NovelRT is a cross-platform, flexible Visual Novel and 2D game engine. It is aimed at designers and developers alike, however many of the designer tools and features we have on our roadmap have yet to be implemented.
There is two main ways to use the engine:
- using the prebuilt binary target for basic visual novels (the VisualNovel target/VisualNovel.exe)
- from source
In both cases it is recommended you use the designated releases, please see the releases page to view and download versions.
If you wish to attempt to build a basic visual novel with the existing C++ API, you must first install the following dependencies:
- CMake >= 3.24
- Vulkan SDK >= 1.4.313.0
- Python >= 3.11
These instructions are based on the CMake build system generator. You can download the latest version here here.
If you are compiling on Linux, please note - we do not support GCC at this time. Please use Clang 20+ instead. We will gladly accept contributions towards making GCC compatible, but until support is guaranteed we will only officially support first-party compilers as described in our CI builds found here.
First, you must install the dependencies. On Ubuntu 24.04, it looks like this:
sudo apt install clang libgl-dev xorg-dev libx11-xcb-dev libxcb-render0-dev libxcb-render-util0-dev libxcb-xkb-dev \
libxcb-icccm4-dev libxcb-image0-dev libxcb-keysyms1-dev libxcb-randr0-dev libxcb-shape0-dev libxcb-sync-dev \
libxcb-xfixes0-dev libxcb-xinerama0-dev xkb-data libxcb-dri3-dev libxcb-util-dev python \
glslc libxkbcommon-dev vulkan-tools
If you are building from a command line terminal, clone NovelRT and set up the build folder like so:
git clone https://github.com/NovelRT/NovelRT.git
mkdir -p NovelRT/build
cd NovelRT/build
Then, you can configure and build using CMake, like so:
cmake ..
cmake --build . -j
Prerequisites:
- Windows 11 x64
- Either:
- Visual Studio 2022 with "Desktop development with C++" Workload,
- Visual Studio 2026 with "Desktop development with C++" Workload, OR
- Build Tools for Visual Studio 2022/2026 w/ "Desktop development with C++" Workload
- CMake 3.24 or above. CMake is now packaged with the build tools as a component, and should work for this purpose.
- Python 3.11 or above.
(32-bit builds will not be supported at this time.)
If you are building from a command line terminal, clone NovelRT and set up the build folder like so:
git clone https://github.com/NovelRT/NovelRT.git
cd NovelRT
mkdir build
cd build
Then, you can configure and build using CMake, like so:
cmake ..
cmake --build . -j
When you open the NovelRT folder in VS2022 or VS2026 for the first time the CMakeSettings.json file will contain incorrect values.
Change the buildRoot value to ${projectDir}\\build and the installRoot to ${projectDir}\\install and restart Visual Studio this will make sure that it uses the same build path as the CLI commands.
You can delete the out folder in the NovelRT root as well as we won't use it anymore.
Then regenerate the cmake by clicking regenerate on the yellow warning ribbon on the top of Visual Studio.
Prerequisites:
- XCode 12
- XCode Command Line Tools matching the installed version
- CMake 3.24 or greater
- Vulkan SDK 1.4.313.0
- Python 3.11 or above
NOTE: Until native Metal support is introduced at a future time, it is required that you install the specified version of the Vulkan SDK as a prerequisite to configuring/building NovelRT. The instructions below will indicate directions assuming that the Vulkan SDK is already installed in a non-system path. If it is not installed, NovelRT's build system will fail to properly configure.
If you are building from a command line terminal, clone NovelRT and set up the build folder like so:
git clone https://github.com/NovelRT/NovelRT.git
mkdir -p NovelRT/build
cd NovelRT/build
Once you have cloned the repository, ensure that the terminal performing configuration of NovelRT runs the source setup-env.sh from within the Vulkan SDK directory.
If you have an Intel Mac you can configure the cmake files like so:
cmake ..
However, if you have Apple-Silicon Mac (M1, M2, etc), you must add an additional flag to the configuration command, like so:
cmake .. -DCMAKE_APPLE_SILICON_PROCESSOR="arm64"
If Vulkan SDK is not installed in a system path and the setup-env.sh file did not properly add the required environment variables, you can specify the VULKAN_SDK environment variable to your local Vulkan SDK location as such:
VULKAN_SDK=/Users/youruser/Vulkan SDK/1.4.313.0/macOS cmake ..
Please ensure that the path includes the macOS folder, otherwise finding the proper libraries will fail.
Once NovelRT is configured, you can build it like so:
cmake --build . -j
To run the samples, you will need to navigate to the folder the executable resides in, and launch from there. This is due to how macOS and CMake handle's RPATHs.
Examples will be placed here when we have created some. In the meantime, we advise asking us directly on our discord (invite URL above and below).
First off, if you want to contribute, thanks!
If you would like to contribute to the development of NovelRT, please see our contribution guide here. If this doesn't answer any questions that you have, feel free to reach out to us on Discord to discuss what you can work on - we greatly appreciate it!
NovelRT and everyone contributing (this includes issues, pull requests, the wiki, Discord in all forms, etc.) must abide by our code of conduct, which can be found here. Instances of abuse, harrassment or otherwise unacceptable behaviour must either be reported to a NovelRT Developer via direct message on Discord or by contacting us via email.
Unless otherwise specified, all files are copyright © Matt Jones and Contributors. Licensed under the MIT Licence (MIT).
See LICENCE in the repository root for more information.
You can reach us directly via our discord, or you can post your question as an issue on the appropriate repository (but honestly asking us directly might be easier).