Visual Novels for Tablets/E-readers: An Idea

Actually I think that the topic line says it all but to expand. I am slowly making my way through Aoishiro (Currently doing Nami's route) and have managed to get through the Near Side Arcs and most of the way through Akiha's route in Tsukihime but in both cases I have run into something of a problem.

While I've found both stories enjoyable getting through them is a tad... laborious shall we say. They have an amount of text to equal a door-stopper novel and I also have the problem of finding sitting at my computer hours on end doing very nothing (I prefer to use the auto-advance) to be a bit uncomfortable which kind of limits how big a chunk I can get through at one time.

This ran into the thought of how much I like my Kindle and iBook apps on my iPhone because while I have read books on my computer before (courtesy of Baen's C Ds) being able to do so on my iPhone makes it a lot simpler because I can take it with me if I want to read on the train, or in bed or even just on a more comfortable chair.

This got me thinking. A smart phone screen is probably a bit too small but tablets like the iPad or Galaxy or some of the newer e-Readers like the Kindle Fire have large enough and high enough resolution screens that you could probably handle the background art no problem. Voiced versions my run into some problems space wise but personally I think the portability of the formats would counter that.

So to eventually cut to the end of a long chase. Personally I think V Ns (and especially linear novels) would be much better experienced on something like a tablet or an e-Reader than on a PC. What do you think?

There are already plenty of V Ns out on iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPads. Here's an example: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ripples-visual-novel/id378352286?mt=8

The problem with these is that they tend to be much shorter and simpler in programming terms compared to ones on the PC, I think.

I know that the Ace Attorney series (which are kinda like V Ns) are available via iTunes on those devices as well.

Google "visual novels for android" for more information.

edited 28th Feb '12 3:05:30 PM by Anarchy

I agree with the OP. In fact I'm hoping I would be able to install any visual novel you can run on PC on a Windows tablet.

I'm sure the PSP optimised ones are fine, and I would probably be fine playing some on the DS and even iPhone. I don't think there is much of a range though. Do they even do fan translation for these consoles? I know it's not a popular western medium so very many official releases are unlikely.

I don't know about there being an awful lot for iOS and Android. I've played Ripples certainly, but as mentioned it is very short.

I would mostly just be looking for a way to make my favourites portable, or at least somewhat mobile so I'm not sitting at the same desk the whole time.

edited 28th Feb '12 3:17:04 PM by UltimatelySubjective

If they were portable, I'd be so much more inclined to buy them.

In addition, some people are working on porting Ren'Py and ONScripter to Android, so that is a welcome development.

edited 28th Feb '12 5:29:11 PM by MoonlightBomber

Higurashi is also available on iOS. In English. Not sure if it's all of them, though.

Looking at Itunes right now. Pretty much every visual novel on the store claims to be Ipad compatible.

That said, I believe that e-readers could be a way to present and sell visual novels. With a lot of recent anxiety over whether downloadable games will be viable on computers in the near future, this might be another way for small companies and independent creators to make money.