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Others What is the best engine for my game?

KlonHad

Member
Game Developer
Jul 21, 2019
202
84
Hey guys, I have been working on my game a couple of months in sugercube until it accumulates enough content. The game's premise is you hooking up on a tinder like app with strangers leading .

My game was on html up until now and when i end updating it i plan to reboot it to a new engine where you could use the app in a phone interface, You could build your app profile and certain selection of pictures would lead to different reaction from your matches.

What engine would be the best for having this phone interface with apps , that would later lead onto the "real life interactions" that will give you the scenes once you decided to meet?
 

pilots2013

Newbie
Oct 9, 2019
16
83
I think more informations are needed. What do you mean with real life interactions? 2D, 3D drawing? Real-Time? or Prerendered?

With Ren-Py for example you can easily customize the screens, making your phone interface.
 
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KlonHad

Member
Game Developer
Jul 21, 2019
202
84
I think more informations are needed. What do you mean with real life interactions? 2D, 3D drawing? Real-Time? or Prerendered?

With Ren-Py for example you can easily customize the screens, making your phone interface.
Its a real porn text game right now, I want to make it so you use a phone interface for the app part and once you agreed to meet, You go on to the scene which is real porn with choices
 
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pilots2013

Newbie
Oct 9, 2019
16
83
Its a real porn text game right now, I want to make it so you use a phone interface for the app part and once you agreed to meet, You go on to the scene which is real porn with choices
Seems like Ren-Py could be a good choice for you. Should not be hard to implement your own screens and interfaces, you can use it to just switch between screens. Then in the "second part" of your game you can use it for what it is made for (novels, choices, etc...)
 

KlonHad

Member
Game Developer
Jul 21, 2019
202
84
Seems like Ren-Py could be a good choice for you. Should not be hard to implement your own screens and interfaces, you can use it to just switch between screens. Then in the "second part" of your game you can use it for what it is made for (novels, choices, etc...)
Thanks, Any good idea or tutorial you can point me to on how to make such interface in renpy?, I'm looking to make a full functioning phone
 

lancelotdulak

Active Member
Nov 7, 2018
556
549
Unity.
It's easy to use. It will do literally anything. It's cross platform. So you build your game for windows and unity will automatically crosscompile it for multiple platforms

People here constantly push renpy because its what most of these vn's are made for. "I have a hammer.. theres a problem.. ill solve it with my hammer"
 

KlonHad

Member
Game Developer
Jul 21, 2019
202
84
Unity.
It's easy to use. It will do literally anything. It's cross platform. So you build your game for windows and unity will automatically crosscompile it for multiple platforms

People here constantly push renpy because its what most of these vn's are made for. "I have a hammer.. theres a problem.. ill solve it with my hammer"
Unity doesn't have a good tutorial of 2d for what i am looking at and it seems complicated as hell honestly, anywhere i can start?
 
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BossFloof

Nitro Girlz: Paradise Creator
Game Developer
Sep 3, 2019
44
45
You want to check out Unity's Manual and Training pages here:

What you need is potentially just the normal Unity, since you could potentially build your whole game with the UI systems only. For that you don't have to bother with Unity's 2D tools.

We have a phone menu in Nitro Girlz and it is just build from Unity UI components. For the "real porn" you might want to look at a video player plugin and if you're looking into making stuff without coding too much, check out Bolt or PlayMaker in the AssetStore. There might even be more stuff to get your game up and running quickly.

In general you might also want to look at an HTML5 engine for your game, e.g. Cocos Creator, Phaser or Defold or one of the many more. It's easier to have video playback, if that's important to you, but you might not find too many additional tools or good resources, depending on your choice.
 

KlonHad

Member
Game Developer
Jul 21, 2019
202
84
You want to check out Unity's Manual and Training pages here:

What you need is potentially just the normal Unity, since you could potentially build your whole game with the UI systems only. For that you don't have to bother with Unity's 2D tools.

We have a phone menu in Nitro Girlz and it is just build from Unity UI components. For the "real porn" you might want to look at a video player plugin and if you're looking into making stuff without coding too much, check out Bolt or PlayMaker in the AssetStore. There might even be more stuff to get your game up and running quickly.

In general you might also want to look at an HTML5 engine for your game, e.g. Cocos Creator, Phaser or Defold or one of the many more. It's easier to have video playback, if that's important to you, but you might not find too many additional tools or good resources, depending on your choice.
Thanks a lot for all the sources, From what i have seen renpy fits the bill and the coding isn't hard because its a ui, The problem is i have to create every single chat bubble and phones interface as a photo and that will take a while, Wonder if i can do it better on unity
 

BossFloof

Nitro Girlz: Paradise Creator
Game Developer
Sep 3, 2019
44
45
There are plugins like "Dialogue System For Unity" and other storytelling tools in the Asset Store, some even for free (like the engine itself as long as you're not making 100k+ in revenue )

You can write the story in a tool like that and just make the interface look like the phone you want to have, then you should not have to create each text bubble as an actual graphical asset. But you need to work yourself through the tutorials and documentation to do it, since it is not as easy as just threading up some files to play sequentially. But that shouldn't take too long so give it a try!
 

polywog

Forum Fanatic
May 19, 2017
4,062
6,267
i have to create every single chat bubble and phones interface as a photo and that will take a while, Wonder if i can do it better on unity
Unity supports in-game SMS messaging, sending images, and streaming video....
 

KlonHad

Member
Game Developer
Jul 21, 2019
202
84
There are plugins like "Dialogue System For Unity" and other storytelling tools in the Asset Store, some even for free (like the engine itself as long as you're not making 100k+ in revenue )

You can write the story in a tool like that and just make the interface look like the phone you want to have, then you should not have to create each text bubble as an actual graphical asset. But you need to work yourself through the tutorials and documentation to do it, since it is not as easy as just threading up some files to play sequentially. But that shouldn't take too long so give it a try!
Thanks i'll check it out, I saw you have a phone interface in your game
 

osanaiko

Engaged Member
Modder
Jul 4, 2017
2,150
3,511
Just adding my two cents here:

In my experience, Unity is much harder to work with than Renpy for a relatively simple VN game. Sure, there are various "assets" on the store you can buy (basically plugins to add prebuilt functionality to the game) but you still need to understand enough to plug them together.

RenPy's documentation is not super helpful, but there's plenty of examples and plenty of help available on boards like this.
Unity has extensive documentation but again it's not helpful if you don't know the basics. Beware the unity forums as they are a horrible wasteland of terrible advice with only an occasional helpful gem.

Also, unless you are already a reasonably good programmer (in C#) Unity will be a challenge.

In summary: Unity is great if you are on your way to becoming a professional game developer. Renpy is for semi-amateurs to bang out visual novels.
 
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KlonHad

Member
Game Developer
Jul 21, 2019
202
84
Just adding my two cents here:

In my experience, Unity is much harder to work with than Renpy for a relatively simple VN game. Sure, there are various "assets" on the store you can buy (basically plugins to add prebuilt functionality to the game) but you still need to understand enough to plug them together.

RenPy's documentation is not super helpful, but there's plenty of examples and plenty of help available on boards like this.
Unity has extensive documentation but again it's not helpful if you don't know the basics. Beware the unity forums as they are a horrible wasteland of terrible advice with only an occasional helpful gem.

Also, unless you are already a reasonably good programmer (in C#) Unity will be a challenge.

In summary: Unity is great if you are on your way to becoming a professional game developer. Renpy is for semi-amateurs to bang out visual novels.
I fiddeled around with renpy yesterday and couldn't create a screnn/imagemap even if i copied the commend from a video, I used noteped++ to edit
 
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osanaiko

Engaged Member
Modder
Jul 4, 2017
2,150
3,511
I fiddeled around with renpy yesterday and couldn't create a screnn/imagemap even if i copied the commend from a video, I used noteped++ to edit
Do you have much programming experience?

I'm not trying to be offensive, but anything will take a while to learn the basics if you are a beginner. I totally support anyone trying to learn and make things for themselves (as opposed to those who only consume other's hard work and still feel entitled to complain!)

The "home" forums of Renpy is and there are plenty of examples and also experienced renpy users who can help.

This site's developer's section is also pretty helpful.

I totally agree that the "screen" sub-language of renpy is confusing until you get the idea - it's all composable components.

The other tricky part of Renpy (for me at least) is the way that spacing/indentation has meaning due to the Python roots - i'm constantly getting it wrong.

Keep at it, maybe try initially modifying the "The Question" example renpy script to get the hang of it.
 

KlonHad

Member
Game Developer
Jul 21, 2019
202
84
Do you have much programming experience?

I'm not trying to be offensive, but anything will take a while to learn the basics if you are a beginner. I totally support anyone trying to learn and make things for themselves (as opposed to those who only consume other's hard work and still feel entitled to complain!)

The "home" forums of Renpy is and there are plenty of examples and also experienced renpy users who can help.

This site's developer's section is also pretty helpful.

I totally agree that the "screen" sub-language of renpy is confusing until you get the idea - it's all composable components.

The other tricky part of Renpy (for me at least) is the way that spacing/indentation has meaning due to the Python roots - i'm constantly getting it wrong.

Keep at it, maybe try initially modifying the "The Question" example renpy script to get the hang of it.
Thanks, My only experience in coding is my html games and editing some python scripts that already existed. Is there any use to learning python before i dive into renpy?