Totally Green Newbie Game Development Program Advice Saught

[Smegmut]

I've got an idea for a game I'd like to develop, but I know next to nothing about programming, and I (perhaps naively) am hoping there is an easy to use game development program which would allow me to do what I want to do.

The key things I'm looking for are:

- Either a 2D adventure-RPG style, provided that's easy enough to create with nearly 0 coding experience, or a computer novel style game - though aside from unlocking new areas as the game progresses, there is unlikely to be much plot. It's more just about developing a fun way to enjoy porn really.
- Having a few character statistics which vary as the game progresses
- Keeping track of character, and NPC inventory and clothing worn.
- Weather, date, and time
- And, most importantly, either...
- Choose random media files (jpg, or gif, or webm, or mpg, etc...) from a folder in a folder tree
- Or, find keywords in media filenames and select random files to display (again, allowing for any kind of media that may be)


I downloaded and had a look at Godot 4.3 yesterday, and I figure with a bit of tutorial help that would allow me to create the game I'm after. But I'd really, really like it if there was a super-simple freeware alternative with a bunch of pre-made, or easy to generate art included. I guess we all would though, eh?

Cheers,

S.

 

[Nstuff]

So in my experience it always depends on what you wanna make. It sounds like your wanting a purely 2D game such as a Visual Novel or those dating sims or general simulators.

If you're wanting something super simple with assets included there is RPG Maker but it's paid unless you wanna get it unconventionally. The thing about RPGM though is that I found it to be constricting in my gamedev journey. It was nice to mess around with but it was always too complicated to do more advanced comcepts. I also spent more time looking for plugins to do what I wanted than actually making anything. As well, it's kinda hard to replace visuals. If you like the rpg style then it's fine but honestly, if you wanna make a "real game", you'll need your own visuals. And in most cases, you'll hear people talk about RPGM syndrome. Which just means every game looks the same so their not special anymore because the assets and gameplay are so common. Again it was fun to play with and make small fun games but eventually I grew out of it personally. In my opinion, you have to be a real determined and stubborn person to make it work for so long. Though I will note that I learn a lot about coding from RPGM and I things it's a great spot for beginners with no idea what their doing. It teaches you variables, switches which are actually booleans in coding and common events which are actually functions. When you use it for a while and pick up coding, it's not as confusing.


Another good VN based engine is Renpy. Don't let VN fool you, basically, if you wanna make a purely 2D game with no gameplay movement with characters. Then Renpy can probably do it. It's super simple, easy to learn on top of Python already being a super easy language to learn. And that's me having 0 experience in coding as well when I first started. Again Renpy is built specifically for VN type games so if you wanna make 3D games you'll have implement them yourself through coding but it's probably best just to go elsewhere. I would recommend Coding with B and E for renpy and python, he's a great teacher on youtube and underrated in my opinion.


The major boy is Unity because theoretically, if you wanna make it, Unity can do it. 2D, 3D, side scroller, flappy bird, a VN, you can do it all. Though technically you can do it all anyway with regular coding.

My major mistake was going into Unity thinking all I needed was to learn was C# and how to use Unity. Without realizing fully that Unity is just a software/engine with pre built in functions made from code(C++ and C#) to make game making easier. So in most cases, you'll find most people only know how to use certain aspects of the engine and not really know how it works. That was an issue for me. I personally need to know how things work so I can see what method is the best to implement. So I looked to python to learn how to code first before returning to Unity.


Though if you don't care, Unity isn't that hard to learn it just tiresome because there's just so much. C# is a complex language on top of Unity being a huge engine with endless features that it makes my head spin most of the time.

I would also like to note Unity does have a store with plenty of free assets. There's also always assets on itch.io but I heard porn assets are pretty slim. Unreal could also be a good alternative but I haven't even watched a video on that.


I honestly use pygame, though it's not really a game engine, engine. It's just python with more built in functions and features to make game making easier. It's literally all code and python is just super simple that I enjoy using it a lot.


I heard a lot of good things about Godot but I've also heard it has its own language ontop of being new. Though many people reassure that if there is an issue, it gets fixed fast. And content is constantly growing for it everyday. Another thing people brag about is that it's open source. Which just means the code for the engine is available which can make the workflow even easier for coders. Renpy is also open source though "big" engines like Unity and Unreal are not.


Other options could be blueprint engines such as constructor or scratch. They have premade coding blocks for you that you just choose from to implement what you want. You can also add script in most cases. People have made some pretty impressive games using them including 2D side scrollers.


Game Maker is also a popular one but I'm not too familiar with it and I kinda put it down immediately because I got overwhelmed as a beginner nothing on Game Maker though...besides how expensive it is.


One thing I would suggest to look out for is if your plan on selling your games. Engines have different requirements which could result in loss of money on your part if your not careful. As a beginner, you probably aren't looking to do that yet but it's something to keep in mind. I honestly never sell my games so I don't have to deal with that. Instead I make content and have a Patreon and Buy Me a Coffee so I can avoid any problems with my work.


Other options could be CYOA(choose your own adventure) type makers that are similar to blueprints. You could also just use code and build all your our functions and engines. It's sounds overwhelming at first but when you start coding, it's really just tedious to write a bunch of code is all. Though there's plenty of source material to "borrow" and with it all being the same, no one will tell the difference honestly. Sometimes I honestly love using a script editor on my phone and make games on my phone when I don't have access to my PC.


There's plenty of engines of all kinds of features and I'm sure you'll find one to meet your needs. It honestly took me a year to realize I needed to learn how to code while making games instead of trying to force myself to learn Unity and C# and nothing else. Now I can make the casual VN, meme game and sometimes a simulator if I'm really adventurous. If I make anything else, I usually turn to pygame. Id rather make the functions and features at my disposal rather than search and guess what I can and can't do with an engine.


In the end I really just think it depends on your work flow and what you'd rather have at your disposal. Rather it be an VN basics(Renpy) or having the ability to main stream game making as a whole with pre made objects and easy scene viewing(Unity).


From your list you state you want a 2D RPG style game, which I'm inferring is like them old simulator type games or trainer games with nice 2D art. As well as statstics for the player and characters. Inventory system, clothing, time and a way to easily implement any type of media file.

I'll be honest, I don't really know if a game engine that lets you use any type of file. The only one I know is Unity but I'm not too familiar with the subject. But there are definitely engines that are picky about their file types.

As for the other points, those are really base requirements for all simulator type games. Most game engines can implement those things. Time systems can be really repetitive though. Especially since it's always the same thing, I usually just copy some old code or someone elses for time. Other than that it would be really up to you on how you'd like to make games. Since the process of game making is kinda art within itself. Everybody does it differently and the only thing I can really suggest now is getting started with research and learning. Good luck, I hope this helped. Lol it's so long...

 

[FromOtherSpace]

Hi,

- Choose random media files (jpg, or gif, or webm, or mpg, etc...) from a folder in a folder tree
- Or, find keywords in media filenames and select random files to display (again, allowing for any kind of media that may be)

As far as I know, no game engines come with a function which do exactly that but all have everything needed to create your own.

1) A class to browse within a folder and list what it contains (including others folders)
2) A random number generator (to pick something random from those lists)
3) A match pattern (NB I don't know if Renpy and RPGM have this. You may need a lot of if statements within those engine)
4) Many strings operations/test to filter result, exclude some, etc

With those 4 things you can do whatever fit your desire. Matching some data of a character to browse a specific folder (ex : hero is muscular, fetch pics from a muscular folder), pick a random pic from this folder. Choosing a random folder then a pic that contain a specific mood keyword. Etc.

I heard a lot of good things about Godot but I've also heard it has its own language ontop of being new.

True. It's language come on top of C fundations (I don't remember which flavor, I don't use any). You can code with C with one of their official executable and others language with packages. I saw Lua and Python.

 

[Smegmut]

So in my experience it always depends on what you wanna make. It sounds like your wanting a purely 2D game such as a Visual Novel or those dating sims or general simulators.

If you're wanting something super simple with assets included there is RPG Maker but it's paid unless you wanna get it unconventionally. The thing about RPGM though is that I found it to be constricting in my gamedev journey. It was nice to mess around with but it was always too complicated to do more advanced comcepts. I also spent more time looking for plugins to do what I wanted than actually making anything. As well, it's kinda hard to replace visuals. If you like the rpg style then it's fine but honestly, if you wanna make a "real game", you'll need your own visuals. And in most cases, you'll hear people talk about RPGM syndrome. Which just means every game looks the same so their not special anymore because the assets and gameplay are so common. Again it was fun to play with and make small fun games but eventually I grew out of it personally. In my opinion, you have to be a real determined and stubborn person to make it work for so long. Though I will note that I learn a lot about coding from RPGM and I things it's a great spot for beginners with no idea what their doing. It teaches you variables, switches which are actually booleans in coding and common events which are actually functions. When you use it for a while and pick up coding, it's not as confusing.


Another good VN based engine is Renpy. Don't let VN fool you, basically, if you wanna make a purely 2D game with no gameplay movement with characters. Then Renpy can probably do it. It's super simple, easy to learn on top of Python already being a super easy language to learn. And that's me having 0 experience in coding as well when I first started. Again Renpy is built specifically for VN type games so if you wanna make 3D games you'll have implement them yourself through coding but it's probably best just to go elsewhere. I would recommend Coding with B and E for renpy and python, he's a great teacher on youtube and underrated in my opinion.


The major boy is Unity because theoretically, if you wanna make it, Unity can do it. 2D, 3D, side scroller, flappy bird, a VN, you can do it all. Though technically you can do it all anyway with regular coding.

My major mistake was going into Unity thinking all I needed was to learn was C# and how to use Unity. Without realizing fully that Unity is just a software/engine with pre built in functions made from code(C++ and C#) to make game making easier. So in most cases, you'll find most people only know how to use certain aspects of the engine and not really know how it works. That was an issue for me. I personally need to know how things work so I can see what method is the best to implement. So I looked to python to learn how to code first before returning to Unity.


Though if you don't care, Unity isn't that hard to learn it just tiresome because there's just so much. C# is a complex language on top of Unity being a huge engine with endless features that it makes my head spin most of the time.

I would also like to note Unity does have a store with plenty of free assets. There's also always assets on itch.io but I heard porn assets are pretty slim. Unreal could also be a good alternative but I haven't even watched a video on that.


I honestly use pygame, though it's not really a game engine, engine. It's just python with more built in functions and features to make game making easier. It's literally all code and python is just super simple that I enjoy using it a lot.


I heard a lot of good things about Godot but I've also heard it has its own language ontop of being new. Though many people reassure that if there is an issue, it gets fixed fast. And content is constantly growing for it everyday. Another thing people brag about is that it's open source. Which just means the code for the engine is available which can make the workflow even easier for coders. Renpy is also open source though "big" engines like Unity and Unreal are not.


Other options could be blueprint engines such as constructor or scratch. They have premade coding blocks for you that you just choose from to implement what you want. You can also add script in most cases. People have made some pretty impressive games using them including 2D side scrollers.


Game Maker is also a popular one but I'm not too familiar with it and I kinda put it down immediately because I got overwhelmed as a beginner nothing on Game Maker though...besides how expensive it is.


One thing I would suggest to look out for is if your plan on selling your games. Engines have different requirements which could result in loss of money on your part if your not careful. As a beginner, you probably aren't looking to do that yet but it's something to keep in mind. I honestly never sell my games so I don't have to deal with that. Instead I make content and have a Patreon and Buy Me a Coffee so I can avoid any problems with my work.


Other options could be CYOA(choose your own adventure) type makers that are similar to blueprints. You could also just use code and build all your our functions and engines. It's sounds overwhelming at first but when you start coding, it's really just tedious to write a bunch of code is all. Though there's plenty of source material to "borrow" and with it all being the same, no one will tell the difference honestly. Sometimes I honestly love using a script editor on my phone and make games on my phone when I don't have access to my PC.


There's plenty of engines of all kinds of features and I'm sure you'll find one to meet your needs. It honestly took me a year to realize I needed to learn how to code while making games instead of trying to force myself to learn Unity and C# and nothing else. Now I can make the casual VN, meme game and sometimes a simulator if I'm really adventurous. If I make anything else, I usually turn to pygame. Id rather make the functions and features at my disposal rather than search and guess what I can and can't do with an engine.


In the end I really just think it depends on your work flow and what you'd rather have at your disposal. Rather it be an VN basics(Renpy) or having the ability to main stream game making as a whole with pre made objects and easy scene viewing(Unity).


From your list you state you want a 2D RPG style game, which I'm inferring is like them old simulator type games or trainer games with nice 2D art. As well as statstics for the player and characters. Inventory system, clothing, time and a way to easily implement any type of media file.

I'll be honest, I don't really know if a game engine that lets you use any type of file. The only one I know is Unity but I'm not too familiar with the subject. But there are definitely engines that are picky about their file types.

As for the other points, those are really base requirements for all simulator type games. Most game engines can implement those things. Time systems can be really repetitive though. Especially since it's always the same thing, I usually just copy some old code or someone elses for time. Other than that it would be really up to you on how you'd like to make games. Since the process of game making is kinda art within itself. Everybody does it differently and the only thing I can really suggest now is getting started with research and learning. Good luck, I hope this helped. Lol it's so long...

Nstuff, that's obviously a completely comprehensive, and very helpful reply! I confess I haven't had the opportunity to examine it too closely yet, but thank you very much for the time and effort - I promise it will not have been in vain.

 

[Smegmut]

Hi,



As far as I know, no game engines come with a function which do exactly that but all have everything needed to create your own.

1) A class to browse within a folder and list what it contains (including others folders)
2) A random number generator (to pick something random from those lists)
3) A match pattern (NB I don't know if Renpy and RPGM have this. You may need a lot of if statements within those engine)
4) Many strings operations/test to filter result, exclude some, etc

With those 4 things you can do whatever fit your desire. Matching some data of a character to browse a specific folder (ex : hero is muscular, fetch pics from a muscular folder), pick a random pic from this folder. Choosing a random folder then a pic that contain a specific mood keyword. Etc.


True. It's language come on top of C fundations (I don't remember which flavor, I don't use any). You can code with C with one of their official executable and others language with packages. I saw Lua and Python.

Thank you FOS, sounds like key things to look for to me - I will certainly keep them in mind.

In what I saw of Godot tutorials so far, I think C# had popped up here and there, but I could be conflating things with the tiny musician part of my brain. (It likes to intrude occasionally.)

 

[Smegmut]

So in my experience it always depends on what you wanna make. It sounds like your wanting a purely 2D game such as a Visual Novel or those dating sims or general simulators.

If you're wanting something super simple with assets included there is RPG Maker but it's paid unless you wanna get it unconventionally. The thing about RPGM though is that I found it to be constricting in my gamedev journey. It was nice to mess around with but it was always too complicated to do more advanced comcepts. I also spent more time looking for plugins to do what I wanted than actually making anything. As well, it's kinda hard to replace visuals. If you like the rpg style then it's fine but honestly, if you wanna make a "real game", you'll need your own visuals. And in most cases, you'll hear people talk about RPGM syndrome. Which just means every game looks the same so their not special anymore because the assets and gameplay are so common. Again it was fun to play with and make small fun games but eventually I grew out of it personally. In my opinion, you have to be a real determined and stubborn person to make it work for so long. Though I will note that I learn a lot about coding from RPGM and I things it's a great spot for beginners with no idea what their doing. It teaches you variables, switches which are actually booleans in coding and common events which are actually functions. When you use it for a while and pick up coding, it's not as confusing.


Another good VN based engine is Renpy. Don't let VN fool you, basically, if you wanna make a purely 2D game with no gameplay movement with characters. Then Renpy can probably do it. It's super simple, easy to learn on top of Python already being a super easy language to learn. And that's me having 0 experience in coding as well when I first started. Again Renpy is built specifically for VN type games so if you wanna make 3D games you'll have implement them yourself through coding but it's probably best just to go elsewhere. I would recommend Coding with B and E for renpy and python, he's a great teacher on youtube and underrated in my opinion.


The major boy is Unity because theoretically, if you wanna make it, Unity can do it. 2D, 3D, side scroller, flappy bird, a VN, you can do it all. Though technically you can do it all anyway with regular coding.

My major mistake was going into Unity thinking all I needed was to learn was C# and how to use Unity. Without realizing fully that Unity is just a software/engine with pre built in functions made from code(C++ and C#) to make game making easier. So in most cases, you'll find most people only know how to use certain aspects of the engine and not really know how it works. That was an issue for me. I personally need to know how things work so I can see what method is the best to implement. So I looked to python to learn how to code first before returning to Unity.


Though if you don't care, Unity isn't that hard to learn it just tiresome because there's just so much. C# is a complex language on top of Unity being a huge engine with endless features that it makes my head spin most of the time.

I would also like to note Unity does have a store with plenty of free assets. There's also always assets on itch.io but I heard porn assets are pretty slim. Unreal could also be a good alternative but I haven't even watched a video on that.


I honestly use pygame, though it's not really a game engine, engine. It's just python with more built in functions and features to make game making easier. It's literally all code and python is just super simple that I enjoy using it a lot.


I heard a lot of good things about Godot but I've also heard it has its own language ontop of being new. Though many people reassure that if there is an issue, it gets fixed fast. And content is constantly growing for it everyday. Another thing people brag about is that it's open source. Which just means the code for the engine is available which can make the workflow even easier for coders. Renpy is also open source though "big" engines like Unity and Unreal are not.


Other options could be blueprint engines such as constructor or scratch. They have premade coding blocks for you that you just choose from to implement what you want. You can also add script in most cases. People have made some pretty impressive games using them including 2D side scrollers.


Game Maker is also a popular one but I'm not too familiar with it and I kinda put it down immediately because I got overwhelmed as a beginner nothing on Game Maker though...besides how expensive it is.


One thing I would suggest to look out for is if your plan on selling your games. Engines have different requirements which could result in loss of money on your part if your not careful. As a beginner, you probably aren't looking to do that yet but it's something to keep in mind. I honestly never sell my games so I don't have to deal with that. Instead I make content and have a Patreon and Buy Me a Coffee so I can avoid any problems with my work.


Other options could be CYOA(choose your own adventure) type makers that are similar to blueprints. You could also just use code and build all your our functions and engines. It's sounds overwhelming at first but when you start coding, it's really just tedious to write a bunch of code is all. Though there's plenty of source material to "borrow" and with it all being the same, no one will tell the difference honestly. Sometimes I honestly love using a script editor on my phone and make games on my phone when I don't have access to my PC.


There's plenty of engines of all kinds of features and I'm sure you'll find one to meet your needs. It honestly took me a year to realize I needed to learn how to code while making games instead of trying to force myself to learn Unity and C# and nothing else. Now I can make the casual VN, meme game and sometimes a simulator if I'm really adventurous. If I make anything else, I usually turn to pygame. Id rather make the functions and features at my disposal rather than search and guess what I can and can't do with an engine.


In the end I really just think it depends on your work flow and what you'd rather have at your disposal. Rather it be an VN basics(Renpy) or having the ability to main stream game making as a whole with pre made objects and easy scene viewing(Unity).


From your list you state you want a 2D RPG style game, which I'm inferring is like them old simulator type games or trainer games with nice 2D art. As well as statstics for the player and characters. Inventory system, clothing, time and a way to easily implement any type of media file.

I'll be honest, I don't really know if a game engine that lets you use any type of file. The only one I know is Unity but I'm not too familiar with the subject. But there are definitely engines that are picky about their file types.

As for the other points, those are really base requirements for all simulator type games. Most game engines can implement those things. Time systems can be really repetitive though. Especially since it's always the same thing, I usually just copy some old code or someone elses for time. Other than that it would be really up to you on how you'd like to make games. Since the process of game making is kinda art within itself. Everybody does it differently and the only thing I can really suggest now is getting started with research and learning. Good luck, I hope this helped. Lol it's so long...

I've found time this morning to read your reply properly, and, again, thank you so very much - that's a really helpful synopsis of things to consider.

There's a couple of games that I think may be able to use any kind of media file - the updated Dungeon Lord (A New Beginning) allows it for making your own packs, and Brothel King seems to allow it too, though it does have trouble with .gifs and animated .webps. I might see if the designers of those games would be kind enough to tell me what they used to allow those things to happen, and go from there.

Cheers,

S.

 

[aereton]

In what I saw of Godot tutorials so far, I think C# had popped up here and there, but I could be conflating things with the tiny musician part of my brain. (It likes to intrude occasionally.)

GDScript (which I would recommend since it's the most supported and easy to pick up), C# and C++ (would not recommend for someone new to programming in this day and age)

As for Godot media support I'll just refer you to the official documentation.

You must be registered to see the links

The only supported format in core is Ogg Theora (not to be confused with Ogg Vorbis audio). It's possible for extensions to bring support for additional formats, but no such extensions exist yet as of July 2022.

H.264 and H.265 cannot be supported in core Godot, as they are both encumbered by software patents. AV1 is royalty-free, but it remains slow to decode on the CPU and hardware decoding support isn't readily available on all GPUs in use yet.

WebM was supported in core in Godot 3.x, but support for it was removed in 4.0 as it was too buggy and difficult to maintain.

Just adding some more information as it seems like from your replies you are somewhat interested in using Godot.

 

[Nstuff]

I've found time this morning to read your reply properly, and, again, thank you so very much - that's a really helpful synopsis of things to consider.

There's a couple of games that I think may be able to use any kind of media file - the updated Dungeon Lord (A New Beginning) allows it for making your own packs, and Brothel King seems to allow it too, though it does have trouble with .gifs and animated .webps. I might see if the designers of those games would be kind enough to tell me what they used to allow those things to happen, and go from there.

Cheers,

S.

Sorry I meant to reply but got busy, here's what I meant to send but never did lol;

My bad. I only get on 95Zone once in a blue moon and I didn't see a reply in my email lol

I'm glad you found it helpful, sorry I'm not super in-depth about the technical things. I wish I had more insight.

As for a quick Google search of each engine I've got these results:


RPGM takes .ogv files for movies and .ogg files for audio - you can get plugins to take .webm and .mp4. I'm not sure for which rpgmaker but I do see MV and MZ. And those are probably the ones you'd want since they are the most relative.

Renpy is getting mixed results for me. Most people seem to be pushing .webm but here's the docs for renpy,

You must be registered to see the links

.

It seems that Unity supports just about anything just as Unreal engine. That's to be expected since they're so big though.

Godot seems to support only Ogg Theora for videos. I'm not too familiar but thankfully aereton has provided insight and a link for that.

There's more engines I didn't list such as blueprints and GameMaker.



A few things I would like to note about files is, in most cases, there's a converter online that you can use. I used them often in RPGM since they took .ogg audio files. Just looking up .jpg to .png or .mov to .mp4, this usually gives swift results.

The other thing I would like to say is, I wouldn't sweat too much over the files thing. If you do wanna use Godot there are plenty of tutorials. And I saw you mention something about being a musician(maybe I'm looking too far into it). If you do ever make your own music, some software let you convert your files. And even then, like I said, you can always just convert it with an online converter. It most cases, you usually can't tell that much of a difference in quality. (In most cases)

The only thing I wanna say now is that the best way to get to know an engine (or learn for that matter) is to play with it. All the engines I've listed are free besides RPGM (depending on your beliefs). You can download them all and use them and I would highly recommend trying out a few of them to see which work flow is best for your game.




Side notes:

If you're a beginner, I would also like to note, in my honest opinion, I feel like Godot could be overwhelming for people who don't know programming. There's quite a bit to learn like Unity but in my opinion it's harder to learn since it's new and "unstable". There are a lot of things that may not work and a lot of confusing features to understand. On top of also learning coding fundamentals which are not the same as learning how to make a game from scratch or learning a new game engine (they're all separate skills). And in most cases, tutorials for Godot and Unity do not teach you both. In my experience, Python and Pygame tutorials usually are beginner friendly and do teach you both. A good example is Clear Code and Coding with B and E. They're teaching styles like to teach you fundematls or show you requiments before starting a tutorial. Vs CodeMonkey (no shade, I love code monkey) who assumes you know coding fundamentals and thus doesn't teach them to you. He just teaches you C# and Unity fundamentals. And honestly if he did, his videos would be twice as long which their already hours long.

I would recommend Unity if it wasn't for C# and the learning curve. In that case, I saw you mentioned Brothel King and Dungeon lord. Which are mostly training/point and click games. I'm assuming you might want to implement some quick animations as well. If you look on 95Zone you'll see a lot of similar games are made with Ren'Py, such as Doomination which has animations in it. I would definitely recommend Ren'Py as a first starter. As well as Coding with B and E on YouTube as he's very beginner friendly and easy to disgest. As well at Python being a super friendly beginner language for the coding/programming side.


Message from me:

A very, very important thing I would like to notes is if you have no idea what your doing and you do not know how to code. I would highly recommend learning Pygame to any programming beginner. As Pygame is meant for small programs/games and for beginner programmers to pick up code. If you go into a giant engine to work on a single dev game, you will struggle. Not that you will fail but I would argue more than 70% of people who do this, get discourage and do "fail". Take it slow, learn the fundamentals because this will be a game changer later on when you want to switch engines. Or picking up another language. And in most cases, your doing both. Not to say there aren't people out there who've forced themselves to learn unity and have no idea how it works. But it helps just in case in the event if unity or unreal dies and your left to pick up another engine but not knowing programming fundamentals. At least with programming youll know how to jump into a different engine and quickly pick it up and start game making again. The best comparison I can make is learning what to cook vs learning how to cook. Someone who can cook a gourme dish without a recipe vs someone using a recipe. Knowing why your doing something vs just doing it is really what I'm trying to point out here.

Don't be discouraged by the word programming, it's really not that deep. It took me a month or less to learn the fundamentals and put a basic red block on the screen, move it and add bullets to make a space shooter. While also knowing what most of the code was doing.

If programming is something your interested in picking up along with game making, consider Clear Code on YouTube. He has an entire introduction to Pygame and a complete guide to Python. As well as being game dev driven. The videos I mention are super long and you should endorse them slowly while benchmarking yourself with other small, make a game videos, Tech With Tim is also alright and comprehensive. Though eventually you will pick up the craft knowing what the hell your doing because I didn't. My literal path to game dev is just the One Peice plot structure graph lol (all over the place)

If the programming side is something you don't really wanna dive into then you can learn a game engine but honestly learning a game engine will take twice as long if you do not understand how it's works because programming is half of it. If not 100% of it hiding behind a UI.

I know this is all overwhelming right now but don't sweat it, you'll figure it all out. Experience is permanent and never a waste. Just take it one step at a time. For now, I would recommend just hopping on an engine and trying to make a simple game. You'll feel overwhelmed, confused and wanna take a nap after solving one problem. But it's all part of the process of learning. You'll eventually learn what you need to succeed.

Good luck and cheers!

 

[Smegmut]

Sorry I meant to reply but got busy, here's what I meant to send but never did lol;

My bad. I only get on 95Zone once in a blue moon and I didn't see a reply in my email lol

I'm glad you found it helpful, sorry I'm not super in-depth about the technical things. I wish I had more insight.

As for a quick Google search of each engine I've got these results:


RPGM takes .ogv files for movies and .ogg files for audio - you can get plugins to take .webm and .mp4. I'm not sure for which rpgmaker but I do see MV and MZ. And those are probably the ones you'd want since they are the most relative.

Renpy is getting mixed results for me. Most people seem to be pushing .webm but here's the docs for renpy,

You must be registered to see the links

.

It seems that Unity supports just about anything just as Unreal engine. That's to be expected since they're so big though.

Godot seems to support only Ogg Theora for videos. I'm not too familiar but thankfully aereton has provided insight and a link for that.

There's more engines I didn't list such as blueprints and GameMaker.



A few things I would like to note about files is, in most cases, there's a converter online that you can use. I used them often in RPGM since they took .ogg audio files. Just looking up .jpg to .png or .mov to .mp4, this usually gives swift results.

The other thing I would like to say is, I wouldn't sweat too much over the files thing. If you do wanna use Godot there are plenty of tutorials. And I saw you mention something about being a musician(maybe I'm looking too far into it). If you do ever make your own music, some software let you convert your files. And even then, like I said, you can always just convert it with an online converter. It most cases, you usually can't tell that much of a difference in quality. (In most cases)

The only thing I wanna say now is that the best way to get to know an engine (or learn for that matter) is to play with it. All the engines I've listed are free besides RPGM (depending on your beliefs). You can download them all and use them and I would highly recommend trying out a few of them to see which work flow is best for your game.




Side notes:

If you're a beginner, I would also like to note, in my honest opinion, I feel like Godot could be overwhelming for people who don't know programming. There's quite a bit to learn like Unity but in my opinion it's harder to learn since it's new and "unstable". There are a lot of things that may not work and a lot of confusing features to understand. On top of also learning coding fundamentals which are not the same as learning how to make a game from scratch or learning a new game engine (they're all separate skills). And in most cases, tutorials for Godot and Unity do not teach you both. In my experience, Python and Pygame tutorials usually are beginner friendly and do teach you both. A good example is Clear Code and Coding with B and E. They're teaching styles like to teach you fundematls or show you requiments before starting a tutorial. Vs CodeMonkey (no shade, I love code monkey) who assumes you know coding fundamentals and thus doesn't teach them to you. He just teaches you C# and Unity fundamentals. And honestly if he did, his videos would be twice as long which their already hours long.

I would recommend Unity if it wasn't for C# and the learning curve. In that case, I saw you mentioned Brothel King and Dungeon lord. Which are mostly training/point and click games. I'm assuming you might want to implement some quick animations as well. If you look on 95Zone you'll see a lot of similar games are made with Ren'Py, such as Doomination which has animations in it. I would definitely recommend Ren'Py as a first starter. As well as Coding with B and E on YouTube as he's very beginner friendly and easy to disgest. As well at Python being a super friendly beginner language for the coding/programming side.


Message from me:

A very, very important thing I would like to notes is if you have no idea what your doing and you do not know how to code. I would highly recommend learning Pygame to any programming beginner. As Pygame is meant for small programs/games and for beginner programmers to pick up code. If you go into a giant engine to work on a single dev game, you will struggle. Not that you will fail but I would argue more than 70% of people who do this, get discourage and do "fail". Take it slow, learn the fundamentals because this will be a game changer later on when you want to switch engines. Or picking up another language. And in most cases, your doing both. Not to say there aren't people out there who've forced themselves to learn unity and have no idea how it works. But it helps just in case in the event if unity or unreal dies and your left to pick up another engine but not knowing programming fundamentals. At least with programming youll know how to jump into a different engine and quickly pick it up and start game making again. The best comparison I can make is learning what to cook vs learning how to cook. Someone who can cook a gourme dish without a recipe vs someone using a recipe. Knowing why your doing something vs just doing it is really what I'm trying to point out here.

Don't be discouraged by the word programming, it's really not that deep. It took me a month or less to learn the fundamentals and put a basic red block on the screen, move it and add bullets to make a space shooter. While also knowing what most of the code was doing.

If programming is something your interested in picking up along with game making, consider Clear Code on YouTube. He has an entire introduction to Pygame and a complete guide to Python. As well as being game dev driven. The videos I mention are super long and you should endorse them slowly while benchmarking yourself with other small, make a game videos, Tech With Tim is also alright and comprehensive. Though eventually you will pick up the craft knowing what the hell your doing because I didn't. My literal path to game dev is just the One Peice plot structure graph lol (all over the place)

If the programming side is something you don't really wanna dive into then you can learn a game engine but honestly learning a game engine will take twice as long if you do not understand how it's works because programming is half of it. If not 100% of it hiding behind a UI.

I know this is all overwhelming right now but don't sweat it, you'll figure it all out. Experience is permanent and never a waste. Just take it one step at a time. For now, I would recommend just hopping on an engine and trying to make a simple game. You'll feel overwhelmed, confused and wanna take a nap after solving one problem. But it's all part of the process of learning. You'll eventually learn what you need to succeed.

Good luck and cheers!

Cheers very much!

My turn to apologise for the late rely - I've been moving house for the last 3 weeks, but am ready to resume getting serious with my idea.

You've convinced me that getting some programming knowledge is well worth the while. You'd mentioned that it ultimately gives you much more control over what you're doing, and I far rather that than having to change my plans because the developing software isn't designed that way.

Thanks for giving a great run-down of places to start, and destinations to head for. In my teens, a few decades ago now, I had flirted with a bit of programming, but it seems it's time to pick up the baton once more, and part of me is really quite looking forward to it.

Have a great week eh?

S.

 

[Smegmut]

GDScript (which I would recommend since it's the most supported and easy to pick up), C# and C++ (would not recommend for someone new to programming in this day and age)

As for Godot media support I'll just refer you to the official documentation.

You must be registered to see the links

Just adding some more information as it seems like from your replies you are somewhat interested in using Godot.

Terrific, thank you aereton, that's much appreciated