Naninovel — Visual Novel Engine

STORE • DEMO • SANDBOX • GUIDE • SUPPORT • DISCORD​

Naninovel is a comprehensive solution for creating full-featured visual novels using writer-friendly tools.

Document-Based Scripts
Designed for scriptwriters, novel scripts — unique feature of the engine — allow developing complex text-based adventure games using familiar text editors. Write stories, not code!

Comprehensive Tools
Get everything you need to create a full-featured visual novel: text printers, skipping and auto-advancing, save-load system, characters voicing, transitions and special effects, conditional story flow and much more.

Advanced Visuals
Powered by Unity game engine, you have all the power of the modern GPU at your disposal; create your own unique visuals or use any of the multiple built-in effects.

Cross-Platform
Optimized to work great on all the modern platforms: desktop, mobiles, consoles and web browsers. Create once, publish everywhere!

Extensible
Provides open APIs to inject your own implementations of the engine systems, add new custom features and integrate with existing projects.

Community Modding
Games built with Naninovel can be easily modified to add new scenarios, resources and localizations. Open your games for the players to create their own stories and grow the fanbase!

Have any questions or suggestions? Feel free to post in this thread or send a private message.

 

Naninovel — writer-friendly visual novel engine — has finally been approved and is now available on the Asset Store!

https://u3d.as/1pg9

 

Make sure to check out our WebGL demo, where Unity-chan generously agreed to help explaining the basics of Naninovel! Though, Nani-kun had to pay a price for this…

https://naninovel.com/demo/

 

With Naninovel Sandbox you can test all the engine features for free right inside the web browser, dropping your game assets to Google Drive and writing scripts in Google Docs!

https://naninovel.com/sandbox/

 

The upcoming update will significantly extend what you can achieve with conditional expressions in novel scripts.

 

Naninovel is currently in open beta. All the core features are implemented, but there are still some remaining, which could be considered essential.

Have ideas or suggestions on what we're missing? Drop us a message or create an issue on GitHub: http://git.io/fhce3

 

Naninovel is designed with scene independence and service-orientation in mind, which allows it to be easily integrated with other projects and provides handy tools to extend and add new features.

Check out a high-level concept of the engine architecture by the link below: naninovel.com/guide/engine-architecture

 

Upcoming update will bring TextMesh Pro support to the dialogue and full-screen printers. Enjoy crystal-clear revealing text on any resolution!

 

Live2D support will be improved in Naninovel ver. 1.2. Check out our updated video guide on how to export and use the animated 2D characters.

 

We’ve just received our first customer review on the Asset Store, hooray!

Reviews are very important for publishers and help other potential customers to better evaluate the product. Please don’t hesitate to write them for the stuff you purchase.

 

Second major Naninovel update is now live on the AssetStore featuring TextMesh Pro support, better #Live2D integration, improved choice system and much more!

Full changes log is available on GitHub: https://github.com/Elringus/NaninovelWeb/releases/tag/v1.2.0-beta

 

Prepare to get wet with the new rain special effect in the upcoming update!

Spawn and FX systems are also improved to allow more control over the spawned objects lifetime with `despawn` and `stopfx` actions.

 

Upcoming update will allow specifying custom variables in-game via input form UI and injecting them to novel script actions.

 

The next update will allow to set custom colors for character messages.

 

We've created an official Discord server!

Feel free to join to chat with fellow Naninovel users or ask us anything about the engine.

https://discord.gg/avhRzP3

 

In v1.3 we're adding an option to execute any novel action via the in-game console. Could be useful to debug custom state variables or fine-tune special effects.

 

Camera animations coming soon!

 

Naninovel v1.3 is now available on Unity Asset Store: https://u3d.as/1pg9

Full changes log: https://github.com/Elringus/NaninovelWeb/releases/tag/v1.3.0-beta

 

live 2d is supported , will spine animation be supported?

 

Afaik, it's not common to use spine in VNs, so not sure if it'll make sense to drag a built-in support for it, but you can use animated character implementation with spine, it should work similarly to the live2d one.

 

With the next update we’re rolling out integration improvements, allowing Naninovel to be used as a drop-in dialogue system for standalone games.

 

Recent Unity update introduced issues with Naninovel config assets. The fix is pending approval on the Unity Asset Store and should become available in several days; we can also provide the updated package right away, just PM us with your invoice number. Sorry for the inconvenience!

 

Character avatars and a new text printer will be introduced in the upcoming update.

 

Chat printers will be available in the next update!

 

Interactive maps without any C# scripting will be possible with the new choice handler coming in the next update.

 

Finished config system overhaul: it’s now free of the bugs that were torturing me for a while and more reliable overall; also improved usability of the editor GUI along the way. Now back to the tasty new features for the engine itself!

 

With the v1.4 release it’ll be possible to add custom UIs and bind them to state variables without any scripting!

 

Naninovel v1.4 is now available on Asset Store: https://u3d.as/1pg9

Full changes log: https://github.com/Elringus/NaninovelWeb/releases/tag/v1.4.0-beta

 

No more accidental progress loss due to missclicks — confirmation UI comes to the rescue in version 1.5!

 

New feature in the upcoming update will allow tinting any actors on scene and automatically highlighting currently speaking characters.

 

We are going to give some love for the #voiceactor folks in our next release with the new #voiceover documents generation feature.

 

We're adding a way to execute an arbitrary script when user clicks a button; bound with the variable triggers feature, you'll be able to create full-fledged interaction systems based entirely on novel scripts.

 

It happened! The first game made with Naninovel — Edge of Anarchy by @neoxcity — is released today.

Check out their Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/neoxcity) to download the game.

 

Aside from the engine features, we're also working on a tool for Atom text editor (https://atom.io), which will highlight the novel script syntax, check for errors, provide auto-completion and other stuff to make writing the scripts more comfortable.

 

Version 1.5 will introduce CG gallery system, allowing to automatically compose a browsable set of images, that can be locked or unlocked via novel scripts.

 

Naninovel v1.5 is now available on @AssetStore: https://u3d.as/1pg9

Full changes log: https://github.com/Elringus/NaninovelWeb/releases/tag/v1.5.0-beta

 

Unlockable tips (aka vocabulary or game encyclopedia) system will be introduced with the next engine update.

 

We're happy to confirm compatibility with Bolt visual scripting solution (https://ludiq.io/bolt). Setup guide and usage examples are coming with the next engine update.

 

Custom dissolve masks will allow creating user-defined background transition effects. That's on top of the 24 existing predefined transitions.

 

Wow, this looks absolutely fantastic! I was building my own VN engine, and then I found this. One simple question though, does it support rewind like in Ren'py? The demo shows a history log, but I personally find rewind functionality more intuitive. If it does, then I can save my time and just focus on making my game instead!

 

I'm glad you've liked it! Regarding the rewind: it's possible via development console, check out the guide for more info https://naninovel.com/guide/novel-scripts.html#novel-scripts-debug You can also try our sandbox demo to evaluate the features before purchasing the asset.

 

That is extremely helpful for debugging! Would it possible to extend or change that rewind and forwarding functionality to only rewind and forward @print actions?

 

Don't think it's possible without modifying the sources, unfortunately.

 

Applying custom post-processing FX without any C# coding and controlling them via novel scripts will be possible with the upcoming update.

 

Darn, that's a shame. Any chance you might implement that in the future as an alternative to the history log? Imo, it's one of Ren'Py's standout features. Being able to rewind and go forward at will with the mouse wheel is extremely convenient for people wanting to quickly change a choice they made not too long ago or reread a scene with full visual context. But it seems like it's the only (western) engine that offers it.

 

Ah, guess I misunderstood you. The rewinding API is public, so you can freely rewind backward and forward to specific script lines, as well as access the currently played action (where it's possible to access its type, eg to check if it's a `@print` action); this should be enough for making a custom game mechanic where player can rewind backward to re-do a choice.

 

Ah, sweet! That's exactly what I'm looking for. I guess I don't have to make my own engine after all. ^_^ I've been waiting so long for an engine like this in Unity. I'll pick it up soon!

 

We've finally rewritten the FX and transition docs, listing all the parameters and adding usage examples. Also, a new "Snow" FX will be added in the next release. ❄️

 

Naninovel v1.6 is now available on the Asset Store: https://u3d.as/1pg9

Full changes log: https://github.com/Elringus/NaninovelWeb/releases/tag/v1.6.0-beta

 

I think that's a great feature and it should be implemented by default so no extra coding is required. As a rule of thumbs, I'd say that if Ren'py has a good feature, Naninovel should include it too.