#renpy

[digitalmaeri]

I went ahead and updated some of the sprites!

Meet Sven, Derek and Gwen- our lovely romanceable options.

[applottl]

rahhhhh! atom jumpscare!!!! boo!

huh? am i working on my vn? uh. runs away

this vn was such a silly and funny experience!! i know its supposed to be horror or whatevs but atom is such a hillarious lil creechur <333 will never not love them !

[plasterbrain]

Hello. First I’d like to say that I love Pizza Game so much. Second, sorry if you’re the wrong person to ask about this and/or you’ve already been asked about this, but what advice would you give to someone who wants to make a visual novel but has like zero idea about where to start, if you don’t mind me asking? I had an idea for a visual novel recently that I really like, but I admittedly have like none of the skills I would assume are requisite to creating a good visual novel aside from writing. Or any real knowledge of what the process for crafting a good visual novel would be.

Yes, I am aware that I am a fool. No, I will not give up on this endeavor.

Also, one aspect in particular that I’d like to ask you for advice about, since it’s a bit similar to a mechanic in Pizza Game that I feel like I haven’t seen a lot of other visual novels use (unless this is a thing that shows up in a lot of visual novels and I don’t know because of the few visual novels I’ve experienced Pizza Game is the only one I actually know about that does it) except actually diegetic instead of just a quality of life feature, is how to make the dialogue roll back like it does in Pizza Game. The main character of the story idea I want to make has the ability to do that as an actual superpower, so however I end up making this visual novel, it’d have to include something like that as a feature. And I’d need to make the game able to acknowledge the fact that you’ve used it and probably also give the player an action prompt for “something interesting will happen if you rewind here,” which I feel like is going to be a pain and a half to accomplish in a way that looks good, so any advice you can give me would be appreciated, though I understand if the second part is too complex for you to just puzzle out how to do for a rando asking for your advice on Tumblr. Admittedly I could probably make the main character’s power… basically anything else, really, since the main point is that they have a superpower and not that it’s specifically time powers, but with the way I’m setting up the story and challenge of the game, the character having a time-rewinding power pretty solidly sets them up as the person who has to do everything without it seeming too… “I know the answer to this problem, but figure it out and tell everyone for me, Naegi.” So I’m kinda attached to that idea, even if it causes me a great deal of annoyance to figure out.

Thanks in advance if you have any advice to give me. And again, thank you for making Pizza Game, truly the best visual novel of all time.

Hi (sorry for late response),

My advice for "how to make visual novel" starts and ends with Ren'Py! It's free, open source, and easy to use for people who just want to write! Nearly every Western indie visual novel uses it, and for good reason.

As for your question... The good news is that rollback is actually a built-in feature of Ren'Py. You probably didn't suspect as much, because it's kind of an unusual behavior to include in games by default and can "cheapen" the seriousness of VN-style branching narratives. (It's hard to make choices matter if you can just undo them 10 seconds later.) Doki-Doki Literature Club and Slay the Princess (I think?), arguably the two most famous Ren'Py games, both disabled it for this reason.

The bad news is that having the game acknowledge use of rollback is kind of difficult. Pizza Game does it twice iirc, but only as quick early gags, because it requires cluttering your script with persistent variables. If your game uses this as a central mechanic, your code will be hard to read, write, and test... I do not recommend it.

If you still want to give your character a visual-novel ludo-narrative superpower, there a certainly other options:

Use the tried-and-true "wow you've completed this scene before? here's different text!"

Have dialog that only shows up in the text history window (I've seen at least one game do this and it was pretty neat)

"Stop" time using audio/visual effects and let your character investigate the scene/people's thoughts or something

Make the game create/detect files in the game folder (a DDLC staple, ofc, though I've seen other meta Ren'Py games fool around with this)

...Or peruse the Ren'Py documentation and see what you can come up with.

Ganbatte, Anon-chan! (•̀ω•́)૭✧

[saltiepng]

happy early valentine's! i finally finished this game yippee. thank you sm to my friends for helping me with the writing and art. it was fun messing around in renpy again esp for a browser game.

the game can be played on itch.io!

[insertdisc5]

📚 A List Of Useful Websites When Making An RPG 📚

My timeloop RPG In Stars and Time is done! Which means I can clear all my ISAT gamedev related bookmarks. But I figured I would show them here, in case they can be useful to someone. These range from "useful to write a story/characters/world" to "these are SUPER rpgmaker focused and will help with the terrible math that comes with making a game".

This is what I used to make my RPG game, but it could be useful for writers, game devs of all genres, DMs, artists, what have you. YIPPEE

Writing (Names)

Behind The Name - Why don't you have this bookmarked already. Search for names and their meanings from all over the world!

Medieval Names Archive - Medieval names. Useful. For ME

City and Town Name Generator - Create "fake" names for cities, generated from datasets from any country you desire! I used those for the couple city names in ISAT. I say "fake" in quotes because some of them do end up being actual city names, especially for french generated ones. Don't forget to double check you're not 1. just taking a real city name or 2. using a word that's like, Very Bad, especially if you don't know the country you're taking inspiration from! Don't want to end up with Poopaville, USA

Writing (Words)

Onym - A website full of websites that are full of words. And by that I mean dictionaries, thesauruses, translators, glossaries, ways to mix up words, and way more. HIGHLY recommend checking this website out!!!

Moby Thesaurus - My thesaurus of choice!

Rhyme Zone - Find words that rhyme with others. Perfect for poets, lyricists, punmasters.

In Different Languages - Search for a word, have it translated in MANY different languages in one page.

ASSETS

In general, I will say: just look up what you want on itch.io. There are SO MANY assets for you to buy on itch.io. You want a font? You want a background? You want a sound effect? You want a plugin? A pixel base? An attack animation? A cool UI?!?!?! JUST GO ON ITCH.IO!!!!!!

Visual Assets (General)

Creative Market - Shop for all kinds of assets, from fonts to mockups to templates to brushes to WHATEVER YOU WANT

Velvetyne - Cool and weird fonts

Chevy Ray's Pixel Fonts - They're good fonts.

Contrast Checker - Stop making your text white when your background is lime green no one can read that shit babe!!!!!!

Visual Assets (Game Focused)

Interface In Game - Screenshots of UI (User Interfaces) from SO MANY GAMES. Shows you everything and you can just look at what every single menu in a game looks like. You can also sort them by game genre! GREAT reference!

Game UI Database - Same as above!

Sound Assets

Zapsplat, Freesound - There are many sound effect websites out there but those are the ones I saved. Royalty free!

Shapeforms - Paid packs for music and sounds and stuff.

Other

CloudConvert - Convert files into other files. MAKE THAT .AVI A .MOV

EZGifs - Make those gifs bigger. Smaller. Optimize them. Take a video and make it a gif. The Sky Is The Limit

Marketing

Press Kitty - Did not end up needing this- this will help with creating a press kit! Useful for ANY indie dev. Yes, even if you're making a tiny game, you should have a press kit. You never know!!!

presskit() - Same as above, but a different one.

Itch.io Page Image Guide and Templates - Make your project pages on itch.io look nice.

MOOMANiBE's IGF post - If you're making indie games, you might wanna try and submit your game to the Independent Game Festival at some point. Here are some tips on how, and why you should.

Game Design (General)

An insightful thread where game developers discuss hidden mechanics designed to make games feel more interesting - Title says it all. Check those comments too.

Game Design (RPGs)

Yanfly "Let's Make a Game" Comics - INCREDIBLY useful tips on how to make RPGs, going from dungeons to towns to enemy stats!!!!

Attack Patterns - A nice post on enemy attack patterns, and what attacks you should give your enemies to make them challenging (but not TOO challenging!) A very good starting point.

How To Balance An RPG - Twitter thread on how to balance player stats VS enemy stats.

Nobody Cares About It But It’s The Only Thing That Matters: Pacing And Level Design In JRPGs - a Good Post.

Game Design (Visual Novels)

Feniks Renpy Tutorials - They're good tutorials.

I played over 100 visual novels in one month and here’s my advice to devs. - General VN advice. Also highly recommend this whole blog for help on marketing your games.

I hope that was useful! If it was. Maybe. You'd like to buy me a coffee. Or maybe you could check out my comics and games. Or just my new critically acclaimed game In Stars and Time. If you want. Ok bye

[backtoeltingville]

I need feedback

I found a Renpy template that is free to use to add more deep details and options to customize the pronouns feature in game for the players.

It can also change how some characters refer to you every line or new scene if you have multiple pronouns, I really find this template useful, but I wouldn't mind any suggestion.

OR I already had a system in Renpy in where the player can choose their pronouns (3 sets of pronouns only. She, He, They)

[yukiicantdraw]

Waoh sprite editing be upon ye🫴

But in all seriousness this was fun to make on renpy (minus the figuring out how to code it in part-) so I might do more of these if I ever come up with more dumb scenarios

because I don't know- playing with renpy sprites feels like playing with dolls but better because 🫵 look it's the weird worm, ghost and shroom trio 🫲✨interacting✨🫱

No text versions are below the cut :D

[quiet-cabin]

OMAMORI IS LIVE!!!

That's right, folks.

🎉🎉 It's here. 🎉🎉

What you have ALL been waiting for! The full game is done, it's real, and it's right here!

I'm not sure what else there is to say besides that we're so, so excited for you all to play it. Omamori is 32k, features over 450 different character sprites, 8 achievements you can unlock, and a couple of fun surprises!

We've thoroughly play tested it and did our best to iron out any bugs, but if you happen to find one definitely leave a comment on the itch page or message on bsky and I can take a look!

In a few weeks we'll share a post mortem, discussing some of the behind the scenes work, what worked, what didn't, what got cut, what we learned, and what's next for the studio!

Thank you so much for your support, we hope you enjoy the game!

Edit: Since we've had a couple people ask, there's now a ko-fi page! This game is FREE and we are not asking for any payment for it (cannot stress that enough lol), but if folks want to tip the studio they're more than welcome to!

[malloryrlly]

One thing I've noticed is that the characters from yandere vn games (I've played so far) always have specific petnames for the player. Neat.

[sofia-d-asb]

Arcadie: Cold Lands - Progress Update - January 2025

I've spent literal days working on the mobile interface of Arcadie: Cold Lands, and I'm finally happy with the results!

It involved reworking the UI completely and re-coding all the menus, as there was no easy way of making it mobile-friendly like with Twine.

Other exciting news:

I am aiming for a Q4 2025 full release on PC/macOS. Mobile versions will come early 2026.

The public demo will be available in June 2025.

I will be launching a Patreon very shortly! If you choose to support me, you will get access to the alpha version of Arcadie: Cold Lands, playable on both PC/Mac and mobile, updated monthly as I work on the game. More info soon!

[vaadazen-codes]

How To Get Started Making Visual Novels

Wanna make a visual novel? Or maybe you've seen games like Our Life, Blooming Panic, Doki Doki Literature Club, etc. and wanna make something like that? Good news, here's a very basic beginners guide on how to get started in renpy and what you need to know going in! Before you start, I highly recommend looking at my last post about writing a script for renpy just to make it easier on you!

LONG POST AHEAD

Obviously, our first step is downloading it from their website

thankfully, its right on the home page of their site. Follow basica program installation steps and run the program. I highly recommend pinning it to your task bar to make it easier to access.

From there, you're met with the renpy app, it's a little daunting at first but let's talk about what all these buttons are for.

Projects

This part is simple, it just lists the current projects in the chosen directory. You probably won't have any in there of your own. You should still see Tutorial and The Question!

Both of those default projects are super helpful in their own ways, i highly recommend testing out the tutorial and playing around with it just to get comfortable with some of the basics.

Create New Project

The first step to actually making your game into a game!

You'll be met with a prompt letting you know that the project is being made in English and that you can change it. You can click Continue.

From here, you'll be asked to input a project name! Put in your games title, or even a placeholder title since this Information can be changed later! (this is also the title the folder will be in your file browser, be sure to name it something you won't overlook)

Now we get to choose our resolution!

If you have no idea what to choose, go for 1920x1080! This is the standard size for most computer monitors and laptops, but it will still display with moderately decent quality on 4k monitors too!

You can choose 3840x2160 as well. This is 2x the measurements of the default, with the same ration. These dimensions are considered 4k. Keep in mind, your image files will be bigger and can cause the game to have a larger size to download.

Now we get to choose our color scheme!

Renpy has some simple default options with the 'light mode' colors being the bottom two rows, and the 'dark mode' colors being the toop two rows.

You can pick anything here, but I like to choose something that matches my projects vibes/colors better. Mostly because depending on how in depth you go with the ui, it minimizes the amount of changes I need to make later.

Click continue and give it a minute. Note: If it says "not responding" wait a moment without clicking anything. It can sometimes freeze briefly during the process.

Now we should be back at our home screen, with our new project showing. Let's talk about allll that stuff on the right now.

Open Directory

This just opens that particular folder in your local file explorer!

game - is all the game files, so your folders for images, audio, saves, and your game files like your script, screens, and more.

base - this is the folder that the game folder is inside of. You can also find the errors and log txt files in here.

images - takes you to your main images folder. This is where you wanna put all of your NON gui images, like your sprites, backgrounds, and CGs. You can create folders inside of this and still call them in the script later. EX: a folder for backgrounds , a folder for sprites for character a, a seperate folder for spirtes for character b, etc.

audio - Takes you to the default audio folder. This is empty, but you can put all your music and sound effects here!

gui - brings up the folder containing all of the default renpy gui. It's a good place to start/ reference for sizes if you want to hand draw your UI pieces like your text box!

Edit File

Simple enough, this is just where you can open your code files in whatever text/code editor you have installed.

Script.rpy - where all of your story and characters live. This is the file you'll spend most of your time in at first

Options.rpy - Contains mostly simple information, like project name and version. There aren't a ton of things in here you need to look at. There is also some lines of code that help 'archive' certain files by file type so that they can't be seen by players digging in code however. Fun if you want to hide some images in there for later or if you just dont want someone seeing how messy your files are. We've all been there

Gui.rpy - where all of the easy customization happens. Here you can change font colors, hover colors, fonts, font sizes, and then the alignment and placement of all of your text! Like your dialogue and names, the height of text buttons, etc. It more or less sets the defaults for a lot of these unless you choose to change them later.

Screens.rpy - undeniably my favorite, this is where all of the UI is laid out for the different screens in your game, like the main menu, game menu, quick menu, choice menu, etc. You can add custom screens too if you want, but I always make my own seperate file for these.

Open Project - this just opens all of those files at once in the code editor. Super handy if you make extra files like I do for certain things.

Actions

last but not least, our actions.

Navigate Script - This feature is underrated in my honest opinion, it's super handy for help debugging! In renpy you can comment with # before a line. However, if you do #TODO and type something after it, it saves it as a note! You can view these TODO's here as well as easily navigate to when certain screens are called, where different labels are (super great if your game is long, and more. It saves some scrolling.

Check Script (Lint) - also super duper handy for debugging some basic things. It also tells you your word count! But its handy for letting you know about some errors that might throw up. I like using it to look for sprites I may or may not have mispelled, because they show up in there too.

Change/Update GUI - Nifty, though once you start customizing GUI on your own, it isn't as useful. You can reset the project at any point and regenerate the image files here. This updates all those defaults we talked about earlier.

Delete Persistent - this just helps you delete any persistent data between play throughs on your end. I like to use it when making a lot of changes while testing the game, so that I can reboot the game fresh.

Force Recompile - Full disclosure, as many games as I've made and as long as I've been using Renpy, i have never used this feature. I searched to see what it does and this is the general consesus: Normally renpy tries to be smart about compiling code (creating .rpyc files) and only compiles .rpy files with changes. This is to speed up the process since compiling takes time. Sometimes you can make changes that renpy don't pick up on and therefore won't recompile. In these cases you can run force recompile to force it. Another solution (if you know what file is affected) is to delete that specific. rpyc file.

The rest of your options on this right hand side are how you make executable builds for your game that people can download to extract and play later!

Sorry gang! that was a whole lot of text obviously the last button "Launch Project" launches an uncompiled version of the project for you to play and test as you go! Hang in tight because my next post is about how to utilize github for renpy, so you can collaborate easier!

[mixierupperc20]

Upcoming Shadow milk dating Sim. you play as an older Mycookie sent to investigate the posters and go to the circus.

Yes, you can romance Black Sapphire

[linuxgamenews]

The Roads Untraveled: Exploring the New Content in Scarlet Hollow

The Roads Untraveled game update coming to Scarlet Hollow is a relaunch on Linux, Steam Deck, Mac, and Windows PC. All thanks to the creative minds at Black Tabby Games. Which you can find on Steam and Humble Store. Scarlet Hollow, the award-winning gothic horror story from Black Tabby (the minds behind Slay the Princess), is back with a massive update — The Roads Untraveled. This update isn’t just some minor tweak; it’s a full-on overhaul with tons of new content for Linux and Steam Deck. Due to hit Steam on Monday, March 3. Just in time for Visual Novel Fest. If you’ve already explored the eerie town of Scarlet Hollow, you’ll notice some big changes. And if you’re stepping in for the first time—welcome, but don’t get too comfortable. The title’s married dev duo has gone all in, expanding the script by over 70,000 words across four chapters, and upgrading the UI. Due to make the whole The Roads Untraveled experience smoother and creepier than ever. Plus, you’ll get even more of Abby Howard’s hauntingly beautiful art to pull you deeper into the mystery. You’re back in North Carolina, for your Aunt Pearlanne Scarlet’s funeral. She was the owner of the town’s old coal mine, but her passing isn’t the only thing stirring up trouble. Your cousin Tabitha isn’t eager to see you, and something else—something unnatural—is lurking in the shadows. The town has always had secrets, but this time, the mysteries feel heavier, the air thicker with something that shouldn’t be here.

Scarlet Hollow — before The Roads Untraveled update

It’s not just grief that brought you here. There’s a pull—something beyond logic—that’s dragging you deeper into this place, forcing you onto a path you might not be able to turn back from. Every choice you make changes the story, twisting it in ways you won’t see coming. And, it’s also not just Aunt Pearlanne’s life on the line. You can shape your experience in wild ways—maybe you can talk to animals, maybe you’re just that hot (seriously, it’s a trait). The choices you make unlock unique routes through the game’s branching paths, and yes, romance is an option—even if your potential partner happens to be a cryptid hunter or, you know, a decaying specter that won’t leave you alone. Seven chapters are planned, and each one pulls you deeper into this cursed town’s unraveling fate. The Roads Untraveled update lands on Steam starting March 3 with the launch of Visual Novel Fest. The best part? The first episode, completely reworked, will be free as a demo. You can play it and carry your progress straight into the full game. Which si also on Humble Store. Both priced at $24.99 USD / £19.99 / 21,99€. Coming to Steam Deck, Linux, Mac, and Windows PC. So, are you ready to return to Scarlet Hollow? Just be careful — you might not leave the same person you were when you arrived.

[bastart13]

Love & Legends (Recreation) is live!

Available on Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android!

This is an unofficial recreation of Love & Legends from Lovestruck Voltage featuring unique art and GUI.

After a lightning strike, you're teleported to a fantasy world of knights, elves, fairies… and evil queens. And turns out you look just like the evil queen, the one killed three years prior. People in the world either want you in a dungeon or to restart war as their despotic overlord and you have to learn to navigate the world, chosing someone to stay by your side.

It's a visual novel/dating sim with seven unique routes, each with their first season fully available. The main character is a bisexual woman from Chicago with two female and five male love interests.

This has been such a fun project these past 2.5 months and I hope people will enjoy it, even if you haven't read the originals. I'll be updating things as we go for the next seasons and new characters.

[grantsables]

Pspsps. If you like sapphic gothic visual novels, I just released one on itch.io. It's free, short (~25 minutes), runs in most browsers (including mobile, but the buttons are a li'l hard to press), and you don't need to make an account or download anything if you don't want to.

It's a dark fairytale-esque story about a girl who feigns blindness to hide her eyes from a wicked countess who doesn't allow anyone to own things more beautiful than her own. It has full voice acting (and singing) by some great actresses and a bunch of hand-made illustrations and menu elements.

(It's also an adaptation of a short story I had published earlier this month in Marrow Magazine, who publishes lots of good dark fiction.)