How I made a visual novel by myself for free:

Idea:

I had this idea for a visual novel since I was in high school, not necessarily one idea, but multiple ideas and I loved them all equally.  I ended up asking a friend about what game had the most potential and premise and he said this one. Regardless of the premise though, I think what matters is to gauge your potential for execution within that premise. You can never have any ideas, before, during, and after, it'll come the more you produce and the more you think about the project in a vacuum. Now, I'll get into the skills I used to make the project.

Music:
I've written a little over 50 songs for the game, some of which didn't cut because they didn't quite fit the scene, even if I liked the compositions. My process for this was to take the knowledge and music theory I have learned and applied to a fairly simple and intuitive music-writing site called "Flat", it's a great site if you're like me and prefer to write more traditionally. Given that they didn't always have the right sound or synths I was looking for, I'd export the midis into other applications such as Fl Studio or Sound Trap. This was mostly in the instances of making the music for the more "electronic" and "digital" sounds and instruments. A lot of the music also was written so that characters have their motifs and themes. If what I wasn't playing was a character theme, I'd resort to a base motif for the general Logical Inconsistencies game, sometimes I'd also just get more experimental in the strange and eccentric parts of the game. 

Art:
I did about everything through the free application called Fire Alpaca. It's been my go-to since 16 and I'm perfectly content with it... for the most part. Everything about it I love except for its esoteric use of fonts, because of this when I wanted to use fonts in certain design elements, I'd design in Photoshop. You definitely don't need to do this in Photoshop, and I certainly did not buy it just that purpose, just a convenient benefit of college. That being said, if I needed to use only free things and keep true to this guide, something like Canva would've done the job just fine. 

Coding:
Now here I want to preface, I am not a programmer by any stretch of the imagination. I have a bit of experience with C++ and Python, but so little it mattered for this. Ren'py was my go too and it was a breeze to use and learn. Seriously, you could probably learn almost everything and more that you need to in a day (assuming you aren't doing a mechanically complex visual novel). I'd 99% of my experience was just the process of googling my problem, analyzing the logic of my solution, and having it in my repertoire to apply in any later instances. If you're an artist who wants to make a visual novel but is intimidated by the idea of coding, don't be. This part was a cakewalk, that is, if you have you don't consider patience to be a challenge. The only reason it takes patience is that you'll probably occasionally be stuck with some absurd oversight that you take too long to figure out to debug, There is however, a thrill when you overcome it, a rush of adrenaline that makes you feel like you're searching with creative power and freedom as you suddenly feel like the possibilities expand 10 fold. 

Writing:
In this story, I pretty much conceptualized all the details and ideas and then reversed them in writing (except for the first scene). I think if you want to write as little plot holes as possible, it's easier this way because you'll have a checklist of sorts to knowing what you need to connect and how much build-up goes to it. Of course, though, a story is much more than the logic of its exposition. A thing I wanted to nail into this narrative and where I believe my strengths lie in character dialogue. I put in a lot of my introspection, the perspectives of others I've seen in my life, and the experiences I've been either a witness of or a part of. Even if a lot of these moments aren't particularly happy or a good thing to go through, I think putting it in your story is what can make you're writing come to life because well... you can really explore the meaning and depths of your experience in a story a much more profound level than just leaving yourself to your immediate reactions to the things that happen to and around you. Sentiments aside, I think an important thing to make sure you cover is plot holes, even the most meticulous person can miss little details that don't add up. This is why I recommend you get people who can play your games and give you honest feedback and questions, mainly focusing on the more common and reoccurring ones from multiple people but still listening to anything anyone says and filtering through what can help and what is a preference, my friends helped me realized many blind spots simply by playing through it that I would have never caught otherwise. As for how to write well... just do it, you probably have a notepad or Google Docs, it's so self-explanatory I didn't feel the need to focus on it in this section. 

Conclusion:

I have no idea if this will be seen by anyone, it's fine if it doesn't. This would've at the very least allowed me to journal into a void and be self-absorbed for a bit. However, if it does get into the hands of anyone. I hope you're able to give my game a chance because I think it perfectly encapsulates me as an artist. If not, I still wish all of you to have found this helpful in any capacity and that you have a lifelong adventure of fulfilling creativity.