New here and looking for advice

Project Help Misc
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Hi, im new here , just found this forum a few days ago and was like finding the holy grail. First things first, as this is my first ever post, let me introduce myself. My name is David and im an IT student. my birth language is not English so excuse me if i make any mistakes.

I have been for a while thinking of making a game. After finding this forum and lurking for a few days i made the decision to make a game about weight gain. I am not completely sure of what the game itself will be about but im certain of one thing, i want to make a 3D game about weight gain with belly physics (or at least jiggle physics.

Now onto some technical things.

-Belly growth:
On this post about making a VR chat avatar, i found that creating a belly bone in the rig is one simple way of controling how it grows and moves around. That is the simple part.

-Belly (and maybe other parts) physics:
To make it have physics(or at least respond to movement), i was thinking of using Unity´s dynamic bones, but seeing as they are not a precisely cheap addon, i started looking for alternatives. Then i came around Captain Elderly´s Yokai Slam, which has exactly the mechanics that i wanted, belly physics and belly expansion.
Seeing as this project is now open source i decided to reverse engineer it to see how they made it, and to my surprise is made with UE4. I don’t know how to use unreal but it was easy enough finding how the belly growth and movement was archived.
Im actually a good programmer and know how to use unity although i haven’t made any games yet, i´ve only played around with the engine with some tests and experiments. I know that UE4 is harder to use than Unity, but seeing as it doesn’t involve any programming, i guess that learning how to use it wont be too difficult after all.

I reached the conclusion of using UE4 (or even UE5) to make a prototype that uses of that mechanics and then maybe i will start thinking of how and where to use them. I don’t know if its a good idea but i wont know it until i try it. Learning by trial and error is the best way to learn in my opinion.
Im not an artist but i have some knowledge on 3d modelling so i will try to do everything by myself from scratch, but if you know of some resources i can use, i will be thankful.

To end this already long post i will ask you for advice and ideas on how to make and apply those things to a game.

Thank you in advance :smiley:

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Welcome! Hope to hear more about your ideas and game in the future!

While I can’t say much to help with this type of game, hopefully someone else can!

That being said, don’t be afraid to reach out to other devs whose projects seem similar to the ideas you have in mind!

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Obviously growing the belly, breasts, thighs, etc, only gets you so far, i was thinking that i may need to make various models and progress through them. That would mean that in game, it would change abruptly between character models, and ideally, i want the transition to be smooth. That´s because i want to use bones to do the weight gain, because in UE4 i can use animations to change the body shape.

So maybe a middle ground where the only belly grows as the the stomach is more full and the weight increases the more the food is digested. And passed a certain threshold, it would change to another model. This would make the transition abrupt but you could still see the belly grow. This is what i´ve seen in many of the games here.

As i was writing this , i looked if any form of mesh morphing exists and i found morph targets, i dont exactly know how they work because i dont know how to use UE4 but it looks prommising. It may allow me to change proggresively from one model to another and make the transition smooth. If anyone knows about this topic and if its viable at all, please reply.

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Hi, and Welcome!
I think you should have a clear idea of the game you’re making before picking the engine.
Do some game engine evaluation (UE5, Unity, Godot) and see witch one you like best.
Unless you have some “special” requirements like visual programing, realistic lighting, big open world, etc…
I personally use Godot (I work in 2D mostly) so my knowledge is limited.
In Godot you can use blender “shape keys” to simulate weight gain.

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I get what you are saying and you are right. Im not familiar with godot, so i guess i will take a look.
I dont have any programming preferences, if its either C#, ue´s blueprint or whatever godot uses im sure i will adapt.

Now , i don’t have a clear idea yet, so talking about the engine i will use and what mechanics will be used can seem like building a house from the roof. But i kind of know what im doing, i first want to know that whatever engine i choose, i will be able to do what i want with it, for ejemple, Unity is out of the question as Dynamic bones are 20$.
I will take a look at godot and shape keys. If something similar to dynamic bones exists i will use godot, because UE´s interface is quite complex.

Thank you for pointing that to me.

edit: I took a quick look at shape keys and they are exactly what im looking for. This proved really helpful .
edit2: Took a look at godot docs to see what it has to offer. And it has all the features im looking for on top of the shape keys thing. So i will star looking more deeply into godot. Thanks :smiley:

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Hello and welcome aboard!

You’ve got the right attitude with approaching game dev. Success and failures aside, the important thing is to be trying, along with having the drive to persevere.

In addition to posting here, I would strongly recommend the Discord server as well. We have an active and robust community of experienced devs and creatives who are willing to support and assist a fellow developer, particularly when it comes to the technicalities of 3d modelling.

Click on the Discord icon at the top of the page for access!

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first off, welcome! Glad to have you here!

Glad to see you’ve already gotten the advice to check out some more game engines, and you have done so.
If you want some more advice from me, I’d advice taking at least a little time to think about the setting of your game. You don’t need to have everything figured out yet, but

is a little too broad of an idea.

try asking yourself a few key questions first, that way you’ll have a vision to work towards.

What setting would you like? would it be realistic or maybe fantasy?

Both can be nice, and you may even create a mix between the two.
But would you like magic? monsters like slimes?
Maybe different species like elves and fairies?
If you end up making your own character models, try to take a look at assumptions you might have, and check yourself on them. Take the freedom that is yours to create what you want and not be held back by thinking something should be a certain way, simply because you have not thought about the possibility of it being different.

Do you want a game loop or a more linear experience?

Would you like to write a story for the player to follow?
Maybe an adventure? A quest of sorts? Or something else entirely?
Or would you like your game to be more open-ended?
Let the player wake up in their bed, walk around town, interact with the world around them?
Or you could have a bit of a smaller setting, like a cafe, where the day starts at 9 and ends at 5.
Do you even want a time system? You could also go from task to task to task, and write your progress that way.
and what POV would you have? Would it be a third person game where you can walk around with WASD or would it be more of a managing game in which you can interact by clicking around?

Would there be npc's?

Of course, you probably wouldn’t want your world to be empty, but think about what it costs and what it gives. Though I would recommend you do this with all the other things as well.
You’d need more character assets, yet they would fill a void that you wouldn’t be able to fill with a chair and a table.
Would you want these npc’s to gain weight as well? or would only the player gain? or maybe just a specific npc?
What would you want, what would you like, and what would it be worth it to you? If you love making the character assets, you can go wild with this. If you end up not liking to create those, don’t feel obligated to make too many of them.

Again, you really don’t have to answer all questions from the get-go, but having a global idea is great! That way you’ll have a vision to work towards, but also more clear tasks if you ever want to change between stuff
Maybe you’ll start working on your character, and you want a break from that, then it’ll be great to know you could work on the environment for a while, or the story, or other mechanics.

But most of all
Have fun, especially at the start of your project, don’t push yourself to do the parts you don’t enjoy, try and get something down you’re proud of first, and keep adding onto that.
You got this, we’ll all love to see what you come up with, and remember to do it your way!

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Hi. Thanks for the tips! I currently have no game in mind, for now i only want to make a prototype to test if what i have in mind is viable. As i said in another post, this can seem as starting a house from the roof, but i wanna what check what im capable of doing before commiting to an idea. Trying many of the rpgs in here i noticed a recurrent thing, just a “generic” rpg that has some sort of weight gain mechanic that barelly affects gameplay. I got inspired by some games like project F.A.T, sfrpg, etc, games where the weight gain mechanic is a main thing and not just something thats there. I want to do something like that, not necesarilly an rpg, just make that the weight gain mechanic is a vital part of it, thats because i want to make a prototype to test those things first