Hi, that's a really interesting point you've raised. "Interactive fiction" is a well-established term, whose use in English-language gaming probably predates "visual novel". (And more people probably called the interactive fiction games "text adventures" anyhow.)
But nowadays it probably is a bit obscure. (And I say this as someone who loves the genre.) Calling Alcyone a visual novel might be more widely understood. Food for thought!
Hi, this is the point, this is not "gaming" as there is no gameplay, there is only reading and choosing.
Are you familiar with these material books which ask you to make choices and send you to a specific page to continue your adventure according to your choices? They are called "books whose you are the heroes" or something like that, do you know them? Would you call them "games"?
Well, visual novels are the same exact thing but more technological.
Their technology doesn't make them games though, they remain novels no matter what.
A game needs gameplay, merely reading and choosing is not enough to make a game.
Also, if you browse creations on Itch, you will find out that many creations are categorized as visual novels, meaning that this is a genre of creations pretty well known and used on Itch, which means that Itch users may identify Alcyone: The Last City easilier if it was categorized as a visual novel, which it is from the creator's description.
Reading the description that they wrote for their creation, they struggled for making clear what kind of creation it is and they came up with the description that I quoted above.
Which made me think that the creator might not be familiar with the concept of visual novel and that I might tell them about it to make their life easier and the description clearer. :-)
Although I also suggested to explain what is a visual novel for people who, like the creator, are not accustomed with visual novels yet, to make sure that everyone gets the idea. :-)
