History and Allure of Interactive Visual Novels

Mark Kretzschmar is a video game scholar and holds a PhD in Texts & Technology from the University of Central Florida, USA.Sara Raffel is a narrative and technical communication scholar in the English department at the University of Central Florida, USA.

• PART 1: History and Interactivity 1. Introduction: The Ludic Genre Devoted to Stories Meets Postmodernism 2. Digital Books of the Rising Sun: Cultural and Technological Factors Leading to the Remediation of Manga and Anime 3. Assembling the Nest: Cultural Vehicles that Incubated Visual Novels PART 2: Subgenres and Tropes 4. The Aesthetics and Functions of Kawaii (Cute)Culture and Dating Simulators 5. Detective Stories, Labyrinthian Puzzles, and Supernatural Horror (Oh, My!): The Rising Popularity of Mystery Visual Novels and Japanese Adventure Games 6. Intimacy, Uncensored Pixels, and Groundhog Day Porn Loops: Erotic Visual Novels and Adult Content PART 3: Fan-Creators, Open-Source Software, and Genre-Melding? 7. Rise of the Fan/Gamer/Creator: How Open-Source Software Influences a New Generation of Visual Novel 8. Conclusion: The Future of Visual Novels: How Genre-Melders Keep the Dream Alive Appendix A: The Visual Novel-Adventure Game Starter Kit Ludography Index

In this essential volume for scholars of narrative play, Mark Kretzschmar and Sara Raffel take on the complexity of the form of visual novels, exploring well-known exemplars such as dating simulators alongside hybrids and even less-studied erotic works. Offering this comprehensive survey alongside a detailed ludography of suggested works for play spanning the last several decades, this wide-ranging overview can serve as a guide for exploring these works and the growing significance of visual novels as a global form.