Ren'Py Advice on making my first game

[__b]

I have been thinking of making my first game and I need some advice on pretty much all aspects of it.

The kind of game I want to make is a male protag sandbox game with MILFs (no futa).
I am currently limited to rendering Daz models on a laptop with an intel cpu (i7-1260P) but it's still doable, here is a preview of how the models to look like:

Spoiler: img

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The game mechanics of this game will be similar to What a Legend and The Hard Way, so it will mostly be like static 3d models with different poses that you are interacting with on a 2d background, but hopefully with better writing and more interesting interactions than The Hard Way (no offense). I would appreciate it if someone could point to some template code for making a simple sandbox using Ren'Py.

The setting of the game is that you are stranded with one MILF and eventually you meet more. I was thinking that the game would either be set in space where you are on a spaceship and neither the protag or the first LI remembers how they ended up there (I feel like this setting has been used a lot of times though), or you start on a remote island, or in like a fallout vault (I am leaning more towards this but lemme know what you guys think).

I also don't know how I should go about setting up a subscription page and how/where to promote it. I'm thinking that the best idea is for the initial release of the game to be free, and that subsequent latest versions will be paid for, and prev ones will be free. As any dev I want to make cash as quickly as possible to get a better setup and support myself financially, but times are hard and a lot of devs have let people down so it will probably be a while before I can upgrade.

Thanks.

 

[Turning Tricks]

I'd really - really! - recommend that you not start with a sandbox as your first Ren'py game. Sandbox games are technically very challenging and a lot of the code snippets people have shared online are out of date as Ren'py (and python) are constantly evolving. You'd probably have better results making a regular VN with some simple paths and choices.

As for monetizing it, Patreon is the go-to as long as your game doesn't have any "problem" kinks but if you have those (ex: incest, loli, school settings, bestiality, BDSM, rape, sleep sex, etc, etc) then you're better off trying SubscribeStar. Itch.io is also pretty liberal and it's a good place to post a free game but not as profitable as the main sites.

Good news is that rendering on your laptop using CPU will take so long, you should be able to learn the code no problem
(Just teasing... I did a few thousand renders with CPU rendering when I started)

Of course, you could do those teeny tiny sprites that the Hard Way uses as well. They probably render super quick

 

[Synx]

I second about starting out with a sandbox game might be a bit to much, but will go even further and say in general a sandbox game is just a bad idea. 9/10 sandbox games are just better as a VN. Having the option to pick what character to focus on is nice, but it brings a ton of restrictions and challenges with it especially related to continuation. Most sandbox games just provide the illusion of choice since they more often than not require you to advance all the different characters anyway to continue the story.

And don't got me started om having to click 10 times through locations after every scene or having to skip time 20 times, to get the next scene.

What a legend (haven't played the other) is one of the better sandbox games, since most character personal stories are not required to advance the main story. That said I still think What a legend would work fine as a VN by just giving the option to do a side character story or not.

If you really really want to do a sandbox game my advice would be to do a semi one. Don't use time or locations (it rarely adds any value to a game and more often than not downgrades it) and maybe just do a start of the day choice; you wake up and you can pick to continue the main story, or start/continue the personal quests of the love interests. Nothing is bound by time or location, and the personal quests don't really have much impact/relation to the main story.

As for the setting I actually like the spaceship one the most. I don't know if you have ever seen the movie Passengers but your story of being stranded with 1 Milf at the start and others joining later on kinda reminded me of that movie and how well it fit. They could all be in cryosleep and the MC and first milf cryopot malfunction waking them up while still in transit, with more pods malfunction (and introducing new characters) during the story. And it fit well with the semi sandbox I mentioned above; main story would focus on why the pods are malfunctioning and all, while the personal character stories would be more romantic/dating focused.

 

[osanaiko]

Welcome to the devhelp zone... many newcomers ask a very similar question. Here's some recent threads which will have responses which might help you:

https://f95zone.to/threads/tips-for-starting-game-making.246191/

https://f95zone.to/threads/how-can-i-create-a-game-im-a-complete-beginner.245340/

https://f95zone.to/threads/how-exactly-would-i-start-making-a-avn-game.244787/

https://f95zone.to/threads/looking-for-a-starting-point.243728/

And last but not least: Winterfire's guide https://f95zone.to/threads/a-beginners-guide-on-how-to-make-a-game.200327/

 

[osanaiko]

As for the setting I actually like the spaceship one the most. I don't know if you have ever seen the movie Passengers but your story of being stranded with 1 Milf at the start and others joining later on kinda reminded me of that movie and how well it fit. They could all be in cryosleep and the MC and first milf cryopot malfunction waking them up while still in transit, with more pods malfunction (and introducing new characters) during the story. And it fit well with the semi sandbox I mentioned above; main story would focus on why the pods are malfunctioning and all, while the personal character stories would be more romantic/dating focused.

https://f95zone.to/threads/a-long-journey-v0-9-4-marvellous-lunatic.80170/ was inspired by "Passengers", although the plot is dissimilar, the setting and vibe is quite close. I would have to admit that the game is quite wordy and is basically a KN, so perhaps it is not everyone's cup of tea. However, Redhead Supremacy is achieved for great justice.

(disclosure: I've been involved as editor/proofreader with ALJ since almost the start of the project. the excessive wordiness is the dev's fault however he doesn't listen to my advice often enough!)