discussion Any interest in becoming a game dev?

[jeanbaklazan]

I have an idea for a game and I wanted to start with Ren'py 8.* . Most Tutorials and Docs (besides the official docs) are outdated with older version, so their insight for me are somewhat limited. Luckily the porn VN community appears to be the most active one out there so I found a lot of useful stuff here and there is even a dude on YT who used to make naughty VNs who has a Ren'py 8 game tutorial from scratch.

As for my game idea I want to have the technical structure ready with a working gameplay loop (since I want it to be a sandbox/trainer game in a scifi setting). Once that is done I will focus more and more on DAZ to create Characters that fill this technical construct.

Sandbox for a first game? That's a high bar you set for yourself. But if you feel like it then good luck

 

[lolcow30]

Not a programmer + terrible artist so I'd rather just be a fan.

 

[reacers]

Sandbox for a first game? That's a high bar you set for yourself. But if you feel like it then good luck

I am a dev for over a decade now so it's not totally new for me. A lightweight sandbox seems not too hard to set up and I like these kind of games more than pure VNs where most player just CTRL-skip to the lewd scenes. But thanks anyway. Maybe I'll pitch my idea here some day

 

[jeanbaklazan]

I am a dev for over a decade now so it's not totally new for me. A lightweight sandbox seems not too hard to set up and I like these kind of games more than pure VNs where most player just CTRL-skip to the lewd scenes. But thanks anyway. Maybe I'll pitch my idea here some day

well with that much experience, that's a different story. I thought it would be your first one....

 

[USER_6969]

No, but if I was for ease a simplicity use:
Illusion assets
Ren'Py, as for coding I would download an older game and use the code as a reference.
Gimp, for editing images etc... I have used it for adding tattoos to skin, changing clothing textures in a past life etc.. for AG3
Scripts, look on any of the erotic literature sites to borrow and alter the different stories on there.
Start of with a small project so I don't get overwhelmed.

 

[reacers]

well with that much experience, that's a different story. I thought it would be your first one....

First game yes, but not my first program. Should have made that more clear in the first place

 

[Train143]

Before becoming a game developer, I had lots of free time. Now I have none. I used to be up to date with all of the newest streaming shows, all of the newest AVNs. Now, I only watch things while I eat lunch (at work) or when my wife and I watch something together. I only play AVNs while Daz is simulating, or while a batch of images are rendering and I'm tired of posing new ones. I haven't played a non-porn game in years. I just don't have the time any more. I have a full-time job and then I work on my games. Then I sleep and repeat. It's exhausting and leaves me with no free time.

I'm greedy, though, so I encourage everyone to try making their own games, because I want to try them!

And I'm still learning all aspects of game making. I don't think I'm strong at any of them. I still make mistakes all the time. I also HATE making animations. I swear they're more trouble than they're worth.

While I love your games, this description makes me not want to even try to do it myself.

 

[Halcyel]

I like programming, I was even in a renpy project with a friend, but due to lack of free time (work and family) we have not been able to continue, even though I always try to learn something if in the future I can make a simple game, not to mention the lack of skill in art and music.

 

[FrozenCustard]

If I was going to make a game it wouldn't be a porn game.

 

[Halcyel]

We were creating a dark fantasy story based on an original novel by my friend, we started out thinking we could work with rpgmaker, but along the way we realized it didn't have a central point since it wasn't an rpj.
We went through 2 engines until we finally decided to work with renpy, much easier to make a dark novel.

 

[Jake the flake]

I'd love to. I'm pretty confident in my writing and I studied art for a couple of years so I have two thirds of the skills needed. I just don't think I could be bothered to try to figure out coding and all that...

 

[Kaven]

When I was younger, yeah. But eventually I figured it's more fun to play games than develop them, so I left it at that.

 

[jeanbaklazan]

I'd love to. I'm pretty confident in my writing and I studied art for a couple of years so I have two thirds of the skills needed. I just don't think I could be bothered to try to figure out coding and all that...

I'm sure you could find someone to do the coding part if your art is good

 

[Unknownadd]

When I was younger, yeah. But eventually I figured it's more fun to play games than develop them, so I left it at that.

There is some truth to that. People are divided between wanting to tell stories and just read stories. Not everyone wants to write their own novel, but picking up a good book is universal.

 

[Uncle Loco]

Being a dev has some positives, but like others have said it sucks up a lot of your free time. While I love making my game I miss the days of just playing VN's whenever I want, and not have to limit what I play to make sure I stay on track with my own development.

I think, if you decide being a dev is your thing, you should write your story first and have a solid plan for the beginning and how it will end. I spent over a year writing dialog before I made a single render.

 

[User_65561]

I have an idea for a game and I wanted to start with Ren'py 8.*

Just bear in mind that Renpy8 doesn't support 32bit.

Sure, most people that have a PC these days have a 64bit PC, but there are quite a few people that do not.
A fair few of my subs only have a 32bit. It's why I use 7.5.1.

 

[User_65561]

I think, if you decide being a dev is your thing, you should write your story first and have a solid plan for the beginning and how it will end. I spent over a year writing dialog before I made a single render.

From my own experience I would disagree with that.

I did write the first 5 days before rendering, but as I was rendering and saw my creation come to life, I decided to change something (to improve the game) and ofc that had a knock-on effect and changed everything else that I wrote.

My advice would be to have an end goal and goals withing the game that you can work towards. Everything else is just filler.

Spoiler: What I changed.

Originally Emily would overhear the talk Katie+MC had on Day3 where they talk about Emily being bad (the dialogue for that talk would have been a bit different than what it is now, and more focused on Emily being a disaster in the making).
Emily would then think "MC will now hate her and would kick her out".
Emily then self harms in the toilet.
Everyone begins to worry as Emily has been in the toilet for a long time and the MC ends up breaking down the door.
MC sees Emily on the floor covered in blood and rushes her to the hospital.
Katie arrives at the hospital a little later and has a go at the MC for not waiting for her.

After that event, Emily uses that as her corruption angle (do what Emily wants or she may self harm again).

However, that was changed to what's currently in the game.

 

[reacers]

Just bear in mind that Renpy8 doesn't support 32bit.

Sure, most people that have a PC these days have a 64bit PC, but there are quite a few people that do not.
A fair few of my subs only have a 32bit. It's why I use 7.5.1.

Hey man, thanks for the reminder! I saw a tutorial covering itch.io as release platform for your games, so maybe that would (depending on the content) be an option.

Anyways, thank you for your work, CL has a secure place on my "homework" SSD!

 

[juhuljul]

thought about it but don't have the time to actually do it

 

[_13_]

Hey man, thanks for the reminder! I saw a tutorial covering itch.io as release platform for your games, so maybe that would (depending on the content) be an option.

Itch is less restrictive than some other platforms. Depending on your content, they may allow you to offer it, but not allow you to accept money for it.