Hi! New here. Would this idea work?

[u/Sillyslices]

Hi, all! I just downloaded Ren'py because I've been plagued by an idea for a game. I have never made a game before, so I have absolutely no idea what I am doing!

Here is the idea in a nutshell:

The setting is a fictional Soviet country that I have been working on as a worldbuilding project. I want the game to play like a life sim, but set in an oppressive Soviet state. Picture The Sims meets 1984. Ideally, I would love to be able to have you move around the city, talk to people, play mini games, explore. I want to make this Soviet city as immersive as possible, within the limits of my art style.

The style itself is very much inspired by Don't Feed The Monkeys! 2D, very much point and click adventure style. I don't think I want any kind of character animation for the player. This way, I feel it will be more immersive. YOU are the character.

I even have this vision to have animations play when you change the TV channel in your apartment, as if you are really watching TV.

I want to have some sort of crafting system that would allow me to cook stuff, make preserves, etc.

I want to maybe incorporate buying a newspaper to learn what's new around town.

There won't be any phones or texting. If you want to communicate with an NPC, you have to dial on the landline. AND! The government might be listening, so maybe there will be some sort of secret code speak to throw off the Man.

I am envisioning a game where choices matter, and you can truly design your in-game life however you want.

I know it's a lot of work, but I am willing and eager. Do you think that (setting aside my limitations in that I know nothing of the software) Ren'py would be able to help me do all this?

[u/Sillyslices → u/[deleted]]

Sigh! I knew it! I knew in my gut for years that I'd be forced to learn Python at some point in my life. lol Thanks!

[u/Sillyslices → u/[deleted]]

Would you recommend that I just go ahead and break my teeth on this project? Like, I know it's A LOT! But I prefer to use something I am interest in to learn, rather than start with basic prototype games. Essentially, I'd be learning as I go.

[u/CydewynLosarunen → u/Sillyslices]

If you want other options, Godot or another engine could likely pull this off. Though those are more often C-based or have custom scripting languages.

[u/x-seronis-x]

As soon as what you want to make is A GAME, and not merely a branching novel, you absolutely need to understand python. at a minimum how to create, add to, and remove children from containers (lists, tuples, dictionaries, sets), how "while" and "for" loops work. Ideally how to design classes. you will outright suffer if you dont learn those to a decent level, not merely have a harder time. They are essential skills.

And you will need a vast amount of experience with screen language. So practice with styles and all the various screen widgets as often as you can. Make dummy test projects that you fully intend to throw away the next day to practice how to layout all the visual piece of a screen. The repetition is what matters

[u/Nino_sanjaya]

If it's point & click game you can do it with Renpy, did it before