Selling games...

omvendt

I have been creating a story just for the fun of it. Now, I am thinking that my work isn't so bad, actually, and I am considering learning RenPy and making a game for sale. Not because I think I would get rich that way, but because it would be something different from sitting at a desk looking at spreadsheets all day. Would be nice if it didn't involve too much hassle and provided enough cashflow to cover my Daz Shop habit. Has any of you tried this? Any recommendations?

 

jmucchiello

There are ten of thousands of Daz/Ren'py made games. Whether they make money is a different question. 

FJM1977

Check your licenses.

jmucchiello

FJM1977 said:

Check your licenses.

Other than editorial licenses, the standard license is sufficient. Ren'py is used to display pre-rendered images. So there's no interactive licensing needed. And nothing is being sent to a 3d printer.

FizzleMyth

FJM1977 said:

Check your licenses.

You don’t need a license to use renders from Daz (PNGs, JPEGs, etc.) in Ren'py games.

You would need a license(s) if you are embedding Daz 3D content (3D models, resources) in a dynamically rendered game.

nightwolf1982

I would look for sites that sell RenPy style games, contact some of the authors there and see what they have to say.

Richard Haseltine

FizzleMyth said:

FJM1977 said:

Check your licenses.

You don’t need a license to use renders from Daz (PNGs, JPEGs, etc.) in Ren'py games.

You would need a license(s) if you are embedding Daz 3D content (3D models, resources) in a dynamically rendered game.

You don't need an additional license - you do, of course, need the standard license

jmucchiello

nightwolf1982 said:

I would look for sites that sell RenPy style games, contact some of the authors there and see what they have to say.

I have contributed to renpy games. I am a programmer as my day job. I've coded renpy games. I have not sold such a game as that requires a lot more time than I have. The renpy discord has channels full of folks who make renpy games.

csaa

omvendt said:

I have been creating a story just for the fun of it. Now, I am thinking that my work isn't so bad, actually, and I am considering learning RenPy and making a game for sale. Not because I think I would get rich that way, but because it would be something different from sitting at a desk looking at spreadsheets all day. Would be nice if it didn't involve too much hassle and provided enough cashflow to cover my Daz Shop habit. Has any of you tried this? Any recommendations?

omvendt,

If you haven't, it might be worth visting the Visual Novel Support Group thread here on Daz Forums.

Cheers! 

omvendt

jmucchiello said:

FJM1977 said:

Check your licenses.

Other than editorial licenses, the standard license is sufficient. Ren'py is used to display pre-rendered images. So there's no interactive licensing needed. And nothing is being sent to a 3d printer.

Thanks!

omvendt

csaa said:

omvendt said:

I have been creating a story just for the fun of it. Now, I am thinking that my work isn't so bad, actually, and I am considering learning RenPy and making a game for sale. Not because I think I would get rich that way, but because it would be something different from sitting at a desk looking at spreadsheets all day. Would be nice if it didn't involve too much hassle and provided enough cashflow to cover my Daz Shop habit. Has any of you tried this? Any recommendations?

omvendt,

If you haven't, it might be worth visting the Visual Novel Support Group thread here on Daz Forums.

Cheers! 

Yes, great!

anepher

Richard Haseltine said:

FizzleMyth said:

FJM1977 said:

Check your licenses.

You don’t need a license to use renders from Daz (PNGs, JPEGs, etc.) in Ren'py games.

You would need a license(s) if you are embedding Daz 3D content (3D models, resources) in a dynamically rendered game.

You don't need an additional license - you do, of course, need the standard license

You need interactive license if you use Daz models as 3D models or if your 2D renders flow is being decided by the player thus the 'interactive' term in the name of the license.
If the game is a visual novel when the player can not decide the flow then the standard license is enough.

anepher

I've created some games and published them on Steam
My experience so far:

1. very difficult to work with Daz models in game engines
   1. A lot of models have very high polygon number with visual quality from medium to low, you can't see the polygons until you buy them, especially hair
   2. HD is not being expoerted to fbx, I think max depth 2, I found a way to export the mesh as obj to blender and create a normal map from it but is very time consuming
   3. Daz rigging is completly different from engines so any animation you get from a game engine will not work, unless you attach another avatar to your model but then you have to programtically switch between the avatars
   4. Very expensive interactive licenses, Renderhub have most of their products with free Extended Use License but on average the quality of the products is a bit lower, especially on clothing
   5. Low or no maintainance for Daz to Unity or Daz to Blender
2. If you want to go with Unity there is Tafi, they are basically exporting and decimating Daz products to Unity store, what I've seen they were doing a pretty good job, I'm using some hair shaders from their products, not sure if they have items for Unreal, prices are decend much better than Interactive licenses and you'll have less hassle, they have like 360+ products 
   ex: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/props/clothing/osher-hair-male-from-tafi-186971
3. Best release was on Steam(you have to pay 100$ per game), 100k store views at the weekend release, 16k players in the first 6 months (my game is free, so...) a lot of documentation, decent release on ithc.go, bad release on Microsoft store, canceled release on Meta store

My final take is that Daz is good for 2D visual novels games rather than 3D, interactive movie like Dragon's Lair.

 

joanna

anepher said:

You need interactive license if you use Daz models as 3D models or if your 2D renders flow is being decided by the player thus the 'interactive' term in the name of the license.
If the game is a visual novel when the player can not decide the flow then the standard license is enough.

Can you point to the relevant wording from Daz? Because so far, my understanding (reinforced by what I've seen on the forum) was that "interactive license" only refers to using actual meshes/products in a game, while using flat 2d rendering in anything (including animation or games) was covered by the standard license. So if a game consists of static 2d rendered images, no matter the interaction level of the game (whether the player reads the text and clicks "next" or has some choices that might alter the story and thus interactively alter the story/outcome), it only needs a standard license.

jmucchiello

joanna said:

anepher said:

You need interactive license if you use Daz models as 3D models or if your 2D renders flow is being decided by the player thus the 'interactive' term in the name of the license.
If the game is a visual novel when the player can not decide the flow then the standard license is enough.

Can you point to the relevant wording from Daz? Because so far, my understanding (reinforced by what I've seen on the forum) was that "interactive license" only refers to using actual meshes/products in a game, while using flat 2d rendering in anything (including animation or games) was covered by the standard license. So if a game consists of static 2d rendered images, no matter the interaction level of the game (whether the player reads the text and clicks "next" or has some choices that might alter the story and thus interactively alter the story/outcome), it only needs a standard license.

Your interpretation, Joanna, is the correct one. Being "3D" doesn't matter. If the meshes and models never leave your computer, you're good with just the standard license. If you ship the meshes, you need the Interactive license. Although, anepher may have just meant 3D as "on the fly 3D", which is saying the same thing differently.

FrankTheTank

 

You need interactive license if you use Daz models as 3D models or if your 2D renders flow is being decided by the player thus the 'interactive' term in the name of the license.
If the game is a visual novel when the player can not decide the flow then the standard license is enough.

I don;t think this is accurate. From my understanding one could even create an old school side scrolling game, and legally use pre-rendered frames (2D sprite style) to make the game, without the need for an interactive license. As long as the actual 3D mesh and/or textures are not imported and used in the game engine one is fine with just the standard license. A render is a render. Doesn't matter if its used in a choose-your-own-adventure type interactive novel, or if it is a sprite style faux 3D video game (like original Doom or Duke Nukem). If it uses only pre-rendered images, it only requires the standard license.

butterflyfish

FrankTheTank said:

 

You need interactive license if you use Daz models as 3D models or if your 2D renders flow is being decided by the player thus the 'interactive' term in the name of the license.
If the game is a visual novel when the player can not decide the flow then the standard license is enough.

I don;t think this is accurate. From my understanding one could even create an old school side scrolling game, and legally use pre-rendered frames (2D sprite style) to make the game, without the need for an interactive license. As long as the actual 3D mesh and/or textures are not imported and used in the game engine one is fine with just the standard license. A render is a render. Doesn't matter if its used in a choose-your-own-adventure type interactive novel, or if it is a sprite style faux 3D video game (like original Doom or Duke Nukem). If it uses only pre-rendered images, it only requires the standard license.

This is my understanding as well. 

Richard Haseltine

Yes, to save a double round of quoting, it is correct that an Interactive License is needed only if the models (or derivatives) are included, not for enders even if they move a lot.

omvendt

Dear all, thanks for your input. 

anepher

Thank you for the feedback.
My bad, I checked again the licenses and indeed for rendered images even animated or having the game with user based decisions there is no need for Interactive License.

lilweep

anepher said:

1. HD is not being expoerted to fbx, I think max depth 2, I found a way to export the mesh as obj to blender and create a normal map from it but is very time consuming

I dont know what game engine you are using but there might be other exporters besides fbx. There are at least 3 different popular bridges from Daz to Unreal for example.

There is a HD to normal map conversion from Diffeomorphic. Can also do in Substance Painter etc.  Im sure DaztoHUE would have one although I havent looked into it.

1. Daz rigging is completly different from engines so any animation you get from a game engine will not work, unless you attach another avatar to your model but then you have to programtically switch between the avatars

If using UE5, you can use a bridge that will end up on UE5 mannequin rig, then any UE5 mannequin animations would work on it.

In UE5, there are various tools for retargeting animations from one rig to another rig.