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Uchikoshi's GDC panel on Virtue's Last Reward - full breakdown

by rawmeatcowboy
01 April 2013
GN Version 4.0
The following comes from creator Kotaro Uchikoshi's panel at GDC

- views the visual novel as a sub genre of the adventure game genre
- Virtue's Last Reward may not be a visual novel in the purest sense
- some people disagree that a visual novel is a "game"
- Uchikoshi’s view of a game is something where the selection made by a player’s decision changes the history of events or outcome that takes place within a given set of rules
- a visual novel is a video game that specializes in selectivity
- it's a primitive game or the purest form of a game
- having selectivity makes visual novels different from anime, manga, movies, and other media
- the series was inspired by the Super Famicom game Kamaitachi no Yoru or Night of the Sickle Weasel
- players have to solve a murder mystery that takes place in a ski lodge
- Night of the Sickle Weasel doesn’t use "flags"
- a flag is either raised (set to true) or lowered (set to false) and used to determine if an event has been triggered
- visual novels commonly use flags to check if a player has made a certain decision
- Night of the Sickle Weasel has players creating those flags in their own brain
- players learn where not to go, what to do and how to progress
- Virtue's Last Reward is similar to this design
- players have to remember passwords procured from going through different routes
- the stories are inspired by putting characters in a state of discomfort
- Virtue’s Last Reward has a flow chart because it was a requested feature from fans of 999
- in Uchikoshi’s opinion, we shouldn’t get hung up on games being too real
- adventure games are on an upward swing thanks to digital distribution
- adventure games are fitting for smartphones and can be a new way to tell a story like manga, anime, or movies
- he hopes someone sitting in his session will be able to create an amazing game in the future and if he can assist with that he will be really happy

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