The Best Game Engine to make Visual Novel

like the title said

anyone have tried a game engine??
i think making a visual novel game is simpler coding/logic that casual or platformer game.
but i really have no clue how to start it, or what engine should i use…
and there’s no tutorial about this type of game at all in youtube

for game engine,
there is AndEngine and Unity, the 2 of it can be used to make VN right??
or should i stick with Eclipse?? because i want to make one, but of course powered with ads

any tutorial?
i have searched in google for many times, but no luck

(no renpy, maybe he is the best for now for VN making. but he is using python and dunno how to edit manifest/activity file)

Could you post example of what you want to achieve? 2D? 3D? Lots of animations or only a few / simple ones?
You can also check out libGDX - but it’s harder than Unity or AndEngine to master I think.

I’m just started learning LibGDX, and its not that hard that it seems at first glimpse. You should take a look at it, because there are a tons of tutorials about making games with it.

We worked with libdgx for our first 2 games and we were quite comfortable with it. Still, we decided to take a step forward and work with a more “professional” engine so we are working with Unity3d now. Not sure if it was the best decision , it feels like we are trying to kill a fly with a shotgun. But we are sticking with Unity for this project for learning’s sake…
Anyway, for what i understood you want to make, i would recommend you libdgx

anyway, my VN goal
Cradle Song Visual Novel, Game for Linux.jpg

of course 2D, no 3D at all
hmmm the animation maybe just for image to PAN left right up and down, it’s the simple one
woah it’s harder? okay i’l try see it :smiley:

woah cool, okay thx bro :smiley:

okay then bro, thaaanks :smiley:
good luck for your games too :slight_smile:

For 2d:

If you want really easy way (in Lua) - use Corona SDK ( Develop Cross Platform Mobile Apps and Games | Corona Labs ) (It’s paid).

Little harder (in Java) - libGdx ( https://github.com/libgdx/libgdx ) bonus is that at start you have for free pc/web/android version if you’d like to expand to iOS later you can buy monotouch and you almost have your game for iOS in Java :wink: If you hate Java you can use libGdx with Scala / Xtend / Mirah (In fact you can use everything for JVM, I saw examples for Clojure, but most of them are buggy/incomplete). In my opinion from these 3 Xtend is the best option (anyway it’s good for all android projects). Mirah may be good in future, but focus on present.

Another option is MOAI SDK ( Moai | The mobile platform for pro game developers ) (It’s free but you have to show splash screen) it’s in Lua so it should be simple BUT there is low number of support / community so I prefer harder libGdx with a lot more support.

If you like intellectual adventures you may use HaXe NME. You’ll have for free game for ios/android/pc and maybe something else later, I see big growth in this language in recent years. It’s good option if you came from Flash development cos HaXe is like actionscript.

Personally after 3 games written in libGdx I made my crossplatform c++ / Lua version of libGdx based on gdx++ ( https://github.com/aevum/libgdx-cpp ) because Corona was too limited and not so performat. It took me some time ( ~ 2/3 weeks ) but it was great experience.

I don’t know what is your coding skill but even if you are noob, with some effort you can start libGdx. It was my first game engine for mobile and I was successfull. My Java level was also low then, so if you have Java background it’ll be even better.

^
wow thanks for brief explanation :smiley:

wow Corona SDK looks cool :smiley: it’s easy right?? maybe i’ll look at it some more :smiley:
yeah i have tried libGdx for today, it’s a bit hard. and i got lost easily with explanation from text tutorial…
maybe video tutorial will do better for me, because the Tutor can’t skip anything.

my java skill??? LOL, i don’t have it at all, seriously.
what i do is only simple apps. this is the first time i making game with coding.

i always use game maker type that Drag and Drop or WYSWYG type, like RPG Maker and Novelty.
so this is the first time i make game with TOOOONS of coding, it’s hard. but maybe i’ll try libGdx little bit, because they really have MANY source and tutorial.

but if can, i still prefer WYSWYG type or Drag and Drop type, with finalization in Eclipse so i can add an starapp/airpush ads. is Corona can be functioning like that? or it’s coding base too?

and for coding, i think i prefer Java, because i want to focus for 1 language.

Use Java and libgdx. That way you have the option of releasing iOS version too. (by using monotouch)

okay bro, will do that :smiley:

currently want to makes 2d game, everyone suggested libgdx, i have try it, but it’s really have lots of code.

and i searched in youtube, there’s close to nothing that video game development using libgdx that even SHOW THE ACTUAL GAME…
only theory theory and theory…

and when i search corona, there’s TONS of awesome game tutorial!
and looks like it’s easier than libgdx, is it true?

but can corona integrated in eclipse too? i need it for integrate the ADS…

Corona isn’t wysiwyg. In Corona you have to write in scripting language - Lua, it’s easier than Java but it’s still coding, and you have to pay for it. Corona may be good as learning experience, I’ve seen that kids and old ppl (80+ years is record) made games with it BUT in long-term it may suck. For almost EVERYTHING in corona you need their support, if they didn’t make plugin for something you don’t have it, so for ads I think that you can use only admob … Problem with libGDX is that it’s not stricte game engine, it’s framework so you have few more things to do on start but you have greater performance/flexibility and you know what is going on. It’s really great framework, anyway everyone recommend it.
If you have a lot of time and want to learn in smaller steps, you may get Corona trial and make simple game. You will have then a basic feeling of programming and game making at all and libgdx should be easier then. Don’t limit to Java, today you have to know more languages and anyway Lua is more games language than Java (almost all engines use Lua on top, even cryengine).

About WYSIWYG editors:
I prefer coding so I’m not good in this area, but I’ve seen that lot of ppl are happy with Unity3d (you can have to write some things in C#/Lua/booscript), it’s free if you earn less than 100000$ yearly, it’s for 3d but you can still make something like https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.glu.samuzombie and it’s not modelling tool so you’ll have to use blender or 3d studio also …

You mentioned game maker and I see that there is something for android: Setup GameMaker:Studio for Android - YoYoGames Wiki
Anyway I still prefer coding because with code sky is the limit :wink:
If you are artist you may always hire someone like he did: Trey Smith - Live at App Empire 2012 on Vimeo , he makes medium games that you don’t even know that exists. I saw that he invested 4k $ and then earned 4k$ every month so he had fast return. It’s also one of the ways.

@ufoq
thanks for explaining :smiley:

hmmm… so it’s the same then :confused:
err yeah, basically i’m an artist.
but not that great :slight_smile:

no i don’t planning to be a super game developer, i just want to makes couple of small games :smiley:

anwyay i think unity release Unity2D isn’t??
maybe i’ll check it after it’s fully release :smiley:

no i haven’t try Game Maker, only RPG Maker :slight_smile:

woooowww!!!
showcase in game maker looks cool O.o@ufoq
hmmm… so it’s the same then :confused:
err yeah, basically i’m an artist.
but not that great :slight_smile:

no i don’t planning to be a super game developer, i just want to makes couple of small games :smiley:

anwyay i think unity release Unity2D isn’t??
maybe i’ll check it after it’s fully release :smiley:

no i haven’t try Game Maker, only RPG Maker :slight_smile:

woooowww!!!
showcase in game maker looks cool O.o

what language is game maker?? is it java?
can i export source code to eclipse?

I never used Game Maker so I cannot help you. I’ve found only tutorials for it: YoYo Games | Tutorials

I am researching game engine recently. I wish to create my 1st game. For simple game, you may try to use Construct 2. Easy to use and huge community with tons of tutorials and examples. The drawbacks is the performance and stability issue since it is exported as HTML5 games and then use other tools to compile into native app.

Other cheaper alternative than Corona is GiderosMobile. They have friendly and helpful community. The owner developer will give comment personally in the forum. Price cheaper than Corona and more flexibility. Game will be exported to eclipse project. Performance not bad just that the functionalities not very complete.

Other engine is a bit difficult to master but powerful: libGdx, Unity

Another tool you might want to take a look at is Basic4Android. Basic4android (Basic for Android) - Rapid Application Development I haven’t used it myself, but I hear it’s super easy to use.

Since I have javascript, html and Java experience. I am going to try Unity3D pro. I found that libgdx is supports only 2D and not 3D.