I think
HopesGaming has a very good point, you don't know till you try but just because you enjoy a game doesn't mean you'd enjoy making one.
Arguably once you peer behind the curtain you'll never be able to go back, you'll begin to analyse things in a different way than you did before, see cut corners where you wouldn't otherwise know they were there, in short it's a pretty big perspective shift.
What do i mean, well the best example i have is with writing, i did English Lit to A Level and that meant deconstructing writing analytically, it means i can never go back to simply enjoying a novel the way i did before, i'm never going to be able to read C.S Lewis without mentally deconstructing it, i'm never going to be able to look at a novel without my brain mining it for subtext and themes, predicting where seeded information is going to take the story, learning the author rather than directly enjoying the story.
I know the same is true of friends who picked up a musical instrument in high school, i suspect the same is true of modders with games and game devs with games, i don't mean to be a downer but you risk reducing your enjoyment of games as you enjoy them now by going into development.
Don't think that that is purely a bad thing though, i enjoy writing in a different way now rather than enjoying it less, i love a well put together plot or a snappy piece of dialog probably more now than i did before because i have an idea about the process, i suppose that is what people mean when they say a musician is a "musician's musician". Perhaps what i'm getting at is that to go into development will cause a shift in your perception of adult games which is neither good nor bad but realise you won't be able to go back once you start.
As to deciding about the practicality of making a game, if you've got some experience with the coding side already or at least a head start on learning it then great, that leaves the other two major areas (at least for Ren'py) Art and writing, writing is a question of practise and the biggest help i can offer on that front is practise and reading. Reading a novel will only help you write a VN to a certain degree, the format is quite different, go look at some screenplays/play scripts, VN's (both adult and otherwise), movies and graphic novels/comics, they all rely on "show not tell" which is something that a VN needs to use IMO to get the most out of the format. Secondly, practise, when i started writing my dialogue was so bad it makes my sphincters clench looking back on it now (not that i'm that much better now truth be told), write some BS that no one else will ever read, write a scene, in full, with stage direction if you want, i know that helped me plan my images. then once you've worked out some of the initial kinks write something longer, practise and keep on doing it, get a good handle on your grammar and you'll be surprised how much easier things become after a little while.
As for Art this is going to a little harder, writing is cheap on resources but long on time, as is learning to code, making your own art however can be both time
and resource intensive, Daz renders require a certain level of PC to do in a decent timeframe, renders take a lot of time and learning to make good images in DAZ is a very long process with few work arounds. I have less experience with honey select but from a friend who has used both Daz and HS quite a lot he is of the opinion that HS is vastly inferior but significantly faster to use and a good way of getting ideas out there quickly, i personally dislike the look of honey select and agree with a single tongue in cheek comment from a while ago that went something like "why use HS when the sims 4 looks better and is easier to use".
Art is likely to be the sticking point for a new dev, should you get someone in for that, IMO no, not right away since it will either cost money or make you beholden to another person significantly more experienced than you right from the start when you will be spending more time learning than anything else, starting from scratch with a friends however could provide mutual encouragement so i suppose it could work out well, so long as expectations are handled well enough.
TL: DR:
- Once you go into development you are likely to change your perception of adult games, potentially meaning you will not enjoy things the same way or the same amount as you once did.
- Code takes time to learn but having a head start is always good, Ren'py isn't too hard so you should be able to get your head around it fairly quickly
-Art is a big old can of worms that can be a time and money hole, it's rewarding to learn but is always going to be time consuming, more so than writing or coding generally. Daz is generally held i higher regard than HS, honey select however is far faster to work with, or so i'm told.
- I would encourage you
not to bring in a payed third party until you have some practise under your belt, if you want to start with a friend and both learn as you go then fair enough, so long as you both know what is going on and you have realistic expectations.
