editing her bg images. There’s a lot of ways to go about it, but here’s one method of doing so.
Doodad
A set of tools that can: generate repeating shape patterns, gradients, and also a really excellent dithering tool.
Image Magick
Batch photo resizing tool.
XnConvert
Batch photo converting tool. Useful for when you want to convert a bunch of PNG files into WebP or something like that for your VN.
deaddeaddeath’s Booru of Free Images Death has made a Booru (that means the images are all tagged and easy to search) of a massive amount of photos uploaded by her and some friends. You might find something you want in here, so take a peek!
Puapka’s Background Pack
Art and images made by Puapka for free use.
Free use Photo Resources Pack
A small collection of links to photo resources on Itch.
VN Backgrounds Pack
3D environment images for use in games.
Errie Emilia Night BG Pack
Nighttime and black and white photos by Eerie Emilia.
Eerie Emilia Itch
Eerie Emilia actually just has multiple nice black and white photo packs (and some VNs you can check out)
bastardisgation Photo Pack
Even more photos and images. You know the drill.
Puapka Image Layer Pack
Images made by Puapka to add layers and effects on top of artwork, or to use as a background.
DiscMaster Textfiles
DiscMaster has a lot of resources. Most of this was uploaded by people from games and CDs and other pieces of media. What the copyright looks like on this stuff may be hard to find out, but most of it isn’t creative commons. Whether or not someone will find out and say something, I have no idea. But yenno. It’s an option.
VN BG Pack
Even more photos and images. You know the drill.
Yandex (Anime Generator)
This is a tool to generate anime style characters. Here is a video to help you sort out how to make it work.
Yandex Tutorial
If you still need something that you haven’t gotten in the above image packs and resources, then try these image searching tools for creative commons or free use photos.
Unsplash
Image search website.
Pixabay
Image search website.
Pexels
Image search website.
Open Game Art
Free images made for games or intended for games.
WikiMedia CC
Creative commons wikimedia, my beloved.
A bunch of free music/sound effect resources
WikiMedia Free Music Resources Page
This is one of the greatest links I could provide you with - this single link has such a wide array of resources and music that you’ll probably find something that’s right for your music needs, just in this link alone.
Pro Sound Effects
This is a tool that helps you organize your sound library to help you find your sounds faster, and can also tie in with freesound.org.
Freesound
Freesound is a great resource for music, but it’s especially good for sound effects and folly work.
Discmaster
DiscMaster has a lot of audio resources as well. Most of this was uploaded by people from games and CDs and other pieces of media. What the copyright looks like on this stuff may be hard to find out, but most of it isn’t creative commons. Whether or not someone will find out and say something, I have no idea. But yenno. It’s an option.
Free Music Archive
An archive of free music you can search though.
Yellowstone National Park Sound Library
Public domain sounds from the Yellowstone National Park of all sorts of different animals and other natural environment sounds.
TK’s Free Sound FX
A big collection of sound effects to use.
Dova-s
A massive repository of searchable songs and sound effects. Due to many things being in Japanese, you may need to search for things using the tag system to find what you are looking for.
Below I’ve shared a bunch of links to filmcow’s sound packs on Itch. (Filmcow is best known for making things like Charlie the Unicorn and Llamas with Hats.) These sound packs are massive and have all sorts of things. The sound packs are also labelled on Itch and the download for what categories they have. Check them out.
Filmcow SFX 1
Filmcow SFX 2
Filmcow SFX 3
Filmcow SfX 4
Wangleline SFX and Stems WangleLine has a nice mix of sound effects and also some music stems.
Below is a bunch of artists who have creative commons music. Double check the CC license, but these are some of my favorites.
Moby Gratis
Free (Moby) music resource designed to empower creative projects. There’s a wide range of stuff here, very handy resource.
Vbhuh NWOB Songs
All of the songs labelled for NWOB are open source and you can freely use them in your projects ( iirc credit is still requested.) Some of the music is like a mix of DELTARUNE and ULTRAKILL if that tickles your fancy.
Kyou System
It’s Kyou! Use their music!
Lilithpad
I am one of the ultimate lilithpad fans.
Jeremy / Red Means Music
Really awesome droning music and liminal and slightly horror vibe music - but also lofi hip hop, fantasy game tunes, and more.
Nihilore
A mix of creative commons music from a variety of genres that has been in existence since 2009.
continuum.mid
MIDI and DOOM style musics.
Archive.org Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts
Nine Inch Nails Ghosts has so much versatility and range.
How Capitalism Will End Album
Some nice noise.
LMNL Records
This is a small record label - some of their stuff is free to use, but you gotta check stuff individually.
Mahorka - Making Things Happen
I saw this album and was just impressed with how much good music was here.
Net Label Day
A small internet label that releases CC music from a whole bunch of people.
Music for Game Jams
A growing collection of CC music for noncommercial use.
Music Loop Bundle
A large collection of CC-0 songs that loop.
Three Red Hearts Album
Another album of CC-0 songs that loop.
These tools make up most of my resources that I would recommend to folks for making their VNs. I have made this post a Wiki post, which means that people can freely edit it and add in more resources if they would like.