I've been thinking about making a game for a few weeks now and I figured out almost all of the problems (story, map, programming tools/language, interiors...). The only thing I have a problem with is finding a software for the actual characters/clothes. Daz seems too expensive, Make-human does not have many assets, Honey select is illegal... The only things i have left are : tk17(not sure if this one is illegal as well if I want to put my game on patreon), making a text-based game (I'm not sure if people would play a text-only game) or learning how to model/draw. Seeing as the latter would take a substantial amount of time to learn I'm kind of lost right now. So if anyone has an idea or advice it would be highly appreciated.
- Jun 3, 2017
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- 27,267
I totally get this. Ultimately, I decided to run with Daz and there are quite a few (legal) free assets out there. Also they sometimes have some fairly bonkers sales on which helps.
Having said that though, if you don't want to go down that route, some text based games are not only very well done but, quite rightly, hugely popular.
So, don't let text based put you off. Perhaps have a peek at the few of the text games on here and see if that style would work for you?
Whatever you decide, good luck!
Having said that though, if you don't want to go down that route, some text based games are not only very well done but, quite rightly, hugely popular.
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springs to mind as one of the better ones out there, but it's not alone.So, don't let text based put you off. Perhaps have a peek at the few of the text games on here and see if that style would work for you?
Whatever you decide, good luck!
- May 3, 2018
- 1,403
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I make games and art, but really I just experiment. Any time I work on a project, I lay the foundation (core code and art) but then I do nothing. Maybe I just like to see how I would like to make something, and solving the "how" issue seems to be the only thing I have fun doing, not so much actually doing the work of making a game.
As a result, to try and encourage myself to actually complete any one project, I have done plenty of work seeing what looks good, works well, easy to make, and or is fast, and I think I have a few things you could try out. Oh, and I focus on free stuff only
3D
Blender, free program, Version 2.8 Beta is finally out and it is designed to be user friendly (or rather friendlier, 2.79b and before are know to have a steep learning curve). tons of videos online to learn from.
Go to smutbase for free blender nsfw content
go to blendswap for free everything that is sfw (20 downloads a month if not a paid for account)
learn to use cycle engine (blenders defualts to this... i think, anyway it is just part of blender, though eve may work even better and a lot faster with no lost of quality.)
you need characters, textures, backgrounds or locations, and know how to pose and maybe even rig a character. I have been home on winter break with only my old laptop and I am impress I can still sculpt with blender with no lag.
2D
If you want to make something more stylized
I recommend finding an art style you like (something that uses lines, no real shading, shading takes the most amount of time and is something you should avoid if you want speed and ease), vector or flash games are a good example.
If possible (and is my current experiment) use blender to make a VERY BASIC 3d model (it will be easy to make a model using different parts, like balls of clay, rather than try to make one mesh like a video game character. when you first do this, you will find any 2d that looks good, will look disturbing and bad in 3d, but that is fine, all you need to worry about are the outlines, and landmarks of the body to know where to draw things like belly buttons. but not something like eyes which get even more warped when trying to take 2d to 3d) you can use blender to make quick prototype poses.
Get Inkscape, a free online vector drawing program. using Lines, make an outline, or a closed shape (which you can fill with color). import the blender images and draw ontop of them (use different layers). a great way to make clean art. to improve further you can look to using lines where you change the mode of the line shape to ellipse, or use a custom Pattern Along Path effect to make the lines look painted on as if hand drawn by a tablet, this will help make the art look more organic and stylized.
If you want to animate, assuming only lines and filled shapes, you can import the svg vector file into blender for animation (it works but there is no online guide yet so learning how to do this is very hard at first, but I may make a guide in the future.)
hope there was something of interest here and best of luck!
As a result, to try and encourage myself to actually complete any one project, I have done plenty of work seeing what looks good, works well, easy to make, and or is fast, and I think I have a few things you could try out. Oh, and I focus on free stuff only
3D
Blender, free program, Version 2.8 Beta is finally out and it is designed to be user friendly (or rather friendlier, 2.79b and before are know to have a steep learning curve). tons of videos online to learn from.
Go to smutbase for free blender nsfw content
go to blendswap for free everything that is sfw (20 downloads a month if not a paid for account)
learn to use cycle engine (blenders defualts to this... i think, anyway it is just part of blender, though eve may work even better and a lot faster with no lost of quality.)
you need characters, textures, backgrounds or locations, and know how to pose and maybe even rig a character. I have been home on winter break with only my old laptop and I am impress I can still sculpt with blender with no lag.
2D
If you want to make something more stylized
I recommend finding an art style you like (something that uses lines, no real shading, shading takes the most amount of time and is something you should avoid if you want speed and ease), vector or flash games are a good example.
If possible (and is my current experiment) use blender to make a VERY BASIC 3d model (it will be easy to make a model using different parts, like balls of clay, rather than try to make one mesh like a video game character. when you first do this, you will find any 2d that looks good, will look disturbing and bad in 3d, but that is fine, all you need to worry about are the outlines, and landmarks of the body to know where to draw things like belly buttons. but not something like eyes which get even more warped when trying to take 2d to 3d) you can use blender to make quick prototype poses.
Get Inkscape, a free online vector drawing program. using Lines, make an outline, or a closed shape (which you can fill with color). import the blender images and draw ontop of them (use different layers). a great way to make clean art. to improve further you can look to using lines where you change the mode of the line shape to ellipse, or use a custom Pattern Along Path effect to make the lines look painted on as if hand drawn by a tablet, this will help make the art look more organic and stylized.
If you want to animate, assuming only lines and filled shapes, you can import the svg vector file into blender for animation (it works but there is no online guide yet so learning how to do this is very hard at first, but I may make a guide in the future.)
hope there was something of interest here and best of luck!
Thx for the advice, however I tried most of the stuff you mentioned here. The main thing I want to contribute to my game is the story/writing, learning how to model/draw would take quite a while to learn (at least to a presentable standard). I guess this thread is more me looking for an easy workaround for the visuals since I'm only one guy.I make games and art, but really I just experiment. Any time I work on a project, I lay the foundation (core code and art) but then I do nothing. Maybe I just like to see how I would like to make something, and solving the "how" issue seems to be the only thing I have fun doing, not so much actually doing the work of making a game.
As a result, to try and encourage myself to actually complete any one project, I have done plenty of work seeing what looks good, works well, easy to make, and or is fast, and I think I have a few things you could try out. Oh, and I focus on free stuff only
3D
Blender, free program, Version 2.8 Beta is finally out and it is designed to be user friendly (or rather friendlier, 2.79b and before are know to have a steep learning curve). tons of videos online to learn from.
Go to smutbase for free blender nsfw content
go to blendswap for free everything that is sfw (20 downloads a month if not a paid for account)
learn to use cycle engine (blenders defualts to this... i think, anyway it is just part of blender, though eve may work even better and a lot faster with no lost of quality.)
you need characters, textures, backgrounds or locations, and know how to pose and maybe even rig a character. I have been home on winter break with only my old laptop and I am impress I can still sculpt with blender with no lag.
2D
If you want to make something more stylized
I recommend finding an art style you like (something that uses lines, no real shading, shading takes the most amount of time and is something you should avoid if you want speed and ease), vector or flash games are a good example.
If possible (and is my current experiment) use blender to make a VERY BASIC 3d model (it will be easy to make a model using different parts, like balls of clay, rather than try to make one mesh like a video game character. when you first do this, you will find any 2d that looks good, will look disturbing and bad in 3d, but that is fine, all you need to worry about are the outlines, and landmarks of the body to know where to draw things like belly buttons. but not something like eyes which get even more warped when trying to take 2d to 3d) you can use blender to make quick prototype poses.
Get Inkscape, a free online vector drawing program. using Lines, make an outline, or a closed shape (which you can fill with color). import the blender images and draw ontop of them (use different layers). a great way to make clean art. to improve further you can look to using lines where you change the mode of the line shape to ellipse, or use a custom Pattern Along Path effect to make the lines look painted on as if hand drawn by a tablet, this will help make the art look more organic and stylized.
If you want to animate, assuming only lines and filled shapes, you can import the svg vector file into blender for animation (it works but there is no online guide yet so learning how to do this is very hard at first, but I may make a guide in the future.)
hope there was something of interest here and best of luck!
Thanks for the reply. The problem with text based games for me is the navigation. I want to make an open world-ish game, and I'm still not sure how to execute that. I would prefer using tk17 over text, however I'm still not sure if it's also illegal patreon-vise.
- May 3, 2018
- 1,403
- 1,005
Understandable, writing is the fastest creative process, a text base game could certainly allow for open world navigation. look towards Mutant Minx Meltdown for a good example. While I would prefer to use unity to make custom games focus on graphics and interesting interactions, I have recently thought that the Twine game engine would be enough for everything I need to do though. Mutaint Minx Meltdown plays very similar to a twin game, mostly text base, twine allows you to click through options, navigate (in the engine editor I believe you can use a flow chart to help organize the world), show images (i think the reason MMM was not made in twine is that it does not allow for background images, instead it runs in the browser, so it wouldn;t have been able to draw the background images for the fight scenes). Making a game in twine may be a great start, and then after you have something to play, you can see what parts are absolutely critical to have a drawing, and from there you could do what you have to or commission an artist. Other than that, I don't think I have that much more left to offer, best of luck!