Visual Styling

Visual Novel Creator starts with useful defaults because styling should not block writing. Once the story path works, Properties gives you project-wide controls for the menu, dialog UI, sprite slots, and runtime presentation.

The safest way to style a project is to start broad, then override only where a scene needs something special.

Use Assets & Importing when a style field needs an image or sound, and use the Node Reference when a one-scene effect belongs in a node instead of project defaults.

Common customization points

Prompt UI

Preset, dialog box colors, text colors, name plate behavior, continue arrow, typewriter speed, and advance behavior.

Runtime menu

Title, optional subtitle, menu background image, menu music, button sounds, settings, save/load, log, and chapter select.

Sprites

Sprite assets, poses, slots, position modes, transitions, emphasis, and one-shot effects.

Scene presentation

Image backgrounds, parallax backgrounds, audio tracks, SFX, title cards, overlays, waits, jumps, and transition timing.

Style presets

0.7.0-beta.1 preview — unpublished

This upcoming version adds VNC, an ink, ivory, and periwinkle built-in Style Preset. New Empty Projects select VNC and turn on Inherit Active Style Preset for the runtime menu. Existing projects retain their selected style and inheritance setting; the SVNE Feature Demo keeps its SVNE defaults.

SVNE and Episode are immutable built-in starting points in 0.6.0-beta.11. To customize one, select Assets in the Explorer and add a Prompt Style Preset. The new preset copies the currently selected project style; adding another while a custom preset is selected duplicates that preset.

Custom presets have stable internal identities, so renaming one does not break project, scene, or prompt-node references. Select a custom preset under Assets to rename it, change its built-in base, or edit its dialog box, name plate, choice, continue-arrow, and title-card fields.

The project Default Style Preset chooses the story default. A scene can inherit that setting or choose its own Scene Prompt Style, and a presentation node can inherit both or choose a Style Preset Override. This includes Dialog, Choice, Text Input, Title Card, Wait for Sprite Activation, and World Wait nodes. The order is Node > Scene > Project. For example, set the project to Episode, a flashback scene to a sepia custom preset, and one important prompt or Title Card to SVNE; only that node uses SVNE, the rest of the flashback uses sepia, and other scenes use Episode.

The same Style Preset title-card tokens power both manual Title Card nodes and automatic chapter cards. A preset can use a solid color or an image with Crop, Fit, or Stretch framing, tint, transparency, and a safe fallback color. Manual nodes use Node > Scene > Project, followed by an explicit node background override. Automatic cards use Chapter Style > Project Style, followed by an explicit chapter background override. Title-card timing remains separate: manual nodes own their timing, while automatic cards use the project setting with an optional chapter duration override.

Turn on Runtime Menu > Inherit Active Style Preset when Save, Load, Settings, confirmations, logs, and the rest of the runtime menu should share the story’s presentation. In 0.6.0-beta.11, it is off by default. Existing projects keep that setting when opened in 0.7.0-beta.1.

Runtime context	Style Preset used
Main menu or no active scene	Project Default Style Preset
Page opened during a story	Active scene preset, then the project preset
Prompt or node with its own override	Does not restyle the runtime page

The inherited preset supplies compatible menu colors, font, border thicknesses, and corner radii. An explicit Runtime Menu color remains the final override.

When a Choice, Text Input, Title Card, Wait For Sprite Activation, or World Wait node has no Style Preset Override, it uses the active scene preset. A node override applies only to that node; it never leaks into a later node or scene. VNC refuses to delete a custom preset while the project, a scene, or a presentation node still references it, preventing an accidental visual change.

Editor appearance

Choose an editor appearance from File > Settings, the View menu, or the command palette. VNC remembers the choice for the next Studio session.

Appearance	Character
Studio	Follow Roblox Studio’s current light or dark theme.
Light	Use VNC’s light palette.
Dark	Use VNC’s dark palette.
Sakura	Use a soft cherry-blossom daylight palette.
Sakura Dark	Use a deep plum and cherry-blossom palette.
Ultra green	Use dark neutral surfaces with a vivid green accent.
Blueprint	Use deep navy surfaces with an icy cyan accent.
Ember	Use charcoal surfaces with a warm ember-orange accent.

Editor appearance changes affect the authoring UI, not the player-facing runtime style.

Prompt UI fields

Each custom prompt style preset includes:

Area	Fields
Dialog box	Background color, transparency, border color, border thickness, outline transparency, corner radius, text color, text size
Name plate	Side, background, border, border thickness, outline transparency, corner radius, text color, text size
Choices	Background, transparency, border, border thickness, outline transparency, corner radius, text color, text size
Continue arrow	Show or hide
Title card	Color or image background, image scaling, tint, transparency, fallback color, text color, font

Important ranges come from the editor fields:

• Project Typewriter Speed uses 0.5 to 2 in 0.05 steps.
• Transparency fields use 0 to 1.
• Dialog, name plate, and choice border thickness use 0 to 8 pixels.
• Dialog, name plate, and choice corner radius use 0 to 40 pixels.
• Dialog and choice text size use 12 to 48; name plate text size uses 12 to 56.

Runtime menu fields

The runtime menu has text, media, sound, and color fields. Menu Title defaults to the story title when set, otherwise Visual Novel. Menu Subtitle defaults to Choose how to continue.

Media and sound fields accept a Roblox content ID or a StoryAssets key. You can type either value directly, or use the picker at the right edge of the field to choose a compatible imported asset:

A Roblox content ID points directly at a Roblox asset. A StoryAssets key points at an asset you imported through VNC and later install with the runtime.

VNC trims the field and checks the exact, case-sensitive StoryAssets key first. Sound-effect pickers also include None (silent), which stores the explicit none value without changing an empty field’s normal default behavior. Only when that key is absent does a runtime-menu field interpret a numeric value or content-ID URL directly. Likewise, button-sound none means silence only when there is no exact registered key with that spelling. Title-card image backgrounds use the same exact-key-first behavior. Most other story asset fields use StoryAssets keys rather than direct-ID syntax.

• Background Image defaults to SVNEMenuBackground for a non-inherited menu or an SVNE/Episode-based project style.
• Menu Music defaults to SVNEMenuTheme for those same settings.
• Button Hover SFX defaults to sfx/gui/buttonHover.
• Button Down SFX defaults to sfx/gui/buttonDown.
• Button Up SFX defaults to sfx/gui/buttonUp.
• Button Click SFX defaults to sfx/gui/buttonConfirm.

In the unpublished 0.7.0-beta.1 preview, a VNC-based project with Inherit Active Style Preset enabled leaves an empty background or music field empty. Choose your own image and music if you want them. A scene-only VNC override does not change the project’s menu-media defaults.

For button sounds, use none when you deliberately want silence.

Menu colors include backdrop, panel, panel border, accent, text, muted text, button, button text, and danger color. If a color is blank or invalid, the runtime normalizes it back to a safe hex color. With Inherit Active Style Preset enabled, unset menu colors fall back to the active scene Style Preset during a story and the project Style Preset elsewhere; explicitly authored menu colors still take precedence.

Sprite and stage fields

The stage uses a 1280 x 720 logical canvas and letterboxes evenly into the available screen space. Project sprite slots give you repeatable placement across that canvas.

New projects start with these slots:

Slot	X scale	Y scale	Width scale	Height scale
left	0.16	1.03	0.236	0.764
center	0.5	1.03	0.309	0.91
right	0.84	1.03	0.236	0.764

Sprite nodes can use Slot, Auto, or Custom position mode. Use slots for consistent character blocking, auto placement for simple multi-sprite scenes, and custom coordinates only when a shot needs manual composition.

Suggested styling workflow

1. Choose a built-in Prompt Style preset, or create a custom preset under Assets.
2. Set project-wide menu, Prompt Style, sprite-slot, and audio defaults.
3. Preview one representative scene.
4. Adjust the global settings until the default look feels right.
5. Set a scene preset when a whole scene needs a different mood.
6. Override individual prompt or Title Card nodes only for moments that should stand out.

Keep customization intentional

Use project-wide settings for consistency, scene presets for sustained mood changes, and node overrides for individual moments that should stand out.

When the defaults carry most scenes, the special moments are easier to notice. Start with the shared style, then spend your detail work where the story actually changes mood.