<![CDATA[The increasing popularity of visual novels as interactive digital narratives has expanded scholarly interest in narrative structures, player engagement, and multimodal storytelling. However, limited attention has been paid to explaining how contextual meaning is systematically constructed through the interaction of linguistic and visual resources within these narratives. To bridge the gap, the present study examines the construction of contextual meaning in the visual novel Crystalline by applying Parera’s contextual meaning theory within a qualitative interpretive framework. Data consisted of 100 contextual meaning units derived from dialogue, narration, internal monologues, and visual scenes collected through repeated gameplay and analyzed using deductive coding and inductive thematic analysis. The findings reveal four interdependent dimensions of contextual meaning: character intentionality, emotional positioning, temporal–spatial orientation, and environmental context. These dimensions interact as complementary narrative layers that guide players’ interpretation throughout the story. Building on these findings, the study proposes the Integrated Contextual Meaning Construction Framework for Interactive Visual Novels (ICMC-IVN), which conceptualizes contextual meaning as a dynamic process emerging from the integration of verbal, visual, temporal, emotional, and environmental resources. The framework extends the application of contextual meaning theory to multimodal interactive narratives and contributes to the advancement of narrative linguistics, contextual semantics, and digital storytelling research.]]>
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