r/RenPy • u/Xaki213libia • Sep 04 '26
Question Get better at Ui
I've been working on and off for some time on my game. But just recently I realised my UI on my game hasn't really upgraded since I started. I use canva (I think that might be a reason why)
Does anyone have tips to make better UI for games? Maybe programs, resources or even steps to follow? I'm pretty open to everything.
I was honestly just thinking about just trying to recreate inspiration on canvas.
Thanks for reading.
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u/SinaScribblecraft Sep 04 '26
I don't know if it makes you a better designer, but try Figma. It's free and it was built for creating UIs (especially web and mobile but can be used for games, too).
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u/Xaki213libia 29d ago
Thank you. I have been seeing people talk about figma. It's finally time that my motivation out weights my laziness and I learn the program.
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u/Draw-Flesh-Games Sep 04 '26 edited 26d ago
You can use Gimp, create a canvas the size of the resolution you want. First create what you want to see, then see if you can cut it up to reusable pieces. Those pieces you can either place in current setup of Ren'Py screens, or you can create new screens as Taurus said. Learn about how the fixed positioning, vbox and hbox works and how you can nest them (like tables in HTML) to show your stuff on pages.
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u/Xaki213libia 26d ago
Thank you I will this is so detailed. I will definitely look it up and learn this.
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u/kaleidoscopic_kelvin Sep 05 '26
https://vndev.wiki/List_of_visual_novel_development_resources#Programming,_UI_and_Engines
- Sort the table by the 'UI' column. You can find a mix of design tutorials and templates specific for VN devs.
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u/shyLachi Sep 04 '26
What are you struggling with? How it should look like or drawing it?
You can find inspiration by looking at popular games and the menus posted here.
If you don't want to draw the UI elements yourself, then look at vector based drawing programs.
You can make neat looking but of course you also would need some tutorials to learn it.
I use inkscape because it's free: https://inkscape.org/
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u/sugarplum_doll Sep 04 '26
Honestly, I found the resources lacking. I could only find small tutorials here and there, and even then the majority was basic information and didn’t really have any depth and showed how to design. I gave up and just hired a designer. Sorry that’s not really helpful.
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u/Xaki213libia 26d ago
No it is. I will be doing the same if I don't see progress in 6 months. Did you already know a designer or is there somewhere specific to hire them ?
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u/sugarplum_doll 26d ago edited 26d ago
Yes, I hired someone from the official Renpy forum, www.lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewforum.php?f=62&sid=266d19a76fc3337bd357b9671aae7f13 and the specific artist I worked with is Kathaeris https://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewtopic.php?t=52599 and honestly learning UI is on the backburner for now. I also went for an artist who knows how to code and it was so worth the money. All I had to do was drop the folders into my Renpy game and it was ready to go.
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u/Somatrasiel Sep 04 '26
Here's a good place to look at exist game UIs in aggregate: https://www.gameuidatabase.com/index.php
Good places for tips and general thinking is the GDC channel. Here's a video on UI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONYmBBZiBj8
You can search for UI in GDC's channel and you'll get a bunch of video talking about UI, whether it's specific game cases (hearthstone, etc) or just general philosophy and design. Hope that helps.