What tools do you recommend?

[StupidRabbit]

What's up guys. What tools do you recommend for a Visual Novel?

I'm getting inspired by games like Milf City, Become a Rock Star and Being a Dik.

I'm already learning about Daz and Renpy, as well as Photoshop, but what programs to use to make the game logo, animations, mini games, etc.

Thanks a lot for the help.

 

[I'm Not Thea Lundgren!]

You've pretty much got it covered there, a code editor will come in handy with Renpy though.
I use Notepad++, but I know others swear by Atom.

 

[Rich]

What's up guys. What tools do you recommend for a Visual Novel?

I'm getting inspired by games like Milf City, Become a Rock Star and Being a Dik.

I'm already learning about Daz and Renpy, as well as Photoshop, but what programs to use to make the game logo, animations, mini games, etc.

Thanks a lot for the help.

As mentioned above, you've got the basic set.

If you go whole hog and try to do animations, you may find VirtualDub of use to convert sequences of image stills into video file formats. (More efficient within Ren'py to play a movie file than display a whole sequence of images "manually.")

Also, if you're just getting into writing stuff with Ren'py, trying to do an "open world" game like the ones you mention is a stiff challenge. You might want to start out with somewhat more linear visual novel (i.e. linear story with branches) to get your feet wet, and only jump into the more complex type games once you've got your feet wet.

 

[exer]

Ren'Py is definitely the most popular option in terms of game engine, but there are other options out there that require less coding knowledge. Like you can pretty easily make a VN with RPG Maker. I personally really like using Tyranno Builder. It's what I'm building my game with. It has a drag and drop builder that makes it quick and easy to use, but you can also code to add more complicated things that the builder doesn't come with. I find it much quicker than Ren'Py as well, as you don't have to spend time typing out the same code over and over.

As for visuals, DAZ is a great one to use. As it doesn't require any artistic ability. To be good at it you'll need a bit more knowledge of things like lighting and how cameras work, but it's a relatively small learning curve. It's probably the best option in terms of balancing ease of use and quality.

On the far side of the spectrum, there's Blender. I don't think I've seen anyone use it for a visual novel yet, but you can make incredibly high quality renders and animations using Blender. It is very hard to use and learn though. I'd honestly love to see a game using Blender one day, but I completely understand how difficult it is to do.

And at the lower end, there's games that use other games like Honey Select for visuals. Which is definitely lower quality than DAZ, but it's also way easier to make characters and CG/Animations for scenes. If you're looking to make a game with a lot going on, I'd suggest using something like Honey Select. It frees up more time to actually make the game, instead of having to spend a ton of time rendering and building scenes.

When it comes to stuff like Logo and UI, that's something you essentially have to do yourself. I'm sure you can find some assets online you can use, but it's generally a good idea to do something yourself. Or hire an artist to do it for you. It will make your game stand out. Using Photoshop is a great program to use for this kind of thing. Photoshop is also really helpful in adjusting your CG. Doing things like color balancing and playing with the contrast/brightness can help a lot. You just have to make sure you do every CG in a scene looks the same, or else it'll look weird.

Using Ren'Py with DAZ is a good way to go about making a game. However, keep in mind that a lot of people use the two together. So it's hard to get your game to really stand out. If you do go that route, definitely try and make it a more unique experience. Just making a custom UI goes a long way in that regard. But using assets that you haven't seen a lot and not just using default DAZ assets can help a lot.

I hope that helped. Good luck making a game!

 

[Rich]

Ren'Py is definitely the most popular option in terms of game engine, but there are other options out there that require less coding knowledge. Like you can pretty easily make a VN with RPG Maker. I personally really like using Tyranno Builder. It's what I'm building my game with. It has a drag and drop builder that makes it quick and easy to use, but you can also code to add more complicated things that the builder doesn't come with. I find it much quicker than Ren'Py as well, as you don't have to spend time typing out the same code over and over.

This is a good point - Ren'py is very popular because you don't have to have much coding knowledge, but you ARE essentially writing a program, so having at least a small background in programming helps a LOT. Otherwise, some of the other alternatives exer mentions should at least be considered.

As for visuals, DAZ is a great one to use. As it doesn't require any artistic ability. To be good at it you'll need a bit more knowledge of things like lighting and how cameras work, but it's a relatively small learning curve. It's probably the best option in terms of balancing ease of use and quality.

The biggest thing that you have to learn with Daz is lighting, but that really applies to ANY 3D rendering program that attempts to be at all "realistic" in how it handles light. There are a lot of tutorials on lighting both for Daz Studio as well as just generally, of course. One caveat - if you don't have an NVidia GPU, then Daz Studio is probably not your best choice, as the renders can take a pretty long time. (Assuming you're using iRay - that isn't actually a requirement, but its the renderer that most Daz assets assume.) Some of the other options (like Honey Select, mentioned down below) may be better if you're using other hardware.

On the far side of the spectrum, there's Blender. I don't think I've seen anyone use it for a visual novel yet, but you can make incredibly high quality renders and animations using Blender. It is very hard to use and learn though. I'd honestly love to see a game using Blender one day, but I completely understand how difficult it is to do.

The thing with Blender isn't that it's hard to learn to use (IMHO), it's the fact that doesn't have the vast body of pre-built assets that Daz Studio has. Thus, with Blender, you tend to get driven toward first constructing your assets, THEN building your scenes, where with Daz the first part has mostly been handled for you.

And at the lower end, there's games that use other games like Honey Select for visuals. Which is definitely lower quality than DAZ, but it's also way easier to make characters and CG/Animations for scenes. If you're looking to make a game with a lot going on, I'd suggest using something like Honey Select. It frees up more time to actually make the game, instead of having to spend a ton of time rendering and building scenes.

Exactly. One of the decisions you tend to get forced into is "am I going to focus on the story, or am I going to focus on the visuals." Obviously, you can't completely ignore either one, but there are plenty of games that essentially opt for somewhat less "photorealistic" visuals and still remain compelling for many people. Glassix and Lab Rats, for example, use Honey Select graphics and have managed to command a pretty decent audience.

Using Ren'Py with DAZ is a good way to go about making a game. However, keep in mind that a lot of people use the two together. So it's hard to get your game to really stand out. If you do go that route, definitely try and make it a more unique experience. Just making a custom UI goes a long way in that regard. But using assets that you haven't seen a lot and not just using default DAZ assets can help a lot.

This is an aspect that many people overlook. Ren'py allows you to do a LOT of customization of how the user interface is presented. That being said, that's kind of an advanced topic for a newbie gamer. But, as an engine, it DOES allow you to create something that doesn't look at all "Ren'py-ish," once you put the time and energy into learning what you can do with it. Holiday Island is just one example I can think of that's implemented in Ren'py, but has a very non-traditional user interface.

Still, the biggest advice I can offer is not to bite off too much in your first go-round. Pick something modest - perhaps even too small to command a ton of interest, and work through it from start to finish. You'll learn a lot along the way, which will then prepare you to go back and do your magnus opus as your second game. One of the reasons (IMHO) that so many games die after their 0.2 or 0.3 release is that people underestimate the total amount of effort involved, or take on too much and get frustrated. You don't ride in the Tour de France the first time you get on a bike - take a small pedal around your neighborhood first.

 

[Synx]

Just to add my 2 cents from a person that chose blender over DAZ3D:

The latest blender update, 2.8, really made the program more accessible and easier to understand. It's still harder then Daz for sure, but most menus aren't hidden in some random corner of the program anymore.

As for why you would maybe want to learn blender over DAZ3D depends on what you want for end result, as there are some parts Daz cannot do, or is substantialy worse at:

- Customization of assets: Blender is a 3d modeling and render program, while Daz is more a scene making and render program. You can morph assets a bit with certain sliders, and while you can for sure create unique looking characters with this, you will always be limited to some point, especially for non-character assets (You can't morph most of these at all). Blender doesn't have this limitation, and especially if you want to create a very specific scenery, or a very specific character (especially if it has some non-human traits) blender is the better choice. Large downside is that if you use Daz assets as starting point, you kind of need to make the textures yourself as I haven't found a way to export them easily. This is less of an issue for scenery assets (blender has a build in database with several hundred textures you can just apply), but requires some work for characters.

- If you don't have a Nvidia card: DAZ3D uses Iray for rendering, which is built for Nvidia cards. Without a Nvidia card, you got to render on your CPU, which can be very slow. Blender uses cycles render engine and is compatible with every brand GPU.

Animations: I haven't used the Daz animation tool myself, but everything I have heard about it, is that it's pretty crap. The blender one is quit simple to understand and learn, with a ton of physic options (like hair and cloths being affected by a wind source) to play with to create amazing animation results. The latter part can be a bit challenging to learn though. Blender has a build in sequence tool as well to create videoclips from your rendered animation pictures, so you don't require another program.

- If you want super realistic renders: Daz render engine and texture options are somewhat limited and while you can get pretty realistic renders with it, its not ment for photorealism. Blender can achieve this, but this requires ton of work, and honestly a monster of a PC or a bunch of render Riggs, as render time for 1 scene can easily reach 10 hours if you go for photorealism. For a visual novel I highly doubt that photorealism is really viable, with how long each render would take.

Besides these there are just some points blender is better then daz I would say. The new hair texture node (super simple to use) creates amazing hair results, which in my opinion looks much better then Daz hair. Render speed is faster (it was roughly the same before the latest blender update, but with 2.8 its a noticeable difference) , it has a better denoiser and requires less samples compared to Daz because of that (so faster renders again), and the render engine is better overall if you know how to use it.

The main downsides is the learning curve, more work on creating the assets, even if you just import Daz assets ( textures dont export well from daz), got to rig your characters yourself for posing (Daz rigs don't export well as well), and doesnt have a library for basic poses (requires more time to set-up a scene).

Or summarized in two sentences:

blender if you want complete freedom with what you want to create, but requiring more time investment.

Daz if you want to create good renders quickly, but be somewhat limited in what scenes you can create.

 

[polywog]