discussion Other What do you wish you knew before making your first Ren'Py game?

[Csair]

Hi everyone! I’m planning to start creating my own visual novel using Ren'Py and would love some advice on where to focus my learning. What are the most crucial skills to learn first?

Is it better to buy pre-made assets or learn 3D modeling from scratch?
Where I start to learn animation?
I need to code?

 

[fappingwanker]

You're embarking on a great but challenging journey, best of luck!

Do you need to code or to learn 3D modeling from scratch? Not necessarily. Only if you want to be an all-in-one dev.

Let's look at it in a simple way.

1. You need some 3D models to build your puppet show (premade assets or built from scratch)
2. You need some sort of 3D software (like a puppet show stage) where you will place those 3D assets (DAZ or Blender or Unreal Engine)
3. You need to move around those 3D models inside the scene from the 3D software, like pulling the strings on the puppets to make them move
4. You need to light up the puppets so the people see them, you can do that in the 3D software
5. You need like a virtual camera to capture images/animation of that scene and export the images. You do this with the 3D software
6. Now that you exported the images to your PC, you need to put them in a certain order, create a slideshow of some sort. You can do that by using coding and Ren'py
7. Would be nice to add some text on top of that slideshow, you can again user Ren'py for that
8. Now that you've set everything in order, you need to export the project from Ren'py as a visual novel so others can play it
9. ???
10. Profit

Each of the above points has many many subpoints.
Normally, the coding role, 3D artist, animator and so on are handled by different people. However, there are devs who do it all, but it's the most time consuming approach. Time is limited and you basically have to learn 3 or more jobs at the same time.
The good news is that today it's easier than ever to do this, having AI to guide us one step at a time.

Start by understanding what it takes to create a visual novel from start to finish.

Only after you're understood the entire process you can decide if you should learn 3D modeling or coding. Or use premade assets and hire a 3D artist and a coder.
Whether it's you or not, someone will still have to fill in these roles.

Hope this helps.