VN Ren'Py Request for help and development process consultation

[mood_c]

Hi everyone, I am a fan who is initially learning to develop renpy visual novels, and I am curious, when people are developing, do they define the story first, then find material based on the story, then write the renpy program, or what kind of order?

 

[Saki_Sliz]

1. You want to make a game
2. Stare at your computer
3. get annoyed because nothing comes to mind, you don't know what to do
4. Can't do anything, so you do something else
5. Inspiration, Passion, or desperation happens. maybe you are inspired by a character or scene you liked, maybe you are passionate after enjoying someone else's game and want to do something similar, or maybe nothing fun is going on in your life and doing nothing isn't helping so you are suddenly willing to put in effort, even if that means learning new skills or making something that's obviously rough around the edges.
6. Do the thing. until you can't know more
7. Start a viscous cycle of on and off productivity.

When I look at games made on this site and from what I see from many of the dev's here, it seems that many some how manage to push themselves through a project making characters they like and writing as they go. I know for myself character art can help get me interested as I return to working on a project. However I notice that for myself, my fellow dev's that I talk with, and some youtube dev's most can't push themselves through a project. They are too big to nicely go through it with any sequence or order. there's some planning, but not fully planned projects.

A dev may have a character they like, so they work on character art. once the art meets their requirment, they may look into story ideas or already be inspired. they may work out a few scenes and start to look at environment art... but then they may not find what they were looking for, or more typical for me, trying to get what I want takes a lot more effort than I'm willing to put in (many writers run into the issue where they want to write a lot, but the amount of art assets to pull it off would take years to put together and render). different dev's try to find to find different work arounds, some accept what they can make, some make scenes that aren't what they envissioned but its good enough, or if you are like me nothing is good enough so you are constantly re thinking how to go about making games.

Mainly, dev's do what they can, for as long as they can. we each will compromise on different priorities, I'm willing to sacrifice time for the sake of meeting my ideals, it's why I've been learning to draw despite it being much easier to render 3D characters. Other dev's may find that writing is where they have fun, but making art/renders puts them to sleep or stresses them out, so they opt to buy pre made VN assets, such as for backgrounds being common. Some may plan out a whole story, or a whole world, but some may only plan out a few scenes that they want to fit into the game, but TBD how. I don't think any of us have a proper 'process' because we are making games casually, in our free time, not pumping them out like a factory.

 

[mood_c]

1. You want to make a game
2. Stare at your computer
3. get annoyed because nothing comes to mind, you don't know what to do
4. Can't do anything, so you do something else
5. Inspiration, Passion, or desperation happens. maybe you are inspired by a character or scene you liked, maybe you are passionate after enjoying someone else's game and want to do something similar, or maybe nothing fun is going on in your life and doing nothing isn't helping so you are suddenly willing to put in effort, even if that means learning new skills or making something that's obviously rough around the edges.
6. Do the thing. until you can't know more
7. Start a viscous cycle of on and off productivity.

When I look at games made on this site and from what I see from many of the dev's here, it seems that many some how manage to push themselves through a project making characters they like and writing as they go. I know for myself character art can help get me interested as I return to working on a project. However I notice that for myself, my fellow dev's that I talk with, and some youtube dev's most can't push themselves through a project. They are too big to nicely go through it with any sequence or order. there's some planning, but not fully planned projects.

A dev may have a character they like, so they work on character art. once the art meets their requirment, they may look into story ideas or already be inspired. they may work out a few scenes and start to look at environment art... but then they may not find what they were looking for, or more typical for me, trying to get what I want takes a lot more effort than I'm willing to put in (many writers run into the issue where they want to write a lot, but the amount of art assets to pull it off would take years to put together and render). different dev's try to find to find different work arounds, some accept what they can make, some make scenes that aren't what they envissioned but its good enough, or if you are like me nothing is good enough so you are constantly re thinking how to go about making games.

Mainly, dev's do what they can, for as long as they can. we each will compromise on different priorities, I'm willing to sacrifice time for the sake of meeting my ideals, it's why I've been learning to draw despite it being much easier to render 3D characters. Other dev's may find that writing is where they have fun, but making art/renders puts them to sleep or stresses them out, so they opt to buy pre made VN assets, such as for backgrounds being common. Some may plan out a whole story, or a whole world, but some may only plan out a few scenes that they want to fit into the game, but TBD how. I don't think any of us have a proper 'process' because we are making games casually, in our free time, not pumping them out like a factory.

Thank you for your suggestion. I think I know how to start and let it continue. My English is not very good. I hope you can understand what I mean

 

[anne O'nymous]

[...] do they define the story first, then find material based on the story, then write the renpy program, or what kind of order?

It totally depend on the developer.

The "right order" (everything is relative) would be to have the story from start to stop (at least all its key point and all the characters clearly defined), then to search for the material that correspond to it, then to write the base/core code, and finally to effectively starts to make the game. But there's people who get the material then try to invent a story on top of this, and never write a piece of code until it's effectively needed.

It's what fit the most with your way to works, your personality and the time you have.

 

[mood_c]

It totally depend on the developer.

The "right order" (everything is relative) would be to have the story from start to stop (at least all its key point and all the characters clearly defined), then to search for the material that correspond to it, then to write the base/core code, and finally to effectively starts to make the game. But there's people who get the material then try to invent a story on top of this, and never write a piece of code until it's effectively needed.

It's what fit the most with your way to works, your personality and the time you have.

yes，i know， I'm going to design the underlying logic of renpy first, and then add material to it

 

[JeFawk]

For me it depends on some factors.
1. Do I have assets readily available? Then I try to work with those to make the overall story, on paper. How it starts and what keeps people hooked. I don't think of the ending then.
2. I don't have assets: then I think of the story and I get my artist to help me .


Usually I game design with the artist, and we start with the story, with some main elements (the character is a vampire, the character is X, Y, and he has some quirks, maybe he's a vampire allergic to iron, so the player must do A, and B, to achieve goal C).
Then she makes some concept art and we keep talking about it. The more we talk as we develop it, the more good ideas come to mind. There's a big decent between what we imagine, and how it ends up looking sometimes, usually for the better

Good luck!

 

[mood_c]

For me it depends on some factors.
1. Do I have assets readily available? Then I try to work with those to make the overall story, on paper. How it starts and what keeps people hooked. I don't think of the ending then.
2. I don't have assets: then I think of the story and I get my artist to help me .


Usually I game design with the artist, and we start with the story, with some main elements (the character is a vampire, the character is X, Y, and he has some quirks, maybe he's a vampire allergic to iron, so the player must do A, and B, to achieve goal C).
Then she makes some concept art and we keep talking about it. The more we talk as we develop it, the more good ideas come to mind. There's a big decent between what we imagine, and how it ends up looking sometimes, usually for the better

Good luck!

Your route is great, which is of reference significance to me. I wish you all the best in your work, and I hope my work will be successful as soon as possible too

 

[danarchist_lewd]

Here's my process:

"Make Game" is generally too big a scope and will lead to me staring at my computer not really knowing what to do.

So generally I like to start with one core idea, mechanic, story, etc. Something that limits the bounds of what I'm trying to create. For my current project, what it started out as was "what if you were dating while the world was slowly ending around you."

That got me thinking about what mechanics would help me tell that story, while led me to mental health. So, you have to maintain your mental health to be able to take action, but that is challenged by the events of the society you're living in. ie, maybe you're eating well, meditating, but then your place of work starts laying people off, which decreases your mental state.

But you get to rely on the people you're connecting with to help you too, so there are mechanic benefits to the dating system.

So then I was like, okay, that's enough to go on, let's make the dating system. I figured out what that looks like and am currently writing a single date, trying to determine what that process is going to look like. I think I'll probably just make a single date and release that as a complete package just based on how long it's taking.

tl;dr: choose a starting point (this can be a story or game mechanic). Determine everything you need to know to create the simplest version of the game, and then create that and figure out what works and what doesn't.

 

[mood_c]

Here's my process:

"Make Game" is generally too big a scope and will lead to me staring at my computer not really knowing what to do.

So generally I like to start with one core idea, mechanic, story, etc. Something that limits the bounds of what I'm trying to create. For my current project, what it started out as was "what if you were dating while the world was slowly ending around you."

That got me thinking about what mechanics would help me tell that story, while led me to mental health. So, you have to maintain your mental health to be able to take action, but that is challenged by the events of the society you're living in. ie, maybe you're eating well, meditating, but then your place of work starts laying people off, which decreases your mental state.

But you get to rely on the people you're connecting with to help you too, so there are mechanic benefits to the dating system.

So then I was like, okay, that's enough to go on, let's make the dating system. I figured out what that looks like and am currently writing a single date, trying to determine what that process is going to look like. I think I'll probably just make a single date and release that as a complete package just based on how long it's taking.

tl;dr: choose a starting point (this can be a story or game mechanic). Determine everything you need to know to create the simplest version of the game, and then create that and figure out what works and what doesn't.

good route. I have similar ideas with you