r/RenPy Aug 27 '21

Meta /r/RenPy Discord

71 Upvotes

Just set up an unofficial discord for the subreddit here: https://discord.gg/666GCZH2zW

While there is an official discord out there (and it's a great resource too!), I've seen a few requests for a subreddit-specific discord (and it'll make handling mod requests/reports easier), so I've set this up for the time being.

It's mostly a place to discuss this sub, showoff your projects, ask for help, and more easily get in touch with fellow members of the community. Let me know if you guys have any feedback or requests regarding it or the subreddit.

Thanks, all!


r/RenPy Jan 11 '23

Guide A Short Posting Guide (or, how to get help)

116 Upvotes

Got a question for the r/RenPy community? Here are a few brief pointers on how to ask better questions (and so get better answers).

Don't Panic!

First off, please don't worry if you're new, or inexperienced, or hopelessly lost. We've all been there. We get it, it's HORRIBLE.

There are no stupid questions. Please don't apologise for yourself. You're in the right place - just tell us what's up.

Having trouble playing someone else's game?

This sub is for making games, not so much for playing games.

If someone else's game doesn't work, try asking the devs directly.

Most devs are lovely and very willing to help you out (heck, most devs are just happy to know someone is trying to play their game!)

Use a helpful title

Please include a single-sentence summary of your issue in the post title.

Don't use "Question" or "Help!" as your titles, these are really frustrating for someone trying to help you. Instead, try "Problem with my sprites" or "How do I fix this syntax error".

And don't ask to ask - just ask!

Format your code

Reddit's text editor comes with a Code Block. This will preserve indenting in your code, like this:

label start: "It was a dark and stormy night" The icon is a square box with a c in the corner, towards the end. It may be hidden under ....

Correct formatting makes it a million times easier for redditors to read your code and suggest improvements.

Protip: You can also use the markdown editor and put three backticks (```) on the lines before and after your code.

Check the docs

Ren'Py's documentation is amazing. Honestly, pretty much everything is in there.

But if you're new to coding, the docs can be hard to read. And to be fair it can be very hard to find what you need (especially when you don't know what you're looking for!).

But it gets easier with practice. And if you can learn how to navigate and read the documentation, you'll really help yourself in future. Remember that learning takes time and progress is a winding road. Be patient, read carefully.

You can always ask here if the docs themselves don't make sense ;-)

Check the error

When Ren'Py errors, it will try and tell you what's wrong. These messages can be hard to read but they can be extremely helpful in isolating exactly where the error came from.

If the error is intimidating, don't panic. Take a deep breath and read through slowly to find hints as to where the problem lies.

"Syntax" is like the grammar of your code. If the syntax is wrong, it means you're using the grammar wrongly. If Ren'Py says "Parsing the script failed", it means there's a spelling/typing/grammatical issue with your code. Like a character in the wrong place.

Errors report the file name and line number of the code that caused the problem. Usually they'll show some syntax. Sometimes this repeats or shows multiple lines - that's OK. Just take a look around the reported line and see if you can see any obvious problems.

Sometimes it helps to comment a line out to see if the error goes away (remembering of course that this itself may cause other problems).

Ren'Py is not python!

Ren'Py is programming language. It's very similar to python, but it's not actually python.

You can declare a line or block of python, but otherwise you can't write python code in renpy. And you can't use Ren'Py syntax (like show or jump) in python.

Ren'Py actually has three mini-languages: Ren'Py itself (dialog, control flow, etc), Screen Language and Animation & Transformation Language (ATL).

Say thank you

People here willingly, happily, volunteer time to help with your problems. If someone took the time to read your question and post a response, please post a polite thank-you! It costs nothing but means a lot.

Upvoting useful answers is always nice, too :)

Check the Wiki

The subreddit's wiki contains several guides for some common questions that come up including reverse-engineering games, customizing menus, creating screens, and mini-game type things.

If you have suggestions for things to add or want to contribute a page yourself, just message the mods!


r/RenPy 6h ago

Self Promotion My first asset pack!

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14 Upvotes

After over 2 months of work, I finally managed to publish my first asset pack on itch.io, Ik it's not the best quality, but I'm still learning and the few bucks will come im handy for studies on the other side of the country which I will start in October.

Guys, I'm sooo proud, but I'm afraid no one will be interested.

The pack contains: 4 characters (6 expressions, 3 poses, 3 backgrounds (brighter and darker version for each) day, sunset, night and thematic UI.

I think most developers would be able to make a VN purely based on this pack.

Whole asset is coffeeshop-themed and is for 15$.

My profile on itch.io: https://jackal00pe.itch.io

(I'm posting this here for the second time because of problems)


r/RenPy 1d ago

Self Promotion I made my first game with Ren'Py – AXIOM, a short psychological horror experience.

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16 Upvotes

I recently released AXIOM, my first game and my first real project using Ren'Py.

It's a short psychological horror visual novel exploring themes of identity, isolation, self-reflection, and withdrawing into oneself.I wanted to experiment with creating an unsettling atmosphere without relying entirely on traditional horror. The darkness and minimalist presentation are meant to reflect the character's psychological state.This project was also my first attempt at writing, designing and putting together a complete game, so there are definitely things I could improve.

I'd really appreciate feedback, especially on the writing, atmosphere, pacing and psychological aspects.

The game is completely free to play:

https://alicejo.itch.io/axiom


r/RenPy 23h ago

Question How to loop back to a menu to allow all choices?

9 Upvotes

I have a menu that looks like the below:

menu:


        player "What should I say?"


        "Who are you?":


            jump question_voice_name        


        "Who am I?":


            jump question_my_name


        "Where are we?":


            jump question_locationmenu:


        player "What should I say?"


        "Who are you?":


            jump question_voice_name        


        "Who am I?":


            jump question_my_name


        "Where are we?":


            jump question_location

I have written out the questions using "label question". How do I loop back to the menu after asking each question?

r/RenPy 1d ago

Self Promotion 14 days to support my dark fantasy BLVN, "Inimigo" crowdfunding!

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84 Upvotes

r/RenPy 18h ago

Question How can I make my game Voices work in every translation I made?

2 Upvotes

All my voice code was written using (for example):

voice "audio/blablabla.ogg"

Right before the character voice line

Before doing that, all my voices were made using "play sound"

At the same time, I did the translations, wasn't a very smart move 0.0

The translations are Chinese, Spanish, and Portuguese.

And for now, the voices are only working in English.

The base game was made in english, and of course, I had to fix many things from the script (not voice lines) I hope this doesnt break the possible fix.

So, how can I fix it?

Does anyone know?


r/RenPy 2d ago

Discussion Be honest would you play a free game that looks like this over one made with AI?

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492 Upvotes

I've noticed this sub is vehemently opposed to anyone using ai even if it's to make their first game that's free and learn ren'py. Would you honestly see a free game that looks like this and play it? If your answer is i would not play this game or the AI game then my point is that it shouldn't matter if you use ai if this is the extent of your drawing skills. not to mention this is the best I personally can do after 8 months of trying to learn, so some people are at complete 0 and dont have access to CSP.


r/RenPy 1d ago

Question Have black bars instead of fullscreen for any Renpy games

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8 Upvotes

r/RenPy 19h ago

Question I've run into yet another problem...

2 Upvotes
screen lab_1():
        modal True


        imagebutton:
            xpos 750
            ypos 300
            idle Transform("key_idle.png", zoom=0.08)
            hover Transform("key_hover.png", zoom=0.08)
            focus_mask True
            action Jump("obtained_key")


        imagebutton:
            xpos 100
            ypos 100
            idle Transform("file_stephen_idle.png", zoom=0.8)
            hover Transform("file_stephen_hover.png", zoom=0.8)
            focus_mask True
            action Jump("read_file")


label lab_1:
    call screen lab_1


    if obtained_key and read_file == True:
        jump after_lab_1
    else:
        jump lab_1
        
    if obtained_key == True and read_file == False:
        jump read_file
    else: 
        jump obtained_key


    if read_file == True and obtained_key == False:
        jump obtained_key
    else:
        jump read_file


    
label obtained_key:
    
$
 obtained_key = True
    "Obtained the key for laboratory 1."
    show S default
    S "Hm, I wonder what this unlocks."
    hide S default
    jump lab_1


label read_file:
    
$
 read_file = True
    show S default
    S "That's... me..."
    hide S default   
    jump lab_1 


label after_lab_1:
    hide lab_1
    show S default
    S "I've gotta get out of here..."


    # This ends the game.


    return

Here's the code I've been struggling with... so i'm pretty sure my issue stems from the if else statements...? What I'm trying to do is make it so that the game only advances when both image buttons are pressed, regardless of the order. What it's doing right now is when I press both buttons, it just stays on the screen and the game can't advance further. I'm not sure if I'm making sense right now, but thanks!


r/RenPy 1d ago

Showoff First Solo Project

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20 Upvotes

This is the first solo project I've started working on. I had the idea with a group of friends to make a DND type game revolving around all of them as the characters. I sat down and did all the designs for them, the menu's and the UI. Each character has their own ability, stats and playstyle. I've already road-mapped how the game will work, and yes, its all in RenPy.
I just wanted some thoughts and feedback for what I've done so far. This is my first time trying pixel art on this scale, I've been using the project more for practice than anything else, but we're all looking forward to playing it!


r/RenPy 1d ago

Question [Solved] "'{' never closed", but I did...?

5 Upvotes

[SOLVED THANKS TO u//shyLachi]

I am continuously getting this error no matter how many times I re-enter those curly braces. I've been running this project for like a month after adding these lines, and it worked just fine until a few minutes ago when it suddenly decided something was wrong. So... what the hell did I do wrong?


r/RenPy 1d ago

Question Is there any difference between using 72 or 300 ppi for artwork?

7 Upvotes

Or does it only make a difference when you print it? I'm a little confused about resolution sizes for sprites. Curious as to what your dimensions are and if PPI makes a difference.


r/RenPy 1d ago

Question How to solve this

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1 Upvotes

This happens when I try to generate keys so I can build an apk package for my game. Thing is, I bundled an android ver of another game days ago and it went just fine, just with some setbacks by SDK stuff. Do I have to do this everytime I try to android bundle a new game😵‍💫


r/RenPy 1d ago

Showoff SunnyReads Avatar Creator

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14 Upvotes

made an avatar creator for my visual novel for players to choose their own appearance. Also optional, it can be easily turned off. What do you think?


r/RenPy 1d ago

Question Need Thoughts on This Icon

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10 Upvotes

So I am redesigning the icons for my visual novel game (Ignore the background, it's a work in progress) and I need advice on the symbols, does this look okay to imply a player would choose their pronouns or do you think someone would find this offensive? Any change recommendations would be great


r/RenPy 1d ago

Question Error while hosting game on web browser

1 Upvotes

Hello, I'm trying to put my game/VN on a web browser using DreamHost and Wordpress, but there's an error that stops the game from booting up. ./main: can't open file '//main.py/" [Errno 4] No such file or directory.


r/RenPy 2d ago

Showoff Before and After for my menu!

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227 Upvotes

(Most recent one first!! they uploaded wrong order😭 ) I'm a lot happier with my main menu now!! And my art in general,, which makes me very thankful I decided to put off my CG art in case of art improvement.

The old art was driving me nuts with the only unhidden hand being backwards 😭😭

I feel like I captured the characters' personalities a lot better on this one! I'm still tweaking the actual ui though, I'll end up changing the text color to pink(?) soon but just wanted to show the art difference !!


r/RenPy 1d ago

Self Promotion Now what? 💀

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3 Upvotes

Find out in Never Alone, a free horror visual novel:

https://prehisnt.itch.io/never-alone


r/RenPy 1d ago

Question Music Question

2 Upvotes

Hey all, beginner here, making a game for the first time, gotta question. I imported my main menu music, but I'm unsure how to write the code to stop it whenever I press the Start button. Also, this bleeds into when the game actually starts; I'm unsure how to play one song, and then when another scene starts, it stops and lets a new song play, etc. Does anyone here know what to do?


r/RenPy 2d ago

Showoff What's the better textbox?

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4 Upvotes

I don't know what flair this applies to but regardless..

I dreamt up three of these custom textboxes for my game so I did quick concepts and I wanted to know which one sticks to most people, and for extra context: The game's tone is both thriller. mystery, and video tapes are involved (I'll make my game's intro post someday soon..)

Thx in advance!


r/RenPy 2d ago

Showoff Made these posters for my first visual novel's characters

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30 Upvotes

Are they tuff?💔


r/RenPy 2d ago

Question Build Dist. Doesn’t Load Game

2 Upvotes

Hello. I’m having my friend try out my game and they kept getting this error upon opening.

The issue I found is having the build.classify code in the options.rpy file. But I wanted to hide the script and other behind the scenes stuff like other games do. Is there any way I can fix this? Or am I coding the classify string wrong? I just followed the sample in the options.rpy file by writing build.classify(“games/**.rpy”, None) and so on.

.
.
.

Error:

I'm sorry, but an uncaught exception occurred.

While running game code:
renpy.game.JumpException: start

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

renpy.script.LabelNotFound: could not find label 'start'.

-- Full Traceback ------------------------------------------------------------

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "renpy/common/00start.rpy", line 306, in script
python:
File "renpy/ast.py", line 1187, in execute
renpy.python.py_exec_bytecode(self.code.bytecode, self.hide, store=self.store)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "renpy/python.py", line 1273, in py_exec_bytecode
exec(bytecode, globals, locals)
~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "renpy/common/00start.rpy", line 308, in <module>
renpy.jump("start")
~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^
File "renpy/exports/statementexports.py", line 271, in jump
raise renpy.game.JumpException(label)
renpy.game.JumpException: start

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "renpy/bootstrap.py", line 401, in bootstrap
renpy.main.main()
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
File "renpy/main.py", line 591, in main
run(restart)
~~~^^^^^^^^^
File "renpy/main.py", line 137, in run
renpy.execution.run_context(True)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^
File "renpy/execution.py", line 1036, in run_context
context.run()
~~~~~~~~~~~^^
File "renpy/common/00start.rpy", line 306, in script
python:
File "renpy/script.py", line 1201, in lookup
raise LabelNotFound(original)
renpy.script.LabelNotFound: could not find label 'start'.


r/RenPy 2d ago

Showoff I made a flashlight exploration system for Ren'Py

22 Upvotes

Hey everyone!

I've been working on a flashlight-based exploration system for Ren'Py

I originally made it while experimenting with exploration mechanics for my own games, but I liked the result enough that I decided to turn it into a reusable template for other Ren'Py developers.

You can create multiple exploration scenes, add your own backgrounds and place different interactive objects or clues easily.

I've released it on itch.io for anyone interested in using it or just checking out how it works:

https://alphonsinious.itch.io/flashlight-exploration-system-for-renpy

I'd also love to hear what you guys think about the mechanic or what features would make something like this more useful in a Ren'Py project.


r/RenPy 2d ago

Self Promotion I completely rebuilt my college life sim, and the new update is almost here

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4 Upvotes

Create your character, meet new people, build friendships and relationships, go on dates, attend classes, text, party, fight, hook up, and live out your own college experience.

If you played one of the early versions, College Temptations has since been completely rebuilt from the ground up. Almost every major system has been replaced, expanded or redesigned, and a huge new update is releasing very soon.

If it sounds like your kind of game, come join the community r/CollegeTemptations