Need advice for RPG game please...

[monster king]

Hey folks. Need some help here for a bit...
First and foremost though, I wanted to give my gratitude to F95Zone for being the mad lad of my life, number 1 forum for Adult Video Game Entertainment.
And also to creator, developer, Mod, and basically for almost all the user of this site for being the generally good fellas of the Internet.

After lurking in this site for a year, I made up my mind. I want to create a game as well.
I don't know if this the right forum section to ask this question...
If it's not, I would move it the right place immediately.

I get the general idea of an RPG game and so. But... the idea of making an adult game is kinda tricky to me...
Got any advice or tips you folks could give to a total noob like me?

I'm using RPG maker for the game engine since I wanted to have exploration and such.
I once thought of using Unity, but it's kinda tricky for me to use that is in right now.
The Game I'm gonna make is a basic fantasy genre, with a bit of 'isekai' cliche that have been going on hot right now.

The premise is:

You're a just normal human being that got suddenly summoned to the other world. You're have been fantasizing this kind of situation before and became excited to be the hero of sword, magic and fantasy.

But... it turns out, you are not summoned as a hero by the Princess of the Kingdom. You are summoned as a Demon King by the Demon themselves.
What are you gonna do?
Are you going to denied this title and strive to become the actual hero you wanted to be?
Are you going to embrace it and become the Demon King to fight against the world?
Or... Are you going to be the King that finally united this chaotic world?

Meet with many interesting people of this world, Human, Monster, Demon, Devil, or even Angel(?). Befriend them and eventually woo them to be your precious Harem that going to help your goal.

I'm currently practicing to use RPG Maker MV by YouTube. It's going steady alright, but still need a bit more to study.
Is there anything that you guys could warn me about using RPG Maker MV? Like a little tips or trick of using it?
Is there any RPG , or even game development in general, tips or advice that you guys could tell me?
Well this are all development process of the game.

What going to be more tricky is the adult section of the game. OFC I wanted this to be an ADULT GAME! That's my dream and ambition!
Jokes aside, I'm bit of a bind to what platform I would use to convey my creation.

1. There's the 2D option, which is basically drawing it. This option, as in right now with my current art level, is quite not good enough to be considered watchable.
I would really love to use 2D as my main platform, but I still need some practice and hard work to developed the art to mesmerized and turn on people with it.

2. There's the 3D option. This could be boiled down to 2 sub options, with my own tidbit of my opinion of it:

A. I created my own 3D model. This is probably the most standard option you folks are using right now. Using this method could prove beneficial, since you have more leeway with imagination and such with how the model looks and etc.
I also wanted to use this method, but... I don't really know what is the best software for this. I know that most of you guys using DAZ and I actually tried to use DAZ before, but I unfortunately doesn't use Nvidia for the IRay...
I'm using AMD Radeon HD 7900 btw. I don't really have the budget to buy and replace my current GPU as it is right now. I'm able to play heavy graphic game well though...
Is there any alternative software you guys can recommended? I would really appreciated it, man.

B. Using a character creator by Illusion's games. I've seen many developer and many great game using this, like Cohabition. Waifu Academy, Glassix, Harem Collector, and etc.
They are great too. It is (my opionion wise) easier than creating your own 3D. Well, it does have a limitation with how much you could actually model with.
The game that I could use are either Honey Select with more 3D aesthetic and probably better support for development, or the newer Koikatsu, a take in more 2D style like 3D models (2.5D?).
Personally... I actually incline to use Koikatsu more than HS. It is actually more of my taste and would fit better with the fantasy genre I would make. But, HS is (probably) more safer and stable to use though.

About what genre/fetishes I would make though? I'm more into 'vanilla' guy, so I'm not gonna include anything that are too bold or extreme for the game. I would incline to have BDSM and such though, since the game premise could be potentially lead you into the 'bad' guy.

Well, these are all what I've been thinking for a while. I hope that I'm not imposing too much to you guys. Any advice and recommendation are welcome.
Thank you for reading this post of mine btw. I hope you guys have a great day.

 

[Catapo]

First good luck on making your game or learning to make it.

I am not a game developer myself (not yet) but I have some programming experience so here is some advice.

Some people on this forum avoid RPGMaker games. I like them and I don't blame the engine for the bad games that might be out there but just so you know some people will not even give your game a chance but others will.
In my opinion Unity is a terrible and overrated engine plus it's difficult to make something decent without experience so good choice not using it.

You say you will use RPGMaker MV but let me tell you something first. I like RPGMaker games and I play a lot of them even games that are not translated yet and even non-adult RPGMaker games but my experience with MV was not good. Many of the MV adult games that I played had issues, some worked perfectly while others had lots of issues: errors, crashes, freezing, audio bugs, lagging. Some issues might be because of my old laptop but I played multiple games that crashed while saving or changing settings which means it's an issue caused by the developers.
These all might be just bad developer practices but I would still recomend RPGMaker VX/VX Ace (the one with the red dragon logo not sure which one it is) since I never had issues with those games.

Many developers on this forum use DAZ and do not make their own 3D models instead they just get some freely available assets change some things and create characters this way but I think many people don't like DAZ renders used for RPGMaker games because they clash and end up looking bad.

Making your own 3D models would require software like Blender or Maya for example but it takes time to learn how to use them and make something that looks decent.
Honey Select or Koikatsu are a good approach but you may end up having boring generic looking charaters since you're limited in what you can make with those.

Personally I prefer drawn 2D art over 3D stuff even if it is not that great looking. Another option to look into might be pixel art if you think you can do it.

Speaking of pixel art something I would recommend if you can do is to have custom tiles and character sprites. Many games use the same tilesets and characters and it kind of gets boring and repetitive after a while so custom art would make your game stand out from the others for example look up Stray Cat Crossing, To The Moon or Pocket Mirror three very beautiful non-adult games made in RPGMaker.
If you go this way you might not even need CG at all look up NTRPG or NTRPG 2 on this forum a game that uses custom character sprites for events instead of CG and if you are a really good writer you might not even need that look up some of Sierra Lee's work on this forum.

Writing is something everyone is very picky about on this forum and is the one thing that people will not forgive if done wrong. Bad art is more acceptable than bad writing so that is something you should focus on.
I see some potential in your story but it depends on how well you can make it. One thing that you will need is a proof reader since from your post was kind of obvious you are not a native english speaker.

Finally I want to say that development is not easy and will take time and it will be frustrating so you should start small and keep at it and I don't mean start with the first scene of the game.
Starting small means for example starting with a black screen then add a single tile then add an animated character then learn to move it then interact with other objects, add some dialogue and so on... keep adding small things and learning new things while making sure you remember how everything else works.

This was really long but hopefully it helped you get some ideas on how to continue from here on out.

 

[monster king]

First good luck on making your game or learning to make it.

I am not a game developer myself (not yet) but I have some programming experience so here is some advice.

Some people on this forum avoid RPGMaker games. I like them and I don't blame the engine for the bad games that might be out there but just so you know some people will not even give your game a chance but others will.
In my opinion Unity is a terrible and overrated engine plus it's difficult to make something decent without experience so good choice not using it.

You say you will use RPGMaker MV but let me tell you something first. I like RPGMaker games and I play a lot of them even games that are not translated yet and even non-adult RPGMaker games but my experience with MV was not good. Many of the MV adult games that I played had issues, some worked perfectly while others had lots of issues: errors, crashes, freezing, audio bugs, lagging. Some issues might be because of my old laptop but I played multiple games that crashed while saving or changing settings which means it's an issue caused by the developers.
These all might be just bad developer practices but I would still recomend RPGMaker VX/VX Ace (the one with the red dragon logo not sure which one it is) since I never had issues with those games.

Many developers on this forum use DAZ and do not make their own 3D models instead they just get some freely available assets change some things and create characters this way but I think many people don't like DAZ renders used for RPGMaker games because they clash and end up looking bad.

Making your own 3D models would require software like Blender or Maya for example but it takes time to learn how to use them and make something that looks decent.
Honey Select or Koikatsu are a good approach but you may end up having boring generic looking charaters since you're limited in what you can make with those.

Personally I prefer drawn 2D art over 3D stuff even if it is not that great looking. Another option to look into might be pixel art if you think you can do it.

Speaking of pixel art something I would recommend if you can do is to have custom tiles and character sprites. Many games use the same tilesets and characters and it kind of gets boring and repetitive after a while so custom art would make your game stand out from the others for example look up Stray Cat Crossing, To The Moon or Pocket Mirror three very beautiful non-adult games made in RPGMaker.
If you go this way you might not even need CG at all look up NTRPG or NTRPG 2 on this forum a game that uses custom character sprites for events instead of CG and if you are a really good writer you might not even need that look up some of Sierra Lee's work on this forum.

Writing is something everyone is very picky about on this forum and is the one thing that people will not forgive if done wrong. Bad art is more acceptable than bad writing so that is something you should focus on.
I see some potential in your story but it depends on how well you can make it. One thing that you will need is a proof reader since from your post was kind of obvious you are not a native english speaker.

Finally I want to say that development is not easy and will take time and it will be frustrating so you should start small and keep at it and I don't mean start with the first scene of the game.
Starting small means for example starting with a black screen then add a single tile then add an animated character then learn to move it then interact with other objects, add some dialogue and so on... keep adding small things and learning new things while making sure you remember how everything else works.

This was really long but hopefully it helped you get some ideas on how to continue from here on out.

Thanks, man. Appreciate the thought and advice.
Yeah, I'm not a native speaker, alright... My bad...
I even wonder whether I could write a good story or whatnot. But, I will take that advice of yours to start something small first.

Making a text based sounds intriguing though. I know full well with Sierra Lee's works. It's a quite the read and storytelling, I tell you.
Well, the problem is probably going to be whether or not I could make the reader visualize the story with mere words...
That's going to be my challenge by far.

Anyway, thanks again for the help, man.

 

[Catapo]

Thanks, man. Appreciate the thought and advice.
Yeah, I'm not a native speaker, alright... My bad...
I even wonder whether I could write a good story or whatnot. But, I will take that advice of yours to start something small first.

Making a text based sounds intriguing though. I know full well with Sierra Lee's works. It's a quite the read and storytelling, I tell you.
Well, the problem is probably going to be whether or not I could make the reader visualize the story with mere words...
That's going to be my challenge by far.

Anyway, thanks again for the help, man.

That's why I also mentioned you should check the NTRPG games because they do a good job making you visualize the events without using CGs just some custom sprites

 

[Canto Forte]

From a player's perspective:

If you want a game, you need proper GUI and places to be and things to do. A game needs mechanics for walking/fighting/mini games - you have to give players tools to navigate a proper realm, be it two caves and some under water dome city.

If you want a VN (visual novel) you mainly pose characters in different scenes and play them in succession with text running on the bottom.

For reference, you could try and see different works by same developer first in RPGM and then in Ren'py so you can effectively see the good and the bad of porting the same story over different game engines (lust town by

You must be registered to see the links

is here both in RPGM version and inRen'Py version).

There are VNs made in Unreal - check Cyndy: A porn adventure by DreamBig Games.
If you want to see VN in RPGM with custom everything you could check out Jekyll and Hyde by
Offshore
Adventures of Willy by Nenad sports proper models for walking and activities between scenes, walk animations, animated character stances (blink, turn head, change stance ...).

As any other player, my golden standards are some of the popular games here (lust epidemic with custom character models, a peasant's quest with proper game mechanics, A new life with proper scenes) but also other great games like Adventures of Willy with proper maps and animations.

Of course, other engines have huge advantages if you can make 3D models - some say you could effectively take them out of DAZ and just slap them into Unreal or Unity and those engines just do all the hard work of posing them and creating the story from within the game.

What i would like to see is a proper GUI - there are RPGM games out there with menus so convoluted you lose interest. Also a fun prologue whre you lay out what it is the MC is actually doing in the game (MC lives at X, MC works at Y, map is 'M' button, Quest log is 'B' button, as some games just lack all and any direction and expect praise)

There have to be quests and stuff to cool down after every successful run (collectibles to find and turn in to get scenes with love interest, pieces of clothing to make beautiful clothes) and get you bearings, realize what was the scene and plan the path forward.

My advice would be to just plan the quests and then draw out what your 3D rendered scenes are before, during and after every quest. I guess you could just make the game all pixels using out of the box models and then you could even release it like an early alpha to see if story holds together in the mean time working on actual scenes once the actual game is thought through and you iron out any inconsistencies. The game Dark lord's trip comes to mind.

I want to stress out that it matters if it is a game or a VN.

A game you can play and have fun just by gaming. Find your unique style that matches your hardware and skill, pour everything in RPGM and get your masterpiece.

A VN is pure story telling with pictures to illustrate the words and get readers into more reading.

A VN could very well be a 5000 pages book with 5 drawings. It follows the story and you can pretty much just add in what renders you have to slap stick it into fruition.
Good luck with what ever you decide to do, just also look at As asin Cre ed ,
red de ad rede mpti on, un char ted - just to enjoy what a real good game looks/feels/plays like in terms of GUI, UI, narration, text boxes and other possible annoyances if done wrong.

 

[lobotomist]

1.- if you wanna use daz, you might wanna try octane, i think it is radeon compatible. There should be some posts on here for it.
2.- check yanfly's plugins for rpg maker.

3.- Was gonna suggest last sovereign, but I see you are a man of culture

 

[Winterfire]

I did not read everything so I do not know if it has been mentioned already but avoid making giant maps; Always add what is necessary, you want to have as much empty space as possible.

Also avoid making the same mistake I did and either put custom movement speed or make sure the player moves reasonably fast.