Is Ren'Py suitable or would Unreal Engine be better...

[bloodycelt]

Thinking of making a Long Live the Queen/Princess Maker game but with some important bits:

I want to use the dice mechanics Little Witch Romanesque used, except rather than be used to generate spell xp, the skills and traits you learn define your dice pool.

E.G. The decisions you're allowed to make, and branch resolution often will be based off the result of a dice roll. And like LWR I want to enable dice bumping.

I suspect making a 3d dice model for each custom die would be a cinch in UE4, but how difficult would it be for Ren'Py to handle such an interaction? This would weigh against how difficult UE4 would be to build a princess maker-esque game.

[Ekamu]

In Unreal Engine 4 you could easily pull of 3D dice with physics. That's cool but its not at all necessary. In Renpy, you could leave out the fancy effects and just make a regular princess maker with dice but pre-animated in 2d, then you could use ATL to bring it all together.

Renpy is a lot more easier for one person or a small team. If you have something like a dedicated staff and 3d modeling experience then by all means go for it.

If you ask me I think the 3d dice is a little bit gimmicky. Do you really need it for the game to be fun? Is it something that can be replaced with a simpler mechanic? Try and be original, don't copy other games. Why not use a spinning wheel or rock, paper, sciccors...

Its a lot simpler than what your trying to attempt without trying to copy another game.

Code: Select all

if rock == true:
   jump rock_options
if paper == true:
  jump paper_options
if scissors == true:
   jump scissors_options

Then you have a custom menu that works the same way. You can do the same with inequalities for stats if you want to use numbers instead of flags.

Code: Select all

if stat > 10 and stat < 20:
  jump options1
...e.t.c....

You might want to read this
Labes and Control Flow
Python Statements
In Game Menus

Try draw a truth table for every possibility. You should try and make sure every possible condition has been evaluated.

Understanding Truth Tables

What these guys won't tell ya is most of that stuff is sorted out in matrices or a list with lists in python. So if this condition is met,
the game runs specific logic stored in a list of lists. (I need to research this myself).
You basically have to interprete every possible choice before it even happens and then give the user a list with choices based on their stats (which is just integers most times). The stats work as inputs for the truth tables.

I would recommend using flags, stick to boolean logic. Its funner and more practical. Numbered stats are usefull for RPG games where by points are calculated in a battle system that needs to do some heavy math with inequalities, probability and statistics and then while loops to make sure everything trickles down untill its zero (like health points in a battle system). This stuff is hard and very irritating and generally boring stuff that you shouldn't even care about for a princess maker.

I almost forget about combinations and pascals expansion and the binomial triangle. Those guys studeid a ton of maths, it looks simple at first then keeps branching and gets bigger and bigger. think of how many tuples that is. (1,n) (2,n) (3,n) (4,n) (5,n) (6,n) where n is 1 to 6.

Google Search Pascals Triangle

Then for all those conditions you have to make a separate choice list and for every choice you have, you have to create a graphic/outfit or whatever for the princess maker and then you need to keep track of this and test and debug.

Just make a demo, worry about features later. In my opinion stay away from the 3d dice and flag it.

[xela]

but how difficult would it be for Ren'Py to handle such an interaction?

As stated in the post above, it will not be easy. Trying to go 3D there is prolly not a good bet (if possible at all, this is not something I've ever tried), series of animations will work better.

This would weigh against how difficult UE4 would be to build a princess maker-esque game.

It wasn't really build with that purpose in mind. I'd go with unity of you absolutely need the dice to be true 3D. It'll have more VN/2D Interface tools that you'll need. Ren'Py will obviously allow you to code the 2D part of the game a lot faster.

[bloodycelt]

2D spirte based dice are fine, if it can be pulled off. I suspect Little Witch uses sprites for their dice.

[KnotUntied]

Ren'Py if you want it done quickly, UE4 if you want some awesome scenery.

[SundownKid]

Well essentially you have to decide whether you want to make your project way more difficult just to fit in 3D dice rolling as opposed to, say, a 2D animation. I wouldn't say it's worth it if the rest of the project was 2D.