Tips for new creator

[twiztid]

The games that have the biggest followings usually have the best graphics. It's the first thing people see and how they decide to even download your game. I will literally just scroll down to look at the screenshots before even reading the description and I know many people are like me.

Here are some specific graphics things that apply to Daz3D (Because that's your choice for your game):
* More render cycles is better than less. You might be trying to hide lower render cycles with an artistic filter, and I guess this could work but I 90% of the time devs do this I see their forums fill up with mean comments and they wind up giving up. When I compare very popular games with average popular games, one thing I usually notice is the very popular game will use even more render cycles for an even clearer image than the average popular game.
* Color Harmony - you can find out more about this by reading up on the "Mother color" but it looks like you're doing decent from those renders.
* 3 point lighting when it makes sense - rim lights can make characters pop. Be flexible with lighting instead of only using them where they really would be. This is what high budget movies do for pretty much every shot. They try to make it look somewhat plausible for the scene, but it's almost always 3 point lighting or something similar with artificial lights to optimize the lighting.
* Interesting expressions - non symmetrical expressions at least some of the time can make the characters feel more alive and natural.
* 1920 by 1080 resolution over any smaller resolution.
* Be carful not to over compress your images, which reduces quality. Sure you can use webp to save space but If your game is still under 1GB there's no reason to ramp up the compression slider.


Here's some other things I personally like:
* I personally love sound effects and appropriate use of music. Too much music can get tiring, but around 30% to 50% of scenes covered by music that matches the feel is nice, as well as sound effects. I'll give up playing a game if it has zero sound or music.
* I don't like MC's that are weak or spineless.
* I prefer to see the characters facial expression change for every new page in dialogue. It could be a repeated if needed, such as having two happy expressions and two sad ones alternating but if I don't see their faces change, they don't feel alive to me and it doesn't feel like they're the ones talking, it just feels separated and disjointed.


Story Tips:
* Don't say the exact same thing with different wording multiple times in a row. That can get boring and cause the player to skip through.
* Think about the different speaking styles of your different characters. Do they speak in short choppy sentences or long flowy ones. Are they visually dominant or auditorily dominants: Example "That sounds like you don't like carrots" vs "I see you don't like carrots." What are their favorite words and expressions? Do they speak in a fast high pitched voice or a slow deep one? Hearing the voice in your head can help the writing come out more believable.
* Don't think of your characters as entirely one thing. No one is 100% mean all the time. Every one has tendencies but different sides to them that can come out in different situations and with different people. This is more of a personal preference perhaps, but don't like it when a character feels very one dimensional.
* Don't force your characters to do or say things. This is a tip I heard from Steven King and a few other authors but I think it can help you write more natural dialogue and story. It basically amounts to listening and waiting to see what will happen (in your imagination) instead of dictating it exactly.
* As far as "Over done things", those are just what people enjoy, which is why they get done so much. Some will bitch and complain, and others will love it. I'd highly recommend doing the kind of story and setting that you most emotionally connect with because that's what you will be able to write the best, which will make a bigger difference than weather it's a common trope or not.


Use Renpy

Players are much less likely to play your game if you don't make in renpy. Myself as well. This is because we don't know what to expect as far as save quality, roll back, loading speed, and all the other high quality things you get for free with renpy.

As far as sex scenes...

What I've seen many devs do is have quicker sex scenes for one or a couple characters in the beginning so they at least have that tag and don't loose people who won't download it until it gets that tag, but then have more emotional development before the sex scenes for the main characters. Also, try to write as much as you can for the sex scenes. People usually aren't happy with very short sex scenes, myself included.

This is solid advice, I feel like most devs don't put enough focus on the Mc and Lis everyday life story to build the story. When I get invested in a VN I want to know how they got there, what drove the actions.

 

[Deleted member 1536527]

This hits home. I honestly feel the same as you but GPU limitation is an issue, renders either take too long or is limited by my VRAM. Same thing with light bounces, I've been keeping it at a 10 to optimize recourses. Ideally I'd like to work with best result.
I've been trying to find some compromise with artistic effects myself. Guess I'll have to wait and find how people take to it.

Well regarding this, one absolute life saver is the AI denoisers. You can find them on here. I think there is an Nvidia and an Intel one. I ran some tests and the Intel one seems to produce slightly better results. Its by no means a replacement for just more render samples. But if you lack hardware/processing power this is definitely the way to go and on top of that saves a huge amount of time.

Try to render your scenes at twice the resolution you usually do for roughly half the amount of time. Make sure your scenes are well lit, render them till you think its "good enough". And then pass that baby on through the denoiser and it'll get rid of all of the remaining noise and fireflies decently well. (Though if you have some skin details like freckles etc. and its not very well lit, it might get rid of those as well). Once that's done, downscale the image to the intended resolution and you're done.

I've been trying not to limit characters to just one facet of their personality but it does get hard to translate to this medium. Definitely something to really improve on..

One thing I just wanted ask (and this is just one amateur to another), what does your development pipeline look like? Do you first think up of an idea, then write it up completely and then finally get to the art/rendering? And if so how do you maintain the structure? Or do you do it all in a mix, like rendering, thinking about changing something, then writing something new and rendering that? This part I find I struggle with the most, idk if I have fucking adhd or smthing, its like I get stuck on the writing/idea part and then I don't know what to do next, then I start playing around with renders to get more ideas, get side tracked and then its chaos, nothing gets done .

 

[Case53]

Well regarding this, one absolute life saver is the AI denoisers. You can find them on here. I think there is an Nvidia and an Intel one. I ran some tests and the Intel one seems to produce slightly better results. Its by no means a replacement for just more render samples. But if you lack hardware/processing power this is definitely the way to go and on top of that saves a huge amount of time.

Try to render your scenes at twice the resolution you usually do for roughly half the amount of time. Make sure your scenes are well lit, render them till you think its "good enough". And then pass that baby on through the denoiser and it'll get rid of all of the remaining noise and fireflies decently well. (Though if you have some skin details like freckles etc. and its not very well lit, it might get rid of those as well). Once that's done, downscale the image to the intended resolution and you're done.

Well damn.. I've just been using the reduce noise filter on photoshop for my needs so far. I'll definitely checkout the AI alternatives!

One thing I just wanted ask (and this is just one amateur to another), what does your development pipeline look like? Do you first think up of an idea, then write it up completely and then finally get to the art/rendering? And if so how do you maintain the structure? Or do you do it all in a mix, like rendering, thinking about changing something, then writing something new and rendering that? This part I find I struggle with the most, idk if I have fucking adhd or smthing, its like I get stuck on the writing/idea part and then I don't know what to do next, then I start playing around with renders to get more ideas, get side tracked and then its chaos, nothing gets done .

I'd honestly hesitate to even call myself an amateur yet. Been playing around on daz3d for about 2 weeks or so.. but damn dude.. it's fascinating how eerily similar this is to my "work process". I've tended to jump in and out of scenes just tweaking little things or making an addition frame, really cant seem to go about anything chronologically.

One thing I decided to do early on was to sketch a simple flowchart connecting the main story, adding little notes as I am progressing, using arrows to connect where each choice will branch off and if they converge in to particular scene. It's not been a clean process but seems to function for now... really do need to work on that don't we?

Are you working on something as well? If so best of luck!

 

[Case53]

Maybe we can help each other out?
I've been toying around with the idea of creating something myself - just for fun. With 35+ years of programming experience, the Renpy code seems fairly straight forward. Also, I have been posting stories and doing captions online for about ten years. I had 50k+ followers on tumblr before it went to hell. I have since built up 40k+ on reddit.

..more I learn, the more I realize how much I need to learn.

I really love the first render! thanks for sharing. I can relate so much to that sentiment everyday it feels like I've learnt something more and just want to go back and scrap older stuff..

I don't think I'm ready to start collaborating rn actually. If you had asked a few days earlier definitely.. but am finally making some progress on the story and am probably going to see if I can meet my own deadline for now. Maybe in a week or two then?

 

[twiztid]

Well regarding this, one absolute life saver is the AI denoisers. You can find them on here. I think there is an Nvidia and an Intel one. I ran some tests and the Intel one seems to produce slightly better results. Its by no means a replacement for just more render samples. But if you lack hardware/processing power this is definitely the way to go and on top of that saves a huge amount of time.

Try to render your scenes at twice the resolution you usually do for roughly half the amount of time. Make sure your scenes are well lit, render them till you think its "good enough". And then pass that baby on through the denoiser and it'll get rid of all of the remaining noise and fireflies decently well. (Though if you have some skin details like freckles etc. and its not very well lit, it might get rid of those as well). Once that's done, downscale the image to the intended resolution and you're done.



One thing I just wanted ask (and this is just one amateur to another), what does your development pipeline look like? Do you first think up of an idea, then write it up completely and then finally get to the art/rendering? And if so how do you maintain the structure? Or do you do it all in a mix, like rendering, thinking about changing something, then writing something new and rendering that? This part I find I struggle with the most, idk if I have fucking adhd or smthing, its like I get stuck on the writing/idea part and then I don't know what to do next, then I start playing around with renders to get more ideas, get side tracked and then its chaos, nothing gets done .

Well, I got a scriptwriting program that movie makers use and I type out my plot, and dialog and try to follow it as much as I can. It works kinda like keynotes it helps keep track of the paths you take.

 

[Case53]

Well, I got a scriptwriting program that movie makers use and I type out my plot, and dialog and try to follow it as much as I can. It works kinda like keynotes it helps keep track of the paths you take.

Thanks that sounds like a bloody brilliant idea. I think my DM uses something similar for our DnD campaigns

 

[clowns234]

I really love the first render! thanks for sharing. I can relate so much to that sentiment everyday it feels like I've learnt something more and just want to go back and scrap older stuff..

I don't think I'm ready to start collaborating rn actually. If you had asked a few days earlier definitely.. but am finally making some progress on the story and am probably going to see if I can meet my own deadline for now. Maybe in a week or two then?

All good.

 

[Deleted member 1536527]

One thing I decided to do early on was to sketch a simple flowchart connecting the main story, adding little notes as I am progressing, using arrows to connect where each choice will branch off and if they converge in to particular scene. It's not been a clean process but seems to function for now... really do need to work on that don't we?

Are you working on something as well? If so best of luck!

Yeah I too feel like I need some sort of exteranl help/tool to keep track of everything, my head is mess. I played around with some mind map stuff but didn't really pan out. And yeah I've been toying with something I wanna do on and off, for an embarrassingly long time. Longer than I'd like to admit. And thnx, best of luck to you as well.

Well, I got a scriptwriting program that movie makers use and I type out my plot, and dialog and try to follow it as much as I can. It works kinda like keynotes it helps keep track of the paths you take.

Would you mind telling me the name of the program? And also if you have any other programs in mind that can help me organize stuff. I've been looking for some tool like this for a while, I tried some random online flowchart tools, and some dialogue tools but couldn't really find any good ones. Usually the ones that represent the script/dialogue in a visual way work the best for me.

 

[homebrew]

I use a script-writer-software myself (called Papyrus) and it's a huge help. It has some kind of white board where I can put all my ideas and shuffling them around until they fall into places. It's also helpful to set a kind of frame where the story is going to. Like in the first episode you want to introduce this and that character. But beside that, I'm constantly tinkering with the stuff I already have and then slowly progress forward. It's usually when I'm doing my running that I have an idea how a scene could be improved. And I started "thinking" in dialogues as this is the vehicle you will transport your story with. The renders are just a visual help.

Additionally, keep track of your characters. What is their background and stuff like that. You don't want to mix stuff later in the game...