This really isn’t a subject I can claim to be an expert on (Complex Relations is my first visual novel.) But, I’m trying to develop expertise in this as I go, so hopefully you can look forward to improvements on this front for the full game. Meanwhile, I’ll share some of my thoughts on what exactly I’m trying to get right.

So, why exactly do sprite mechanics matter for a visual novel? One way of looking at it is that sprite art is the means by which a VN illustrates characters’ emotions and behaviors as depicted in the text. If a VN has poor use of sprite art, it’s badly conveying the visual side of its scenes.

I disagree with this interpretation.

Sprite mechanics aren’t just illustrations of a written scene. VNs are a visual medium (it’s right there in the name!) The visuals aren’t an add-on to an otherwise complete experience, they’re an essential channel of information the game uses to communicate with the audience.

In a book, everything the audience needs to know about a scene is supposed to be conveyed in the text, and anything in the text that the audience doesn’t need to know drags on the pacing. A writer can’t afford to describe characters’ facial expressions to the audience at every point in every conversation. That means that if a character is, say, a double-agent hiding their real agenda from the other characters, the writer can’t use their facial expressions as a clue to the audience, unless they can come up with an excuse to describe their expressions to the audience without making it obvious what they’re doing.

In a visual medium though, the writer can use cues like expressions and body language to convey things which aren’t in the text. The visuals can reinforce the text, but they can also change its meaning.

In order to do this properly though, the sprite mechanics need nuance. If each character has a handful of expressions for different emotions which are all so obvious that each one can only mean one thing, it’s almost impossible to use them to convey any new information. The sprite dynamics become a game of paint-by-numbers, matching the happy expression to the happy line, the angry expression to the angry line, etc.

Without nuance, sprite work also risks becoming unnaturally static. If a character has one pose and expression for a “happy” mood, and they’re stuck in it until someone makes them angry, they’ll just end up seeming like a cardboard cutout. Good sprite work should help sell the dynamics of a conversation. If the characters stand around like a bunch of mannequins, that can take the audience out of the scene, maybe even worse than if the sprites weren’t there at all.

It’s a lot to manage, but I’ll be trying my best. You can expect more variety of sprite work in the full game. Plus, I dunno, maybe Alexa in a nightshirt or something.