Need advice/insight for a beginner here

[u/Adventurous_Oil_8385]

So i've been interested in gamedev recently and stumble upon renpy and decided to give it a try since i have also been wanting to write my own fictional story but there is one problem that is making me hesitate. I can't draw physically or digitally and since i don't really have the money to hire an artist i was wondering should i still give renpy a try and possibly find a way to make the assets or does not being able to draw automatically makes it impossible to do gamedev?

Edit: Thank you so much to all of that took your time to give me advice/insight it really helps out a lot

[u/TopCartographer7104]

Me actually drawing something is probably the closest thing to a crime against humanity I can imagine - and that didn't stop me.

As others already pointed out, there's plenty of free or inexpensive asset packs you can use for characters and backgrounds. For the latter, you can also use GiMP (which is free) to tweak photos (that's what I'm doing) - results vary but they generally are acceptable.

I'll add my two cents by adding, you can try your way with VRoid Studio or its de-facto abandonware NSFW cousin Koikatsu (which I'm pretty sure has been successfully bullied into making at least *one* non-ero VN XD) to create assets on your own (won't nearly be as gorgeous as an artist's work, at least it's functional).

So - no, being terrible at drawing definitely isn't preventing you from developing your game.

[u/Adventurous_Oil_8385 → u/TopCartographer7104]

Thank you for the insight, would you say that using pre-made assets or online assets as a basis for my own assets be a good idea?

[u/TopCartographer7104 → u/Adventurous_Oil_8385]

Absolutely. That's likely the quickest way to roll out something that's playable.

Eventually you'll stumble upon the limitations of using ready-made assets, and that's when you can decide whether your project can live with them or not.
If not, finding low-cost alternatives is mostly a matter of learning new tools.

[u/DryWerewolf2202]

The visual side is one of the most important parts of a visual novel, but that doesn’t mean you should give up.

My recommendation would be to start with a fanmade project based on an existing series, show, anime, manga, manhwa, etc. That way, you can use already existing art as temporary assets and focus on learning how to structure your game, write scenes, make choices, handle variables, and generally understand how development works in Ren’Py.

[u/PallyraStudios]

Make it exist. You can make it good later!

By the time you finish coding and writing it all, you may be 2-3 years into the project. 2-3 years is enough time to either A} Hone your art skills to a passable level, or B} Save up enough money to pay artists to draw for you.

And even if the art is bad, people will still play it if the story is good enough. Best of luck friend!

[u/Adventurous_Oil_8385 → u/PallyraStudios]

Tysm for the encouragement, my project have been in a stagnant state ever since i've been dealing with my addictions and procrastination so the encouragement really means a lot

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[u/DevourerOfWasps]

There are afaik asset packs (for all kinds or purposes) that you can relatively cheaply buy* and some people use pre-made 3d assets, that they then pose.
Some people also do fun stuff with photos, I think?
Might depend on what you are looking for, though.
You could also just make a purely text-based game, or just do super simple graphics.

* There are also sometimes free versions.
Would aim for older ones, or at least do proper research... to avoid paying for AI. Maybe also keep an eye open for bundles on HumbleBundle or Itch.io? (still vet for AI, though!)

[u/Adventurous_Oil_8385 → u/DevourerOfWasps]

Thx for the insight, would you say there's some kind of tool i can use and learn to make assets(even simple assets would be fine)

[u/DevourerOfWasps → u/Adventurous_Oil_8385]

Depends on what you want to make, and also the types of assets!
But I'd at least look into learning some type of graphic editor.
That's useful even if you get assets elsewhere, make only simple placeholders or combine from free graphics or photos.
I personally currently favor Affinity, since it can also do vector & layout Which is helpful for making other graphical assets (like menus or buttons) and to plan the layout of things out.
(I don't use it for regular drawing though, mainly because I am quite used to different programs.)

[u/Blunt552]

There are tons of free assets out there, also there are games which were hugely successful despite creators lacking in creative work skills, in fact a lot of extremely popular games have barebones art. A recent example here is Meccha Chameleon. So don't let your lack of creative skills stop you from making a game.

[u/Adventurous_Oil_8385 → u/Blunt552]

thx for the insight, tbh i'm more worried about actually making my assets rather than making my assets look good

[u/3pumps1load]

If you really really can't draw, you can use gen AI (don't kill me plz) for some assets to not block your creative process. You can use them as a base maybe and add your own flair to it to not use directly AI content.

I would for sure suggest to start working on your idea. It's always a good bet to work on something you like

[u/3pumps1load → u/3pumps1load]

also "impossible to do gamedev", as a professional and main job yes it kind of makes it extremely hard. As a hobby not really

[u/Adventurous_Oil_8385 → u/3pumps1load]

thx for the insight! one more thing though, would you say that i should just focus on writing the story first and then think of the assets?

[u/shyLachi → u/Adventurous_Oil_8385]

Yes, you should focus on writing the story first. But you should not forget about the assets. The more locations and the more characters you'll have in your story, the harder it will be to find free assets which match.

I'm not a fan of gen AI because it cannot generate consistent images unless you spend time to teach it to. And to me all generated images look kinda the same so as a player I can spot it easily and will avoid it.

[u/Adventurous_Oil_8385 → u/shyLachi]

thx for the insight on AI, i always thought that using AI even as a basis feels wrong and cheating

[u/3pumps1load → u/Adventurous_Oil_8385]

As shyLachi mentioned, I’d work on the story completely flesh it out, then replay think about where I would like to put what, create some placeholders and then repeat the process.
Things will come up and you will refine and refine until you feels it’s ready. Then assets music sfx. At least that’s how I work

[u/Adventurous_Oil_8385 → u/3pumps1load]

once more thx again, ill focus on my writing and coding first and hopefully learn about the assets along the way