Interested in game development with no experience.

[DillyDubzee]

Hey Everyone,

I’ve recently started taking up pixel art as a hobby and naturally due to my interest in games I’ve started having ideas of developing my own games.

I wanna make something like My Slave Brother, Monster Black Market, Black Market and Marionette mixed with a similar gameplay style to Fire Emblem eventually (this may be ambitious for a first time project so I might start with something small first).

so my question is what would be a good game engine to start looking into, one that would be good for this kinda game style? What scripting languages would I learn? Etc.

Any help or direction would be greatly appreciated as I have close to no idea what I’m doing. I have some experience with coding websites but I imagine that doesn’t cross over much.

TL/DR: Want to make a brother management game mixed with Fire Emblem style gameplay but have no idea where to start.

 

[Winterfire]

Ren'Py can do that, you'd need to learn python

 

[clowns234]

TL/DR: Want to make a brother management game mixed with Fire Emblem style gameplay but have no idea where to start.

Ren'Py can do that, you'd need to learn python

I'd start with just renpy.
Reverse engineering other people's games is a great way to learn. The rpy files can be opened with any text editor. Check out a few games, as some are much more complex than others. The tutorials that come with Ren'py Launcher would be where I would start.

 

[MidnightArrow]

Don't use Ren'py. It's okay for simple RPGs but if you want to do complex RPGs you'll run into a brick wall if you try and do it in a visual novel engine.

Use Godot instead. It handles 2d topdown RPG stuff much better, and it's not bad at visual novel stuff either with its built-in GUI. It also has a built-in code editor with a custom Python dialect called GDScript.

 

[DillyDubzee]

Thank you everyone, Ill look into all those suggestions and decide which route I wanna take after a bit of research.

 

[zilkin]

Hey Everyone,

I’ve recently started taking up pixel art as a hobby and naturally due to my interest in games I’ve started having ideas of developing my own games.

I wanna make something like My Slave Brother, Monster Black Market, Black Market and Marionette mixed with a similar gameplay style to Fire Emblem eventually (this may be ambitious for a first time project so I might start with something small first).

so my question is what would be a good game engine to start looking into, one that would be good for this kinda game style? What scripting languages would I learn? Etc.

Any help or direction would be greatly appreciated as I have close to no idea what I’m doing. I have some experience with coding websites but I imagine that doesn’t cross over much.

TL/DR: Want to make a brother management game mixed with Fire Emblem style gameplay but have no idea where to start.

I use Unity. There are a lot of tutorials online on how to make pixel art games using Unity and it is simple to use. You can also copy code and use it that way. The way it works is you asign each game object a code script to make it do what you want it to do. You can drag your pixel art directly into your game window and then in the menu assign them different scripts. However it will take you around a month to get good with it and to get used to it.

 

[Winterfire]

However it will take you around a month to get good with it and to get used to it.

 

[MidnightArrow]

I use Unity. There are a lot of tutorials online on how to make pixel art games using Unity and it is simple to use. You can also copy code and use it that way. The way it works is you asign each game object a code script to make it do what you want it to do. You can drag your pixel art directly into your game window and then in the menu assign them different scripts. However it will take you around a month to get good with it and to get used to it.

And while you're getting good, Unity's spyware will be sure to follow you every step of the way and send you some encouraging emails.

 

[DillyDubzee]

And while you're getting good, Unity's spyware will be sure to follow you every step of the way and send you some encouraging emails.

What you said seems pretty self-explanatory but would be able to elaborate more on you're dislike of Unity just cause I want hear more about it from various people, thanks

 

[MidnightArrow]

What you said seems pretty self-explanatory but would be able to elaborate more on you're dislike of Unity just cause I want hear more about it from various people, thanks

If you're on the free tier you can't opt out of "telemetry", which is what they call sending usage data. There was an incident where they sent emails saying "You left the Unity editor open but didn't do anything, how can we help you?" and when they were called out they backpedaled and said it was a "test program sent out by mistake". And a few months ago they bought out and merged with a notorious malware company.

There's ways to scrub the spyware out of Unity (I think) but I just use Godot so I don't have to. Godot may not be as cutting-edge but it's MIT licensed and open source, so you know exactly what you're getting. It's 3d side is underdeveloped (right now) but for a 2d game with sprites like Fire Emblem it's fine.

Ren'py is also open source and MIT licensed, but its convoluted architecture is too inflexible for anything more than visual novels with simple GUI interactions/minigames. You'd have to program everything yourself with CDDs using Python and it's a pain in the ass.

 

[Tompte]

Fear of malware is not a very good reason to discard Unity. It doesn't contain any malware. If you really believe that stuff then why don't you download a legacy version from before the merge? As with every company, they disclose what data they collect in their

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. I'm a privacy advocate and I always read them. Also, you can totally opt out from data collection as a free user because I just did. Some stuff is mandatory, like having the editor phone home when you run it.

They do monitor when people run Unity for licencing reasons. If you buy a 2 seat licence and run it on 3 computers simultaneously, it'll work fine, but you may get an email recommending you purchase an extra seat. I've never received any emails as a free user in the 7 years I've used it.

I use Unity privately and professionally and I much prefer it over having to write my own engine. Although, should the inevitable Unity-pocalypse happen, either tomorrow or ten years from now, I will probably move to something open source like Godot instead.

 

[MidnightArrow]

Also, you can totally opt out from data collection as a free user because I just did. Some stuff is mandatory, like having the editor phone home when you run it.

You could opt-out until 2018-ish, I think. Then it was mandatory, but you got the choice to send them either a lot of data or just the bare minimum of what they consider "necessary".

It's personal choice, but I choose Godot.

The Godot engine is 50 megabytes, loads quickly, has no forced sign-in, and runs offline. Unity is over a gig, takes forever to load, and has a forced sign-in so it can phone home.

Godot isn't as advanced, but it's smaller, more efficient, and more private.

It has a kind of crappy asset library rather than an asset store, but for 2d games you'll be importing all your sprites and tiles from another program anyway so it doesn't matter.

 

[Tompte]

It's personal choice, but I choose Godot.

Perfectly valid.

 

[clowns234]

It comes down to using the right tool / engine for the job. There is a reason so many games here use Renpy. You don't even have to know Python to jump right into it. Just saying.

 

[MidnightArrow]

It comes down to using the right tool / engine for the job. There is a reason so many games here use Renpy. You don't even have to know Python to jump right into it. Just saying.

Absolutely not.

You cannot make a top-down 2d RPG like Fire Emblem in Ren'py without heavy Python coding. It wasn't designed that way, so it would not be "the right tool/engine for the job".

 

[clowns234]

Absolutely not.

You cannot make a top-down 2d RPG like Fire Emblem in Ren'py without heavy Python coding. It wasn't designed that way, so it would not be "the right tool/engine for the job".

How many people here do you think could sit down at their home computer and make 'Fire Emblem'?
He stated that he wanted to start with something simple.
If he wants to make a VN that has graphics / art like 'Fire Emblem', renpy is fully capable of that.

 

[MidnightArrow]

How many people here do you think could sit down at their home computer and make 'Fire Emblem'?
He stated that he wanted to start with something simple.
If he wants to make a VN that has graphics / art like 'Fire Emblem', renpy is fully capable of that.

OP said "Fire Emblem style gameplay". Ren'py is not suitable for that without heavy Python customization because it wasn't designed for it.

Even if they do want to start with something small, they'd be much better off starting small with the right engine rather than an idiosyncratic, overcomplicated visual novel scripting program.

 

[Winterfire]

Wow so much misinformation here

And while you're getting good, Unity's spyware will be sure to follow you every step of the way and send you some encouraging emails.

If you're on the free tier you can't opt out of "telemetry", which is what they call sending usage data. There was an incident where they sent emails saying "You left the Unity editor open but didn't do anything, how can we help you?" and when they were called out they backpedaled and said it was a "test program sent out by mistake". And a few months ago they bought out and merged with a notorious malware company.

There's ways to scrub the spyware out of Unity (I think) but I just use Godot so I don't have to. Godot may not be as cutting-edge but it's MIT licensed and open source, so you know exactly what you're getting. It's 3d side is underdeveloped (right now) but for a 2d game with sprites like Fire Emblem it's fine.

Ren'py is also open source and MIT licensed, but its convoluted architecture is too inflexible for anything more than visual novels with simple GUI interactions/minigames. You'd have to program everything yourself with CDDs using Python and it's a pain in the ass.

Old fake news.
It was not a "Malware company", but their software was used to create malware.
Telemetry is more normal and common than you may think, and all the data they collect is described in their legal thingie on the official website.

takes forever to load, and has a forced sign-in so it can phone home.

It doesn't take forever to load, but it will take some time if you attempt to load a big project, that's normal. Result may vary depending on your machine, too.
However, you can definitely use Unity offline. It would be a huge issue if a game engine stopped working if you do not have access to the internet... The only thing that won't work in that case is the asset store, for obvious reasons.
You can even use Unity without ever creating an account, but again, the asset store won't work without one.

It comes down to using the right tool / engine for the job. There is a reason so many games here use Renpy. You don't even have to know Python to jump right into it. Just saying.

For a normal Visual Novel, sure... If you want to expand the game beyond what Ren'Py offers out of the box, even to add a gallery, you will need to know some python.


As for the rest... A Fire Emblem clone will require coding knowledge in any engine. There's no "Fire Emblem Engine" as far as I know, so you'd need to code that in any game engine.

-edit-
My suggestion in case the OP doesn't have any language or engine knowledge is to create a Visual Novel with Ren'Py in an effort to learn the software, and to dip his toes to realize what it takes to create a game, even learn some stuff about designing one... Such as the importance of having a Game Design Document and how to write a proper one.
In the meantime, he can learn Python (Which is not a bad language) and once he's comfortable with it, he can expand his future projects to include more complex mechanics (such as a Fire Emblem battle system).

 

[clowns234]

My suggestion in case the OP doesn't have any language or engine knowledge is to create a Visual Novel with Ren'Py in an effort to learn the software, and to dip his toes to realize what it takes to create a game, even learn some stuff about designing one... Such as the importance of having a Game Design Document and how to write a proper one.
In the meantime, he can learn Python (Which is not a bad language) and once he's comfortable with it, he can expand his future projects to include more complex mechanics (such as a Fire Emblem battle system).

I started with renpy, then watched a few tutorials on python so I can add in some 'cool stuff' as I go.

 

[MidnightArrow]

Telemetry is more normal and common than you may think, and all the data they collect is described in their legal thingie on the official website.

Common, yes. Normal, no.

Like I said, it's a personal choice whether you trust them enough to use their program. I use VSCodium over Visual Studio when making Ren'py games to strip all the telemetry out.

It doesn't take forever to load, but it will take some time if you attempt to load a big project, that's normal. Result may vary depending on your machine, too.

I only used it a few times mid-2020 or so. I remember it took many minutes to launch. Maybe that was just the first time, I don't remember. My point stands: Godot (50MB) is still smaller and lighter than Unity (1GB) yet it's still very capable for 2D games despite it's small size.

My suggestion in case the OP doesn't have any language or engine knowledge is to create a Visual Novel with Ren'Py in an effort to learn the software, and to dip his toes to realize what it takes to create a game, even learn some stuff about designing one... Such as the importance of having a Game Design Document and how to write a proper one.

I've both made visual novels in Ren'py and experimented with 2d RPGs in Godot. (The main downside to Godot was shitty pathfinding, which is fixed as of 3.5). Learning an idiosyncratic VN scripting language that has more in common with website design is not a skillset transferrable to making 2d RPGs in a proper engine. I think OP's time is better spent watching Heartbeast's tutorial on making a Zelda clone in Godot.

Also Strive4Power (

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) was made in Godot. If OP wants to make a hybrid management sim/top down RPG then they can take a look at that for how well it works at the management side of things.