Ren'Py Do I need to be an artist?

[MarkosNZ]

Hey everyone,

I'd like to make a game but I have some questions.

1. Do I need to be an artist? I want to make hyper realistic games with complex animations like Betrayed or Being a dik
2. How powerful does my computer need to be? I have a very late model Macbook pro
3. Where do I start, Daz, Ren'Py, or somewhere else?
4. How do I make unique characters? I see the same characters being used in many games and I want mine to be unique

 

[Carpe Stultus]

1. Yes because without any skill your stuff will look like garbage.
2. A proper PC with a good Ryzen CPU, at least 16GB RAM and one of the newer Nvidia GPU's (2060 super has a very good price-performance ratio).
3. First you should learn your way around DAZ, when you learned your way around that you can start with Ren'Py.
4. Using Morphs is the key to make unique looking characters. There are plenty to choose from.

 

[79flavors]

1. Do I need to be an artist?

No.
You mention both Betrayed and Being a DIK. Both look to me like they were rendered with Daz3D.
There is some skill involved in that, but not much beyond figuring out a few basics.
Doing it REALLY well would require some artistic skills... poses, camera angles, lighting, etc. Even just knowing what props to add into the background can really make the difference between "okay" and "excellent". But there are lots of games out there created by people who know just enough to create a workable render. That could be you too.

Hell... Some really good games are written using Honey Select created scenes/images. Which requires a different degree of knowledge, but again not specifically artistic knowledge.

I want to make hyper realistic games with complex animations like Betrayed or Being a dik​

And if you already knew Daz or similar 3D rendering software (Blender for example)... I'd say go for it.
But it seems like you are just starting out... so perhaps set your sights a little lower.
"Complex animations"... a lot lower.

2. How powerful does my computer need to be? I have a very late model Macbook pro

That'll work.
I'm not sure of the specs of a MacBook Pro... but Daz3D specifically favors NVidia graphics cards. Without one, you're probably rendering using CPU only. That'll work... but it'll be a lot slower than with a supported graphics card doing all the heavy lifting.
Again, that's fine... just figure out how long "most" renders will take on average and plan your working week accordingly.

3. Where do I start, Daz, Ren'Py, or somewhere else?

My initial suggestion would be to just pick a game you already like... Something simple... No complex branching or impressive user interface... and try to create "similar" renders for the first 10-15 minutes of gameplay.
It'll take all the other decisions out of the equation for you. No need to worry about anything but learning the basics of Daz3D and where to find assets that you'll probably need for your own game.
It doesn't have to be identical. Use different models, different rooms, different hairstyles... basically, just grab any assets that will let you learn Daz. Google search some YouTube videos and off you go.
When you're happy enough with the results... Stitch them together with RenPy to learn a bit about how that works.

Then once you're over that hurdle... Start work on your own game.

Generally speaking RenPy is the easy bit. (I'm a programmer... so perhaps I'm biased).
A workable story is the next hardest.
Then learning Daz3D is where the majority of your work is going to be.
The very hardest thing though... is simply following through... week after week, month after month to deliver a real game.

The story is where your game will shine or fail. A good story with mediocre graphics will be better than a bad story with excellent graphics.

4. How do I make unique characters? I see the same characters being used in many games and I want mine to be unique

Depends on how unique.
You can do a lot to customize characters with the various sliders within Daz3D (morphs in particular).
Beyond that, you can mix and match assets. For example... this training video uses specific assets, but then swaps the eyes for the model for different ones, because the new eyes are better.
Truly unique means a lot of more advanced techniques... swapping skin textures for one example. Honestly, forget that until you start work on your second game.

I'm not trying to suggest you couldn't do it... But baby steps. Start small and work your way up. If you're capable of the really complex stuff... you'll get there. If you aim for the really complex stuff right at the beginning... chances are you won't.

 

[khumak]

Hey everyone,

I'd like to make a game but I have some questions.

1. Do I need to be an artist? I want to make hyper realistic games with complex animations like Betrayed or Being a dik
2. How powerful does my computer need to be? I have a very late model Macbook pro
3. Where do I start, Daz, Ren'Py, or somewhere else?
4. How do I make unique characters? I see the same characters being used in many games and I want mine to be unique

1. No. One of the great things about Daz and similar software is that you can use assets made by people who ARE artists and mix and match them to form whatever scene you want and then render. You don't have to be an artist yourself but you do need some skill at posing, lighting, etc and that takes practice.
2. Really depends on how much you have going on in your renders and how many renders you plan on doing. If you're making a game heavy on animations with lots of actors in the scene at once in rooms with mirrors and lots of lights, then get ready to open your wallet because you'll need a beast of a rig. If your scenes are going to be simpler and you're focusing more on still shots than animations then you can do some pretty decent renders with a low end system. It'll just take longer. VRAM is a big potential issue though for lower end hardware.
3. I would start with Daz and RenPy because both are free and easy to learn but there are other options. When I started working on my mod I had zero experience with Daz, zero programming experience, and I'm not even remotely artistic and it didn't take long to learn. I also have a low end system (crappy CPU and a GTX 1050Ti).
4. Most of this is just laziness. A lot of devs are just downloading a character they like and using it without any modifications. You can easily customize these models, swap skin textures, swap hairstyles, change body shape, make them older or younger, change facial features, give them implants, tatoos, scars, etc. There's just a lot of devs who don't bother to.

 

[Saki_Sliz]

looks like I missed all the fun! I love hearing myself talk
I guess I will just summarize, it all depends on howmuch you are willing to invest, both in yourself, your computer, and your project or projects.

You could start with just a text-based game to substitute most of the art, maybe get some art done by commissioning an artist (usually they don't do more than 6 per customer or in batches).

Then after that (it could just be a tech demo your first try) you move onto another project, experiment more, try something else, etc. Maybe you try to draw yourself, code yourself, decide to make a gaming computer, what ever happens in life. me and a few others have made many... projects but only the rare few of us push to making our work public and promoting a demo, and fewer yet actually get to say they finished their projects. but if its a pastion, you keep at it, and hopefully you learn every step of the way, become more comfortable, better understand yourself and the world, and maybe eventually publish a project

other than that, all the above advice looks pretty good

 

[MarkosNZ]

Thank you everyone for the advice I really appreciate it. I guess complex animations are the end goal and I just want to know how to get there.

Are there any tutorials that take you through the whole process of making a basic game?

 

[polywog]

 

[Saki_Sliz]

For 3D this

You must be registered to see the links

I think does a good job, going into detail (more than you ever need) but he is still working at it

For 2D or 2D like games, it is less step by step but more, dependant on your technique or art goals, it dictates how you design your game, and thus how you build it will be specific to your game. Though searching for how to implement game features, like a dialog system or animations do help.

 

[rb813]

Hell... Some really good games are written using Honey Select created scenes/images. Which requires a different degree of knowledge, but again not specifically artistic knowledge.

Can you tell me more about this? I feel like I've heard Honey Select mentioned before, but I never knew it had that kind of potential. Does the game facilitate recording images or scenes from it, or do you just have to do external screencaptures? What kind of variety of options does it have for the backgrounds of scenes? I'm in the very early stages of developing a game with a classroom setting, does Honey Select have good options for that? Can you give me some examples of games that use Honey Select images?

 

[79flavors]

Can you tell me more about this? I feel like I've heard Honey Select mentioned before, but I never knew it had that kind of potential. Does the game facilitate recording images or scenes from it, or do you just have to do external screencaptures? What kind of variety of options does it have for the backgrounds of scenes? I'm in the very early stages of developing a game with a classroom setting, does Honey Select have good options for that? Can you give me some examples of games that use Honey Select images?

Honestly, I don't know that much.
It's not something I've used.

What I do know is that the link I used has both Honey Select has a huge amount of addons/mods/dlc that add a shit ton of stuff to the package (apparently not all of it works, but anyone who thinks that's bad should demand their money back ).

If you do a search for RenPy games and sort them by weighted rating... you get a lot of Daz3D rendered games and the occasional hand drawn 2D style artwork... no surprise there. But in the top 15, you also get 2 other games... Mythic Manor and Waifu Academy. Both of those look to me to be done using Honey Select. A bit further down and you get Dark Magic and Ecchi Sensei too.

My guess (and it is a guess) is that none of that is actually rendered - I think it's a what-you-see-is-what-you-get solution. You just create/pose and then screenshot. Given the nature of the tool... I'm almost certain that the "screenshot" capability is part of Honey Select. The lower polygon nature of the models lead me to think it's just like Unreal or Unity - just place an actor within an environment and go from there.

My point was that whilst it produces noticeably less photo-realistic images... as long as the rest of your game is good enough... people won't care too much. And if that means you can do it with less time and less of a beast of a computer... maybe that lower realism can be made to work for you.

 

[Joraell]

Hey everyone,

I'd like to make a game but I have some questions.

1. Do I need to be an artist? I want to make hyper realistic games with complex animations like Betrayed or Being a dik
2. How powerful does my computer need to be? I have a very late model Macbook pro
3. Where do I start, Daz, Ren'Py, or somewhere else?
4. How do I make unique characters? I see the same characters being used in many games and I want mine to be unique

1/ Not really. Artist to me is guy making models/sculping Most DAZ users just morphs them and posing them. But for animations yes.. this is already a kind of art unles you using premade ones. I started with adult games because there is big audience, making adult games was not my goal at the start. I just wanted to make animations and needed audience. Maybe once I will reach some higher level will leave making games and will start with anything different, but not this time.
2/ For animations? Aaaj there is never enough power. For start you need at least one nvidia 8GB graphic card So 1070 and better. Later more is always better. Mac book is definitelly not good for start . They using AMD cards and HW is not much powerfull even at new models. Performance is low and price is high.
3/ I think DAZ is ideal. It is easy to learn and trying. It's good because you see instant results of your trying.
4/ By morphing. You can changing all character visage by changing morphs on them. But of course you know what to do because too much morphs means problems during animations and specially face expressions.

If you will have more questions you can contact me on discord Joraell#7163 or on my discord chanel :

You must be registered to see the links

Or here thru PM. If I will know, I can help you with start.

 

[recreation]

1/ Not really. Artist to me is guy making models/sculping Most DAZ users just morphs them and posing them.

I have to disagree with this one, at least partially.
A render is not only a posed and morphed character, it's a composition of a whole scene, a nice looking figure alone doesn't make a good scene. For a render to really look outstanding, everything has to fit, posing, light, background, composition, etc., expressing exactly what you want to express with a render, while achieving high quality is (at least for me) a form of art.

 

[Joraell]

I have to disagree with this one, at least partially.
A render is not only a posed and morphed character, it's a composition of a whole scene, a nice looking figure alone doesn't make a good scene. For a render to really look outstanding, everything has to fit, posing, light, background, composition, etc., expressing exactly what you want to express with a render, while achieving high quality is (at least for me) a form of art.

Yeah sure. But to be honest most of renders we see in adult games is just.... pictures to tell a story not a real art. Yes you can make the art, but that mostly happening just when you making wallpaper or something, cause making all renders for game in terms of art. Wow. I think this will take a while

 

[recreation]

Yeah sure. But to be honest most of renders we see in adult games is just.... pictures to tell a story not a real art. Yes you can make the art, but that mostly happening just when you making wallpaper or something, cause making all renders for game in terms of art. Wow. I think this will take a while

Absolutely true, that would push any update months behind^^

 

[polywog]

I have to disagree with this one, at least partially.
A render is not only a posed and morphed character, it's a composition of a whole scene, a nice looking figure alone doesn't make a good scene. For a render to really look outstanding, everything has to fit, posing, light, background, composition, etc., expressing exactly what you want to express with a render, while achieving high quality is (at least for me) a form of art.

Young Adolph Hitler wanted to go to art school, but the fascists that were running the country after WW1 told him He had to go to Architecture school instead, because his paintings (which are now worth millions) were too technical. Engineering is an art. Trolling is a art. Dancing is an art. Music is an art. Arranging furniture is an art. Sculpting is an art. Geometry is an art.

 

[Carpe Stultus]

Maybe i should've explained what an artist is for me when i wrote my post so i'm gonna do that now.

For me an artist is someone who knows his ways around daz and is able to set up scenes properly including a proper posing of characters and their hair, posing and usage of assets and he knows his ways around the different lighting options. In the end the scene has to look good and not just mediocre.

Sure we could say that the ones who make the assets for daz are the artists, but that wasn't what i had in mind when i wrote my answer.