Part 2 of our blog series on building a Visual Novel engine is live! It is a very technical and took a lot of effort to write. It embodies all our experience and learnings of building Route Engine. Hope you enjoy! routevn.com/blog/2026/05... #visualnovel #gamedev #javascript

Building a Visual Novel Engine - Part 2! 🎮 After Route Graphics, tomorrow: Route Engine. The core VN engine powering RouteVN Creator. Takes declarative graphics & sound from Route Graphics and turns it into a fully playable Visual Novel. #visualnovel #gamedev #routevn

We have just released version 0.14.0 of RouteVN Creator! routevn.com/creator/chan... - Resources pages: remove unnecessary tooltip - Scenes editor: make dialogue character avatar bigger - Scenes editor: improve validation on various forms - Scenes editor: remove unnecessary image drag 🧵

Did you know that one of the contributors to RouteVN Creator is actually a high school student from Nepal? Read about Nellow and his work on RouteVN! routevn.com/blog/2026/04...

Very excited to be collaborating with @bunnibambii.bsky.social on a Visual Novel project. Can't wait to see the art, story and characters that will be created! #visualnovel #vn

New blog post: Building a Visual Novel Engine Part 1 - Route Graphics A declarative graphics and audio library built on @pixijs.com and WebAudio API. Learn about the design decisions, implementation challenges, and more! routevn.com/blog/2026/03...

I have a question for other VN devs. When playtesting an alpha version, how much content do you share? I'm almost finished with my first route, and I'm wondering if I should share the whole path or make a demo version of what I've got so far. Any thoughts welcome. 😊 #vndev #vndevelopment

We have just released version 0.13.0 of RouteVN Creator! - layout editor: fix layout editor cancel button not working when choosing image - colors page: make color name required - bundle export: fix so it runs properly (more in comments) routevn.com/creator/chan...

We conducted 2 usability tests in the last 2 days. Some take aways: - The applications was much more stable than before. No crashes or bugs that disrupted the testing - The user can mostly use it and learn by exploring - User find it easy to use sometimes exceeding expectation

RouteVN Creator is now downloadable on itch.io! routevn.itch.io/routevn-crea... RouteVN Creator is a free, open-source tool that lets anyone, writers, artists, hobbyists to create their own Visual Novels. No coding or technical background required

Introducing Nghia, a developer at RouteVN. Software engineering student from Vietnam, core contributor of route-graphics. routevn.com/blog/2026/02...

RouteVN Creator has been added to the Game Engines Databse! Thanks @henriquelalves.bsky.social for maintaining the database. enginesdatabase.com/engine/route...

We have just released version 0.12.0 of RouteVN Creator! - Fix dialogue box sometimes not displaying in preview - Prevent used resources to be deleted - Misc fixes in scene editor text editor routevn.com/creator/chan...

Inroducing Makkuro. She will be the mascot character for RouteVN. She appeared in the demo. I'm not a real artist and cannot really draw well unfortunately (tried many times but no time). I'm trying to simplify the drawings as much as possible so I only need to use the pen tool and do vector art.

For the GHOSTs (store.steampowered.com/app/2487390/...) is a masterpiece visual novel about communication with fictional characters who are aware they are in a visual novel programmed in C++. i resonate with how the characters explore their solipsism and whether this game means anything at all.

A bit late for #PortfolioDay , but this is the latest demo of the Visual Novel engine we have made: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxqJ... #visualnovel

We have just released version 0.11.0 of RouteVN Creator! - Fix issue with scene editor cursor position - Improve preview icons in scene editor - Fix issue with removing characters in scene editor routevn.com/creator/chan...

We published our second devlog for RouteVN - a recap of late 2025 and our plans for 2026. See how a Visual Novel engine is built from ground up. routevn.com/blog/2026/01...

make the visual novel of your dreams in 2026 !! if you've ever wanted to make a visual novel, do it! it's a lot easier (and harder) than you might think, but I made a guide on what they are, how to make them, and a bunch of resources to get started 💜✨ read it here: arimiadev.com/how-to-make-...

We have just released version 0.10.0 of RouteVN Creator! routevn.com/creator/chan... - Fix animation preview not playing - Fix issue with adding multiple instances of same - character - Fix preview not centered on screen - Fix issue related to character name in dialogue

RouteVN Creator Client new version release 0.7.0 - Add choice type in layout editor - UX Improvements in layout editor for dialogue content - Add choice option in scene editor Download it here: routevn.com/creator/down...

Get to know the people behind RouteVN. Yesterday we posted about 738NGX: routevn.com/blog/2025/05... He made great contributions to the RouteVN creator client.

We have released a new version of RouteVN Creator Client Version 0.5.0 Changelog: routevn.com/creator/chan... Download: routevn.com/creator/down...

We've conducted 4 usability tests this week. Feedback remains positive: - Users with prior VN experience found RouteVN easier to use - Clean intuitive UI appreciated has been praised - Complete beginners could install and test independently Now we're focused on fixing all bugs

Something we've been working on yesterday

After 1.5 years on RouteVN, I wrote about the journey: the lessons learned, challenges faced, and the design process behind creating a visual novel engine and editor from scratch routevn.com/blog/2025/04...

We've conducted 7 in person usability tests in the last 2 months. The main purpose of the test was to check whether users (minimal or some game/VN dev experience) could just get the product and start figuring out and use it by themself with minimal guidance. They mostly passed.

We’ve been heads down coding for the past months. Now that a timeline for an internal release is coming into view, I’ll start sharing more updates on the RouteVN Visual Novel engine and editor we’re building.

🧵 1. We've talked to several VN creators last month trying to ask them to publish their VNs on RouteVN. It has been very challenging, and I'll share a bit of the main reasons.

🧵 1. Interesting article from Winter Wolves titled "Death of Visual Novels". The title I think is a bit exaggerated, it does convey a challenging trend in the market. There are always new VNs being released which creates a larger supply and competition www.winterwolves.net/blog/2025/02...

Call for VN Creators to be early adopters of our new Visual Novel store. We will port your Visual Novel and make it available on web and from RouteVN iOS and Android app routevn.com/blog/2025/03...

RouteVN mobile app is now available on App Store and Google Play. Review process was surprisingly smooth. Next step, will reach out to creators to publish their VNs with RouteVN and make them available on the app Link to App Store: apps.apple.com/sg/app/route...

What am I building here? A mobile app!? Do you read Visual Novels on you phone? What if you could browse and read Visual Novels directly from a mobile app. Wouldn't it be much more convenient?

What does it take to build a Visual Novel store? I have put much thinking into it and shared it in this post: routevn.com/blog/2025/02...

I started working on a Visual Novel engine around a year ago. In this article I share more about my journey and what is my vision for the future of Visual Novels routevn.com/blog/2025/01...