Software:Ren'Py
![Ren'Py's mascot, Eileen, surrounded by a python.[1]](/wiki/File:Ren%E2%80%99Py_Logo_6-13-6_200x307px.png){kind=logo} | |
.png) An example of a Ren'Py-created scene. | |
| Original author(s) | Tom "PyTom" Rothamel |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Tom "PyTom" Rothamel[2] |
| Initial release | August 24, 2004 |
| Stable release | 8.1.3
/ September 18, 2023 |
| Written in | Python, Cython |
| Middleware | |
| Operating system | Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Android, iOS |
| Size | 115 MB |
| Available in | English for the engine – UTF-8 use for resulting programs |
| Type | Game engine (visual novel) |
| License | MIT[3] |
| Website | {{{1}}} |
The Ren'Py Visual Novel Engine (or RenPy for short) is a free software game engine which facilitates the creation of visual novels. Ren'Py is a portmanteau of ren'ai (恋愛), the Japanese word for 'romantic love', a common element of games made using Ren'Py; and Python, the programming language that Ren'Py runs on.
Features
Ren'Py includes the ability to create branching stories, save file systems, rollback to previous points in the story, a variety of scene transitions, DLC, and so on. The engine also allows for movie playback for both full-screen movies and animated sprites, in-engine animation (using the built in "Animation and Translation Language", or ATL), and full animation and customization of UI elements via "Screen Language". Ren'Py scripts have a screenplay-like syntax, and can also include blocks of Python code to allow advanced users to add new features of their own. In addition, tools are included in the engine distribution to obfuscate scripts and archive game assets to mitigate copyright infringement.[4][5][6][7]
Ren'Py is built on pygame, which is built with Python on SDL. The Ren'Py SDK is officially supported on Windows, recent versions of macOS, and Linux; and can be installed via the package managers of the Arch Linux, Ubuntu, Debian, and Gentoo (in experimental overlay[8]) Linux distributions. Ren'Py can build games for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android,[4] OpenBSD,[9] iOS,[10][4] and HTML5 with WebAssembly.[4]
Reception
Ren'Py has been recommended as a video game creation engine by several outlets, including Indie Games Plus, MakeUseOf, PC Gamer, and The Guardian .[11][12][13][14] It has been used in classes at Carnegie Mellon School of Art,[15] Faculty of Art at University Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kampar, Perak, Malaysia, and as a tool for information literacy.[16]
Notable games
| Title | Genre(s) | Developer(s) | Publisher(s) | Release date[lower-alpha 1] | Platform[lower-alpha 2] | Ref | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| And | HTM | iOS | LX | Mac | Win | ||||||
| Analogue | Visual novel | Love Conquers All Games | Christine Love | September 22, 2017 | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Black Closet | Visual novel, Strategy RPG, Life simulation | Hanako Games | Hanako Games | September 16, 2015 | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Butterfly Soup | Visual novel, Romantic comedy | Brianna Lei | Brianna Lei | September 16, 2017 | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Café 0 | Visual novel, Mystery | ROSEVERTE | ROSEVERTE | October 4, 2011 | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Coming Out on Top | Visual novel, Dating sim | Obscurasoft | Obscurasoft | December 10, 2014 | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Date Warp | Visual novel, Science fiction | Spiky Caterpillar, Hanako Games | Hanako Games | May 22, 2010 | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Digital | Visual novel | Love Conquers All Games | Christine Love | February 28, 2010 | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Doki Doki Literature Club! | Visual novel, Dating sim, Horror | Team Salvato | Team Salvato | September 22, 2017 | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story | Visual novel | Love Conquers All Games | Christine Love | April 4, 2011 | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Doomed Love | Point-and-click, Dating simulator, Visual novel, Fangame | David B. Cooper | David B. Cooper | June 11, 2021 | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Dysfunctional Systems series | Visual novel | Dischan Media | Dischan Media | April 4, 2013 | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Exogenesis demo | Adventure game, Visual novel, Sci-fi | Kwan | Sekai Project | April 19, 2019 | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Fatal Hearts | Visual novel, Adventure game, Otome | Hanako Games | Hanako Games | October 23, 2007 | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Fault Milestone One | Visual novel | Alice in Dissonance | Sekai Project | August 12, 2013 | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Fault Milestone Two | Visual novel | Alice in Dissonance | Sekai Project | August 16, 2015 | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| The Flower Shop series | Visual novel | Winter Wolves | Winter Wolves | February 1, 2010 | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Heart of the Woods | Visual novel | Studio Élan | Studio Élan | February 15, 2019 | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Heileen series | Visual novel | Tycoon Games | Tycoon Games | October 21, 2008 | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Juniper's Knot | Visual novel | Dischan Media | Dischan Media | April 4, 2013 | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Katawa Shoujo | Visual novel, Nakige | Four Leaf Studios | Four Leaf Studios | January 4, 2012 | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Ladykiller in a Bind | Visual novel, Eroge, Romantic comedy | Love Conquers All Games | Christine Love | October 10, 2016 | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Long Live the Queen | Visual novel, RPG, Political simulation | Spiky Caterpillar, Hanako Games | Hanako Games | June 2, 2012 | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Loren the Amazon Princess | RPG, Visual novel, Fantasy | Winter Wolves | Winter Wolves | April 30, 2012 | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Magical Diary | Visual novel, Fantasy, Otome | Spiky Caterpillar, Hanako Games | Hanako Games | June 19, 2011 | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Milk inside a bag of milk inside a bag of milk series | Visual novel | Nikita Kryukov | Missing Calm | August 26, 2020 | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Momotype | Visual novel, Digital pet | Rimatoad | Rimatoad | December 3, 2021 | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| One Night Stand | Visual novel | Kinmoku | Kinmoku | October 20, 2016 | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Planet Stronghold | Visual novel, RPG, Sci-fi | Winter Wolves | Winter Wolves | February 28, 2011 | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Raptor Boyfriend | Dating sim, Visual novel | Rocket Adrift | Rocket Adrift | July 15, 2021 | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| The Royal Trap | Visual novel | Hanako Games | Hanako Games | February 23, 2013 | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Slay the Princess | Visual novel | Black Tabby Games | Black Tabby Games | October 23, 2023 | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Summer Session | Dating sim | Hanako Games, Tycoon Games | Hanako Games, Tycoon Games | July 2, 2008 | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Tales of Aravorn | Visual novel, RPG, Fantasy | Winter Wolves | Winter Wolves | November 15, 2014 | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Vera Blanc series | Visual novel, Mystery | Winter Wolves | Winter Wolves | June 30, 2010 | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| ICDL 1.0: Interactive Comics for Digital Literacy series | Interactive Comics, Education | Meral Senturk | Meral Senturk | January 30, 2024 | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Website |
See also
References
Notes
- ↑ Date of first completed public release, regardless of platform or region.
- ↑ Some of these games have been ported to game consoles such as Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, but those ports also involve porting them from Ren'Py to other game engines such as Unity, as Ren'Py is not directly supported on game consoles.
Citations
- ↑ "Art Card Information". https://www.renpy.org/artcard.html.
- ↑ Lin, Maria (December 2005). "Returning the Love: Three Fans Taking the Next Step". Animefringe. ISSN 1705-3692. http://www.animefringe.com/magazine/2005/12/special/05.php. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
- ↑ "License". https://renpy.org/doc/html/license.html.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "The Ren'Py Visual Novel Engine". Ren'Py. http://www.renpy.org.
- ↑ "Writing Visual Novels with Ren'Py: The Ren'Py Tutorial". Ren'Py. https://www.renpy.org/dl/4.1/tutorial.html.
- ↑ "Building Distributions". Ren'Py. https://www.renpy.org/doc/html/build.html.
- ↑ "Why Ren'Py?". Ren'Py. https://www.renpy.org/why.html.
- ↑ "Installing Ren'Py on Gentoo Linux". https://renpy.org/wiki/renpy/Gentoo_Linux.
- ↑ "games/renpy". http://ports.su/games/renpy.
- ↑ "Ren'Py 6.99". https://renpy.org/release/6.99.
- ↑ D., Konstantinos (8 May 2012). "Indie Tools: Ren'Py". https://indiegamesplus.com/2012/05/indie_tools_renpy.
- ↑ Wiesehan, Robert (7 July 2014). "Learn To Make Your Own Visual Novels With Ren'Py, Or Play One Of These". https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/learn-make-visual-novels-renpy-play-one/.
- ↑ Vincent, Brittany (2 April 2020). "The best engines for making your own visual novel" (in en). https://www.pcgamer.com/the-best-visual-novel-engines/.
- ↑ Stuart, Keith (20 March 2014). "How to get into the games industry – an insiders' guide". https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/20/how-to-get-into-the-games-industry-an-insiders-guide.
- ↑ "Experimental Game Design". http://mycours.es/gamedesign2012/.
- ↑ Sullivan, Dean; Critten, Jessica (2014-11-01). "Adventures in Research Creating a video game textbook for an information literacy course" (in en). College & Research Libraries News 75 (10): 570–573. doi:10.5860/crln.75.10.9215. ISSN 0099-0086. http://crln.acrl.org/content/75/10/570.
External links
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