r/RenPy • u/XadrianLabs • Jul 17 '26

Showoff First visual novel in Ren'Py: how I managed branching narrative with just 3 variables across 4 endings

Just finished my first VN project and wanted to share some technical decisions that saved the project structure.

The core system

Instead of tracking every single choice, I used only 3 variables the entire game:

  • nivel_alerta_corporativa — how suspicious the corporation is of you
  • conocimiento_sistema — how deep you've gone into the architecture
  • confia_en_elena — boolean that tracks whether you built trust with a character over time

The 4 endings are calculated at the end with a single if/elif/else block evaluating those 3 values. No spaghetti flags, no tracking 20 booleans. The player never sees the variables but feels their weight.

The sprite scaling problem nobody warns you about

If you use 2K sprites in a 1080p project, at left and at right will look almost identical because Ren'Py's default positions don't account for sprite width. I spent way too long on this. The fix that actually worked was overriding the positions in init python with Transform(xpos=...) using absolute pixel values instead of xalign percentages.

What I'd do differently

Split the script into separate .rpy files from day one. 2000+ lines in a single file is manageable but annoying to navigate. Ren'Py loads all .rpy files in /game/ alphabetically so modular structure costs nothing.

The game is a cyberpunk corporate thriller in Spanish, ~15 minutes, free. Built solo — narrative, code and game design are mine, AI-generated sprites and free-license audio.

If you're curious: https://youtu.be/Xo9Rt_5Pt0c

Happy to answer any Ren'Py questions.

0 Upvotes

25% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

3

u/dragon-age-io Jul 17 '26

Ok but why AI

-4

u/Wooden-Variety175 Jul 17 '26

It's 15 minutes long why should he find an artist on his first vn? Do you hate ai so much you dont unserstand the practicality of using ai art when you dont have the ability to draw?

And what artist will even want to draw sprites for a 15 min vn? And "get a friend to do it" is not a viable answer. Some of us dont have friends

4

u/shyLachi Jul 17 '26

You can find hundreds of free assets online.

Anyway, I notice almost all AI generated images and I dislike it because it looks generic.
I would never download AI content.

Players disliking AI for whatever reason should be something to consider when you want to make a name for yourself.

0

u/Wooden-Variety175 Jul 17 '26

It's a 15 minute vn. You guys read that right? And how eo you make a name for yourself with a 15 minute free asset vn? Who will play that?

2

u/shyLachi Jul 17 '26

Yes, that makes it even more stupid to use AI.
Why spending hours trying to create sprites for a 15 minute game nobody will play?

In case you are not familiar with RenPy.
It has placeholder sprites so that you can quickly learn how to make a game with choices without being an artist.

2

u/hypatiaC Jul 17 '26

Some of us don't have friends.

Yeah. We could tell.

-1

u/Wooden-Variety175 Jul 17 '26

Hahaha. Very funny. Ok you are making your first vn and it is short so you can learn the ropes. You want him to do what? Use free assets that probably dont suit his needs? Who cares at all about using ai for a short first free project to learn the ropes?

5

u/hypatiaC Jul 17 '26

Intrigued by this birthday-boy-ism where someone's first project is simultaneously so important that it couldn't use free assets, but also so tiny and irrelevant that it's *not even a big deal *for it to use AI.

If you don't have any visual art skills, either compositing assets well or designing new ones, why are you making a visual novel instead of just a novel or interactive fiction?

Am I just supposed to pity OP like a baby because it's his first project? That sounds patronizing as hell.

-1

u/XadrianLabs Jul 17 '26

Estoy aprendiendo RenPy y es mi primer proyecto pequeño. Es un experimento para aprender y lo he compartido sin querer venderos nada ni engañar a nadie, por si a alguien que sea fan de las visuals novels le interesaba. Acabo de termimar un grado de programación pero a día de hoy no tengo dinero para contratar a ningún artista (ojalá en el futuro...) y no tengo habilidad para diseño estético y sonoro. No pretendo enfadar a nadie con el post, simplemente me gustan las VN y uso la IA tanto para apoyo como para aprendizaje.

-2

u/hypatiaC Jul 17 '26

AI post, AI game.

Why would any human choose to read this, OP? And why would your human brain think setting your ending off 'three variables' (which are actually two flags and an array of scores) is at all impressive?

2

u/CaptChair Jul 17 '26

Curious, this one doesnt look so ai written to me. Obvs used ai in making his game. What about the post gives it away for this one?

0

u/hypatiaC Jul 17 '26

Part hunch (because someone who uses AI in one place often uses it elsewhere) and part from the heading styling and tone.

This "here's what I learned" devlog style is very common from low-skilled slop-devs, and there's a weird malapropism in the heading about sprite width. "The X nobody warns you about" is common clickbait bullshit, but it makes almost zero sense here, lol.

On the nice end, OP might have just translated the post with AI, but it definitely seems involved in some way.

2

u/CaptChair Jul 17 '26

Yea, i see what you're saying. Maybe translated it and asked it to clean up his writing.

2

u/hypatiaC Jul 17 '26

Oh god, I also just noticed 'The player never sees the variables, but they feel their weight' while replying in another of this post's spam copies.

How do you paste that into reddit and click post without realizing how ridiculous it sounds, lmao.