An experienced programmer for hire (interested in 2D h-games, free to some extend)

[colascage]

Hello,

My name is Colas and I'm a programmer who is experienced in many languages like C++, C#, Python (just to name a few)
When it comes to developing 2D games I usually use the engine "Godot" because I think it's the most efficient one to make these types of games.
And I'm confident that I can do any kind of 2D game in a short amount of time and bugfree. May it be a sidescroller, beat'm up, a full fledged RPG, anything.

As the title says I can be hired for free as long as your game is small and not commercial. The reason is because I'm well provided, have currently alot of free time and just want to make h-games.
If your game is commercial I won't need upfront payment however it will be nice to get a bit of rev-share.

I'm open for alot of genres and fetishes but the ones i'm very interested in are:
-combat heavy games
-male protagonist
-bf/combat s*x


If you are interested or have any questions just pn me and or reply to this thread.

-Colas

 

[Saki_Sliz]

Welcome!

Something you may notice (as I have) if you hang around here for a while, is that a lot of projects (I would say about half) that get started and make a post are looking for help, are interested in making a game using the renpy engine (I have even programmers here dedicated to just this engine). It is basically just python with a renpy API. Most want to use it because it seems easy, it can do complex stuff (if you are a serious programmer like you are, people make various different types of games beyond normal renpy games), almost a standard here in these forums, and if the programmer leaves, most makers can eventually start to learn the language themselves and try to understand or fix the issue without having to constantly ask their programmer. Having a dedicated programmer is mostly to implement the complex features that the makers themselves don't want to have to learn how to make since they themselves are not programmers and not comfortable with the complexity. Since you already know python, you may want to consider investigating how to use this engine and implementing some game features (the most common people want are custom menus such as a simulated smartphone, a point and click mechanism, such as for a world map, and I think the complex part of dialog and visual novel like control is already done and handled by renpy), just because these may be the most common requests you may get.

everyone else is mostly a mix of various different projects.

One question I would have would be about the Godot engine. I tried it about a year ago, and helped write out documentation for it, but I eventually left it because I didn't have fun as a developer. Too tedious to try and constantly reinvent the wheel. I think one of the major benefits Godot had over unity (at the time) was how you could make objects in isolated scenes, and then import those objects as a game element, or make instances of that type of object, and then make grandchildren. it was a very nice way to organize things and keep things clean. Unity has been trying to get that for over 5 years, and only just near the end of last year finally released an update that finally allows for this feature. I moved to unity because one, I don't need to help develop it, its well documented, god do I love C#, and I am just more comfortable with how it operates. How has godot been recently? any growth over the year, major releases? Or something like your personal favorite feature or gripes?

 

[colascage]

Hey, I appreciate the amount of information you are giving me.
Regarding Renpy:
Allthough Im not very into VNs I will give the engine a shot. Alot of people seem to use it so there must be something to it.
Regarding Godot and its documentation:
Before I started with Godot I heard that this engine is barely documented and this was true. I can't deny that. But that was years ago and after 3.0 it's actually way better now. Sure there are some parts missing but when this happens you can always find a way around it. However I'm only using Godot for 2D. When it comes to 3D I currently use UE4 but I'm not very experienced in it and that's why I didn't mention this in my OP.

 

[anne O'nymous]

Regarding Renpy:
Allthough Im not very into VNs I will give the engine a shot.

Why are people still limiting Ren'py to VN ?
It could have some legitimacy in the past, when only few people where telling otherwise. But now there's a whole

You must be registered to see the links

to serve as proof of concept, and we really need to get ride of this legend ; Ren'py is limited by the imagination of the author more than anything else.

You want to make an arcade-like scrolled shoot'm'up ? You can. You want to make a classical beat'm'up ? You can as well. You want to make real time 3D ? It will need more knowledge, but since blender can run games, there's not reason for Ren'py to not be able to do real time 3D with acceptable result.

 

[Finsit]

@anne O'nymous : Ren'Py is a mess.
Anything too far away from a VN it's juste an endless nightmare of hacks piled one onto another.

And the most interesting point of Ren'Py being its rollback and save systems they tend to be a nightmare to maintain when you start doing stuff Ren'Py is not designed for.

The UI system is totally inadequate once you start scratching the surface. So on top of having to maintain the strongest point of the engine you will have to struggle using its weakest too.


For a programmer there is no point going for Ren'Py for something that is not close to a VN.
You will only use an engine for something it's not designed for if you are used to it and consider that learning to use a new engine has not enough benefits.


Also Ren'Py is not an engine for programmer it's an engine for artists.
It would be a pretty bad decision as a programmer to start with Ren'Py to make something it is not designed for. The documentation won't help you since you will need to make custom parts and the documentation is very bad about those kind of things. Learning to use the native systems is not trivial because, while you can, going against it is unintuitive.

 

[Winterfire]

I would agree that Ren'Py is for VNs only, just like RPG Maker is for RPGs only... Sure, you can work around them and with some skills and experience make something different but the question is... With so many alternatives on the market, should you?

I would say no: Game engines are meant to make a specific task easier, if you have to put too much work to make a game engine fit something almost completely different then you should consider another engine or a general purpose engine like Unity3D.

That being said, @anne O'nymous is right but I believe Ren'Py was made with PyGame so instead of modifying Ren'Py to make something completely different than a VN, I would simply step a level up and use PyGame instead... Unless those modifications are minor and you still want to have most if not all VN features.

 

[anne O'nymous]

@anne O'nymous : Ren'Py is a mess.

It's not because you struggle to use it, that it's the engine's fault.

And the most interesting point of Ren'Py being its rollback and save systems they tend to be a nightmare to maintain when you start doing stuff Ren'Py is not designed for.

They are far to be the only interesting points, like they are far to effectively be a problem.
The

You must be registered to see the links

offer so many possibilities that it's not really a problem. You can easily have a story with scrolled shoot'm'up/beat'm'up parts where you disable the rollback during the fight parts, and either you make the rollback stop at the end of this part, or skip the whole part and jump directly at the start of it.
As for the save systems, it present absolutely no problem once you understand that pickle can only works with scalar-like data. If really you need to handle non pickable data, just use the

You must be registered to see the links

and

You must be registered to see the links

meta, eventually the

You must be registered to see the links

one. It's not difficult at all. Despite its limits, pickle is the main serialization tool for Python since decades now. It wouldn't be the case if effectively it was a real pain in the ass to use it.

I would say no: Game engines are meant to make a specific task easier, if you have to put too much work to make a game engine fit something almost completely different then you should consider another engine or a general purpose engine like Unity3D.

Is it effectively too much works ?
Ren'py is to PyGame what

You must be registered to see the links

is for many script languages. It have its limits, of course, but it offer way more flexibility than you (generic, not you personally) seem to think.
I've seen so many people reinvent the wheel, just because they didn't effectively read the documentation and discovered that what they want to do already exist. By example there's, on another thread here, someone pointing a (apparently none adult) game that is a mess to translate, because they made their own translation system... using a 7.1.3 version of Ren'py.
There's also this game where you find a copy/pasted full module of Ren'py's core, because the author wanted to be able to add new statements. This while Ren'py already offer this possibility in an easy to understand way.

In fact, the real flaw of Ren'py is its author. If PyTom wasn't so focused on VN only during his own speeches, people wouldn't start their game thinking that they'll have to fight against the engine to achieve what they want. Then, they would discover features likes

You must be registered to see the links

or the old

You must be registered to see the links

. Like they would look more on the side of custom displayable and user-defined statements.

 

[Finsit]

It's not because you struggle to use it, that it's the engine's fault.

Ad hominem much ?

They are far to be the only interesting points, like they are far to effectively be a problem.

You didn't got me here.
If you want to work around your custom stuff, yeah they are fine.
But if you want your custom stuff to use them, then you are mostly screwed.

I've seen so many people reinvent the wheel, just because they didn't effectively read the documentation and discovered that what they want to do already exist.

Or you can also see the other way around :
People try to reinvent the wheel because the engine is unintuitive and the documentation is not clear or comprehensive enough.

In fact, the real flaw of Ren'py is its author. If PyTom wasn't so focused on VN only during his own speeches, people wouldn't start their game thinking that they'll have to fight against the engine to achieve what they want. Then, they would discover features likes

You must be registered to see the links

or the old

You must be registered to see the links

. Like they would look more on the side of custom displayable and user-defined statements.

If anything the fact that PyTom doesn't advocate his engine to task it is not built to do is to his credit.

When you start to look at features like user-defined statements you can easily see that something is not right. The documentation on one of the most powerful features should be way more detailed and visible than the obvious stuff.


Unless you see Ren'Py as what it is in reality : an engine built for artists to make VN that allow some leeway at the price of a good deal of difficulties. Then it makes sense.

 

[anne O'nymous]

Ad hominem much ?

That's just a fact. Personally, I struggle with Daz3D, which doesn't mean that it's a mess.
Oh, by the way, you misused "ad hominem". It doesn't mean an attack against someone, it's the fact of returning the argumentation of someone against itself.

But if you want your custom stuff to use them, then you are mostly screwed.

How can you be screwed since the rollback feature come with 9 functions, and few configuration values, designed especially for you to not be screwed ? Same for the save feature, that use the most used serialization module, a module so integrated with Python that it even benefit from meta methods ?

People try to reinvent the wheel because the engine is unintuitive and the documentation is not clear or comprehensive enough.

Still there's many people who achieve to do it right.
The documentation is wrote by the author and because of this can effectively be difficult to understand for someone who isn't a coder himself. But it doesn't mean that Ren'py itself isn't clear enough. As for everything else, especially when it come to coding language, you need to experiment by yourself to achieve effective comprehension.
Most of the authors in the adult scene, especially nowadays, never wrote a single line of code before. Still they achieve to use Ren'py to make games that works. They could probably do better things if the documentation was less coding oriented, but it seem that it's clear enough for them to do it right.

When you start to look at features like user-defined statements you can easily see that something is not right. The documentation on one of the most powerful features should be way more detailed and visible than the obvious stuff.

It's a feature dedicated to coders, and it's documentation don't really differ for the one of an average module/library. It describe each possible parameters of the main function and each methods of the needed object.
That's all what is needed, the rest of the knowledge come quickly when you start using it. And in case of doubt, there's the integrated documentation of the lexer, like for any Python module.

 

[Winterfire]

Do not get me wrong, I have seen Ren'Py being used for other things besides VNs so I am not saying you are wrong but again, with so many Game Engines on the market, why would anyone choose Ren'Py to make a Topdown RPG or Platform over another engine that gives all the core features out of the box right away?

I am sure some people do because they like the engine and are familiar with it but the majority will go for the engine that fits the game genre the most and for Ren'Py that will be visual novels because Ren'Py gives all the Visual Novel core features (and more) out of the box but not Top Down movement with collisions etc.

 

[anne O'nymous]

Note: It's really late here, so I'm not sure that I'll be able to express my thought correctly. So, know that my intend isn't to be harsh, nor to prove you wrong or something like this.

with so many Game Engines on the market, why would anyone choose Ren'Py to make a Topdown RPG or Platform over another engine that gives all the core features out of the box right away?

The same question can be asked for everything. Why so many car models ? Among a same category, there's few differences between them, still you can choice between up to thirty, when not more, for each one of these categories.
Same, why so many email readers ? Why so many web browsers ? Why so many text editors ?
Of course, making a classical RPG is easier with RPG Maker, while Game Maker is surely more adapted for shoot'm'up/beat'm'up. But it doesn't mean that people will understand them better or think that they are easier to use for a whole game ; the fact that it's easier with an engine doesn't mean that the result is effectively better.

So, to the question "why choising Ren'py over RPG Maker for a classical RPG", the answer can be :
Because with Ren'py you can change the size of the titles according to the place you are. Having small ones for the map, average ones for the towns, and big ones for the insides. It can perhaps be done with RPG Maker, but I've seen no one doing it.
Because Ren'py offer more possibilities for the cut scenes.
Because Ren'py handle the images way better, especially the big ones.

[...] because Ren'Py gives all the Visual Novel core features (and more) out of the box but not Top Down movement with collisions etc.

The thing I like the most with Ren'py, it's that some of it's official features are in fact registered statements ; exactly what you would do if you added them directly into your game. I like this because it lead to a metaphysical question : Are they "out of the box" or not ?
If they are, why the one you'll create for your own game can't be as well one day ? And if they aren't, why are they seen as official features ?

 

[Winterfire]

I may be wrong so excuse me for that as it is just my guess rather than being sure about what I am about to say but I think people choose car models, browser, (...) for three main reasons: Ease of use, Features and last but not least how much they like the product (which may or may not be affected by the general opinion of the brand in the world).

I think the same holds true for Game Engines but in this case, the "liking" them means you are familiar with them, you know them and therefore can work faster and easier with them rather than wasting time to learn a new one, so you are right about Ren'Py if you are really familiar with it (beyond making a simple VN).

However I truly cannot see a new user going for Ren'Py to make a topdown RPG or another genre that requires coding too many extra core features unless he chose the wrong engine or he aims to learn by challenging himself a bit, which would be fair enough.

From the way I see it, if someone wants to code a lot, it would be to have something more unique and he would choose an engine instead.
I have always seen Game Engines as a "bundle" of features aimed for a certain genre, with some exceptions, and those are generally chosen to realize an idea as quick as possible by using the features given by the engine but after that point, I guess it is normal that the user gets familiarized with it and decides to reuse the game engine and his knowledge with the game engine to make something entirely different.

However, if you are a completely new user to any game engine (and maybe even to python) and want to make a topdown rpg, I cannot see any advantage of suggesting Ren'Py to do that.

 

[recreation]

lol this discussion reminds me a lot of a discussion I had years ago in a rpgm forum^^"
I don't want to get into this again but

People try to reinvent the wheel because the engine is unintuitive and the documentation is not clear or comprehensive enough.

This is absolutely true. I wouldn't say I'm a coder perse, but I did code websites (html,php,js), coded my own stuff in rpgm in ruby, coded some smaller C# programs, even had a few C++ classes years ago, so I have a general understanding of coding, but a lot of the renpy docs are a big mystery for me because the way they are written. Renpy in itself is quite user friendly, but the documentation is not and that really sucks...

To get back to the topic:
@colascage I stumbled over godot a while ago and it looked like it's able to render 3D stuff too. Is that true, or did I misread the signs? If it's possible, can you do it?

 

[anne O'nymous]

I may be wrong so excuse me for that as it is just my guess rather than being sure about what I am about to say but I think people choose car models, browser, (...) for three main reasons: Ease of use, Features and last but not least how much they like the product (which may or may not be affected by the general opinion of the brand in the world).

To this, you need to add, for cars but not only, the fact that it's the manufacturers is originally from your country. A German will prefer Audi or Mercedes, a French a Renault or Peugeot, and so on. And the same apply for game engines. That's why, by example, you see so many Asian productions made with RPG Maker, it's the "local" engine, same for Russian with QSP.

I think the same holds true for Game Engines but in this case, the "liking" them means you are familiar with them, you know them and therefore can work faster and easier with them rather than wasting time to learn a new one, so you are right about Ren'Py if you are really familiar with it (beyond making a simple VN).

Yes and no. You are right on your premise, but you seem to forgot something. The vast majority of the author are new to this. So they choose the engine not necessarily for its effective capacities, but more for its ease to use. And for this there isn't one that effectively beat Ren'py.
Visual Novel Maker is more on the drag & drop side, so seem easier, but once you want to go further than a pure VN, like all the Ren'py games that offer free roaming parts by example, it become a pain in the ass. This while Ren'py need that you works a little more to order the dialogs, but will let you go further more easily.
Unity with the right frameworks can let you make advanced VN more or less as easily than Ren'py, but if you aren't effectively a coder, you'll not be able to effectively go beyond the framework. This will Ren'py is more open to total beginner ; Python isn't a language massively used to teach codding without good reasons.

I think that the real key for Ren'py is that it's the engine that offer the better compromise. Easier enough to be used by anyone, powerful enough to do whatever you want with it. And that's the reason why it's used more and more often nowadays.
It still lack of already made features to effectively overpass the VN-like world for now, but it's like everything, the more people use it, the more alternate features will appear. One year ago, people didn't thought that Ren'py can do what RPG Maker do. Today people see that it can even emulate RPG Maker. In the future, someone will write a more generic map management ; simply because now we know that it's really possible, that if you try to make it, you'll not loose your time for nothing.

However, if you are a completely new user to any game engine (and maybe even to python) and want to make a topdown rpg, I cannot see any advantage of suggesting Ren'Py to do that.

Note that I never suggested Ren'py. I just pointed the fact that you can do this/that even with Ren'py, which is different.

 

[lancelotdulak]

Note: It's really late here, so I'm not sure that I'll be able to express my thought correctly. So, know that my intend isn't to be harsh, nor to prove you wrong or something like this.

When youre done being a script kiddy pretending to be a programmer.. aka cancer.. id like to post something.


Colas im also interested in helping some people out on the side , but mostly with 3d art especially daz. I just find it soothing for some reason. Im working on a unity game but honestly the problem is about 5 devs here inspire me so much ill be ready to get into the heart of the game and be "oooh.. i love what he's doing there " and .. well. As for coding.. thing is if you volunteer as a coder youre coing to pretty much have to do their entire game.
As far as renpy. Its perfect for this genre which is why it's so successful. These are really create-your-own-adventure games. Renpy is literally perfect for that (i really didnt want to appreciate renpy).

For those who like a more gaming aspect.. Unity. It allows you to grind to "earn" a reward. And is more logical than renpy. A lot of renpy creators are REALLY fucking bad game designers (random events, no logical clear path ie game mechanic). and of course force their mental weirdness kinks on users... Unity gives people a path.

Rpgmaker.. eh.. ill be quiet. not a fan.

If any of you need help and arent some seriously disturbed person whos out to put out a .01 game to address your issues...

Id be happy to create unique daz models.. maybe scenes for you. Not going to render 200 images for you. Ill send you the dufs, models, morphs whatever and you do some posing and rendering. Ive seen quite a few games with shit, offputting art but brilliant writing and gameplay. Or absolutely generic models with hair and generic clothes tossed on. Id be proud to help you guys out. Even if it's only designing a fem for you. All i need is a description.

 

[recreation]

When youre done being a script kiddy pretending to be a programmer.. aka cancer.. id like to post something.

This was unnecessary and doesn't really put you in the best light. Everybody has their own opinion and one love this and the other hates this, so what's the point? Also this thread is a bit old. If you want to offer your skills, why don't you make your own thread?
Btw 200 render are barely enough for a 0.1 and I'm sorry to say that, but some morphs or models only won't help much in creating a good scene, there is way more to it and if someone can't do good models, he/she won't be able to do a good scene even if you give him/her good models.

 

[anne O'nymous]

When youre done being a script kiddy pretending to be a programmer.. aka cancer.. id like to post something.

You know, you didn't had to wait this long. I stopped being a script kiddy before the expression was first used ; probably even before your own birth. But be assured that I don't take offense of your need to impose yourself. I personally prefer to do this by the example, but I fully understand that some people need to belittle the other to feel like they are someone.