Another wannabe creator

[SciGuy]

I've got a couple of game ideas, and wanna start seeing if I can put it all together. I know I want lots of animation and plan to do this with HoneySelect. All my female toons are originals. The male characters aren't really a focus in the game but I'm working on making him look a LITTLE different anyway.
What I'm HOPING to pull off is a sandbox type game. I'll start by tracking a few stats - just enough to keep the game interesting as I learn how to put the damn thing together.
That's where I stand right now. What I need is some advice!
I like the way both 'SuperPowered' and 'Holiday Island' track stats and the MC improves his interactions with each NPC individually. Both those games uses Ren'Py, so that's what I plan to use also. There's a TON of info on how to learn Ren'Py - so much in fact I don't even know where to start. What's the best path to follow as I start putting something together?
ANY advice would be much appreciated. I know where I wanna end up, but have no idea how to get there right now!

 

[Quonix]

Make the introduction story->Make the rooms->Make the gui elements->Start writing code for the menus and buttons to work the way you want them to, whenever you don't know how to do something, look it up on google and don't give up until you find a way to make it work.

 

[whiskeyrose]

I've got a couple of game ideas, and wanna start seeing if I can put it all together. I know I want lots of animation and plan to do this with HoneySelect. All my female toons are originals. The male characters aren't really a focus in the game but I'm working on making him look a LITTLE different anyway.
What I'm HOPING to pull off is a sandbox type game. I'll start by tracking a few stats - just enough to keep the game interesting as I learn how to put the damn thing together.
That's where I stand right now. What I need is some advice!
I like the way both 'SuperPowered' and 'Holiday Island' track stats and the MC improves his interactions with each NPC individually. Both those games uses Ren'Py, so that's what I plan to use also. There's a TON of info on how to learn Ren'Py - so much in fact I don't even know where to start. What's the best path to follow as I start putting something together?
ANY advice would be much appreciated. I know where I wanna end up, but have no idea how to get there right now!

When you download Renpy it has a little tutorial involved, including an example project (Called the letter...or something I forget). Open up the example project and look at the code, it'll be an example of how to do the basic stuff. You can google examples to look off of for other things. Things are easier if you have any programming experience, even basic high school courses on how the very basics of programming languages/logic works.

If you're still struggling with Renpy, give Twine a spin. It's stupid easy and nice for getting your feet wet to make a project.

My advice if this is your first project, is to start small. Making grand plans (IE: having the first plan include 20+ characters each with their own paths) usually ends up with you burned out. Start small, make one path with simple concepts. Once you have a working path you can always add to it or modify it later. I personally like to map out a full path/system with placeholder text and images (Renpy does this automatically if you use an undefined image). Once I can play the game and the path works I'll go back and add the images/dialogue, because thats gonna be the real drain on you.

Good luck.

 

[SciGuy]

Thanks for the feedback. I just installed both Ren'Py and Twine, and will start digging into them either later tonight or tomorrow.
Definitely starting small with a 3 rm house (BR, LR, KIT), place of work, and an 1 rm outbuilding. The MC has inherited an old farmhouse and business from a deceased uncle he never really knew. He moves 30 mi out of town and commutes back to the city to run his newly-acquired electronics repair shop. I'm thinking 2 or 3 female employees in their 20's, but average looking nerdy types on a good day. While cleaning up the back yard he discovers a trap door to a bomb shelter. WTF was his crazy old uncle into anyway? What he finds and what he does with it will be the game.
As I get things figured out with Ren'Py, the town can develop and the 'bunker' can become more and more functional.
I plan to do all animations with HoneySelect. I THINK I can keep each file size small if I use very short clips playing in a loop. Scene transitions might get larger depending on what's going on, but I'll worry about THAT when I start recording and editing the videos. For now I'll just use still images as placeholders.
With that as a target starting point, what loopholes do I need to watch for?

 

[Gomly1980]

Don't start with a massive stat tracking open world game. You will end up with a coding nightmare if you are new to it.

Start smaller. Make a couple of short VN's to get used to it and then build up once you are confident.

If you are doing it to try and chase the money you won't do it by making a buggy mess people will rage over.

By all means push yourself but it's no good to anyone if you try and do more than you are ready for. You'll get frustrated, your player base will get frustrated and you will never get off the ground.

 

[SciGuy]

I'm not doing this for the money - I'm a bored old guy with too much time on my hands! Maybe down the road --
Starting with a VN sounds like a smart move. Maybe a backstory to the game that introduces the characters in a short-ish VN. I need the practice working with HS anyway. It'll give me a chance to 'fatten up' and nerdify the female characters I'll be starting with. It's been a couple of years since I fooled with that game anyway.
Thanks again for the pointers!

 

[Jai Ho]

Maybe a short story about getting the store in town, hiring the workers, and maybe a night on the town or two to introduce some characters? A short intro to practice and end with the news that Uncle died, leading you into the main story. Hey... how about that UPS parts delivery gal - she's a looker! Just a thot.

 

[SciGuy]

My earlier issues with Ren'Py must have been a bad copy of the game engine. It was switching to Russian, and some of the buttons were completely missing. I seem to have things moving in my direction now, similar to the results you get when herding feral cats. Here's the 2 problems I'm having right now.
First, when I start my game the background is blank until I actually hit the START button. I'd like to have all the disclaimers come up right away with some BG music before starting the game.
Second, I want to stack, fade, and move images with a transparent background on top of the BG image to talk the player through the game intro. I've trimmed a pic and saved it as a png, but I don't think Ren'Py can use that extension. Is there any way to open an image with a transparent background? I could make new images for each scene change, but it'd use less resources if I can layer images.

 

[thecardinal]

I don't mean to shill my game, but I think my game has what you are looking for. Layered images? So characters change but background stays the same?

 

[SciGuy]

I think my game has what you are looking for. Layered images? So characters change but background stays the same?

Thanks CarnalCardinal - I'm making progress with Ren'Py little by little. Looking inside working games has been a ton of help!

My system has thrown up a HUGE roadblock now tho. I don't have enough memory to work with DAZ. I'm using photos to create my chars - Remove them from the BG, save as PNG's in the RIGHT PLACE (lol) and I'm golden.

What I need to do now is display video clips within the game. I can't seem to locate any info on how to do this though. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Is it even possible?

This game's gonna happen, but it's a long way off.
The player buys an old farm. Previous owner got rich AF very quickly and moved to the city with a harem of hotties. The player finds some messages from "Carly" in a drawer. She's a stripper at "The Foxy Lady". He tracks her down and gets MOST of the story from her.
Carly was the prev owner's sister. He played classic rock on his guitar as a hobby. Just for kicks he performed at open mic nights around town. He grew popular and turned his barn into a place to throw after-parties where he'd play and Carly would bring people after work. As business grew the parties became exclusive and Carly was ignored. Barn was turned into full blown club complete with cover charge and a bouncer. SOMETHING happened when the bouncer was added. Old owner became crazy popular with women and left. Carly will help you - she's PISSED her bro left her behind. She wants to track him down and burn his sorry ass to the ground!
The player has to figure out what caused the dramatic change in NPC attitude and duplicate it. How far does he want to push the NPC's, and how many fetishes does each one have locked away?

 

[SciGuy]

It's become clear that Ren'Py isn't gonna do what I want. SOO - I'm back to square 1 with a switch to Unity. If I'm gonna learn coding I might as well do it on a platform capable of doing what I need it to!
Consider this thread closed. When I have Unity Q's, I'll start a new one.