Game development engine suggestions

[dracob9954]

So, I'm brand new to coding, and have been toying with making a text based, menu heavy, stat heavy, furry RPG, in the style of Corruption of Champions or Lilith's Throne. But, I'm not sure where the best part to start would be. Twine is too limiting, and Godot feels too expansive for a text rRPG like what I have in mind. The language I have the most experience in is Python, as it seems the most easily readable to me. As far as lore goes, I have been worldbuilding in this world for 13 years, so it's rather lore heavy.

Any suggestions for an engine or what have you would be a great help. Same with any tips or questions you might have for me.

 

[Winterfire]

Twine is too limiting? Where did you get that idea from?
This game: https://f95zone.to/threads/love-and-corruption-v0-4-7-public-airell.86091/ seems pretty close to what you're describing, and it's made with Twine.

And Godot is too expensive for a text RPG? What? You're not making sense. You can make a Text RPG with Unity and Godot just fine. It has been done before: https://f95zone.to/sam/latest_alpha/#/cat=games/page=1/tags=522/prefixes=3/sort=rating and it's a perfect choice, especially if you have experience with either one of them.

However, if you have experience in Python, you might want to consider using Ren'Py instead:
https://f95zone.to/threads/tsntrtxtadv-v1-0-plastic-boy.54210/
https://f95zone.to/threads/gameover-v25-11-01-cheats-azulookami-black-cat-studios.100186/
https://f95zone.to/threads/the-city-of-primal-desires-v0-1-3-uncle-artie.168129/
https://f95zone.to/threads/lab-rats-2-v0-51-1-vren.7260/

I'd say generally any engine will do, text based games are extremely simple. It's really all up to you, and what you can do.
The only "expansive" engine I can think of is Unreal, and only because you'd need to take the time to disable a lot of packages that would be useless to you. Not the case for Godot or Unity.

 

[Count Morado]

So, I'm brand new to coding, and have been toying with making a text based, menu heavy, stat heavy, furry RPG, in the style of Corruption of Champions or Lilith's Throne. But, I'm not sure where the best part to start would be. Twine is too limiting, and Godot feels too expansive for a text rRPG like what I have in mind. The language I have the most experience in is Python, as it seems the most easily readable to me. As far as lore goes, I have been worldbuilding in this world for 13 years, so it's rather lore heavy.

Any suggestions for an engine or what have you would be a great help. Same with any tips or questions you might have for me.

What Winterfire said -- and --- Go play around with different ones. Go download anything free or free-trial and play around. Do a tutorial on each to see how you like working within each one. Build a small little game (one scene) in each with place holder images and simple text, options, and a couple of the features you would like include in anything you want to design in the future. And, in the end - if your experience in Python still remains a major factor after trying different engines, then yeah - Ren'Py is probably going to be your choice.

You might find you like Ren'Py because of your Python experience but a different engine for some other reason and you can't make a decision because of some factors you aren't sure either Ren'Py or another engine might have more sensible/effective/efficient/familiar opportunities to explore. Rather than simply ask for suggestions without trying them out - go try things for yourself and come back with specific questions about your finalists in your choice of which direction you want to go.

If you've been worldbuilding for 13 years --- playing around with different engines for a couple of months to get a better understanding of what might work best for you seems like a good use of time.