Looks like the OP will get anything but what he initially asked for.
It was said that he did already once what hes now planning todo again.
It just seems for most of us a bit impossible to pull of to make a vn for 7k if there is only producer work included.
Some budgets here mentioned im not sure of as i would say the majoriy of the workload is on art.
Im a programmer and there really isnt much behind vns regarding logic from my point of view.
Things would be diffrent when it comes to sandboxes as those can get sideeffects when one is not careful about triggers. So there is much more to keep track of and ways to fuck up.
Calling some image and texts in order, with simple if else or switched based logic at best and adding to counters for lovepoints and stuff is kinda hardly worth calling programming nor calls for a real coder. Its more a slave job and something i would give some helper or trainee for 10 bucks an hour as this is minimum wage level work, after i trained him in 2 hours the basics of pasting images and code.
You could even do this with basic html as it has nearly no logic in it and html isnt a programming language .. this in itself proves the point completly. Just saying if anyone is trying to denie that and wanna look bad fine but thats just a fact. HTML btw is a mark up language and contains no real logic therefor its not a programming language. Hard to believe but there are people out ther that can figure even that one out.
And i have to admit that for minimum wage i personnaly rather work something even more braindead, as that has often other added values. Free beer and possbiel loose woman working at a bar, free food at restaurant plus tips and even at mc d u get at least burgers for free even as much as u can eat when u get the late shift. Otr u drive by and know the girl that takes the order and order a coke and get a deluxe with all u can eat for free. I did all of that a long fucking time ago.
So 1500 a month for a helper to paste images and text is way overshooting costs here.
You wont even have enough images produced as most projects produce not more than 10 images a workday when rendered and i think even less when painted by hand.
So there cant be much need of a programmer in a basic VN even if it were more complicated and would require a higher skill set. The only thing that makes all of this special is kinda the boner problem isnt it. So most would this probably alone or you have to get filters setup for images and stuff to a decent working enviroment. Its also a tainted job so that may add to because you cant put that in you resumee and is therefor lost time or even negative if done official and fulltime.
Also the producer or writer have to clear up what should when happen what should be upped and what face to be shown and all of that which kinda could take so long to write down that one could just do that themself in that time.
Using daz is in itself not much diffrent regarding skill level or brainpower needed, takes just a bit more time to get into and the basics down. Most of it is clicked together some morph tweaked and some slider adjusted. One just has to know whats what and what to buy from daz. thats the real skill imo
thats where u save money if you go full legal and thats where u decide what the game characters look like and settings and all of that.
Posing characters then later isnt the big deal. Those can either also bought and them a bit tweaked and then you need some tests and tweaks for good render results.
Learning zbrush would NOT be my first choice and im sure 99% of all devs here dont have a clue about doing any real 3d modelling or sculpting or painting. Would be nice but isnt the case. Most do at best some skin retouching ore and some effects or filters on post work.
I myself am into Blender. Its cheaper can mostly do what zbrush can and sculpting and modelling can be fun. Tutorials are massive on yt and one can get even longer courses on udemy.
Retopology tho isnt that much fun.
And texturing is kinda its own world of problems and knowledge and tools.
Anyway zbrush would be the last thing i would start with. People that use zbrush will also take more money as they use a tool that costs money.
I would start with blender as it cost nothing and people that are using it can also not tell u they have a base costs due to using zbrush and are specially trained.
One can take genesis 8 base character meshes and import them into blender resculpt them and import them back as original characters or as morphs tp be a sub character of genesis which makes sense since then you can do the clothing change and all that timesaving stuff that is in my skillset but its not really necessary and i havent done it since i once exercised that for gain of knowledge.
Thats all legal as long as you dont sell the basemesh or use it in a 3d realtime game without her extended realtime license.. Which can be bought at sale times for 10 or 20 bucks.
I personally go for the extra hard route which is make everything custom as in sculpt character and model assets and stay in Blender. That cost the least but takes the most time and isnt good for normal porngame production. But it has the plus that its unique and noone can copy your shit with afew clicks. A lot of daz works are just asset flips imo not that it isnt fappable porn but its not really what i would call art.
If im completly off base in my assumptions please let me know im not flawless and open to learn from mistakes or misconceptions.
