Novel Studio now gives more room to exploration
With version 1.6.1, Novel Studio takes another step forward with the introduction of a brand-new map editor.
The goal is not to turn Novel Studio into a JRPG engine, but to expand what Visual Novels can offer: allowing players to move through 2.5D pixel art environments, explore locations, and interact with the world between narrative sequences.
Exploration remains in service of the story
Build your environments tile by tile directly in the editor.
Grass, water, walls, roofs, paths, terrain... You can quickly create playable areas thanks to autotiling, automatic collision handling, and a library of 2D and 3D assets.
You can also import your own assets to create an art direction that differs from the default one.
Characters designed for pixel art environments
A new character editor also lets you quickly create NPCs and playable characters for your maps.
Hairstyles, outfits, colors, and expressions can all be customized, and Novel Studio automatically generates the spritesheets required for use in-game. You can also import your own spritesheets to fully integrate your own characters and animations.
What comes next?
This update marks an important step for Novel Studio, but several parts will continue to evolve.
In upcoming updates, I will notably be working on:
Support for projects larger than 2 GB on PC, so projects are no longer limited by the amount of music, voice acting, video, or other resources they use.
Gradual improvements to the pixel art asset library. I develop the editor, engine, and the assets included with Novel Studio on my own, and this part still needs more work to reach the level of quality and consistency I am aiming for.
More assets for indoor environments, which are still too limited in the current version.
The 1.6.1 update is now available in the Test branch of Novel Studio.
You can also launch the demo project included with the editor to explore the possibilities of the new map system.
Important for existing projects
Before opening an existing project with version 1.6.1, I strongly recommend exporting it first so you have a backup.
Migrating to the new map system permanently modifies the data used by the previous level editor. Once a project has been opened with this version, that data will no longer be compatible with older versions of Novel Studio.
The new level editor format is now considered stable and final.