Are you sceptical of games using pre-made assets?

[Ikuze]

The title might be a bit vague, so I'll elaborate.

I'm useless at drawing and making music, with my only VN-related skills being writing and coding. I want to make my first project without having to search for volunteers willing to cooperate with a first-time creator. Therefore, I'll be finding and using pre-made assets (sprites, backgrounds and music). I won't be doing this continuously. If anything, will just be a practice to see how my writing fits in to a visual novel style.

Basically what I'm asking is, do you look down on visual novels made with ready-to-use assets? I'm worried that if I only do the writing, people will associate it with low-quality, which happens often in video games.

[Tempus]

I think it's fine. This is how many people got started, myself included — I certainly don't look down on it. When I play VNs with pre-made assets and/or something like filtered photos it generally doesn't bother me provided they're consistent and somewhat fitting.

Don't worry about it creating an association between your writing and low-quality assets. If I remember right, Don't Take It Personally Babe by Christine Love used pre-made sprites and backgrounds (and possibly music). Or maybe it was filtered photos for the BGs... I'm not sure. I think only the CGs were custom. ANYWAY. The point is that Christine Love's writing wasn't associated with those pre-made assets and she's obviously gone on to create other VNs with custom assets.

Also, I think The Royal Trap uses licensed music and it works well because it was carefully chosen. So pre-made isn't necessarily low-quality either.

[gekiganwing]

Freeware visual novels range from experiments created during a short game jam to stories created over several years. I understand that not many freeware creators have the time or the resources to create their own art. Also, I want to make sure that the barrier to entry for VN creators is not too high. Therefore, if the product is free, I don't mind seeing creative commons art assets, or inexpensive art assets which the creator has marked as copyright-free.

I've seen some indie visual novels that use art assets that the person purchased. It's not always easy for me to justify purchasing software, especially when I know that the VN creators did not design their own art. However, if the story or gameplay sounds interesting, I'll consider buying it.

[fleet]

"Basically what I'm asking is, do you look down on visual novels made with ready-to-use assets?"

No, I don't. Many (perhaps most) VN beginners use pre-made assets.

[Ikuze]

Alright, thanks for sharing your views guys. I guess it's on to the thinking stage then. I just need a good story. I'll look for things like music once I know what my story and mood will be like.

[CrazyHussar]

I'm neither looking down to creatora who uses freeware assests. What carries a VN is the story - to being more accurate, in my opinion, the story is about 70-75%, 20-25% graphics, and 5-10% audio - if the VN doesn't have voice acting.

By the way, I'm a creator too and I decided to everything will be exclusive: third party assets are prohibited. No plagiarism, no indie freeware music, no modified images for background, ect. The only one asset will be the Ren'Py engine what are awesome amd everyone using it.

Remind me, if my VN gets on to Steam, cast around 1000$ to Miss Eileen.

[Aviala]

I think it really depends on how you use those premade assets. If you use pre-made sprites with quality UI, a great story and well-placed music and sound effects, it can work just fine. However, if you use Ren'Py default font, default menus, place your sprites poorly and don't use appropriate music and sounds, your game will look amateur-ish. It can be a bit hard to see past mediocre art assets even if the writing is good - especially when somebody just looks at the game in your project thread or a download website like itch.io or whatever - they can't know the quality of the writing just by looking at your screenshots.

That said, your first project doesn't need to be great. It doesn't need to look amazing or impress a lot of people. If you manage to release a game, not matter how amateurish it looks, it's a lot more than what most people have managed to do. Just go for it!

[curry nochi rice]

I swear to God this actually needs factual, objective research.

[CrazyHussar]

Make a VN about making VN, you k ow, like Saenai Kanojo no Sodate-kata.

[wendybirdx]

Not at all, actually. I take it more as a sign of someone who's very strong in one area (usually writing, which is what matters most anyway) and is very dedicated to their project, enough to try and make it fly on their own.

[E-l337]

It all depends on what you're hoping to 'get' out of the project.

If you're just making a first-time game to make a game for the experience and demonstrate "this is what I can do?" That's fine. If you're making a first-time game with the intention of selling it? Well... then yes, it will be very looked down upon (unless those assets are used really, really well).

But since you've outright stated this is mostly for practice? Use free assets. Go wild with it. Experiment, learn, and get an idea of how it all works.

You have to make something that's 'bad' before you can make something that's 'good'. This is true of anything.

[SwedishJazz]

I agree with Aviala. There's nothing wrong with using freeware assets, and I wouldn't turn down a game just for that, but if they're poorly chosen (for example, the characters are drawn in different styles), the UI is default, and so on, it just looks jarring, and I would think that the creator released it just as a first game of theirs/a test. Gathering and using freeware assets to create something nice and cohesive is a skill on its own, and with enough effort, it can make a game look really good!

[somestrangecircus]

As long as they're used well and properly credited, then I see no problem with it. Trying to pass off pre-made assets as your own original work would be something I'd take issue with. But the fact of the matter is, commissioning outside work for visual novels can be expensive, and I don't think there's anything wrong with using royalty free stuff as long as it's done well.

[cath-mg]

I think as long as the assets are taken from royalty-free sites, then there shouldn't be any problem. Giving proper credit would be great, too. It takes dedication and patience searching for free assets, so I personally wouldn't look down on it.

[Yolo400]

Making all the assets?

Making one kind of quality assets (music/graphics/writing) is a large enough job let alone taking all three on, and managing a team of people is equally much a pain in the bum.

Use everything that's available to you and licensed under something you can release.