Kind of a nerdy question - I know. But. What kind of software are you guys using to create your VN? I'm using Ren'Py for the engine and a combo of Affinity Photo and Procreate for iPad for the artwork. I skipped creating my sound and music for this project due to the deadline (and the fact that I'm working full-time :)). So how about you?
I'm using Ren'py for the game itself, and for the sprites I'm using procreate. For music I'm using free midis and converting them to .opus files with openMPT and a nice soundfont via sforzando. The backgrounds are all creative commons photos I've resized, posterized, and edited using painttoolSAI2 and an online posterize filter. the sound effects will likely be from freesound and potentially some of the halleylabs free resource packs (if you're making horror or something involving VHS tapes i highly recommend checking out the halleylabs resource center!!)
I might also use OpenClipart for some graphics (like fake logos in backgrounds, or bootleg anime posters lol)
i've got gamemaker studio 2.3 for the game, using a vn framework i've made in the past. unfortunately, due to the funkiness of my entry here, i had to gut like half of the functionality but hey, it works. i just use the built-in text editor for all code and writing
art-wise i've got a huion tablet and aseprite. normally i'd pair it with paint dot net for touching up but this game is MESSY so not even necessary
and for audio i will probably just use freesound.org! if i have enough extra time i will consider making a little beat myself but i have almost never done that before
I’ll have to expound on this later (maybe do a devlog) but I’m using the Calico engine. It’s Inkle’s Ink programming language with bells, whistles, and a whole lot of customization for the web. I’ve done quite a lot of modifications using the patch system.
It’s been suffering because of the lacking documentation (much more so for InkJs which Calico is built on than Calico). Which means that I’ve been writing in JS to supplement the engine and give me access to things that I really should have easily like: a function to tell if a knot (equivalent to a scene in Unity) has been visited and changing list values from JS (bools, strings, and others work fine but lists are actually demented JS maps with a different name which took far, far too long to figure out).
It’s been torturous fighting JavaScript’s wonky ass dynamic type checking and has required making a lot of helper functions and hacked-together parser things to make it all work.
Other than that, I’m using this website for converting stock photos and the like and Aseprite for polishing it up. I’ve not started on audio though I have some packs on my computer I’ll probably use like the GDC Soniss audio pack. Oh and VS Code for the writing and programming.
