How much coding knowledge needed to make a basic 3DCG type game?

[TheVicarious]

So I've been thinking about starting my own game but I don't know if I should start down this journey. I have many ideas but zero knowledge in coding (apart from RPGMaker knowledge lol). But I'm thinking more ren'py or something.

So my question to you developers is, how long would it take for someone with zero knowledge to start creating his own game? Just a simple dating sim esque 3dcg game is what I have in mind. How complicated is it?

I get the learning curve of everything can be different for everyone but just in broad strokes. Will I need to study coding for a year before even attempting this?

Thanks for reading!

 

[Elvishious]

Your question highly depend on your learning curve. Starting from zero and trying to do something with it is really hard, and you must be aware of many things.
I suggest you to keep your system simple with straight forward features. Using ren'py to build an heavily VN styled game and making simple connexions with data (relationship points...) through code.
The more the system you want to build is complex, the more you'll need knowledge, experience and rigor.
If you're starting from zero, learn the basics: algorithm, OOP (Object-oriented programming) and some UML (to help you have things clear in your mind)

 

[anne O'nymous]

To the learning curve addressed by @Elvishious , you must add the engine you want to use for your game. For Unity or Unreal by example, you'll have to deal with a variation of C (never remember which one use C# and which one use C++), so you'll need to have a strong knowledge because mistake aren't really permit. At the opposite, Ren'py come with its own, easy to learn and use, language which can be enough to make a game, and RPG maker use Javascript, which is easier to learn than C#/C++.

 

[TheVicarious]

Your question highly depend on your learning curve. Starting from zero and trying to do something with it is really hard, and you must be aware of many things.
I suggest you to keep your system simple with straight forward features. Using ren'py to build an heavily VN styled game and making simple connexions with data (relationship points...) through code.
The more the system you want to build is complex, the more you'll need knowledge, experience and rigor.
If you're starting from zero, learn the basics: algorithm, OOP (Object-oriented programming) and some UML (to help you have things clear in your mind)

To the learning curve addressed by @Elvishious , you must add the engine you want to use for your game. For Unity or Unreal by example, you'll have to deal with a variation of C (never remember which one use C# and which one use C++), so you'll need to have a strong knowledge because mistake aren't really permit. At the opposite, Ren'py come with its own, easy to learn and use, language which can be enough to make a game, and RPG maker use Javascript, which is easier to learn than C#/C++.

Thanks alot for your replies. Yes, I'm leaning towards ren'py as unity and such seems really hard. I have some knowledge of rpgmakers functions although nothing to do with adding my own code or such.

As for assets, I think I would have use something like 3dcg models and such as I've got no artistic talent in that regard. Is it easy to obtain assets for that and make scenes with it?

Sorry I'm a total newbie haha

 

[skvllbro]

Renpy came natural to me, but I have a bit of a background in programming.

The 3D images... well I’ll admit I wasn’t always a fan. Mostly due to some games where the characters look like lifeless dolls. However, a few developers have shown that it’s possible to have a quality presentation using 3D renders. You could check this very board for daz 3D assets
When you gather enough assets, my advice is to play around with characters, poses, clothes and lighting. Get a feel for how everything comes together. Don’t think about having to study renpy and daz quickly to start making your game as soon as possible. The quality of your end product could suffer because of that.

 

[DreamLab Studio]

I'd suggest using a game you enjoy and are familiar with - then use the UnRen.bot script to be able to view the plain .rpy RenPy files to see how it was put together. It's a great way to understand how things are done.

You must be registered to see the links

First look at script.rpy in the /game folder and you can basically read the story like a book.

I first did that with Dreams of Desires and took about 20 pages of notes just by browsing through the code. I had just recently played the game so it was easy for me to know what happened in the game and see that in the code.

Then you can look at a few other games and see how that person coded it. You can see the differences and better understand the options you have available to you.

 

[OhWee]

Just following up on the Renpy suggestions.

Games/Visual Novels created using Renpy can be rather simple affairs, can be rather complex, and a number of these fall somewhere in between. The nice thing about this is that you can start with a 'simple' structure that involves mainly the story structure, and once you are comfortable with that, you can start adding a bit more complexity to the game you are working on, to a point anyways.

You may want to do your 'simply' designed version as it's own game, as a way to get your feet wet in the Renpy basics, then once you are comfortable and have picked up a few coding tidbits along the way, then you can start a more complex design from the ground up. You could also 'rework' your first attempt with all of the new stuff you've learned/acquired, but this can become rather convoluted as you try to shoehorn some things into the existing design, then have to sprinkle code tidbits/adjust the code in various places.

The lemmasoft.renai.us forums are a good place to look for some coding tidbits and some advice, and Google can be quite helpful in finding code snippets elsewhere (stackexchange, etc.). By far what was most helpful to me was to peek under the hood of a few existing Renpy-based games to see how some things were implemented in practice. So, as others have suggested, yeah looking at existing games can be quite helpful in figuring out some of the more involved Renpy possibilities as well as seeing the 'basics' in action.