I think you're missing the biggest problem with rating the difficulty of a visual novel: Where a game in almost any genre tends to improve with a good storyline, story is usually still optional. Not so for a visual novel. If the story isn't good, your game will not sell (unless you are making one of those VNs that come with a disclaimer ensuring you that all characters are at least 18 years of age). And I don't necessarily mean a "good" story as in "high brow literature", but more as in "engaging to its target audience". The story is absolutely central. Even if it's just a glorified dating sim, the characters still have to be interesting enough for you to care.

And that is the big problem with rating how difficult it is to create a VN. Because you basically have to include the question "how difficult is it to write an engaging story?" and I wouldn't even know how to begin placing that on any kind of difficulty-tier board.

I'm a traditional programmer and I really, really want to make a game some day. Thank you for all these videos!

Deck-building games and trading card games are different genres. A deck-building game involves starting with few cards and gradually gaining and culling cards as you progress through a single playthrough

I actually think there is a large community just dedicated to visual novels and many make so much money. You can also do adult style visual novels and that is another category by it self, people throw money on any kind of adult visual novel, if it's good you are gonna make a fortune.

As an artist who wants to make games in the future, I feel that the primary appeal, especially when it comes to first impressions, are character designs and UI. Unless you combine a visual novel with a different genre (such as a Metroidvania, with certain parts being a visual novel and other parts being a Metroidvania), a lot of what makes a visual novel appealing is the design of both the characters and the user interface. If the character designs are too plain, then some potential players might be turned away. If the UI is terrible, with clashing colors or not fitting with the theme of the game, then it diminishes the user's experience. It's all about consistency. And, especially for the character portraits, their expressions must also be considered. If the characters don't have a lot of varied expressions that suit the characters, then it can take away from the moment.

Of course, I'm not going to go on a tangent and infodump about the importance of character expressions and their overall design, but it's something to consider.

I think you're kind of dismissing the VN genre a bit too quickly here. You can sell ANYTHING if you can reach the target audience for it. I know a number of indies that do really well with VN sales, because they've got dozens of games in that genre. It just means you have to target your marketing really well to get success.

maybe i'm biased cause i love visual novels (and the vn dev community) but i very much disagree with putting it so low. while it is true that it's a niche and the overall player base is smaller than other genres, it also means it's way less desaturated. for marketing, posting an image of a nice looking character and saying "you can date this person in my upcoming game" is enough to get people interested lol. you may not make bank with a vn, sure, but they definitely are marketable to the right audience

Game dev reddit puts fighting games closer to the bottom of the list of hard genres to make but they seemed much more informed as to why its complex to design for and why its even harder to make one succesful.

Some genres and games that came to my mind:
- Classic arcade / retro games, like a pong or breakout clone. Easy to make, hard to market, but possible to combine with other genres
- Point and click, like Deponia or one of these detective games where you try to find the right clickable areas to find clues
- Hot-seat / local multiplayer games, although this might be more of a feature than a genre. Bomberman, Snake Arena, Cannonhill, Little Fighters, Battle Painters, Potion Party...
- As what does Rocket League count? Not a racing game for sure even though it's car-focused but with a sports twist
- Is Snake an own genre? Something like Tron has similar characteristics but adds multiplayer
- Is Tetris an action puzzle game?
- Some games strongly focus on economics but don't quite fall into the simulation category. Universal Paperclips for example, although it's kind of an idle game I suppose?
- Party games like the ones from Jackbox (Quiplash, Guesspionage, etc.) and in particular drawing games, e.g. Drawful, Garticphone, Skribble.io

Im close to graduating with a degree in business, but ive come to fully realize my passion for game development recently. Over the years ive gotten into different hobbies such as fashion design, writing, and ive always been an artist since i was young. Im at a cross roads between being a game dev or just finishing my masters and going into law school. Im confident i have unique ideas that can mix up a few genres, like spectacle fighters! Im still very young so this choice feels overwhelming for me. Thanks for the video!

You shown Disco Elysium as a visual novel, I think that Detroit Become Human can also be considered as one, which is AAA, very successful game. And there are more of those, like Oxenfree (cross genre with puzzle game), whole Telltale games like The Walking Dead and other from this developer and a lot of horror games are visual novels too. You definitely underestimated this one.

Please make a part 3!!!

Game Genres Missing:

1. Stealth (Metal Gear Solid, Assassins Creed, etc)
2. Real-Time Strategy Games (Age of Empires, StarCraft)
3. City|Village|etc Building
4. Sims-like (Like The Sims, TribeZ, State of Decay, and Virtual Villagers where you manage a community/ group)
5. Point and Click (Like the TellTale Games, Deponia, etc)
6. Farming Games
7. Turn-Based Games (XCOM, Final Fantasy, etc)
8. Horror (Alien: Isolation, Five Nights at Freddy's, etc)
9. Party Games (Super Mario Party, Kung Fu Chaos, Fuzion Frenzy)
10. Boardgames
11. Sports Games
12. On Wheels Games (Tony Hawk, Jet Set Radio, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk)
13. Franchise Games (As a unique topic to work on an existing IP)
14. Co-Op Games (Games that NEED you to play with another player like It Takes Two)
15. Modding Existing Games (To really test yourself and let others see and use your work)

Once you one day get through all genres please put all the genres together in the same list!!

Most of what I play these days are ARPGs: Diablo 3, Path of Exile, and Torchlight Infinite specifically. They're all great games but still leave something to be desired for me so I really want to make my own. I hear what you're saying about the scope and competition though, honestly if I do manage to make it I might just keep it for myself and my friends (I have a LOT of time on my hands)

Awesome video! I personally think Action Adventure games have a more simplistic combat system when compared to souls likes, souls likes usually have an inventory system and action adventures are considerably more limited in terms of weapons and abilities generally

My plan is to create an action adventure, but all the little mechanics of it will be build for smaller games that will be released earlier to bring some attention and act as a tripwire and community builder.

didn't take too long: "The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood" - visual novel with deckbuilding

Hearthstone and Magic are not deckbuilders. They are collectable card games. A "deckbuilder" is a game where you assemble a deck from scratch through play, like Slay the Spire.

I'm amazed that you didn't mention the one that popularized and exploded the tower defense genre: Plants vs Zombies.

"No big studio is ever going to green light a Colonel Sanders dating simulator" 12:16

Sure, but aren't TellTale games all about visual novels with those Walking Dead and Batman IPs? I know they're not usually what comes to mind upon hearing "visual novels", but I struggle to see why they're different beyond the use of non-static 3D assets which most visual novels don't use. I mean, maybe I'm missing some huge part of Tell Tale games that distinguishes them from visual novels because I haven't played them, but I think that just 3D animated assets do a lot to help with the otherwise very niche marketability of visual novels. I guess I'd lump in "waiking simulators" with visual novels because they usually only have one noteworthy game mechanic: dialogue/narrative options and choices. The rest is just the game's aesthetic.

Do a part 3. Still has a tons of genres u could explore, like Tatical RPG