Exploring the Craft of Visual Novels: A Deep Dive with ebi-hime

Today, we're chatting with the ebi-hime. We chat all about visual novels, what inspires her work, and much more! Be sure to check out all of their links after you read all about it.

1. Tell us a little about yourself and work?

Hello! My name is ebi and I write VNs \o/

I’ve been writing since I was a child, and I’ve been writing VNs specifically since 2013… So, I’ve been writing for quite a long time! I’ve always been very passionate about writing. I used to write a lot of fanfiction when I was a teenager, though I didn’t branch out into writing original stories since I started working on my own VNs in 2013. I’m mostly known for writing yuri VNs, but I’ve written some BL, otome, and BxG stuff too. I’ll write almost anything if I think it’s interesting. In terms of genres, meanwhile, I like writing romance, slice of life, historical fiction, and horror. There’s quite a lot of genres I like playing around in!

2.Tell us about being a visual novel creator?

It’s not very glamorous haha ;;; I was fortunate enough to be able to quit my full-time job to focus on VNs, though I do accept freelance commissions for other companies on the side. Since I set my own schedule, I spend most of the work week at home, sitting at my desk, staring at a Word document and waiting for inspiration to strike… And I tend to drink a lot of tea while I do this (I mean, I am British, so I guess it’s a bit of a stereotype haha) It has been very rewarding being able to devote so much of my time to writing (though I find proofreading and coding rather less rewarding lol) I’ve also been fortunate enough to work with a lot of very talented artists and composers who help bring my stories to life. It’s a lot of fun, really!

3.What inspires your work?

I pull inspiration from all sorts of places! I got into writing yuri VNs specifically because I was disappointed there were so very yuri VNs out there which had been translated into English, other than the Sono Hanabira series, which is fine… But the SonoHana VNs are very light and fluffy, and they’re very smutty. There isn’t a lot of variety there. I wanted to write some historical yuri, some atmospheric yuri, and some fluffy yuri which didn’t have a large focus on r18 content… So, I pretty much wanted to write yuri content that wasn’t widely available (in the VN format) in English. There’s a lot more yuri VNs available out there now, however, so I’ve gotten into writing in more genres recently, BL included. I’m inspired by other visual novels, books, song lyrics, dreams, events which have happened in my life, events which have happened to other people… All sorts of things, really!

4.What does pride month mean to you?

I think Pride month is all about acceptance, and in giving a spotlight and a platform to people who might otherwise not have a chance to get their voices out there. Full disclosure, I feel a bit insincere answering a question about the meaning of pride month when I’m a cis woman, and I don’t think I’ve faced any particular form of discrimination during my life. I feel like it’s not really my place to define what Pride month means, and I don’t want to speak over other people. I do think it’s important to listen when other queer people talk about their experiences, though!

5.Where can people support your work?

You can buy my VNs on my Steam developer page or my Itch.io account, primarily! https://store.steampowered.com/developer/ebi-hime https://ebihime.itch.io/ I do have a few of my VNs available on other store fronts, like Denpasoft and Mangagamer, and a few of my VNs are available on consoles: The Language of Love, Blackberry Honey, Strawberry Vinegar, A Winter’s Daydream, and The Fairy’s Song to be more specific. None of these are BL, though… I’ll have to work on finishing up a few more of my WIP BL titles so I can share them with people!

6.Tell us about anything you want! Can be something you are working on, something positive, or something totally random!

I think Yuel, the cute and incredibly troubled protagonist of my grimdark BxG VN, All Ashes and Illusions, is the best! He’s really cute! (Did I say that already?) I think he’s so adorable, I felt compelled to write a whole bunch of spinoff VNs about him, despite Ashes not being particularly popular. He’s the main character in Unluckily in Love and All Idleness and Ephemera, which are both BL VNs! I gave poor Yuel such a miserable fate in Ashes when he tried to pursue a woman, I felt obliged to give him a boyfriend to take care of him haha… It’s because I fell in love with Yuel so much that I got into writing BL at all, actually haha ;;; I think he’s a very complex character! There’s a lot of layers to him which can be explored! Also, he’s very cute! Anyway, I like him a lot, and I’d like it if more people could read about him too!