Help a sister out

[NadiaFoxfire]

Hey guys, I am a programmer & a gamer and I wanted to try to make a game.
I have done serious game development in Unity but I see that lots of people are using Renpy and RPG maker.
What do you think the pros and cons are with the program you use?
I am a developer, not an artist, so my biggest issue will probably be art, I only know of Honey select for this, are there any alternatives?

 

[GNVE]

Well what drew me to RenPy was the ease with which you can make a basic VN as a total noob. Even with zero prior coding experience you will be able to throw together a VN with relative ease. This is both to how little coding one needs to make the most basic VN and the beginner friendliness of Python.
What I also like is that since RenPy is geared to VN style games it has a lot of functions needed for a VN incorporated out of the box (navigation, transisitions, text boxes, easy saving, saves shared between versions of the game etc.)

I don't know all that much about RPGM. I actively dislike playing games in RPGM though. Controls are very counter intuitive to me and most games made in RPGM would benefit from ditching the open world (This is true of many RenPy games as well but it usually grates slightly less.

The most used alternative to Honey Select is

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. I personally prefer Daz3D. This due to Honey Select games feeling even more one a dozen than Daz3D games. Most games have very similar models, clothing items and backgrounds and while that isn't untrue for Daz3D games either in skilled hands (or mine apparently) you can get away from that and get a unique feeling game. I suspect though that Honey Select might be easier to get some renders out (but I haven't tried it).

 

[I'm Not Thea Lundgren!]

The engine you use depends mostly on the type of game you're developing.
The three most common engines are Ren'Py, RPGM & Unity.

Ren'Py is most suited to visual novel type games
RPGM is most suited to RPG games
Unity is most suited to point and click type adventure games

All three engines can be used for pretty much any type of game though depending on your coding skill level.

 

[recreation]

Lot's of games here come from people with absolutely zero developement experience, so easy to use programs are naturally the first choice if you don't have the experience. Both programs are easy and good enough for what they are designed for, but if you're experienced in unity (and you do not plan to do a VN) then there is no reason to not use it.

Honey Select is slightly easier to use and you do not render, but take screenshots, Daz3D looks of course a lot better, but you'll need to render your images which can take a lot of time, but it's easy to create good looking unique chars and scenes.

Unity is most suited to point and click type adventure games

I tend to disagree here, unity is a jack of all traits, but it's mostly suited for realtime 3d games, it's just not used for it as much in the adult game area.

 

[I'm Not Thea Lundgren!]

...

I tend to disagree here, unity is a jack of all traits, but it's mostly suited for realtime 3d games, it's just not used for it as much in the adult game area.

That's the only thing I've seen it used for apart from VNs.c

 

[recreation]

That's the only thing I've seen it used for apart from VNs.c

You should think about playing some other games from time to time, not only adult games
But seriously, Unity is a fully fledged gaming engine used for AAA (or let's say AA) games like Unreal engine. It's just more commonly used by indy devs because it was free looooong time before Unreal took that step.

 

[Steve Carter]

I think if you're going to be making minigames or have some kind of game mechanic in your games then Unity is the way to go. Guys like The Architect who made the Hack n' Stalk games use Unity for its intended purpose. If you're a programmer and don't intend to have much in the way of minigames then Ren'py is absolutely the way to go for you, just because it is specifically designed to make visual novels. Even if you are a programmer do yourself a favor and download

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for Ren'py.

In terms or art, Honey Select is good but you'll probably find a lot more tutorials online on Youtube for

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that will help you get started. Our Art Asset thread on this site will also have lots of free assets for you to play around with until you get everything figured out and decide what you need to buy and what you don't. Expect to spend a few months fiddling with Daz until you get the basics down and can finally make something presentable (and another month or so figuring out photoshop for your post production).

Also if you're a total newb to art, do a bit of research on basic art and photography. For Daz (as for most art),

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is key, so know your way around a three point lighting system at the bare minimum. You should also know the

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in particular and

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in general. All this should give you a good base to work with then lots of people here will be more than happy to help you out with specific issues.

 

[I'm Not Thea Lundgren!]

You should think about playing some other games from time to time, not only adult games
But seriously, Unity is a fully fledged gaming engine used for AAA (or let's say AA) games like Unreal engine. It's just more commonly used by indy devs because it was free looooong time before Unreal took that step.

There are games that aren't adult???

 

[anne O'nymous]

There are games that aren't adult???

I once heard about a game named "pong", perhaps it's what recreation meant ?

 

[NadiaFoxfire]

Thank you so much for the replies guys!
A lot of useful information
This is going to be a difficult choice!
I am going to check out Daz studios at least and see what it's about.
I am a professional software engineer and did a lot of game development throughout my studies, I even attended a few expos with the games I made with my friends, so game development with unity would not be an issue, but I don't want to jump overboard and spend months developing something if people don't care if it's made in unity or rpg maker
I've played a lot of games but adult games are kind of new to me. I would like to try some to help me narrow down what I want to make.
Do you guys have any recommendations of some games that touch different genres?

 

[NadiaFoxfire]

Also if you're a total newb to art, do a bit of research on basic art and photography. For Daz (as for most art),

You must be registered to see the links

is key, so know your way around a three point lighting system at the bare minimum. You should also know the

You must be registered to see the links

in particular and

You must be registered to see the links

in general. All this should give you a good base to work with then lots of people here will be more than happy to help you out with specific issues.

Great advice, thank you very much! I'll check those out and learn more about it

 

[I'm Not Thea Lundgren!]

Thank you so much for the replies guys!
A lot of useful information
This is going to be a difficult choice!
I am going to check out Daz studios at least and see what it's about.
I am a professional software engineer and did a lot of game development throughout my studies, I even attended a few expos with the games I made with my friends, so game development with unity would not be an issue, but I don't want to jump overboard and spend months developing something if people don't care if it's made in unity or rpg maker
I've played a lot of games but adult games are kind of new to me. I would like to try some to help me narrow down what I want to make.
Do you guys have any recommendations of some games that touch different genres?

What are your tastes?

A few good Unity games are Man of the House, Mystwood Manor (both by Faerin) & Pleasure Thieves.
Ren'Py games are Where The Heart Is, Heavy Five & Sisterly Lust.
I've tried to give you a wide range of genres and styles.

 

[Praisejesus]

Great advice, thank you very much! I'll check those out and learn more about it

Lurker here.

What are you trying to create?That is the most important question you can ask yourself!

create a layout of what you want and decide what engine best suits your skill sets and needs, after that figure out which engine is capable of meeting your requirements IE you can create a 3d platformer in RPGmaker and a basic shooter in RenPY but it’s up to you to utilize those skills and understand your own limits within each engine

as far as models?

Daz3d: prices can add up, creating something that isn’t dead eyed takes effort

Honey select: looks like every other honey select game, not very unique

Fuse: free basic character creator, limited options

Vroid Studio: anime character creator, use this over honey select, little more effort but something you can call your own

And as far as playing anything? depends on what you are trying to create, figure out other works come close to what you want and break them down and pick them apart to see how they function.
And if you cant decide on what to play, layout what you want to create and people on here should be able to point you in the right direction

 

[anne O'nymous]

Do you guys have any recommendations of some games that touch different genres?

Like already said, it mostly depend of what kind of game you intend to do. And to that I would had the time you have to works on your game.

With Unity, you'll have to do a lot of codding since by default it only offer you primitives that you'll have to combine in order to make your game. But there's frameworks available. None will match exactly what you want to do, but they will limit the works you've to do.
With RPGMaker, it's the opposite. It offer you the combination of primitives, but almost no primitives. It make it the most limited engine of the three. You can still extend it, but you have to fight against the engine for this. On a side note, it's also the less liked of the three engines.
With Ren'py, you are between the two others. It offer you combination of primitives, but while letting you access to the primitives if you want. Therefore, there's less works to do, as long as you don't want to make a too impressive game. Else, you'll have more or less as much works than with Unity, without the professional quality of the later.

So, yes, it all depend of what you want to do and how many time you have for it.
Making a game is a really long process, and it will take all of your free time. Therefore, if you want to make a game that can be done with Ren'py, you should probably prefer it, it will save you a lot of times. Else, goes for Unity, it will be the engine that offer the most.

 

[Droid Productions]

As a programmer, doing a small game in RenPy first is actually not a bad investment. I use Unity, but I certainly see a lot that I respect in RenPy, and there's a ton of Quality of Life stuff in it that you would benefit from understanding.

I also did a game in HS first, followed by one using DAZ; it's definitely a bigger task, and you'll spend a lot of time tweaking and re-rendering. If you don't have a recent generation Nvidia card, it's more or less a no-go. Having said that, it avoids the legal gray area, and gives you a much greater amount of control.

 

[DoctorPervic]

What are your fetishes or sexual likes?

I find that the absolute best way to make adult games is to make a game that you are passionate about that excites you. If it does not excite you and you are only making it for money purposes, people will feel it and you will fail. I am talking from experience here, in art anyways. Im a 3D artist and in my field of work, if I dont like what Im creating it hardly sells. but If I create something that inspires me and that I genuinely enjoy creating, I think your passion and love for what ever you create comes through and people feel it and want a part of it and so it becomes a success.

So when creating a game, try and make something that you enjoy. Just my 2 cents.