Novelty is a tool for creating visual novels. It's different from other VN makers available by offering visual tools and a programming-free interface.

Novelty is only available for Windows. This includes Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Yes. You can export your finished visual novel with the click of a button.

Download Novelty from the download page. Extract the content of the archive to a folder of your choice (eg. C:\Program Files\Novelty), with the subfolders intact.

That's it! Run Novelty.exe to start the Novelty editor.

Novelty requires Windows XP/2000 or Vista.

It also requires DirectX 9.0c. It's a good idea to download the latest runtimes from of DirectX 9 before installing Novelty.

Something went wrong while Novelty was starting up.

First of all, make sure you have the latest DirectX runtimes. If you got an error message saying 'This application failed to start because d3dx9_37.dll was not found' that means you need to update your DirectX runtime.

If you got a different error message you can read the log file (Editor.log.txt) for further details on the issue.

Novelty requires DirectX 9.0c to run. If you've installed the latest runtime and it still gives you this error message, then your video card might not support it. If your machine is more than five years old then this is probably the case.

With DirectX installed, you can go to your Start menu, select Run and type 'dxdiag' and press return. This will launch a diagnostics tool that will give you the actual name of your video card. You can compare this to the list of unsupported video cards.

Not at all. Novelty is a code-less visual novel maker.

A scripting language is available for those who have programming experience and wish to customize their games beyond that of a typical visual novel, but it is entirely optional.

A good place to start is to read the introduction in the help documentation and check out some of the tutorials above to get you started. If you have any questions you can post them in the forums.

The Novelty editor have import wizards that lets you add textures, fonts and audio files to the asset library without having to write a line of NoveltyML.

You can create new Novelty objects using a simple markup language called NoveltyML. NoveltyML Designer is a tool that you can use to create objects more easily. It also lets you save your finished objects in content packs that can be easily shared with friends.

Place the file in the Assets-folder (eg. C:\Program Files\Novelty\Assets). If Novelty is running you need to refresh the asset library before it appears. You do that by right-clicking on it and selecting Refresh.

Since Novelty is still under construction updates are common; new features are added and bugs are fixed. Updates may become available now and then without warning. It's important to keep up to date with the latest version so you can gain from these changes.

It's recommended that you keep an eye on this website and the forums but there is a way to check for updates from within Novelty itself. In the Help-menu in Novelty, click "Check for Updates" and it will let you know if there is a new update available. (Requires an internet connection).

If you wish to contact me you can do that either via e-mail or on the Official Novelty forums, which I check every day.

If you've found any bugs or have any suggestion for features or other improvements you can post in the Support & Development forum.

Novelty needs DirectX 9 to run, not 10. Despite the sequential numbering, the two versions are actually two parallel branches of the DirectX API. DX10 is exclusive to Windows Vista and is only supported by the latest graphics card. DX9 will run on all versions of Windows and on older computers. If you're a Windows Vista user you can have both DirectX 9 and 10 installed simultaneously and they will not conflict with one another.

New Novelty users are recommended to download the latest DirectX 9 runtime from Microsoft's website to ensure compatibility.

What can I say? It's an underrated color.