Unity looking to pick some peoples brains on development.

[Synthex_Labs]

So after a long time of being a fan of this genre, I got really into the idea of developing a game, the challenge looks fun, and the reward of making something is always satisficing. As a result, I've been in the process of planning a game for a while and direction I'm going is a 2dcg side scroller game. the map will be open world as well it will be sandbox. the other element that I'm really exited to try is the story will be played through 2 main characters male and female, kind of like the system GTA 5 has but watered down as that's way to ambitious for me. I've got my goals for each phase of the game written out, features for each phase as well as quest lines written and planned. I'm pretty well ready to dive into unity and start blocking it out, but the only snag is I have no assets and have no idea where to start or how to start. my drawing experience is pretty minimal and I have no equipment to start drawing. so now I'm just wondering, how screwed am I lol? do most of you create you own assets yourself or do you have team members who create it for you?

 

[El Tomaso]

I can't draw either, so in my case I went the 3d route. I know it's very imposing, but there's a lot of free models and tutorials on how to animate. Even though I had trouble finding male models and genitals and had to do my own. I think it's easier to learn at a basic level than to learn how to draw yourself. Given that you're using Unity, it's something to consider.

 

[TheRedMyst]

It's fairly standard practice for solo devs and indie studios to use free/purchased assets. Of course some make their own, but it's a hell of a lot of work.

I'd suggest looking into pixel art. It's far less time consuming than 3D, and in my experience way easier than standard 2D art. You can find/buy many sprite sheets and UI stuff online so you don't have to do it all yourself. I used to draw pixel art with just my mouse and made some great stuff with just a bit of practice (I'm an art anti-talent btw).

If you don't like the idea of pixel art sex scenes, that's where you could commission an established artist to do it for you. Or you could mix/match, like how some RPGM games have Daz scenes. You can find many 3D assets online too, but it will give you many other things to worry about (lighting, performance, 3D physics and collisions, etc.). The upside is a lot of flexibility, though.

So don't worry, you've got a lot of options. You just have to try and pick the best one for you and your game.

 

[LS47]

It's fairly standard practice for solo devs and indie studios to use free/purchased assets. Of course some make their own, but it's a hell of a lot of work.

I'd suggest looking into pixel art. It's far less time consuming than 3D, and in my experience way easier than standard 2D art. You can find/buy many sprite sheets and UI stuff online so you don't have to do it all yourself. I used to draw pixel art with just my mouse and made some great stuff with just a bit of practice (I'm an art anti-talent btw).

If you don't like the idea of pixel art sex scenes, that's where you could commission an established artist to do it for you. Or you could mix/match, like how some RPGM games have Daz scenes. You can find many 3D assets online too, but it will give you many other things to worry about (lighting, performance, 3D physics and collisions, etc.). The upside is a lot of flexibility, though.

So don't worry, you've got a lot of options. You just have to try and pick the best one for you and your game.

This. Go the pixel route if you're unsure of your art skills. Later on, once you gain experience and confidence, you could still remake your older game with an updated artstyle. It's not uncommon.

As for Unity itself, since it's what you tagged your thread with, there are a lot of tutorials on YT for many kinds of games, as well as the Unity subreddit with a lot of guides and links to many YTbers. I suggest you start with

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, as his channel is more geared towards beginners and has many playlists about teaching C# and how to use the editor. His channel is not up to date as he's stopped game dev to go his own way, but the tutorials all still hold up to this day. There's also

You must be registered to see the links

who's more focused on 2D and has really short and simple tutorials, or

You must be registered to see the links

who makes a bit more advanced tutorials but their topics are more diverse than the other two channels.

So take your time, learn how the engine works and take pleasure in the learning process as well, not just the end result. You're not bound to a specific engine or theme, so if things don't work out for you as well as you'd hoped, try again later

 

[coffeeaddicted]

Pixel Art? mmm... Space Haven comes to mind. Wonder if you could mod the game.

On serious thought. DAZ isn't complicated as it is time consuming. It takes a real long time, depending on skill level, to setup scenes and characters. I find lights the most time consuming part.

I never even considered anything else than DAZ. I think if you want to recreate the living, DAZ is probably one option to do it.

Check this faq. Really helpful.
Want to make your game? Check this FAQ

 

[GNVE]

On serious thought. DAZ isn't complicated as it is time consuming. It takes a real long time, depending on skill level, to setup scenes and characters. I find lights the most time consuming part.

Daz is time consuming based on your level of perfection. If you want you can render in filament or 3D-Delight saving hours of render time.
You can use canned poses and not fix issues. (Midlife Crisis prioritizes the amount of renders they can get out and will often have blatant floating and clipping issues in their renders but that does mean they update their game regularly.)
Lighting again can be as simple as having an HDRI.
And lastly a lot of people spent a lot of time on postwork in photoshop. Something others don't do all together.
Daz is time consuming depending on the level of polish you want to achieve. Sure a certain level of skill helps but a lot of us (myself very much included) might take more time than we really should to make things perfect rather than acceptable.
Though I'm not saying Daz couldn't be better. It has a lot of issues. Saving a new file takes to much time for me so I get distracted and start doing other stuff so lowering my production level even further. (saving over a file doesn't have that issue.)

 

[coffeeaddicted]

Daz is time consuming based on your level of perfection. If you want you can render in filament or 3D-Delight saving hours of render time.
You can use canned poses and not fix issues. (Midlife Crisis prioritizes the amount of renders they can get out and will often have blatant floating and clipping issues in their renders but that does mean they update their game regularly.)
Lighting again can be as simple as having an HDRI.
And lastly a lot of people spent a lot of time on postwork in photoshop. Something others don't do all together.
Daz is time consuming depending on the level of polish you want to achieve. Sure a certain level of skill helps but a lot of us (myself very much included) might take more time than we really should to make things perfect rather than acceptable.
Though I'm not saying Daz couldn't be better. It has a lot of issues. Saving a new file takes to much time for me so I get distracted and start doing other stuff so lowering my production level even further. (saving over a file doesn't have that issue.)

Yes, it is of course the "i wanna have a perfect render". Or almost..
The problem, at least for me, isn't really the rendering itself. Setting up a scene goes relatively quick. But the work starts setting up the lights and how long does it take to actually render.
I had, for example, real problems rendering FG stuff. I assume he uses HD textures. I remember trying to render a scene with Messy Apartment. It was hell. No matter what i did, removing walls and items, gave me a quick render.
Perfection is of course another issue. I can spend hours to get a really good scene.
I'll give you an example of a scene i did with the Chubby Corner (i think that is what the asset was called). This took me really a long time because to simulate a night scene isn't really easy in my book. Now someone who has more knowledge will do that quick.

I kind of strive for nuances in my renders. You should get a feel on the environment. So this takes me really a long time. One reason i most likely never will make a VN.
I will look into your examples. Thanks for sharing.

For this scene i used only spotlights and rendered as a scene. So no HDRI for this one. There isn't a point to have one i think. This is the only staircase i found that kind looks like from an average house. It's overall a nice assets really and to cut the time rendering, i used a iray cam. Makes it faster. Render time is about 20 minutes on my computer. Without it's about 1-1.5h.

 

[Synthex_Labs]

I'd suggest looking into pixel art. It's far less time consuming than 3D, and in my experience way easier than standard 2D art. You can find/buy many sprite sheets and UI stuff online so you don't have to do it all yourself. I used to draw pixel art with just my mouse and made some great stuff with just a bit of practice (I'm an art anti-talent btw).

I really like that idea, although I'm not a fan of pixel art scenes haha, like you said I could just use it as a place holder until I have my game blocked out then use the assets I want to run with. I Also I looked into the DAZ route, but 3D characters and scenes aren't really my taste, hard to explain why but just never enjoyed many games that use them. Again i personally enjoy 2dcg way more as an art style but i could always look at the commission route down the road like you said and swap the assets once I'm further along.

This. Go the pixel route if you're unsure of your art skills. Later on, once you gain experience and confidence, you could still remake your older game with an updated artstyle. It's not uncommon.

As for Unity itself, since it's what you tagged your thread with, there are a lot of tutorials on YT for many kinds of games, as well as the Unity subreddit with a lot of guides and links to many YTbers. I suggest you start with

You must be registered to see the links

, as his channel is more geared towards beginners and has many playlists about teaching C# and how to use the editor. His channel is not up to date as he's stopped game dev to go his own way, but the tutorials all still hold up to this day. There's also

You must be registered to see the links

who's more focused on 2D and has really short and simple tutorials, or

You must be registered to see the links

who makes a bit more advanced tutorials but their topics are more diverse than the other two channels.

So take your time, learn how the engine works and take pleasure in the learning process as well, not just the end result. You're not bound to a specific engine or theme, so if things don't work out for you as well as you'd hoped, try again later

Thank you so much for the resources, Again I really like the pixel art idea, not for the final game but at least as a place holder to get the game started and working with the engine. The only reason I'm unsure of my art skill is because I've never tried to draw before, like i feel it's in my wheel house because my business is a creative business and design spaces for clients, but I also understand drawing the human for is different then creating a custom space haha. And honestly you summarized my approach perfectly at the end there, I love learning new skills, the creative processes that design work entails, and the satisfaction of over coming hurdles. just looking for another hobby to keep me entertained in my off time

 

[eugeneloza]

I know this is not a "popular opinion" But you may consider using your strong sides and avoiding your weak sides. E.g. if you, just like me, can't do art but are good at coding - your options are either commissioning/buying assets, or making a game which requires as little as possible art and focuses on gameplay and diversity instead. E.g. don't make a VN or other art-heavy genre, like point-and-clicks, platformers, side scrollers, etc. but make a roguelike, like Noxico or a text-based game. I mean, of course it's cool to have absolutely astounding graphics optimized for lower-end PCs, but sometimes it's better to make something than only dream of big things you can't reach, at least not yet. Yes, on practice that means not making the exact game you want, but the game you can.

 

[Tompte]

... so now I'm just wondering, how screwed am I lol?

Pretty screwed, lol. Planning out a game with a level of detail where you're even writing quest lines before having written a single line of code, or even knowing how to start is the text book definition of premature. But! That is okay.

Seriously though, this feeling you have of wanting to create something, and something specific, is going to serve as your motivational fuel to get started and learn. It is so much easier to pick up game development if you already know what you want to make.

As for where to begin? Why, you start at the beginning, of course. Learn the fundamentals of Unity. After that, look into what is actually required to make a side scroller. Keep going after that until you have a sense of what is needed to make your game.

 

[Synthex_Labs]

Pretty screwed, lol. Planning out a game with a level of detail where you're even writing quest lines before having written a single line of code, or even knowing how to start is the text book definition of premature. But! That is okay.

Seriously though, this feeling you have of wanting to create something, and something specific, is going to serve as your motivational fuel to get started and learn. It is so much easier to pick up game development if you already know what you want to make.

As for where to begin? Why, you start at the beginning, of course. Learn the fundamentals of Unity. After that, look into what is actually required to make a side scroller. Keep going after that until you have a sense of what is needed to make your game.

No, I know where to start the only piece that i didn't have was the art assets and was looking for input on what other have done in similar situations. Also by questline written i should have said planned, that would have been a better choice of words. I know how I want the main story to start and end, and about 10 different questlines planned with rough ideas and locations that i want to implement into them. as far as content, i have no dialogue, or story written. I just like having my ideas organized so then i can take those ideas, put them into a development timeline for my own reference and to have something to A) to keep my self on track and motivated as i have goals to work towards. And B) to avoid feature creep and have 20 different un finished questlines started that i have no idea how to end and stay that way until i burn my self out and abandon the project. I just feel like having an plan in place just sets you up for success then just free wheeling it.

 

[Tompte]

No, I know where to start the only piece that i didn't have was the art assets and was looking for input on what other have done in similar situations. Also by questline written i should have said planned, that would have been a better choice of words. I know how I want the main story to start and end, and about 10 different questlines planned with rough ideas and locations that i want to implement into them. as far as content, i have no dialogue, or story written. I just like having my ideas organized so then i can take those ideas, put them into a development timeline for my own reference and to have something to A) to keep my self on track and motivated as i have goals to work towards. And B) to avoid feature creep and have 20 different un finished questlines started that i have no idea how to end and stay that way until i burn my self out and abandon the project. I just feel like having an plan in place just sets you up for success then just free wheeling it.

Ah, I didn't realize you had experience. Allow me to adjust my answer then: Not screwed.

 

[WalkingCrow]

Fiver. They champion quite a few NSFW artists.

I have found artists that way for my SFW development.

I recommend, figuring out like a first scene or something. Then paying three or so artists (however much you can afford...I always start with basic packages, sometimes as low as 5$ per drawing). Sometimes it takes more than 3 attempts, although, normally one gem rises to the top of the creative stew, and that is the chosen one.

Good luck with your toy. A side scroller sandbox is very popular.

May your development be as successful as you and everyone here already is.

And remember: Save early, save often.

 

[osanaiko]

And remember: Save early, save often.

And also:

• Learn git, use an offsite repository.
• Use version tagging every single time you pass a build off your own environment, it's so easy to lose track of which version had which issue.
• Use an issue tracker, even if it's just a googly spreadsheet.
• Learn to timebox, and prioritize progress. Polishing can wait until you have some traction.
• But conversely, DO spend some time polishing the first-time user experience (intro screen, menu art, first few images the player sees).
• Do spend time making appealing art for banner / screenshots. (tits and ass in otherwise normal situations are marketing gold)
• Do have a clear theme / fetish. You can't appeal to everyone, but you can get some passionate followers if you press their exact buttons.

Anonymous future developer self, you will thank past-you if only you follow these steps...