Literature gap

. Traditionally, manga are written from top to bottom and right to left, as this is the reading
pattern of the Japanese written langua

 Manga series have thicker margins and may have as few as two panels a
page. The pages are mapped top to bottom, right to left. Storytelling is
considered to be decompressed, where a page might cover a single line of
dialogue. There tends to be much less dialogue per page.

Bnw

Using these definitions he cataloged comic books from all over the world and with different
styles, and found that Japanese manga has a higher amount of “aspect to aspect” and
“moment to moment” transitions compared to superhero comic books.

Scott Mcloud

Manga has a significantly slower pace and places less emphasis on

action. Mangaka – people who create manga – do not hurry with their
storytelling like American comics’ writers. Therefore, manga requires
more patience from the audience. As a result, the reader gets more
gratifying payoff when the actions in the story do actually gain steam.
Also, whereas in American comics we can see full-page spreads
dedicated to actions, in manga there are full-page spreads dedicated to
emotional reactions. Besides, when we talk about manga vs American
comics, it should be also mentioned that the panel layout differs in both:
in manga, the panels are read from right to left.

In Western comics, the establishing shot is centered to occupy the first scene in
the comic. Manga, however, places its establishing shot at the bottom of the page.
Manga also uses more of a cinematic style than Western comics, portraying
characters in dramatic angles more in sync with a film than a comic book. Manga
structures its scenes frame-by-frame, representing a snapshot of the action and in
sync with the dialogue. Western comics are graphic novels, and as such, the
stories and visuals don't necessarily sync with the dialogue and visual action.

Another major difference between manga and western comics is the difference between
paneling in manga and in Western Comics. The feeling I have gotten looking at western comics
in this class, is that paneling seems to follow a formula, and feels more boxed-in. Almost
always, there are gutters in western comic book paneling. In manga, however, the paneling is a
great deal more varied and irregular. The panels are often angled in odd ways, especially in
action scenes, which in my opinion cause the action in the comic to become more palpable.
Manga, I feel, has mastered paneling in a way that Western artists have not. Western comics
tend to stick to very square and regular comic paneling, which honestly I found startling when I
started reading them. I had become so used to the drama and the flow of the panels within the
Manga world, that it was a bit of a shock to see panels so orderly and square.

The game framed

Project Hikari

Scott pilgrim
Monogatari series
The Grandfather Paradox

One panel of comics

Rather than one page

Computational Approaches to Comics Analysis

Listening Comprehension: The impact of Subtitles Typographical
Features on Game Visual Novel

https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/161134/Nguyen-Dang-Khoa.pdf?
sequence=2&isAllowed=y

There are many studies on the narrative performance of traditional visual novels but there are
no studies on comic-style visual novels likely because there are few of these games. I have
researched only two comic-style games and both have similarities in the gameplay of this study
but both are also significantly different in the approach of this study: Project Hikari, a virtual
reality manga-visual novel by Studio Enix, It shows a manga with animated drawings and its
texts are below the manga panels like a traditional visual novel. The Grandfather Paradox, a
one scene western comics-visual novel by Lars Martinson, It shows one background and two
characters in a frame occasionally having an action, and its texts are below the frame like a
traditional visual novel.
More similar games to this study are called “Interactive Comics” where a comics, usually
western, is presented to you as one page and you can interact with the panels to explore the
world or make narrative choices that will drive the course of the story to different directions. This
is the gameplay of this study but interactive comics are also significantly different because they
do not change the placement and alignment of texts like comics: Framed, a mobile game comic
by Loveshack. Its panels are wide shot silhouette action scenes and changing its sequential
order progress your character in the game, and there are no texts. More interactive comics are
developed, still almost all have static texts. Text placement has not been thoroughly studied or
even experimented outside of comics and poetry. Few examples in different artforms take
advantage of animating texts such as Monogatari (animated series) and Scott Pilgrim Vs the
World (Live-action film), both of these examples only use texts as visual effects but neither use
it solely to narrate. This study will utilize text placement on narration for enhanced narrative
experience.
Many studies and analysis are about composition of a comic’s entire page and not on a single
panel. A comics frame is the size of its page usually lengthwise, however in this study, the
crosswise orientation of a computer screen and its close relation with films and videogames will
frame the game to be on one panel at a time.
In conclusion, despite some games combining the styles of comics and visual novels, most of
these tend to lean on traditional visual novel style on presenting its texts. However, this study
will only use the framing and narrative gameplay of a visual novel and then utilize the illustration
and especially its text placement.
Literary
Language

The study is important because there is no developed game that combines the framing and
narrative gameplay of a visual novel and the illustrations and text placement of a comics. There
are similar games however none focus on experimenting with text placement of a comics which
will be of big importance in this study. There are also few studies on text placement in video
games and none in visual novels.
This study will develop a game that may be the first of its kind, and it will also be significant in:
(1) Literature and language, this study may further research on economy of words and text
placement. The translation of written language to visual language may also further research on
the processes of adaptations from written art to visual art. (2) Video Games, this study may
serve as a gateway to the niche genre of visual novels and may break the barriers of traditional
visual novels having too much text and few illustrations. This study may also lead to more
games of this study’s style or similarities being developed. (3) Entertainment and Technology,
because the study is independent, the documentation of the game development may be useful
as reference to project management of future games to be developed especially of a similar
genre or style. In a study “Computational Approaches to Comics Analysis” by Laurock and
Dunst (2019), it is said that artificial intelligence is deep learning comics on its sequential
features, image‐text relations, and narrative construction, all of these are also the focus of this
study and may contribute in designing future technology.