Live data from Hacker News

The Ren'Py Visual Novel Engine

renpy.org

81–90 of 91 posts

Re: The Ren'Py Visual Novel Engine

#81
My 8 year old daughter loves graphic novels. And she's a budding writer. I got really excited to show her some of the links posted here.

Then I dug a little deeper and saw that a lot of it is very sexualized. I'm not opposed to that for adults but it isn't something I want my daughter exposed to.

Anyone have suggestions for safe spaces for kids? I really love the idea of her creating using ren'py but I'm worried it is a gateway to things she isn't ready for yet.

Re: The Ren'Py Visual Novel Engine

#83
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah Interesting, I have only played one or two dating sims many years ago, what are some tropes which are specific to dating sims rather than those also found in romance-based anime/manga? I guess "bad endings" and "save then go back" would be specific and played with in DDLC, but I didn't pick up anything else.

(spoilers ahead) > So you kind of need familiarity with the genre to understand some of the jokes. >> what are some tropes which are specific to dating sims rather than those also found in romance-based anime/manga? It's been a while since I've read DDLC but familiarity was probably too strong a word. Having expectations about how the story should develop and then having those subverted is a good chunk of the fun [1]…

> To your question though, the VN-specific jokes are mostly about the route system and world building. I guess these still fall under the umbrella of "bad endings" and "save then go back" but imo it's a huge umbrella that's worth exploring.

I'd also include the (sometimes literally) faceless protagonists in this. For the uninitiated, it's a fairly common trope in romance VNs that the face of the protagonist is obscured, supposedly to let the player self-insert. In DDLC, if I recall correctly, you mostly see the protagonist's hands and in one image his back.

This trope leads to some fairly weird looking haircuts or (more commonly) to graphics where protagonists simply have no eyes. Perhaps fittingly, this also sometimes applies to characters that are so unimportant that they get labels such as "Student A" instead of proper names, if they even get sprites at all.

DDLC takes it to the logical conclusion that it is the player that matters, not the paper-thin player stand-in

Re: The Ren'Py Visual Novel Engine

#84
post #81

My 8 year old daughter loves graphic novels. And she's a budding writer. I got really excited to show her some of the links posted here. Then I dug a little deeper and saw that a lot of it is very sexualized. I'm not opposed to that for adults but it isn't something I want my daughter exposed to. Anyone have suggestions for safe spaces for kids? I really love the idea of her creating using ren'py but I'm worried it i…

I'm afraid that I don't know any kids-safe spaces for budding VN readers or writers, but you can use VNDB to search for visual novels with an appropriate age rating. The following query returns all VNs with a release rated for 3-8 years, excluding any that have a release rated for older ages:

https://vndb.org/v?q=&ch=&f=02N1802a48a23N19a38&s=26y

Though I will caution that a lot of these are either self-reported by the authors or just guesstimates by the person who added the VN to VNDB.

And I will caution that you should never trust it when a visual novel is described as "all ages": For whatever reason, the VN reading community has settled on using that term when we mean "no explicit sexual content". Beyond that, anything goes for an "all ages" VN. The search link above has a minimum age rating of 3+ for that reason

Re: The Ren'Py Visual Novel Engine

#85
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(spoilers ahead) > So you kind of need familiarity with the genre to understand some of the jokes. >> what are some tropes which are specific to dating sims rather than those also found in romance-based anime/manga? It's been a while since I've read DDLC but familiarity was probably too strong a word. Having expectations about how the story should develop and then having those subverted is a good chunk of the fun [1]…

> To your question though, the VN-specific jokes are mostly about the route system and world building. I guess these still fall under the umbrella of "bad endings" and "save then go back" but imo it's a huge umbrella that's worth exploring. I'd also include the (sometimes literally) faceless protagonists in this. For the uninitiated, it's a fairly common trope in romance VNs that the face of the protagonist is obscur…

Ah good catch.

I also remember expecting the story to comment on how, like most dating sims*, there's no male characters (or really any characters in DDLC's case) except for the MC and being disappointed it didn't. Well I think there were allusions to an abusive dad but again I don't think anyone had dialogue lines outside the MC + LIs.

* There are dating sims targeting other demographics like female MC + male LIs but DDLC was parodying the ones for males.

Re: The Ren'Py Visual Novel Engine

#86
post #15

I really wish they'd implement proper XDG stuff, because the engine is great and I love VNs but all I can think about is the ~/.renpy littering my home.

The battle for HOME was lost years ago unfortunately. Best to just accept defeat and enjoy the apps

Re: The Ren'Py Visual Novel Engine

#87

As somebody who has read a large number of visual novels (VNs), I consider Ren'py one of the better engines as a consumer: - It has all the basic featured you'd expect, ranging from proper backlogs, to key bindings, and much more. You'd be shocked how many VN developers think that they can just pop out an VN engine themselves, and end up producing something that lacks even basic features. - It is performant. You'd be…

Can you recommend some good VNs for a newbie?

Misericorde volumes 1 and 2 on Steam and Itch - both renpy based I believe. Fantastic example of an immersive novel, a murder mystery set in a 14th century abbey.

Re: The Ren'Py Visual Novel Engine

#88
post #81

My 8 year old daughter loves graphic novels. And she's a budding writer. I got really excited to show her some of the links posted here. Then I dug a little deeper and saw that a lot of it is very sexualized. I'm not opposed to that for adults but it isn't something I want my daughter exposed to. Anyone have suggestions for safe spaces for kids? I really love the idea of her creating using ren'py but I'm worried it i…

You don't need Ren'Py-like software for graphic novels unless you want them to be interactive. Even so, it may be difficult for an 8-year-old to learn python and debug something like Ren'Py, especially because half of its use is entirely 18+.

I would recommend something like Scratch. It's a visual scripting language that allows kids to make amazing games and animations. It has all the capabilities necessary with ease and kid-friendly forums and comment sections.

Re: The Ren'Py Visual Novel Engine

#89
post #81

My 8 year old daughter loves graphic novels. And she's a budding writer. I got really excited to show her some of the links posted here. Then I dug a little deeper and saw that a lot of it is very sexualized. I'm not opposed to that for adults but it isn't something I want my daughter exposed to. Anyone have suggestions for safe spaces for kids? I really love the idea of her creating using ren'py but I'm worried it i…

If you want a safe space for kids, you're not gonna find it online.

Re: The Ren'Py Visual Novel Engine

#90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing Ren'Py does well that many other engines do poorly is forward compatibility of saves. When VNs are released in pieces over time it is important to make sure the saves carry forward. Nothing kills momentum like "you will need to start over from scratch after every update". As far as competitors go, the list is not very long. Sugarcube/Twine works ok, but tends to bog down as the projects grow large because i…

Forward compatibility of saves is harder than people thought. VN scripts have choices and loops, so in general they are graphs, and upgrading the saves to another version requires matching two graphs. I'd be happy to know if there is a good diff algorithm for graphs In practice graph matching can be helped by manually tagging the same nodes (labels in Ren'Py) in the two versions, but that cannot cover all the edge ca…

Hey, thanks for the context in this thread; I've been working on a project in I7 because I love the form factor of parser &choice-based IF. I'm looking to release the project like a webcomic, with monthly/quarterly chapters, but the backwards compatibility issue in I7 has been a blocker.

In your indie VN dev group, are there any devs working on cross-platform, parser & choice-based VNs (ie I can read a work on mobile as choice-based, but if I want to continue that same save on my computer/ enter commands, I can do that)?

Post reply on HN