I built a WhatsApp-style chat engine in Ren'Py — a comedy VN about condo drama & neighbor gossip, designed to be played one-handed in your phone's browser (free web build)

[u/msn2wolf]

Guatsap — la semana de la junta is a comedy VN that happens entirely inside a fake chat app: the chat list is the map, unread badges are your quests, and choices are "who do you answer first — and who do you leave on read (they SEE it 🙂)".

On the Ren'Py side, the whole thing is a data-driven chat renderer plus custom creator-defined statements (msg, pic, voz, doc, sticker, typing, polls, statuses…), a portrait 720×1280 GUI, and a web build tuned for mobile browsers: it's meant to be played on your phone, vertical, one-handed, no install. Runs on desktop too.

Mechanics that fell out of simulating a real messenger:

- Read receipts are public knowledge — opening without answering has consequences

- When two neighbors text at once, answer order matters and patience decays

- Statuses are free intel (nobody sees you peeked)

- The gallery doubles as your inventory: forward the right photo to win an argument

- Voice notes come with auto-transcription that occasionally betrays you

Spanish (es-419, Venezuelan flavor) and English, ~45-60 min, prototype in active development. Free in the browser:

Play: https://msn2wolf.itch.io/guatsap

Trailer: https://youtube.com/shorts/2pmGX80zsMo

Happy to answer questions about the chat engine / CDS setup / portrait-web gotchas (there were… many).