Koikatsu Thoughts?

[kgirlffx]

As the title says, what do you all think about Koikatsu as the main art and graphics for a game? I recently have played a few and was happy with them, but I am concerned there may be a lack of environments and scenes.

Then again, the game I have in mind is mostly just a single house, a hospital, some street views, and school. I do not love the idea of being limited too much though.

Character variety and clothing seems solid, but I tend to only see the same like 12 scenes for backgrounds.

Been thinking on it because it looks a fair bit easier to pose and design than Daz.

 

[SatinAndIvory]

I'm not privy to the art style but seeing the audience sizrles of some of the biggest Koikatsu games out there, it's obvious there's a market for them. I use HS2, which you can call a relative of Koikatsu, and, just like HS2, there's a ton of modded maps for you to use. If you aren't happy with the selection, you can always create your own maps using the walls, objects, and decor provided with the base game and mods.

 

[artistx]

For the locations, you have in mind... koikatsu should work.. I wanted to do a more fantasy setting and there was pretty much nothing that worked...

Another problem is making decent male characters is a bit of a pain in Koikatsu... I couldn't make a decent male main character to my liking and the clothing options for males were mostly crap.


I personally tried making more western style toon characters.

 

[kgirlffx]

For the locations, you have in mind... koikatsu should work.. I wanted to do a more fantasy setting and there was pretty much nothing that worked...

Another problem is making decent male characters is a bit of a pain in Koikatsu... I couldn't make a decent male main character to my liking and the clothing options for males were mostly crap.

View attachment 2346641
I personally tried making more western style toon characters.

Yeah, the female modes look great, and I could see more fem male characters being good as well. I'm seeing a high lack of more western masculine ones though. Some ugly bastards, but not great options outside of cute or ugly for guys.

That model looks great. Making me think it might be worth it considering the ease of use if western type models like that are more possible.

 

[kgirlffx]

I'm not privy to the art style but seeing the audience sizrles of some of the biggest Koikatsu games out there, it's obvious there's a market for them. I use HS2, which you can call a relative of Koikatsu, and, just like HS2, there's a ton of modded maps for you to use. If you aren't happy with the selection, you can always create your own maps using the walls, objects, and decor provided with the base game and mods.

That's good to know. I was not sure if you could create scenes as well. If that is the case, seems more promising. I know there is less variety than Daz, but I do like the more anime-look, and it seems a whole hell of a lot easier to, and less graphic intensive, to create renders.

That is my other concerns. I'm rocking a 6 year old GTX video card. Not sure it can take the scenes I want to do in Daz.

 

[ChairmanDude]

Koikatsu is pretty great IMO, I personally find it more appealing to the eye than DAZ or Honey Select.

HOWEVER

Low-effort content in koikatsu looks absurdity generic and unappealing, there are very few exceptions for it when it comes to VNs based on it, I think that the major exception is Lessons in Love which despite having generic and unappealing visuals, the game is so damn crazy that it pay off...

Anyway, lets go to the real deal here, if you want to make a good game using Koikatsu for visuals, you will need to put some effort into it rather than simply taking some poorly made characters and some vanilla maps, you will need to learn how to use essential tools like ABMX and Material Editor, it is also highly recommended to you to learn how to use some newer plugins like OBJ Import/Asset Import and BlendShape Creator... You can find help about this stuff in the English language koikatsu discord... About maps, i highly recommend you learn how to create your own using studio objects, it is a pain work and take a while, but it is better than using the same backgrounds that pretty much everyone already did so far.

 

[RT5X]

Its honestly annoying running into KK games cause it's like the devs didn't even try to make the models look like they save a soul
I'm not trying to be an asshole about it but each KK visual game just look soulless :/

I need to make a game with KK but i can't think of anything currently lol

 

[KaeruVN]

I can agree with the same 12 scenes in every game and I think it's partly due to it being a bit tricky and very time-consuming to create your own backgrounds in Koikatsu.
I've been making my own scenes and it can take a very, very long time to create something. I've spent god knows how many hours creating an entire school for my VN and it's still not done. But it's fun to create something yourself.

 

[RT5X]

I can agree with the same 12 scenes in every game and I think it's partly due to it being a bit tricky and very time-consuming to create your own backgrounds in Koikatsu.
I've been making my own scenes and it can take a very, very long time to create something. I've spent god knows how many hours creating an entire school for my VN and it's still not done. But it's fun to create something yourself.

Looks great

i just buy 3d maps from Sketchfab or CGTrader and port them to KK myself

 

[Digteren]

I have a general dislike of Koikatsu art in VNs.
That doesn't mean there aren't any games with KK visuals I like, but they're few and it's in spite of the art, never because of it.
Ultimately it depends on what you do with it, because KK art can look several different ways.

 

[KaeruVN]

Looks great

i just buy 3d maps from Sketchfab or CGTrader and port them to KK myself

Never even heard of those places, but I should definitely take a look there. How much do they charge?

 

[KuSauXe]

I'm a huge fan of Koikatsu in visual novels, so I started making my own characters and scenes. Later, I also got into using DAZ Studio. There is no need to stress about not having enough environments and scenes. You can find tons of free stuff to download online, like clothes, maps, and studio items. The Koikatsu community is amazing, with talented folks sharing their creations for free most of the time in the KK discord server or in BepisDB. If you want something really unique, you can either pay someone to create it or try your hand at modding/porting. Modding can be a bit challenging, though, as it requires knowledge of 3D modeling and Unity (the engine Koikatsu uses). But for me, I prefer giving modding a shot.

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Good luck with your game!