Game Development - Budget Start

[aggin23]

Hey y'all, hope you are doing great!

I wanted to start developing adult games for a long time, unfortunately, I don't have any budget and my laptop is quite old.
Do you have any recommendations on where I could start, without a need for buying any new hardware?
I tried daz3d connected to a render farm, but setting a scene takes a long time and it's extremely laggy.
Is there any other software that could run on an old HP workstation? Or should I start with photoshop and 2d scenes?
I would appreciate any help.

 

[Winterfire]

If you can draw, then by all means go for 2D.
Many people love 2D and it is surely way more unique than yet another DAZ game.

Otherwise opt for real time 3D, something like Honey Select and Koikatu.

 

[aggin23]

If you can draw, then by all means go for 2D.

Unfortunately, I can't really draw and I really enjoy playing games created with RenPy and rendered scenes, so I thought about creating one myself, not really a fan of real-time 3D. As I thought, can't really do much without a good PC,
on the other hand, I am an experienced photo manipulator/retoucher and had an idea about making the scenes in photoshop from real-life photos and then changing them into a more cartoonish style.
Do you think that this could work or is this just a stupid idea?

 

[Winterfire]

Unfortunately, I can't really draw and I really enjoy playing games created with RenPy and rendered scenes, so I thought about creating one myself, not really a fan of real-time 3D. As I thought, can't really do much without a good PC,
on the other hand, I am an experienced photo manipulator/retoucher and had an idea about making the scenes in photoshop from real-life photos and then changing them into a more cartoonish style.
Do you think that this could work or is this just a stupid idea?

Rarely an idea is stupid, it depends on how it is executed.
Using real life pics in games is something that has been done multiple times, even Good Girl Gone Bad uses tracing over real life pictures, and it is a fairly popular game.

It can work, given that you'll put enough effort into it.

 

[Alcahest]

Unfortunately, I can't really draw and I really enjoy playing games created with RenPy and rendered scenes, so I thought about creating one myself, not really a fan of real-time 3D. As I thought, can't really do much without a good PC,
on the other hand, I am an experienced photo manipulator/retoucher and had an idea about making the scenes in photoshop from real-life photos and then changing them into a more cartoonish style.
Do you think that this could work or is this just a stupid idea?

To be clear, in case you misunderstood: when he said real-time 3D, he didn't mean that the player would be playing in 3D. He meant creating the "renders" by taking screenshots in HoneySelect or Koikatu.

 

[Winterfire]

Yeah, my point is that rendering on an old machine is either a process that takes many hours or something that fails entirely.
Whereas with real time 3d games (Koikatu, Honey select, or even Skyrim) you can create a scene while running the game with the lowest settings possible, then once the scene is ready and you want to take a screenshot, you can put the maximum settings or even mod the hell out of it... It may run at 1 fps, but that won't matter since you'll be just grabbing a screenshot.

 

[rk-47]

2d is better if your gear is old or not powerful enough, 3d is possible but will take extremely long to render etc. So if you really want 3d in your game then id get a workstation with a very powerful cpu/gpu/ram and stick with it, but nothing wrong with going for 2d on your current rig

 

[Doorknob22]

I didn't try it, but maybe you can still try daz but genesis 2 only. It's going to be ridiculously cheap and it will be a great way for you to practice and focus on your creativity instead of perfect renders. If you create an awesome game with subpar renders, you will attract some backers who will love your game despite somewhat less attractive renders and hopefully, over time, earn enough money to upgrade.

 

[aggin23]

Thank you for all the replies, you definitely gave me some good ideas. Really appreciate that! Sims 4 seem like a good game to start.
I still got one question tho. Let's say I made a game using renders from moded Skyrim, is there any chance I will run into some legal problems?