not to countdown to countdown post but the madam is so stupid. “iris will never leave me, i’m the only one he has.” bitch ?? have you SEEN lillium ??? god imagine you’re iris you’re 18 you’re gay literally all the hot boys hate you. one day this mysterious hunky stranger sneaks into the tower stays in your room makes you food and offers to let you run away with him. like that’s HUSBAND MATERIAL right there and iris KNEW IT. literally he knew lillium for like two days and it only took a LITTLE bit of getting maimed by his mother in front of all his peers to convince him to run away with lillium “husband material” white. god
Yeah I getcha. I was once like you. Pure and naive. Great news. I AM STILL PURE AND NAIVE, GAME DEV IS FUN! But where to start?
To start, here are a couple of entry level softwares you can use! source: I just made a game called In Stars and Time and people are asking me how to start making vidy gaems. Now, without further ado:
SOFTWARES AND ENGINES FOR PEOPLE WHO DON'T KNOW HOW TO CODE!!!
Ren'py (and also a link to it if you click here do it):
THE visual novel software. Comic artists, look no further
✨Pros: It's free! It's simple! It has great documentation! It has a bunch of plugins and UI stuff and assets for you to buy! It can be used even if you have LITERALLY no programming experience! (You'll just need to read the doc a bunch) You can also port your game to a BUNCH of consoles!
✨Cons: None really <3
Some games to look at: Doki Doki Literature Club, Bad End Theater, Butterfly Soup
Twine:
Great for text-based games! GREAT FOR WRITERS WHO DONT WANNA DRAW!!!!!!!!! (but you can draw if you want)
✨Pros: It's free! It's simple! It's versatile! It has great documentation! It can be used even if you have LITERALLY no programming experience! (You'll just need to read the doc a bunch)
✨Cons: You can add pictures, but it's a pain.
Some games to look at: The Uncle Who Works For Nintendo, Queers In love At The End of The World, Escape Velocity
Bitsy:
Little topdown games!
✨Pros: It's free! It's simple! It's (somewhat) intuitive! It has great documentation! It can be used even if you have LITERALLY no programming experience! You can make everything in it, from text to sprites to code! Those games sure are small!
✨Cons: Those games sure are small. This is to make THE simplest game. Barely any animation for your sprites, can barely fit a line of text in there. But honestly, the restrictions are refreshing!
Some games to look at: honestly I haven't played that many bitsy games because i am a fake gamer. The picture above is from Under A Star Called Sun though and that looks so pretty
RPGMaker:
To make RPGs! LIKE ME!!!!!
NOTE: I recommend getting the latest version if you can, but all have their pros and cons. You can get a better idea by looking at this post.
✨Pros: Literally everything you need to make an RPG. Has a tutorial inside the software itself that will teach you the basics. Pretty simple to understand, even if you have no coding experience! Also I made a post helping you out with RPGMaker right here!
✨Cons: Some stuff can be hard to figure out. Also, the latest version is expensive. Get it on sale!
Some games to look at: Yume Nikki, Hylics, In Stars and Time (hehe. I made it)
engine.lol:
collage worlds! it is relatively new so I don't know much about it, but it seems fascinating. picture is from Garden!
NOTE: There's a bunch of smaller engines to find out there. Just yesterday I found out there's an Idle Game Maker made by the Cookie Clicker creator. Isn't life wonderful?
✨more advice under the cut. this is Long ok✨
ENGINES I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT AND THEY SEEM HARD BUT ALSO GIVE IT A TRY I GUESS!!!! :
Unity and Unreal: I don't know anything about those! That looks hard to learn! But indie devs use them! It seems expensive! Follow your dreams though! Don't ask me how!
GameMaker: Wuh I just don't know anything about it either! I just know it's now free if your game is non-commercial (aka, you're not selling it), and Undertale was made on it! It seems good! You probably need some coding experience though!!!
Godot: Man I know even less about this one. Heard good things though!
BUNCHA RANDOM ADVICE!!!!
-Make something small first! Try making simple: a character is in a room, and exits the room. The character can look around, decide to take an item with them, can leave, and maybe the door is locked and you have to find the key. Figuring out how to code something like that, whether it is as a fully text-based game or as an RPGMaker map, should be a good start to figure out how your software of choice works!
-After that, if you have an idea, try first to make the simplest version of that idea. For my timeloop RPG, my simplest version was two rooms: first room you can walk in, second room with the King, where a cutscene automatically plays and the battle starts, you immediately die, and loop back to the first room, with the text from this point on reflecting this change. I think I also added a loop counter. This helped me figure out the most important thing: Can This Game Be Made? After that, the rest is just fun stuff.
So if you want to make a dating sim, try and figure out how to add choices, and how to have affection points go up and down depending on your choices! If you want to make a platformer, figure out how to make your character move and jump and how to create a simple level! If you just want to make a kinetic visual novel with no choices, figure out how to add text, and how to add portraits! You'll be surprised at how powerful you'll feel after having figured even those simple things out.
-If you have a programming problem or just get confused, never underestimate the power of asking Google! You most likely won't be the only person asking this question, and you will learn some useful tips! If you are powerful enough, you can even… Ask people??? On forums??? Not me though.
-Yeah I know you probably want to make Your Big Idea RIGHT NOW but please. Make a smaller prototype first. You need to get that experience. Trust me.
-If you are not a womanthing of many skills like me, you might realize you need help. Maybe you need an artist, or a programmer. So! Game jams on itch.io are a great way to get to work and meet other game devs that have different strengths! Or ask around! Maybe your artist friend secretly always wanted to draw for a game. Ask! Collaborate! Have fun!!!
I hope that was useful! If it was. Maybe. You'd like to buy me a coffee. Or maybe you could check out my comics and games. Or just my new critically acclaimed game In Stars and Time. If you want. Ok bye
[I.D. two images, the first the tiffany pollard “beyonce” meme of her looking utterly shocked with the caption “THE ORIGINAL???” the second is an image of will smith as the fresh prince looking out of a taxi window in awe with a portable camera in hand. end I.D.]
i know the lost turnabout is a first case that's just meant to re-introduce players to the mechanics of the game but two things always struck me about it. one is that mia died from being struck on the head and barely even a year later phoenix potentially could've died the exact same way if that one witness guy (i'm not looking up his name) had struck him any harder so it creates this horrible "like mentor like student" situation only with. death. instead of mannerisms. and the second thing is that when stripped of his memories phoenix is proven to naturally be a person who suspects more than he trusts. like really at first he doesn't trust maggey at ALLLLL he's constantly giving her these suspicious looks and being like "how could you not have done it?? here's a bunch of evidence that proves you did it!!!" even when maggey insists over and over again that she didn't do it. and it always gets me thinking about how phoenix said at the end of 1-4 that if he had known larry was the one who stole his lunch money he would've been a prosecutor instead of a defense attorney. idk just!!! thoughts
Maggey: Yes, this is my spare pair. But these glasses they found at the scene of the crime are not mine! I swear, sir!
Phoenix: You sure about that?
Maggey: Look, it was a coincidence that on that same day, I accidentally stepped on mine!
Phoenix: (A "coincidence" she says... Urk...)
& this!!!!
Phoenix: As if the glasses alone didn't make you look suspicious, the victim even wrote your name clear as day on the ground!
Maggey: But, but, but, I already told you! Those glasses aren't mine!!
Phoenix: And how do you explain his dying message?
Maggey: ... It's a conspiracy! I'm not guilty, sir!
phoenix really loses his memories and his first thoughts in court are looking at his client and going. I Don't Fucking Believe You. How The Hell Do You Explain This. and it becomes very easy to see how in a different world he COULD'VE been a prosecutor like he said. yknow
