If you were to create a non commerical/free game, how would you do it. Since it's free, would there be any limitations to what software/assets you could use? And what would be the easiest way if you primarily want to focus on the story/writting?
if its 100% free. then it depend of your own budget.
if you ok to put money in it, you can go in ren'py, unity or unreal and buy assets (using DAZ or else for ren'py)
if your budget is zero or if you dont want to put money on it, then i recommend ren'py and using drawing ( if you know a minimum how to draw) that wont cost you anything except time and sometime it can be amazing.
notice that unity can be used for free as long you game is free (personal version of unity is ok to share game as long your game is 100% free).
but that also depend of your knowledge on these engine.
in simple, its just about YOU, then about the software.
you know programming ?
you know drawing ?
you know coding ?
if you say NO to all thoses question, then you need to learn at least 2 of them before starting a game.
unity and unreal will be pretty limited as assets are all pay (mostly), free ones are limited and wont allow good stuff. ( you can still draw for unity like in ren'py, but its useless to use unity for such a game when ren'py can do it too more easily)
ren'py = free 2D
unity = free version 3D
unreal = free version 3D
unity assets = free or pay (free are very limited)
unreal assets = mostly pay, same as unity
ren'py assets = depend of you, using DAz is pay, drawing is free. ren'py only use pics, no real 3D only 2D.
(you can always use pirated stuff,but it's dangerous out of the closest place like here)
pass that, you should put your best into the story first. completing the story first will release lots of stress (no out of idea in middle of game). once its good to go, you focus on creating the environment and stuff of your story and recreate it visualy.
if you ok to put money in it, you can go in ren'py, unity or unreal and buy assets (using DAZ or else for ren'py)
if your budget is zero or if you dont want to put money on it, then i recommend ren'py and using drawing ( if you know a minimum how to draw) that wont cost you anything except time and sometime it can be amazing.
notice that unity can be used for free as long you game is free (personal version of unity is ok to share game as long your game is 100% free).
but that also depend of your knowledge on these engine.
in simple, its just about YOU, then about the software.
you know programming ?
you know drawing ?
you know coding ?
if you say NO to all thoses question, then you need to learn at least 2 of them before starting a game.
unity and unreal will be pretty limited as assets are all pay (mostly), free ones are limited and wont allow good stuff. ( you can still draw for unity like in ren'py, but its useless to use unity for such a game when ren'py can do it too more easily)
ren'py = free 2D
unity = free version 3D
unreal = free version 3D
unity assets = free or pay (free are very limited)
unreal assets = mostly pay, same as unity
ren'py assets = depend of you, using DAz is pay, drawing is free. ren'py only use pics, no real 3D only 2D.
(you can always use pirated stuff,but it's dangerous out of the closest place like here)
pass that, you should put your best into the story first. completing the story first will release lots of stress (no out of idea in middle of game). once its good to go, you focus on creating the environment and stuff of your story and recreate it visualy.
Well I would most certainly be using renpy, programming isn't the issue. I was mostly wondering if I was free to use any pirated assets/software if the game was completely free. Since it would be free I was looking towards making something that is presentable but with the least amount of effort/cost on the graphical side of things.
in legal way, no, you cant use pirated assets in a game you publicly share even if its free ( it's still pirating ). you need to buy the one you use in the game, right now or in futur, to avoid troubles. (never know)
but if you share it only on f95 for exempl, then i see no problem to use pirated stuff.
technically every dev who use DAZ to render and have patreon or such, NEED to pay for the assets. some use assets before buying them (for money reason or just testing purpose), but in final, its better to buy them to avoid troubles.
(i pay myself for what i use, soo i can tell you, it quickly grow in price)
same goes for software obviously, such as photoshop or else. (even tho, i never pay for photoshop anymore as the price is absurdly too high, but i dont use it that much anyway)
but well, its all about security and responsability.
- Jun 17, 2017
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Hmmm...
So there's a 'class' of Assets for 3D modeling programs called 'personal use only'. Most game developers avoid these IF they are worried about legal stuff, and look for 'unrestricted use' or 'commercial use OK'.
But, since you are making a free game, as long as you aren't using it to market another product (game, etc.), in my mind that falls under personal use. Lots of people share art on the web via forums like this one, and in my mind as long as such art is not being used to generate income or promote other games, you should be OK using this.
Of course, some of the 'personal use' only stuff is licensed as such because the item in question is recreating another property (say a character from Supergirl, Robotech, etc. you get the idea), so with those, yeah that falls into the murky world of fair use... you are usually better off just avoiding those, but some people will still go there. It's a bit of a minefield though,... you never know when someone will invoke DMCA or something.
Do keep in mind that, even though you may only share your game or comic here, other sites such as SVS will often grab stuff here and offer it on their sites for download. So that's a double edged sword. You get noticed by more people, but then you've increased the chance of getting noticed by the legal types. And you have pretty much no control over that. Those other sites grab whatever they think is interesting, so that they can increase the traffic on their own sites. Hence, why avoiding the 'fair use' question by not using things based on other people's intellectual property, etc. is relevant.
No doubt this is one reason why we continue to see so many Simpsons based sex games ending up with abandoned tags around here. But I digress.
Anyways, something to think about.
Back to your question:
As to releasing free games, several people here do release free games, and it's a good way to get your feet wet in the world of adult game design, and maybe to learn new things like 3D rendering, Renpy coding, etc..
Others have already covered the 'assets acquired via other means' thing. This being a buccaneer forum and all, yeah that is done a bit around here, but you are rolling your dice and taking your chances. The odds may be very low that someone will notice, but low is not zero...
There are a few freebies threads here on F95Zone that can help you steer clear of that if that's a concern for you though. There is a LOT of free stuff out there that you can legally acquire and use to tell the story you want to tell/make your game.
Best of luck! This community is in general very supportive of new adult game designers (we do have a few grumpy people of course, all forums do), so don't be afraid to ask 'stupid questions'. DO check out the sticky threads on this subject in various parts of this forum first, though. It may save you some time, as they may have a lot of the answers you are looking for.
So there's a 'class' of Assets for 3D modeling programs called 'personal use only'. Most game developers avoid these IF they are worried about legal stuff, and look for 'unrestricted use' or 'commercial use OK'.
But, since you are making a free game, as long as you aren't using it to market another product (game, etc.), in my mind that falls under personal use. Lots of people share art on the web via forums like this one, and in my mind as long as such art is not being used to generate income or promote other games, you should be OK using this.
Of course, some of the 'personal use' only stuff is licensed as such because the item in question is recreating another property (say a character from Supergirl, Robotech, etc. you get the idea), so with those, yeah that falls into the murky world of fair use... you are usually better off just avoiding those, but some people will still go there. It's a bit of a minefield though,... you never know when someone will invoke DMCA or something.
Do keep in mind that, even though you may only share your game or comic here, other sites such as SVS will often grab stuff here and offer it on their sites for download. So that's a double edged sword. You get noticed by more people, but then you've increased the chance of getting noticed by the legal types. And you have pretty much no control over that. Those other sites grab whatever they think is interesting, so that they can increase the traffic on their own sites. Hence, why avoiding the 'fair use' question by not using things based on other people's intellectual property, etc. is relevant.
No doubt this is one reason why we continue to see so many Simpsons based sex games ending up with abandoned tags around here. But I digress.
Anyways, something to think about.
Back to your question:
As to releasing free games, several people here do release free games, and it's a good way to get your feet wet in the world of adult game design, and maybe to learn new things like 3D rendering, Renpy coding, etc..
Others have already covered the 'assets acquired via other means' thing. This being a buccaneer forum and all, yeah that is done a bit around here, but you are rolling your dice and taking your chances. The odds may be very low that someone will notice, but low is not zero...
There are a few freebies threads here on F95Zone that can help you steer clear of that if that's a concern for you though. There is a LOT of free stuff out there that you can legally acquire and use to tell the story you want to tell/make your game.
Best of luck! This community is in general very supportive of new adult game designers (we do have a few grumpy people of course, all forums do), so don't be afraid to ask 'stupid questions'. DO check out the sticky threads on this subject in various parts of this forum first, though. It may save you some time, as they may have a lot of the answers you are looking for.
I was probably just going to use pirated daz assets, can anyone even know if you baught them or no, and/or would they even care if you aren't making any money from them?
welll DAZ will know as you have an account in there.
but they cant know your name everywhere ( unless you use exact same name).
its just question of luck, like say before. at any moment, anybody can ask you some proofs, such as DAz or patreon or whatever.
that's mostly happen if your game is very very popular. but meh, if a dev who make thousand $$ per month dont even dare to put some money to buy stuff, its his problem lol.
and if they want to mess with you, yes, they will care if you make money or not.
just say, if you want, you can use pirate stuff, build your game and then buy the stuff you put in later. i bet tons of devs make this (shit i even see sometime some dev who just start learning game using a new char that cost hundred of bucks. i doubt they just buy them like that, even more when game have tons of chars. unless they use same technic as me to buy some "general" stuff that can be modifyed pretty easily, such as a script or something that allow some decent change to chars, that help to not buy tons of chars and just use 1 char to create 3 or more different characters out of it)
well, they kind of like video games you see... the devloper wont give a care if you make it free or not, they will sue DMCA you if they want/can for using their stuff illegaly. but well.. its all about luck. (and money)