Making a game if you hate coding?

[RoseWulfLea]

So I have a friend that wants to make games, but keeps bitching that they don't want to code (apparently it makes their head hurt? IDK). From the sounds of it they want to focus on making the art, but they apparently don't have the money for getting someone to do the coding and such. From what they tell me the options they have are to just release art on their subscribstar and hope to get enough money to eventually hire someone, or make half-assed rpgmaker games (which we both hate the concept of) and hope those help get traction.

Does anyone know any programs that my friend can use outside of RPGMaker that are friendly to non-coders?

 

[mtl poet]

Renpy? it seems simple enough (for a visual novel at least) and it is what I'm gonna use with zero coding skills.

 

[yilkin]

This "friend" you speak of, is he in the room with us right now..?

 

[RoseWulfLea]

This "friend" you speak of, is he in the room with us right now..?

Funny, nah just one of the few people I talk to regularly. She is a bit of a recluse, so I tend to be the one she rants to on a regular basis. I figured seeing if anyone knew more this stuff so I could do more than just shrug at her when she wants to go off.

 

[Heronamesir]

I mean, she could just partner up with someone who can do the programming. Especially if they can do the artwork.

 

[simarimas]

Make a comic book?

Or as stated earlier, Renpy is easy to learn, and easy to use for the basic stuff. You can get into more in depth stuff with Renpy as you go along and learn more, but it isn't required depending on what they want to do it.

 

[Hagatagar]

Seriously, if you aren't able to do the thing you want to do (for whatever reasons), you need to learn to accept that this might not be the right thing for you.
It sounds mean, but that's how it is. Not everyone is born to be a musician, artist or singer, some are only ment to be mechanics, cooks or... urgh... politicians...

As others already mentioned, get someone to partner up or do something else with your art (eg. comics).

 

[F4C430]

There's

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. It's still kind of coding in that you have to do the logic, but you don't have to type out code. A search for "no code game engine" yielded

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too but i'm not familiar with that one. No matter what though, you have to be willing to learn. There's just no getting around that.

 

[Rafster]

At the bare minimum, if you want to track choices, or want to have hidden stats like XCharacterLove = 10, you'll have to learn a tiny little bit of code. It's not a hard task though, it can be done easily on Ren'py and Twine. For me the hardest part is the art, and you have it already.

Your friend would be willing to write the whole story? that's another thing you don't mention. If so, Ren'py and twine can work for what you need. I don't have any idea of RPG Maker, but hell, I think it's more complicated than those two. The bright side is, with RPG Maker you would have a playable RPG. Barebones, but playable.

 

[GPoint]

Honestly, if you're making a VN in RenPy, then programming is the least you need to worry about. The Internet is full of lessons, they will show you how to do 99% of the development that is in every game. Those. there, adapting the code for yourself is limited to replacing the names of pictures in the code or coordinates for creating conditional maps. Well, that is. If your friend is not an imbecile with an IQ less than 30, she will figure it out without any problems. For example, Daz3D and working with video give me much more trouble, although I’m also never a programmer and don’t even know Python.

 

[NeonSelf]

Most part of "code" in VN (RenPy) is usually text messages that you want to show on screen, not some program.

If Dev doesnt care about making even a tiny effort of describing image layout on screen - then its not a game Dev, its just another "effective manager".

 

[orellion]

If learning a little code is the thing stopping her, the game is probably more just a passing interest than passionate venture.

 

[bethrezen0]

Whats the problem with RPGM ? It's literally the thing that offers making games without any coding skills. As if choosing any other engine would somehow ensure your friend's first game won't be half-assed too. It's not like you have a half-assed RPGM game in your signature or anything, yet you hate the idea.

 

[Jaster42]

I too like making money but hate doing work.

In less snippy retorts, your options range from "Find a partner whos' good at (or at least enjoys) coding, but shit at art" and accept there will be a mix of ideas (unless you're bankrolling and just hiring them), or just change mediums, an artist can just do a comic. RPGM and similar prepackaged things don't require much in the way of coding and can work, though, turns out making ANY game is still a headache, so don't get your glasses too ruby colored. Figuring out how to make a dead ass simple game like Monopoloy or Sorry is still a pain in the ass without a blueprint, and if you want to make a game that's actually fun? Get ready to work your ass off testing.

 

[woody554]

"I'd write a book if there wasn't all this writing involved."

he doesn't want to make games, he just want to be seen as someone who does.

 

[nulnil]

You aren't going to be able to do much without coding. Either they can learn or they can get someone else who does

 

[Thanescara]

You can do a lot in RPGM or WolfRPG with little to no coding (though for advanced stuff, learning the coding language used is a must)
These days there are multiple plugins you can choose in order to make it easy for you to make your desired game

The community for this engine is wide and you can find some tutorials online

Though it won't hurt to also learn how to code whilst doing it, might be useful in the future

 

[RoseWulfLea]

"I'd write a book if there wasn't all this writing involved."

he doesn't want to make games, he just want to be seen as someone who does.

Not really? She likes to draw, and the thing that makes her want to make games is there are certain games/types she likes that are not being done/not done.
For example:
not being done - RWBY game with a porn focus (The both of us have been brainstorming making a RWBY game based of Rouge-Like her the art and myself the writing.)
Not done well - Pokemon-like porn game (with catching, breeding, and raising mechanics)

The sucky part is that to get these games you either need money to hire someone to make then, or the skill to make them yourself. And if your poor and unskilled... you see my point?

 

[simarimas]

Not really? She likes to draw, and the thing that makes her want to make games is there are certain games/types she likes that are not being done/not done.
For example:
not being done - RWBY game with a porn focus (The both of us have been brainstorming making a RWBY game based of Rouge-Like her the art and myself the writing.)
Not done well - Pokemon-like porn game (with catching, breeding, and raising mechanics)

The sucky part is that to get these games you either need money to hire someone to make then, or the skill to make them yourself. And if your poor and unskilled... you see my point?

Make the games, and learn as you go. You would be surprised how much you learn just by doing it, and then figuring out how to make things work the way you want to. It can be very fun. I would guess most of us started knowing nothing, or very little, and just figured it out as we went. At least the first time. The first thing you make may be really awful, but what you learn from it will help in making something better the next time.

 

[Count Morado]

And if your poor and unskilled... you see my point?

If it is something you want to do, you learn to do it.

The tools to learn to do it are available for free.
There are free tutorials on line.
There are free FAQs online.
There are free forums dedicated to the exchanging of ideas and asking questions about how to learn to do something online.

I hadn't participated in theatre for 15 years after I graduated from high school. I started getting involved in community theatre. 2 years after that I opened my own nonprofit theatre company and for over a decade and a half with nearly 100 productions, I worked in roles where I produced; directed; designed and built sets, costumes, props; wrote press releases; designed programs; developed marketing strategies; made television and radio appearances; founded and managed a theatre festival competition; co-founded another theatre festival; sat on a board of an association of theatre festivals from around my country; promoted and co-produced a film festival competition; adjudicated other competitions; was a (non-college degreed) visiting artist for a private college for a semester; worked with several local high schools on their productions; sat on the board of another theatre organization and lead the development and expansion of their offerings over the course of nearly four dozen productions and events... and more...

All because I devoted myself to something that I found I wanted to do. Not everyone is that dedicated to what they think they wanted to do. That's fine. But don't make excuses - do something or not.

Edit:
And why did I start doing that? Because there were certain plays that weren't being produced in my area that I wanted to see on the stage. So I did something to get those plays onto the stage for audiences to see.