Advice on what Tool/Game Engine to use for total novice?

[Trinperv]

Greetings All!

I have had a game concept floating around my mind for quite some time now.
Of late I have been thinking on it more and more and even started writing my ideas down.

So I guess the first question I need to answer is if I should even pursue this? It would probably be a solo endeavor. So I'd have to either devote massive amounts of time to learning a game engine (Godot?) as well as an animation tool (Daz3D or Blender ? Seeing that Godot's animation capabilities might leave something to be desired)

The game I am thinking about would have combat elements, optional party members, item/weapons, maybe a choice of outfits but I know that adds to the number of animations. In my mind I see it as a 3D game. Combat would be turn-based.

There was this game demo that was just amazing from a year or more ago...forgotten the name dammit. But it was a 3D demo, made by one guy. It has a blonde female protagonist, fantastic visuals of her animations and even the environment was pretty well done. A forested area in the second demo with a succubus standing on a bridge...the opponents were goblins and you could sneak up and use a lust attack to initiate sex which kills/banishes them. I think it was a Charm attack and you could Charm up to 3 goblins and then initiate sex. So there was animation for all three possible couplings.
Basically, that's like the pipe-dream for me in terms of animation quality and character design... wish I could recall the name!

But I am realistic enough to appreciate that he was/is an experienced professional. So I should lower my sights.
I still would want to focus on good, plentiful animations... there will almost certainly need to be a LOT of custom work done.
So should I (as a total novice with work commitments) try to work with something like RPGmaker? Or in light of the need for mucho animations, should Daz3D or Blender be the way? Some other tool/game engine entirely?

Thanks, hope to hear your viewpoints!

[EDIT]
The old brain kicked in, just recalled it!
Meridiana’s Magical Investigations

 

[JakaiD]

Godot is perfectly capable, just like Unreal or Unity, of playing animations you created in a tool dedicated to the task, like Maya, 3ds max or Blender. These can also handle 2D animations. Unity for example supports both sprite/frame based and skeletal animations for 2D.

For a 3D game you will want to go with a game engine like Unity, Unreal, Godot, or Xenko. There are many other but I mention the ones with some decent editor work flows.

With RPG Maker you will be creating a 2D game.

DAZ3D can be used to render the sprites and images for such a 2D game. It is not used for the 3D models, although you could export an FBX to import into one of the 3D engines. You would require an aditional license for the content though and tyhe models might need some optimization depending on how many of them will appear in a scene at the same time and the complxity of the rest of the 3D scene (in the engine runtime).

Blender could also be used to create models which are rendered as sprites or other 2D images for ue in RPG Maker (or Ren'Py), or you can use it to create and animate 3D models.

In summary ...

DAZ, Blender, Maya, 3ds max, etc are tools for creating content. 2D sprites, images or even movies; or 3D models and animations.

Unity, Godot, Unreal, Xenko, Game Maker, RPG Maker, Ren'Py, etc are the game engines into which you bring the created 2D or 3D content while making your game; adding the needed sound, music, and code to make things happen.

What is easier for total novice? If you can not code then I guess start with RPG Maker, but even that might require some scripting at some point; especially when you want to do something in it that is not available by default or provided by a plugin.

[Edit] The game you mention is being developed in the Unreal engine. But the same could be achieved in the other 3D engines I named.

 

[Winterfire]

jakaiD pretty much said everything, the only thing I would like to add is... Do not be afraid to write that idea down for a "future use" and make something much simpler and perhaps even entirely different as first project.

Only by making something you will truly see what you are capable of, make something simple and short and focus on completing it.
You will learn a lot, you will feel good about completing a project and you will be able to tell if you can make that and in how much time.

 

[Trinperv]

JakaiD, many thanks for the clear descriptions of the roles of the various tools. I have been looking into some of these Youtube tutorial videos and found one giving an overview of 'attaching weapons/armor to a 3D sprite in Godot'.
Only to come away wondering how the sprite was created in the first place... so although it might have been a pure Godot creation, I think the better/faster? option is to use the right tool for the job.

Winterfire, you most definitely have voiced the reality of the situation. I'd truly love to make an honest effort of bringing this pet project to life but the only way to do some justice to my vision is to learn the bloody stuff!
Now that I have the clarification that it won't (or shouldn't) be exclusively a single piece of software to learn, it's learning time.

Many thanks again for your time and feedback, it is much appreciated!

 

[Deleted member 1952336]

I realize some time has passed since the original post but I wanted to say from my experience with it Godot is more than capable of handling 3D animations well. I use a Blender to Godot pipeline. Blender is also free and as of 2020 has great tools for modeling, animating, texturing, normal mapping, ambient occasional baking, and exporting to Godot.

Godot also has an added advantage for adult games in that it is not owned by any specific company. Engines like Unity and Unreal have in their legal terms of use that if they don't like what you are doing with their engine than can cut you off for any reason. So if they find out you are making an adult game they could just cut you off and you'd have to re-create your entire game in a different engine. This will never happen with Godot because no one owns it.

Godot is also free and open source, and allows for dynamic 3D character animation for full control of every bone, blending multiple animations together, and mix and matching animations, for for example separate facial expression animations mixed with body animations.