#renpy is not hard to make visual novels in

[dathomirdumpsterfire]

okay hear me out...

fan made visual novel where the reader is the new chancellor of the republic after sidious dies under mysterious circumstances. (*coughitwasyoucough*) all the various jedi and sith are alive. the clone wars continue. multiple endings, morality system, dating options. 🤓

(art credit: photomanip of imperial throne and maul from comics, cleaned up and spliced together with a ui.)

[skaruresonic]

So RenPy supports hard pause, but the documentation frowns on its use because it's user-unfriendly and, quote, "rude," as you're dictating the pace of the game.

One, why would you implement a function you know is bad practice? "Here's a whoopee cushion if you really want to use it, but don't put it on people's chairs, that's rude >:o" like lol what

Two, the player already has the tools to control the pace with the skip and auto options. In RenPy games, you can literally go into the options file and change the auto timer. wtf are you talking about "it's rude"

And it's like? I see eight million posts floating around, particularly wrt horror VNs, asking how to temporarily hard pause certain moments that clicking through might ruin. Nobody's out here hard pausing the game for eighteen million years.

And, you know, maybe sometimes the rudeness is the point---Eggman's "don't blink" game in OaS pauses everything for 60 seconds because the whole point is he's in charge and he'll make you run on his schedule.

[carlyraejepsans]

If you are going to make a game here’s some things that might be helpful!

Game engines:

Godot: very new dev friendly and it’s free. Has its own programming language (GDscript) but also supports C#. It’s best for 2D games but it can do 3D also.

Unity: I don’t even know if I should be recommending Unity. It has caused me much pain and the suffering. But Unity has an incredible amount of guides and tutorials. And once you get the hang of something it’s hard to get caught on the same thing again. It also has a great Visual Studio integration and uses C#. I will warn you the unity animator is where all dreams go to die. It’s a tedious process but you can probably get some plugins to help with that.

Unreal: Don’t use it unless you’re building a very large or very detailed 3D game. It also uses C++ which is hell.

Renpy: Made for visual novels but has support for small mini games. It only supports Python iirc. Basically if you’re making a VN it’s renpy all the way otherwise you should look elsewhere.

What to learn: Game design and how to act as your own game designer. As a designer you need to know if a part of your game isn’t meshing with the rest of it and be willing to give up that part if needed. Also sound design is very important as well. If you want to make your own sounds audacity is perfect for recording and cutting up your clips. If you want to find sound effects I recommend freesound.org and the YouTube royalty free music database.

Sadly I can’t recommend a lot of places to learn this stuff because I’m taking Game Development in Uni. So most of my info comes from my lectures and stuff. One of my game design textbooks is pretty good but it’s around $40 CAD. It’s called the game designers playbook by Samantha Stahlke and Pejman Mirza-Babaei if you’re interested (fun fact there’s a photo of Toriel in there)

Anyway sorry for dumping this large ask on you I’m just really passionate about game design and I like to see other people get into it.

please do not apologize I'd never heard half of this stuff so this is super useful!! I've seen some godot tutorials on YouTube although so far I've played around with RPG maker MV (it was on sale. very very fiddly interface, i had trouble getting around it) and gamemaker, which recently became free for non-commercial use (a lot more approachable on first impact but like i said, haven't really done anything substantial in either yet).

mostly, I'm still in the super vague stage. I've got an idea for the main story conflict, the protagonist and their foil, the general aesthetic i want to go for (likely 2D graphics, but it would be cool to make like. small cutscenes in low-poly 3D) but not much else. haven't exactly decided on the gameplay either! it's gonna necessarily be rpg-esque, but I'm not much of a fan of classic turn-based combat so. I'm gonna check out other games and see if i can frankenstein anything cooler :P

[toskarin]

Do you have any good VN recommendations that have interesting or notable UIs? Most of the games I've played have stck with RenPy Standard or something similar where all the text is displayed through three-line bottom boxes one at a time.

hm... you didn't mention NVL style text, so just in case, I'll recommend that you try out Fate/stay night and Tsukihime (optionally Remake) if you haven't yet. those are what I'd consider to be very "core" VNs, and I'd feel negligent for not mentioning them if turned out you haven't played many games with that style of text yet

at the end of the day, the reason that ren'py looks like that is because most visual novels do (with a decreasing number of them being presented with fullscreen textboxes), so games that do things outside of that mould are notable for doing so

that aside! to answer your actual question, here's a couple text presentations I've personally found really charming

starting off strong by telling you I was fucking lying when I said this was a list of three games (I'm mentioning the Muv-Luv series first, rather than any individual game in it)

Muv-Luv sticks pretty close to the standard setup for horizontal textboxes, but you might notice that they're themed to look like anime subtitles. I've always been charmed by this, and it's probably the only mention here that actually warrants a screenshot just to clarify that it's actually a very visually distinct presentation

I'm not actually a Muv-Luv fan and the next game is one I personally enjoy more, but god, the presentation in Muv-Luv really is just so striking

Full Metal Daemon Muramasa features vertical text boxes, which isn't all that notable, except for the fact that these were retained in the translation (because characters use horizontal textboxes to indicate they're speaking english)

I actually really enjoy this style of presentation because it fills the space between two characters while also allowing for a wider background. when I'm looking for styles to steal for my own work, this one lingers in my head a lot

remember when I said I lied early on? I technically told you the truth when I said this was a list of three games. kind of. I'm mentioning one game and have to mention another game in the process. so this is a list of three games and one series.

of the two, Analogue: A Hate Story was definitely the game that seemed to occupy people's memories the longest into present day, but the presentation of Digital: A Love Story was much more striking to me. that being said, I'd be remiss not to mention them in a discussion on VNs that do interesting things with the UI

-

bonus round:

I haven't actually gotten around to CHAOS;HEAD yet, but I want to make an honourable mention of it either way because I really like the hard letterbox of the original release. from what I've seen, it doesn't seem to be present in CHAOS;HEAD NOAH, though

I can't recommend it or recommend against it, but I can say "that looks neat!"

[theunreliablecleric]

I'm working on a game for #yanjam this year! hopefully will have a playable demo at least by the deadline (unity is hard ;-;) this is the main love interest Romeo :)

I admittedly am not really sure what I'm doing, but I really REALLY wanted to make a lowpoly 3d visual novel. I had thought about rendering everything as flat images and just using renpy, but when I thought about it some more it just seemed like a lot of tedious work/ not REALLY what I wanted to make. So I'm very closely following a unity vn tutorial by Stellar Studio on Youtube. they are an angel ;-; theres even a dedicated 3d section!

[karagna]

Hi there!

I saw the game you coded and I think its really awesome!

I've been thinking about making a game for awhile but was always intimated by the fact that I don't know how to code things you said in the post for "A Pound of Flesh" that you hadn't done it before and I was hoping you might be able to point me toward some good resources for learning!

Thank you!!

HIHI!! So for 'A Pound of Flesh', I used the visual novel building system called Renpy to make it! It's basically a free software that streamlines a huge part of the visual novel making timeline and its also the main reason why I was able to develop it by myself in 36 hours.

Renpy uses Python to code visual novels, and when you download it, it immediately prompts a tutorial that teaches you the basics of coding in it which you can replay. It's not too in depth, but it provides enough that I was able to understand the main functions and also some other cool stuff that Renpy can do! Honestly because i only had 36 hours I didnt have time to pour over much resources, a lot of what I learnt came from typing in my questions into google and praying someone had asked it before in either a visual novel dev forum called Lemmasoft or reddit (and it often worked). Most people who help out will also give their own code that worked so I kinda reversed engineered it to learn on my own Tbh I'm sorry I couldn't help more! I kinda just went in hoping the best and didn't think I'd come out with a finished product.

But hopefully the forums and their website I linked down below will help you out if you decide to try Renpy out for developing! It's honestly not as hard as I thought it would be, and if you use Visual Studio Code there's even a plugin which highlights code for you making it so much easier to see what's part of the dialogue and what's actually just code

Forum link: Link Quickstart help website: Link

[herotome]

hello :) i'm planning on making my own short visual novel and it got me thinking about the development stage of games i like! if it's okay, i wanted to ask how long has the herotome idea and its characters been floating around in your head, and what was the process of starting to turn it into reality? with my own projects i find i usually have a strong concept/feel/imagery that feels hard to pin down/expand upon and actually make practical haha. thank you!

Oh boy!! I love questions like this, but at the same time... my condolences lol, it's gonna be quite the hike

I first had the idea for Herotome back in... 2017. I guess 6 years ago now - and I've been working on it pretty much nonstop (aside from a... 1-2 year break back in 2018 or so).

I have tried to work with a lot of different team members who flaked, ghosted, fell through, or had some other manner of false start that ended up contributing very little to the game (but still cost me money ;;;)

I still had to keep going despite that.

I'd decided early on that I would be the "heart" of the game, and as long as I was still beating away, it didn't matter if other parts fell through. I would keep going.

I learned to write renpy code by myself, started doing all the writing by myself, did all the concept art...

Renpy code was the trickiest one - while it's not difficult to learn, it does take time to get familiar with if you've never coded before. I got code practice in with a game jam in 2019, wherein I made a short game and got to experiment more with variables and if/else conditions.

Ideas are very, very easy to have; my recommendation would be to start looking at your actual, practical skillsets - for example, if you enjoy writing, then start writing and keep at it! "Keeping at it" is perhaps the most challenging part, but I promise you it DOES start to take shape.

Alternatively, if you feel like you don't have any applicable skillsets (as most people do): start learning something. I had pretty much zero background in code, but I still did it myself because I had no one else to do it for me.

All this being said - you also need to have the determination to take breaks and not work yourself into burnout; because if you burnout real bad then the idea and the project dies. Might be resurrected if you're able to perk back up, but it's way, way better not to burnout in the first place.

Keep going in moderation. But keep going.

[crescencestudio]

hello! i wanted to ask how you ended up getting involved with game development!! ive seen an played a bunch of your games so i think itd be interesting knowing how you got here and monetized it! (dw if you dont wanna answer, no hard feelings :>)

OOOOO

for how i got into game dev, in one word: impulse LOL

for the longer version, i always have loved visual novels. as much as i enjoy other games, there is something about visual novels specifically that are so special to me. so one day during the big covid Lockdown, i thought to myself how cool it would be to make my own game. thing is, i had no creative background—never made a story, very basic art background, no coding background NOTHING.

but i have a very unironic yolo mentality and so if i have the means to make a game before i die, why not? so i learned renpy, got really overwhelmed with the idea of making everything from scratch. there r so many aspects of games i never thought of. every single character needs not just art, they need a story, a design, a role, etc. then you need to repeat that for the plot. then you need to do that for the MC. and that’s just the brainstorming stage!!! so i stopped and dropped the idea in 2020 LMFAOkxosos

then a year later, during my phd program, i had some time during summer break and i decided to try again. Why Not? you only live once. even if it takes me my whole life to make one game, wouldn’t it be cool to say i made one? so i took the dive. made so much shit up. completely winged a million things. and here we are two years later with alaris, intertwine, and some other collab projects!!!

the monetization part is mostly because i don’t currently have the means to support game dev on my own. my hope is one day (when i graduate phd school), i’ll have more time and money, which will let me fund my hobby a bit more self sufficiently since i honestly rly hate the monetization part of game dev haha!! i guess i’d say i got into game dev mostly through pure interest and a yolo mentality and what’s kept me here is the satisfaction and reward that comes with the creativity (as well as the amazingly talented ppl i’ve met through it!!!)

[baedlyweathered]

horrrrrm. Okay well hi everyone... it's been a while since I posted anything but reblogs but I'm doing it now because I'm drunk ^_^ I have some nice bourbon cream which I got from trader Joe's, I spitted on a guy outside of it and he followed me recording me on his phone camera and threatening to call the cops if I didn't apologize which isn't surprising from a guy collecting petitions to lock up shoplifters, I said sorry cuz I had the bourbon in my bag and no receipt for it :^) well any ways I'm starting my new job on Sunday I'm gonna be driving a truck over the Donner pass all winter hope I don't have to eat my team partner lol. I got a cute keyboard with the money I got paid to get trained (it was paid training) (really hard) (I got sick and it took like a month and a half to recover xuz I was working so hard on training) and btw I made a little visual novel for practice with renpy and then I made some music for it for practice at making music for visual novels cuz I have a big VN/comic project planned for when I'm done doing trucking, you can play it on PC or Mac if you want to, i wanted to make an android distro but it was a huge pain

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14uNvGDqyxgDeOhXwX4vfBVJUkvk-7mUx?usp=sharing

Its version 2.0 cuz I made it first without music but then my job starting was delayed so I had time to make music for it. Well anyway it takes like 15 minutes to play I think it's kind of cute. Hope everyone is doing nice in this new year and that is going well with a nice time for everyone c:

[perfectlovevn]

(i'm so sorry, i'm not sure if you accept reviews or not so feel free to ignore this)

Helloo!! I'm brazilian and i'm still learning english so forgive me for any grammar mistakes. I've gotten all endings (i guess- please let me know if i missed anything!) so here's my review of Perfect Love! ♥

I loved this game sooo much! I never played an visual novel with a mean main character and it was just amazing. The trope of ''us'' being the actual villains is very interesting and it made the game super unique! It's also pretty obvious the amount of effort and hard work that's in the game, I was impressed by the quality of it all.

The music and sound effects are pretty good, I loved it all! The artstyle is very pleasing to look at and the black/white/grey contrast with Milo's blue/red eyes are such a nice touch too. I also loved the amount of easter eggs (you couldn't imagine the face I made when I named myself 'Ren') and secret endings/scenes.

Fortunately, when I first played, I knew nothing about the game nor about Milo (which I believe made the experience better since everything turned out to be surprising) and the endings were really good. Through the gameplay, I've encontered one grammar mistake (which I forgot to screenshot it, sorry) and one sprite glitch but nothing that made me annoyed.

After finishing the 8 main endings, I decided it was time to look a little bit on the official Tumblr's page of the VN and that's when I decided to test out all of the easter eggs and that's when I discovered the secret scenes.

So, to summary it all: absolutely 10/10! I can't remember the last time I had so much fun playing a game and being so invested in unlocking all of it's content! I was flabbergasted when I lost all of my endings heh

Please let me know if I missed anything- I'd be more than happy to clear the game entirely.

Hello there! I love reviews. On my other blog I always write recommendations/reviews for other vns, so I'm always open to seeing what people like and dislike about the game. I hope you don't mind that I'm just gonna mash these two asks into one ask.

Thank you! I also think that a lot of vns don't always focus on being the bad guy in the story and those that do I usually enjoy quite a lot! I'm glad you like the quality of it, it was a lot of fighting renpy and it's UI because I have a one sided rivalry with the base renpy UI. I tried to make it look good though I think I maybe should have attempted to redraw some of the sprites for Milo (for like the third time).

For the art style itself, I actually did it in black and white because it was originally for the 2023 yanjam and I wanted to make a style that wouldn't be extremely tiring for me, and I really like lineart so I made everything in black and white (and also because I'm lazy, I say as I animate half of my assets). The red and blue really make it pop at the end since it's one of the few time color is used in the game. I love when people put easter eggs in their game and I know of a lot of yandere vns so I wanted to put in a ton! I'll probably put in even more in the update when I get all of the extra stories done because putting easter eggs like that is very fun.

Having no knowledge of a game is always a good way to be surprised about the premise and I think it definitely was something good in your case too! For the grammer/ sprite errors if you do ever play or remember what they were, please let me know. I'll try to fix it in the next update if possible.

It's always so nice seeing that people like my game though! I tried my hardest to make it a worthwhile experience and considering it's (technically) my first game, it really makes me happy to see that people really like it! Hopefully it doesn't have too much of the first game amatureness that tends to come (nothing wrong with it, but I hopefully have showcased I kind of know what I'm doing, I say, sweating profusely) .

Yup! That is all of the scenes in the game so far. At least that you can access. If you look inside of the code, I actually have two scenes that I put in there. One of them is pretty much a test scene featuring the character from the next game I'm making, and the other is a special scene where you go to Milo's apartment. You can't access those in the main game, but you can play them if you edit the code a bit.

Basically (for those who don't know), all you have to do is put "jump" and then the name of the label afterwards (so for instance if the label is "rabbit" you would put "jump rabbit") after label start in the code. The two scenes that are not accessable in the game are the last two scenes in the script.rpy file just to make it easier for you. (I put a note that says like "#I'm very dedicated to my craft I say as I disect Milo and then beat him with a stick" because I'm sorry Milo, you deserve better)

But yes, thank you for taking your time and writing your long review! I love it so much.

[fnafawoundleftbleedingau]

I do genuinely think it'd be fun to do like, an artist alley table at a convention one day. And then I look at my nearly 15 years of posting art online and my like, 1 fic and 1 art piece that have hit over 100 notes, and realize I'd likely just end up losing a lot of money if I did that. XD;;; Aw well, maybe after 30 years of art making I'll be good enough. Also fun fact! Before I fell so hard back into FNaF, and my AU's became my main focus, I'd say my main projects I had were: A Psychonauts AU An OC driven story And, an OC driven Visual novel game. idk if I'll ever revisit those, but I'd still love to learn Renpy and make some sort of lil visual novels one day. I was only really starting to get the basics of the Renpy system when I ended up setting all my OC's aside.

[skaruresonic]

hello, my name is [REDACTED] and my hobbies include playing video games, listening to metal and hard rock, making visual novels in RenPy, reading, writing, illustration, studying indigenous language, laughing over pique ficcion and praising unironically peak fiction with friends, and occasionally posting on my Tumblr chugging haterade all day. hating IDW is my entire identity. I came out of my mom twirling my nonexistent mustache going "I am going to ruin so many fans' enjoyment of this mid comic, mwa fucking ha"

[randomontheinternet]

HEY! I noticed you liked my Ashen I post…. honestly I wasn’t expecting anyone at all to like it, because it’s become a very self indulgent project of mine. I work every day on it, but I’ve recently had troubles with Ren’Py, so now I am switching to Unity for development (ﾍﾟ◇ﾟ)」 So! Please wait while I adjust to this new system. I promise I will have more videos soon!

Hey, I hear ya. I’ve dabbled in renpy in the past, and it’s a great tool for beginners to get started but can be a bit limiting and hard to shape into what you want if it deviates from a simple visual novel.

I looooove self indulgent projects personally! Love seeing people making things for themselves, even if they’re yelling into the void. I don’t know much about dark souls but I’m already kinda into what you’ve got cooking up! The art’s really cool (love your style) and the characters seem pretty interesting.

I’ll be keeping an eye on your project if you don’t mind, hah.

[eddsworld-the-masquerade]

Info post!

Thank you everyone for your feedback on the demos! I am very happy you all came to like it. Don't feel discouraged from sending any new feedback though, since it's gonna be awhile until I get back to work (I'm in exam hell 'till mid May), might as well use the time to advantage.

Most of you seem more interested in game/visual novel format, therefore in this post I'll talk about features I mean to implement, or think of implementing. I'll also talk about possible updating schemes (chapter basis vs. all-at-once), let me know what you think about those. For those who won't get intimidated by text, I'll leave some WIPs for artwork at the very end :3

Discussing game features!

Random events Now this is something you've already experienced in the demo, albeit in its rough form. Since I'm planning a kinetic/linear story (aka there won't be a choice system) because writing a branching story is going to kill me, this serves as a sort of replacement. Due to random chance being involved, random events will happen only during "moments of respite", so to speak, when there is no danger and no consequences for the main plot. Random events are mostly "character flavor", additional moments that, if you miss, won't hinder the major story, but they do add fun little details to characterization. This should mitigate possible unfairness while still bringing some replay value to the table. I plan on implementing a scene list, where you can view names of all encountered/unlocked scenes, sort of like achievement list.

Turn based battles This one is more ambitious but not entirely impossible. There are tons of tutorials on battle system in Renpy and even codes already written and running. Battles could be another way to make up for lack of choice system and thus lack of gameplay. Plus, the script outline already features numerous fighting scenes, and given it's VtM, I feel battles could be implemented organically. I'm mostly thinking of watered down Darkest Dungeon, or, if you're hip, Honkai Star Rail. The amount of "water" is yet to be decided, but it should be relatively simple both for me to implement and for you to play through. Don't know if I'll add anything that could be called "leveling up characters" but I am thinking of making battles skippable in options. This is still mostly an idea, and I'll need to make some tests first to see if I'll be able to implement this in actual game.

Updating schemes!

First things first, I'll need to write the entire script. The reason why I don't want to make it chapter basis is, based on my past experience, there's a high chance I'll figure out some changes needed in previous chapters as I work on next ones, so I go back and edit them accordingly. And this works best if I'm writing the full thing back to back, without publishing. Release when it's ready. This should take me a year, give or take, again based on past experience (it's almost the same amount of writing I had to do back then). I understand it's quite long but I don't feel comfortable changing this workflow of mine :(

Now, for actual game development, there are two options:

All-at-once Basically the same as with the script. I develop the entire game and then publish it in one piece. Personally I feel this would work best for me, but it would increase the already big enough wait time to around two years, best case scenario. Probably two and a half, or even three. I understand it's hard to wait that long, which is why there is a second option.

Chapter basis I develop a chapter (insert all the text, art, animation, music, etc.), publish it, then proceed to work on the next one and release it when it gets done and so on. Sort of like game patches. Bendy and the Ink Machine style if you remember that thing. You redownload the project and continue from your last save. This gives me a bit less control but also makes you wait significantly less for main story content.

Please let me know which option you would prefer.

As a thank you for reading this huge wall of text, here are some WIPs as promised :D

Part of the short comic on your regular Tord and Edd shenanigans

Something tarot themed! Missing Cat (The Star) for now. I'll probably change the composition for most of these.

Rough concepts for Tord's wAcKy family. Also him pre-embrace

Some Matilda animation. Girlboss

[elemonsters]

Elemonsters Q & A

Q. What is an Elemon/Elemonster? A. Elemon is short for 'Elemental Monster' and they are beasts/monsters that have magical, elemental powers! Most are rather powerful and require a licensed handler to be tamed. Though, some are significantly more docile and can be raised as pets or livestock.

Q. Isn't Elemon the same as P*kemon? A. Not quite, though they are close. I wanted to create a world similar but in many ways more thought out from the start. I also want it to be an inclusive world in where there are not only LGBTQ+ individuals, but also representations of more real world problems that tend to get glossed over in kids media. (I also don't shy away from the word Fuck, either)

Q. If Elemon isn't P*kemon, then why do you use the Fakemon tag? A. Simple answer: visibility. It's hard to get original content seen on Tumblr and I'm hoping that by using the fakemon tag, the people who are interested in new critters are able to find Elemon and enjoy them. (And so far people have been!) Once I've hit a point where I'm able to reach a decent visibility status I will likely use it less and less.

Q. Why did you decide now to make Elemon? A. I'm frankly sick and tired of seeing how P*kemon has been handled for the last half a decade and decided that instead of expending my energy being mad about things I can't change, I would put it into making a world that I have full control over and find extremely fun to create/draw for. Making little guys is therapeutic! Seriously!

Q. Do you have any plans to turn Elemon into a real game? A. Not really. It would be a massive undertaking and, while I am versed in some game making, my entire expertise is python/renpy/visual novels. AKA, not friendly to Real Gameplay. I would need to commission/work with a team to get it together and I just don't work well enough with others.

Q. Which Elemon is your favorite? A. I love all my children so much, but I'm exceptionally fond of Zaptor and Moliage. Xolstier is also very dear (ha, deer) to me, as they are my oldest Fakemon that I still have record of.

Q. Do you mind if people make fanart or fakemon of Elemon? A. I would love to see any and all fanart or fan creations of my children. Fan characters, Elemon, all of it. If you tag me in it I will reblog it.

[derpychocho]

Is RenPy hard to use? I wanna make my own games too but I don't know how to code.

Like anything other engine, Ren'Py does have a learning curve to get over. But I don't think it's super difficult! ^^

Though Ren'Py is based off of Python, it has its own simplified language that makes it easier to write visual novels! (Please bear in mind, Ren'Py is a visual novel engine. You can't make a full blown platformer in it. XD) In addition, it has a default user interface (menus, save files) built in!

If you're ever lost, don't be afraid to dive into the documentation. Definitely start small and experiment!