An alternative engine coming :o

Discuss how to use the Ren'Py engine to create visual novels and story-based games. New releases are announced in this section.
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Tony

An alternative engine coming :o

#1 Post by Tony »

Hi,

I would like to start that this post by saying this was previously posted on hongfire, but someone told me about this already existing project. So I tested a little bit RenPy to see what the devteam had achieved so far. It's great to know there is "competition" ;-)
I'm studying DirectX atm and I was thinking that I should develop a game engine to see if I can bring up such a project alone. Then, I thought, which game engine could I make ?
3D ? No. That's too much work for a single person.
2D. Okay, then what kind of 2D engine ?

I thought : Hentai Game engines of course ! They all look the same, some gfx, text and sound and you are done.

So after this boring introduction, here comes the project in an early alpha build to show the world my small project exists : http://www.ngengine.com

Atm, I'm only working on the engine itself, but then there will be a develoment tool so everyone can make their hgames without any knowledge of game programming. A bit like RPG Maker if you know what it is.

You can download the alpha from the website. GFX are ripped (badly, my photoshop skills suck) from "I'm Gonna Serve You 4". G-collections authorized me to use them.

Post what you think about this project here or send me an email => webmaster@ngengine.com

Regards.
Please consider this as an information, not as an advertisement. I'm not selling the engine and I only would like to contact the people interested in this kind of game making.

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Re: An alternative engine coming :o

#2 Post by szarebure »

Hentai Game engines of course!
Hmm, so until someone names at least one hentai game created with Ren`Py, it's not a competition.
They all look the same, some gfx, text and sound and you are done.
No, that's only what is the easiest to achieve. Even with Ren`Py we can creat much more, if only we put enough of work in it.

But I wish you luck :).

Tony

Re: An alternative engine coming :o

#3 Post by Tony »

szarebure wrote: Hmm, so until someone names at least one hentai game created with Ren`Py, it's not a competition.
No, that's only what is the easiest to achieve. Even with Ren`Py we can creat much more, if only we put enough of work in it.
Make no mistake, I thought to myself that when I started created the engine, but of course it's not designed and limited to hentai games. That's also why it is named "narrative game engine". Thanks for the encouragements :)

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#4 Post by PyTom »

Welcome! If you're looking for people who are interested in making games, you've come to the right place... This forum seems to be the hub of the western visual novel making community.

I tried ngengine, but wasn't able to get it to work. The screen goes black and changes resolution, then immediately changes back. Does there need to be some sort of script file included with the alpha? All I see is the README, the exe, and some directories containing graphics and sounds.

I'd be interested in finding out how ngengine compares to Ren'Py and ONscripter in terms of features, and also in terms of how the script is laid out.

szarbure >>> I believe that ngengine is a competitor to Ren'Py, and also to ONScripter... they're three engines that are competing in roughly the same space. Usually, competition is a good thing, as it encourages us to make better programs.
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#5 Post by szarebure »

I believe that ngengine is a competitor to Ren'Py, and also to ONScripter... they're three engines that are competing in roughly the same space. Usually, competition is a good thing, as it encourages us to make better programs.
I didn't mean one of the engines is better than the other. I just haven't heard of a Ren'Py made hentai game and that's what I have pointed out. :)

Both of you deserve your respect for what you are doing for us, wanna-be game makers.

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#6 Post by Tony »

PyTom wrote:Welcome! If you're looking for people who are interested in making games, you've come to the right place... This forum seems to be the hub of the western visual novel making community.

I tried ngengine, but wasn't able to get it to work. The screen goes black and changes resolution, then immediately changes back. Does there need to be some sort of script file included with the alpha? All I see is the README, the exe, and some directories containing graphics and sounds.

I'd be interested in finding out how ngengine compares to Ren'Py and ONscripter in terms of features, and also in terms of how the script is laid out.

szarbure >>> I believe that ngengine is a competitor to Ren'Py, and also to ONScripter... they're three engines that are competing in roughly the same space. Usually, competition is a good thing, as it encourages us to make better programs.
Re, and thanks for the warm welcome/

When the alpha was built, game was hardcoded in it, so there's no need for a script file. You made me doubt, so I downloaded it and launched it. When I launched it directly from the zipfile, it didnt run (blackscreen, chaning res, quit), but when I unzipped it and ran it from the unzipped folder, it ran fine. Also, I tryed it at my school and it worked too. An italian user tested it too, it worked.
It seems kinda weird. The game only uses DX runtimes. But well, there is often distribution problems on those projects. If you unzipped the ngengine1014.zip properly and couldnt get it to work, just lemme know, I'll check that.
About the features, well, there's nothing really impressive atm, but the system works fine. I'm looking forward to add some nicelooking fading effects.

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#7 Post by PyTom »

I did unzip the game correctly, at least as far as I can tell. But then again, my platform is a weird one (I run games under vmware), so it may just be a problem on my end.
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Re: An alternative engine coming :o

#8 Post by mikey »

Tony wrote:Make no mistake, I thought to myself that when I started created the engine, but of course it's not designed and limited to hentai games. That's also why it is named "narrative game engine". Thanks for the encouragements :)
I actually think it's a very catchy name, the abbreviation is very indicative of the VN game type it is set out to make, and it sort of reminds of Evangelion ^_^
Tony wrote:They all look the same, some gfx, text and sound and you are done.
Yeah, the game-making sounds really easy if you put it like that. :(

It's going to be fun having more dev environments to choose from. I usually end up choosing what's best for the intended gameplay, so having an extra option will be nice - a lot of the reasons for choosing one solution over the other is in how it solves development problems.

This said, I looked at the engine, and it seems to have the text (game script file)... inside the executable?? All there is are bitmaps :? I wanted to check it out, but... anyway, it seems then, that the Tool will do this, right?

So it's hard to comment on it for now from a developer's point of view. Anyway, if it's going to be a sort of Editor you can make your game in, a lot will depend on how it will be able to show and handle multiple story branches (path trees) in conjunction with the fact that some segments will be repeating themselves... Looking forward.

And welcome :P

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#9 Post by Tony »

To be honest, I didnt want to waste my time finding a name. NGE was the 1st name that showed up in my mind xD

The demo is really a small thing to prove that the project does exist. Of course you can't do anything with it atm, and there won't be a release until the development tool is finished. In the latest build I have, everything is scripted on a INI formatted file.

In the current frame specification, a frame looks like this :
[FRAME0]
Bground=bground0001.bmp
DisplayText=1
Text=Ryosuke :\Welcome !\This is an early demonstration of Narrative Game Engine.\Left click to start the tour.
NextFrame=1
LeftTxt=txt000a.bmp
RightTxt=txt000b.bmp
AlphaBlend=30
Choice=0
PlaySound=0
TextOverlay=0
BGMSrc=
OptionalSprites(0)Active=1
OptionalSprites(0)ImgSrc=ryosuke0001.bmp
OptionalSprites(0)Height=480
OptionalSprites(0)Width=312
OptionalSprites(0)PosX=200
OptionalSprites(0)PosY=0
OptionalSprites(1)Active=0
OptionalSprites(2)Active=0
OptionalSprites(3)Active=0


I'm updating ngengine.com from time to time with the latest news. I will of course gladly announce it when something concreet comes out :D

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#10 Post by rioka »

Another engine is always welcome, imo! Looking forward to testing it out when it's complete (or at least in beta). =)

Good luck and welcome! (Any chance of nge being done before NaNoRenO? ^_~ )

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#11 Post by Tony »

I cant tell ;o

Im developing on my free time so I dont really have any idea ^^

I guess developing a complete game on a beta version wouldnt be a good idea either =)

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#12 Post by Taavimon »

Looking forward to this, because something more point 'n clicky than Ren'Py or ONScripter would allow me to finish Dryad faster once I've finally found the time to finish the script (I had planned on doing that during the Christmas holiday, but got distracted by the rare chance to play Pokémon Puzzle League and Wario Ware with my sisters). I still plan to have the game out before I'll go to Japan as an exchange student next fall (this is 90% certain right now - the Japanese university might still reject me, but that's very unlikely to happen at this point).

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#13 Post by Tony »

When I started the program I really wanted to make it as user-friendly as possibles.

I tested a bit more RenPy and I have to admit I'm quite amazed how powerful it is. However, a "Point 'n click" game making GUI is a totally different concept than scripting, and each concept has its pros and cons.

I'm glad NGE wont be a clone of RenPy in the end ^^

However, once again, you really should expect a release in the coming days xD
Just make your game on your regular development platform for the moment, i guess ^^

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#14 Post by Watercolorheart »

Can it play SWFs?

If you can make it play SWFs ... I would be so happy ... :)

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#15 Post by Tony »

Re,

Considering that a single developer license of a FlashPlayerControl cost 300$, I doubt the engine will be able to play SWF ^^

Btw I think the very first beta could come at the beginning of february :D

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