Maybe a too complex project ?

Doppler

Hi !

I'm testing around different game engine in order to chose the best for my needs. My project is a dating sim under the form of a visual novel. I'm exploring GoDot through the use of VN Template, witch is pretty good for what I'm intending, and I also find GoDot is a very interesting engine as learning it could open me to other kinds of projects. The only drawback is that I'm a beginner and GoDot is so powerful that I get lost, overwhelmed by all possibilities... ^{^'}

Before being sure to make the right choice going with GoDot I would like to know if it can do a particular thing that I really need. I feel it should be possible but I'm not sure, and if so I would be very grateful if you could direct me to some content that would explain what I need to learn to realize this.

Here is the thing... Love is a complex emotion made of several feelings, and to each of us some feelings constituting love are more important than others. So I would like to define it for each character using an addition of some stats picked up in a diversified list of traits. For example for one character more into passion it could be (Desire x 4) + (Drama x 2) + (Respect), for a sapiosexual character it could be (Intelligence x 4) + (Communication x 2) + (Tenderness) etc.

Each trait's stat would evolve depending on interactions, progressively building Love playing on some traits more than others, and of course be saved along the way. But it would not be accessible to players until they have a good ending with one of the main NPC. Then for a new game + they would have access to a window in which traits would be visible for this NPC only in order to help to look for alternative endings, and stats incrementation would also show during dialogs. And little by little adding other NPCs to this system thanks to success in other events.

Is this possible ?

If so how should I approach the realization of this system to keep it as clear as possible ? (I guess there would be traits dictionary, character sheets, save process...)

Which resources should I look for to learn what I will need ?

Thanks a lot by advance for your advises ! (and sorry for my approximate English ^{^')}

fire7side

I think that's a little complex for a first project. I saw a text adventure tutorial on youtube that might be a good start. At first I was thinking an addon like Dialogic, but I think that might get in your way later on. I would think a class for the characters with their traits would be the way to go if it was me. But I would start with text and worry about graphics after I figured out how everything was going to work. You might find a visual novel tutorial, but I would watch out for something that was all packaged up because it might be too hard to modify.

Doppler

Thanks a lot for your advises !

So far I've build most of the story tree, characters definition etc, then started to try Ren Py writing dialogs, which made me come with more ideas. That's how I ended up thinking about such system, and feeling Ren Py could be powerful enough to make it work although starting to feel a bit its functional limits may get in the way, and also that I feel it's too minimalist from a workflow perspective.

For sure graphics will come later on. I'm more planning in this order : 1- Building the system as a template I could use for this game and maybe future other ones. 2- Populating chapters with dialogs, choices and stats increments. 3- Adding visuals. 4- Adding audio.

And I agree too about ready made system packages. I've tried to add functions to NV Template, it looks possible but it becomes more about trying to push limits (and dealing with stuffs I don't need) than building a system fulfilling my needs.

cybereality

Yes, totally possible. I think RenPy is a good choice if you need a standard format VN, but it becomes more limited if you are trying to do innovative stuff. Godot could totally handle that project. You can use spreadsheets (CSV) to store the dialogue text and stats. This way it will be easier to modify later. Making a template is a good idea if you plan to make more games with the same format. Audio/visual (at least for 2D) is no problem in Godot as long as you are a decent artist (or hire freelancers). But if you are a beginner, it will be a lot of work. I think it's possible, but you will have to dedicate yourself to learning. Hope that helps.

Doppler

Thanks for confirming it can be done, now I can feel good getting into GoDot and spend some of my life learning it.

Indeed the use of spreadsheets sounds like a smart advice. I'll take this in my workflow and look for tutorials about CVS imports in GoDot. I already had some glimpses about it when I was looking about how to deal with translations.

I'm aware it's a long term project, for at least 2 years I guess... willing to spend at least 30 hours on it each week. Fortunately I'm used to Photoshop, Blender, Daz etc, and already got some leads about where to find musics. :)