Hey there, this post will primarily be for helping y’all run, play & obtain visual novels.
Tutorials
Visual Novel Specific Game Engines
- Tyrano Builder - Proprietary, cross-platform support (Windows, Web, iOS, Android)
- Ren'py - Open Source, Cross-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux, Web, iOS, Android)
- Suika2/Polaris Engine - Open Source, Cross-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux, BSDs, Chromebook, Web, iOS, Android)
- Light.vn - Don't know much about this one; looks fairly new and was a replacement for Suika2 for its developer's projects
Tools For Reading Visual Novels
- Game2Text - Cross-platform Textractor alternative; hooks directly into any VN (even those running in WINE)
- Textractor - Windows only; supposed to run fine in WINE, but I couldn't get it to work correctly
- Yomitan - Uses your browser to translate and learn Japanese from VNs
Tools For Running Problematic Visual Novels
- CNC-DDraw - forces Windowed Mode in game that don't have it (or the implementation has issues on modern Windows / WINE), override the internal render resolution, run in Borderless Fullscreen (useful for streamers in particular); does many things