Stuff/Programs I need to start making my own game?

[Dumm0]

Before I begin with the post, I'm fairly new, if this is the wrong place to post please move it to the right one.

I've been lurking around the site for a while now and I've seen and played so many games from here that I want to make one myself, but don't know any basics. I want to start with something easy, like a visual novel. I installed DAZ3D but don't know how to properly use it, I don't know any basic coding to mess with Ren'Py and I'm decent at writing stuff.

What I'm trying to say is, what is the basic stuff I need to start making my own +18 Visual Novel?

 

[caLTD]

Thats the basic stuff. In the Daz everything was ready. Also Renpy was based one best dynamic scripting language which makes you produce faster results.

It was like driving cars. Yeah you had an automatic one how ever you still need to know how to drive car.

 

[SpikeGames]

From difficult to easy:
Google 'How to ... in Daz' > Try it on default scenes/objects/models > Understand how lighting works > And if you understand some basics - download bundles [environments/lights/characters etcetc. or create your own]
f95zone.com/forums/asset-releases.95/ - here, and also
f95zone.com/threads/how-to-install-daz-zips-using-dim.6045/
f95zone.com/threads/3d-software-help-and-assistence-ask-away.11702/
If this seems difficult, you can try this:
f95zone.com/threads/honey-select-illusion.1317/ - Easy environments/lights/characters.
Or find a person who will help you with 3DArt - f95zone.com/threads/daz3d-art-show-us-your-dazskill.4764/
Also you can try to use RPGMaker for VN. It looks much easier then renpy... for me.

 

[8873672413434]

If you have just downloaded DAZ, I'd probably suggest taking a few months to learn how to use it, As it not just about making the character/scene then hitting render. Lighting is a massive thing that changes the looks of how a scene is. There's alot of Youtube tutorials for DAZ, teaching you the basics. However, If you want to purely learn about making adult scenes, Then head over to Affects3D, They have 20+ Free tutorials for you to watch/gollow along and it's explained quite simply.

Good luck.

 

[Deleted member 167032]

The biggest challenge is "me" time. Know this right from the start. THERE will be no more "me" time, period.
Rendering will become your life. Hours of it and your brain will constantly be thinking what next ? How, when, where and why etc...
If you can live with this then start off watching the DAZ youtube videos by the Daz devs themselves. Also a guy called Jay Verluis is very good at explaining.
For RenPy get a Lemmasoft account which you'll use a lot. There are some very good RenPy/Pathon coders here that will help.
Best of luck, nice knowing you...

 

[Quonix]

Also, if you just jump into it with no plan it will probably get abandoned sooner or later. Make the decisions beforehand, is it going to be kinetic or sandbox? Maybe a lot of choices(or few choices) with no freedom of movement. If it's a sandbox how do you want the MC to move? Clicking on doors? Clicking on buttons? If you do clicking on doors and you also have items that can be used like TV or Laptop then you have to make those as click on items too not buttons, in order to have consistency. Then you have to decide the UI, how do you want the buttons to look like? What icons to use for which kind of menu, the color of the text, the way dialogue is handled, talking heads with few background images or just a lot of complete images to show what is happening, how will you have the story progress? Plenty of NSFW content within the first few versions or will you have the player work for it? If he has to work for it you definitely need stats, what stats and how will you use them? How will those stats increase? There's a lot of thought that goes into it if you are seriously planning on making a game, deciding those things beforehand is what makes the difference between a good game and a bad one.

 

[delguy]

Thanks everyone. Good insight. I have played couple of games here. I am also thinking on how to create my first game. Please suggest what is best to use- Some Options that I have are Maya, Blender, Daz Carrara & Studio, Keyshot, and Unity. Can get either of these softwares. Also I can write the stuff and story. But I am a beginner at creating this stuff so please suggest what I can do.

 

[MaxCarna]

I believe that before you start rendering images, you should have a nice story to tell. Twine seems great to help with multiple paths stories, and it allow you to prototype the navigation for your game.

Best way to learn Daz is practicing, there dozen of ways to make the same thing. Just for lights for example:
1. You can use built-in lights like spot lights, linear point lights, distant lights...
2. You can turn surfaces emissives just going to the surface panel. The default emission color is black, just change to white or some bright color, adjust instensity. For example, in a internal scene, you can make the whole ceiling became a source of light.
3. You can play with rendering parameters, like tone mapping, to change the whole scene light.
4. You can buy ready products, like ghost lights, to configure your scenes.
Make one scene after the other, without commitment, one hour you will find the best way for you.

For the programming, you can make it even with pure HTML, if you ever worked with web development. Tlaero made a engine called Adventure Creator that can be very handfull for someone that is beginning:

You must be registered to see the links

I have a complete Unity course waiting for me, but still didn't had the time to see how it goes.

 

[Filippa2000]

Before I begin with the post, I'm fairly new, if this is the wrong place to post please move it to the right one.

I've been lurking around the site for a while now and I've seen and played so many games from here that I want to make one myself, but don't know any basics. I want to start with something easy, like a visual novel. I installed DAZ3D but don't know how to properly use it, I don't know any basic coding to mess with Ren'Py and I'm decent at writing stuff.

What I'm trying to say is, what is the basic stuff I need to start making my own +18 Visual Novel?

PM me

 

[lancelotdulak]

Im going to disagree with almost all of these folks.
To create this kind of game your barebones needs are
a: Daz
b: renpy or unity (or ue4 if you want to put a maserati engine on a gocart)
c: assets or the ability to create them. Assets are available in lots of places. To create them you need something like blender/rhino etc and Marvelous designer (a brilliant program thats less mentioned here because you need to spend a lot of time getting good at it to use it well)

Dont "put off making characters til you have designed your entire game!" or "spend months learning daz".. I currently probably have a year in daz and for 'easay to use' software im always discovering new things. Id suggest installing daz and making some cool scenes and whatnot. (I can literally spend all day every day doing just that and having fun). While youre doing it make a plan for your game. The premise, the scenes, the choices the interface. Dont try to make your "Magnum opus".. that huge brilliant game.. you'll never finish it . This is my biggest flaw. Try to build a small game. Try to constantly improve your characters and scenes. And above all else the second its not enjoyable change what youre doing and focus on the fun parts or you'll quit.

 

[Funbag]

Even without basic coding knowledge you can make a lot of headway with Ren'Py. I recommend a few things for learning this, first off is the Ren'Py documentation (everybody always skips this for some reason), second being the Lemmasoft forums (specifically the Ren'Py cookbook section), and last being YouTube tutorials. I personally enjoyed SLim Games & Elaine's tutorials respectively as they are both very helpful, with Elaine's going into more detail.

 

[AxelN]

First of all: making games without writing code is the way to nowhere. You can't to make a good game w/o writing even a single line of code (dialogues is not a code. i am talking bout real code which extends functionality of the system you are using in) Because if you are using only features which implemented in your game engine by default - the game won't look different from any other who doing the same way

I believe renpy is not the best way to do games. Python is a good language but writing a VN w/o visual scripting will give you headaches. If you are planning to bind your future with game dev you better to learn C# and unity or C++ and ue4. Unity is easier than ue4 and c sharp is pretty simple if you learn it in the right way (i mean w/o stackoverflow driven development).

Also unity has cool free visual scripting framework - xNode. It doen't implement any internal game logic for you, its just a system that handles alot of internal processes like drawing nodes, connections, building graphs inside unity. So you can implement your own visual tree of dialogs aka visual scripting tool that will look like a blueprints in unreal engine 4.

 

[Droid Productions]

> What I'm trying to say is, what is the basic stuff I need to start making my own +18 Visual Novel?

Quick path? Boot up DAZ, grab some free models from here, get this lighting setup to save yourself headaches in the short run, create two interesting characters.

The grab RenPy. Download Atom for editing, and grab a simple game you're enjoying. Rip the code out of that and spend some time learning (if the archive is compressed,

You must be registered to see the links

). Then write a simple story; don't write your DREAM story, just write a simple one. Finish it. Show it to friends. Spend some time kicking yourself over all the stupid mistakes you made.

Then go and do it again. But this time better.

Good luck

 

[khumak]

Personally, I found modding to be a great way to learn what I needed. Find a game you like and create a mod for it and you'd be surprised how much you'll learn.

For Daz it mostly comes down to practice. Posing is really hard at first but gets a lot easier with practice. Same with lighting. RenPy is pretty easy to learn as well.

 

[recreation]

You guys realize that this thread is quite.... old?

 

[lancelotdulak]

First of all: making games without writing code is the way to nowhere. You can't to make a good game w/o writing even a single line of code (dialogues is not a code. i am talking bout real code which extends functionality of the system you are using in) Because if you are using only features which implemented in your game engine by default - the game won't look different from any other who doing the same way

I believe renpy is not the best way to do games. Python is a good language but writing a VN w/o visual scripting will give you headaches. If you are planning to bind your future with game dev you better to learn C# and unity or C++ and ue4. Unity is easier than ue4 and c sharp is pretty simple if you learn it in the right way (i mean w/o stackoverflow driven development).

Also unity has cool free visual scripting framework - xNode. It doen't implement any internal game logic for you, its just a system that handles alot of internal processes like drawing nodes, connections, building graphs inside unity. So you can implement your own visual tree of dialogs aka visual scripting tool that will look like a blueprints in unreal engine 4.

youre wrong. 95% of the games on here are built by people who know nothing about programming. If you join the UE4 and Unity facebook groups you'll see people creating amazing thing. And EASILY 80% of them dont program in a single language.

Before you start.. my first language was Basic in about 1983 on an atari 400, then Forth, then C, Then c++, perl... a shitload of others ive forgotten

 

[Droid Productions]

youre wrong. 95% of the games on here are built by people who know nothing about programming. If you join the UE4 and Unity facebook groups you'll see people creating amazing thing. And EASILY 80% of them dont program in a single language.

Before you start.. my first language was Basic in about 1983 on an atari 400, then Forth, then C, Then c++, perl... a shitload of others ive forgotten

Atari 400, ye fancy git... all I had was a C64

Good times, typing in listings from those old magazines, then banging your head trying to work out where the typo was.

And yeah, since then more languages than I can easily remember. The bulk of the time has been C++ though, and more recently C#/Unity for Love of Magic and Making Movies.

 

[AxelN]

youre wrong. 95% of the games on here are built by people who know nothing about programming. If you join the UE4 and Unity facebook groups you'll see people creating amazing thing. And EASILY 80% of them dont program in a single language.

Before you start.. my first language was Basic in about 1983 on an atari 400, then Forth, then C, Then c++, perl... a shitload of others ive forgotten

Yea, thats what i am talking about. 95% of the games here looks the same. Just because ppl aren't trying or don't know how to improve quality of their renders\lightings\programming skills\etc. Not trying to offense anybody, just telling my personal opinion.