First Game Advice

[kgirlffx]

I have a concept and story and a willingness to learn to make a game. I am struggling on a few key choices starting out that I would appreciate feedback on.


1. Mechanics/Complexity:

Conventional wisdom tells me I should make a very simple VN-style game for my first development. That would not be too hard, the story I want to tell can be done this way, and the project will be much easy.

BUT, that's not quite the game I want to make. I want play elements. Character movement, stealth, sprites, maybe even an isometric view for a 'roaming section' of the game while all the main storytelling is in cutscenes.

My gut tells me this is too much to start though. I keep going back and forth on it. I'm struggling with what I want to make, and what I think I can actually do.

What do you all think?

2. Engine:

This is somewhat related to question 1. What engine should I use? Renpy would be the easiest. But, it blocks off many possibilities of more advanced mechanics without a lot of working around the limits of the engine to do them. On the other hand, using Unity with a VN extension would offer me the possibility of adding more gameplay mechanics later without having to redo much. Unity would be harder to learn though.

So I am wondering, for a first game, go with what is easier, Ren'py, or go in on Unity, even if only doing a VN, so that I can someday add the elements I may want? I am also wondering if RPG-Maker may be a good mix, but I generally am bias against it due to the many, many terrible games I've played in this engine.


Any thoughts on this for first-time devs would be appreciated.


For context:


The game I want to make - Is an adventure-style NTR game with movement in an isometric map, with sprite or Daz aniblock animated characters, that then fades to static Daz-modeled cutscenes for more in-depth storytelling and scenes. I will have stat tracking with corruption mechanics, and protagonist stats, such as money, to buy items needed to unlock scenes, and ability scores for the same reason.


What my guts tells me I should make:

A standard VN with Daz-3d static scenes with the same stat tracking as mentioned above. No live movement, no isometric, no adventuregameplay.

 

[ZorasSon]

1. I think it depends on what skill set you already have. Are you already an artist? Or draw as a hobby? What about programming?
Personally, if you're an artist yourself and know some basic programming I don't think an isometric-style game would be too hard, but It depends on how much time you have. I'm not sure I understood exactly what kind of game you want to make but It kinda reminds me of this https://f95zone.to/threads/memoirs-of-a-battle-brothel-v0-15-a-memory-of-eternity.47258/

Maybe it can serve as inspiration for what you can do if you go through that route?

The reason a lot of people start with renpy and 3D models made in games is that it is easy and simple for non-artists/programmers. After that, you usually see programmers do text-based games with commissioned art and artists that either do renpy or rpgmaker.

Based on that, if you don't have enough money to commission sprites/art, I would give up the idea of the isometric adventure game for now unless you can draw yourself or figure out an interesting style/concept (3D rendering? idk).

2. I never used Renpy myself, but I did use pygame (which apparently you can "kinda" use with renpy). But like you said, it's probably easier to start on unity if you plan to add something else later on. Renpy latest stable version is still using Python 2.X and pygame takes a little bit of time to learn.

However, I don't think Unity (and other engines like Unreal) are "harder" to learn. They are heavier but both have visual scripting that makes things way easier for a first-timer (than using C# or C++). Within ~8-12 hours, you can probably both learn Unity and have a prototype of the systems you want in your game.

There's a lot of good RPGMaker games out there (both mature and not). A lot of the bad ones though don't even try to make anything new or use any plugins. There's a lot of cool stuff you can do but I don't even know a fraction of it, so I'll just leave a link that you can take a look on some plugins to use:

You must be registered to see the links

 

[Deleted member 4637854]

i think you should try doing an immersive sim. like deus ex but that robot chick has a dick

 

[anne O'nymous]

My gut tells me this is too much to start though.

Unless you have experience on codding and working on big project, your gut are right. ; you start by learning how to walk before learning how to win an Olympic sprint.

Renpy would be the easiest. But, it blocks off many possibilities of more advanced mechanics without a lot of working around the limits of the engine to do them.

There's nothing in what you said that can't be done with Ren'Py, and no real need to effectively work around it's limits. After all, Sakura Dungeon is 6 years old now, and have old school 3D (wolfenstein-like ones) dungeons.
Ren'Py evolved a lot since then, making many things relatively easier to be done now. I say "relatively" because it still need some learning, but you don't anymore have to go over the default behavior of the engine. So, doing isometric maps is totally possible, there's even some tutorials regarding this ;

You must be registered to see the links

by example.

 

[Jofur]

As someone who has done a few big game projects that eventually gets scrapped after months/years of work. Start small. Learning how to plan and finish a game is a skill of it's own that is worth it's weight in gold.

If you do want to go ahead and make it anyway. Sounds to me RPG Maker is the engine for you.
I would only learn Unity if you are interested in game development as a hobby and are willing to spend a few months learning C#.

 

[cisco_donovan]

Yep, start small!

Even better, don't think about making a full game. Try a prototype in one engine. See how it goes for maybe a month. Then start a new prototype, a new engine.

And I don't even mean a demo, I mean a prototype. Maybe you can release it if you really want, but that's not the aim.

Whenever you see two paths, take the simplest one.