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Ren'Py

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Ren'Py Visual Novel Engine
Original author(s)Tom "PyTom" Rothamel
Developer(s)Tom "PyTom" Rothamel[2]
Initial releaseAugust 24, 2004; 20 years ago (2004-08-24)
Stable release
8.2.3 / June 17, 2024; 5 months ago (2024-06-17)
Repository
Written inPython, Cython
Middleware
Operating systemWindows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Android, iOS
Size115 MB
Available inEnglish for the engine – UTF-8 use for resulting programs
TypeGame engine (visual novel)
LicenseMIT[3]
Websitewww.renpy.org Edit this at Wikidata

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

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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

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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

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List of notable games created in Ren'Py
Title Genre(s) Developer(s) Publisher(s) Release date[a] Platform[b]
And iOS LX Mac Win
Analogue: A Hate Story Visual novel Love Conquers All Games Christine Love September 22, 2017 No No Yes Yes Yes
Black Closet Visual novel, Strategy RPG, Life simulation Hanako Games Hanako Games September 16, 2015 No No Yes Yes Yes
Butterfly Soup Visual novel, Romantic comedy Brianna Lei Brianna Lei September 16, 2017 No No Yes Yes Yes
Café 0: The Drowned Mermaid Visual novel, Mystery ROSEVERTE ROSEVERTE October 4, 2011 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Coming Out on Top Visual novel, Dating sim Obscurasoft Obscurasoft December 10, 2014 No No Yes Yes Yes
Date Warp Visual novel, Science fiction Spiky Caterpillar, Hanako Games Hanako Games May 22, 2010 No No Yes Yes Yes
A Date with Death Visual novel, Dating sim Two and a Half Studios Two and a Half Studios December 7, 2023 No No Yes Yes Yes
Digital: A Love Story Visual novel Love Conquers All Games Christine Love February 28, 2010 No No Yes Yes Yes
Doki Doki Literature Club! Visual novel, Dating sim, Horror Team Salvato Team Salvato September 22, 2017 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 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 Yes Yes
Dysfunctional Systems series Visual novel Dischan Media Dischan Media April 4, 2013 No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Exogenesis: Perils of Rebirth demo Adventure game, Visual novel, Sci-fi Kwan Sekai Project April 19, 2019 No No Yes Yes Yes
Fatal Hearts Visual novel, Adventure game, Otome Hanako Games Hanako Games October 23, 2007 No No No No Yes
Fault Milestone One Visual novel Alice in Dissonance Sekai Project August 12, 2013 No No Yes Yes Yes
Fault Milestone Two Visual novel Alice in Dissonance Sekai Project August 16, 2015 No No Yes Yes Yes
The Flower Shop series Visual novel Winter Wolves Winter Wolves February 1, 2010 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Heart of the Woods Visual novel Studio Élan Studio Élan February 15, 2019 No No Yes Yes Yes
Heileen series Visual novel Tycoon Games Tycoon Games October 21, 2008 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Juniper's Knot Visual novel Dischan Media Dischan Media April 4, 2013 No No Yes Yes Yes
Katawa Shoujo Visual novel, Nakige Four Leaf Studios Four Leaf Studios January 4, 2012 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 Yes Yes Yes
Long Live the Queen Visual novel, RPG, Political simulation Spiky Caterpillar, Hanako Games Hanako Games June 2, 2012 No No Yes Yes Yes
Loren the Amazon Princess RPG, Visual novel, Fantasy Winter Wolves Winter Wolves April 30, 2012 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Magical Diary Visual novel, Fantasy, Otome Spiky Caterpillar, Hanako Games Hanako Games June 19, 2011 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 Yes Yes Yes
Momotype Visual novel, Digital pet Rimatoad Rimatoad December 3, 2021 No No Yes Yes Yes
One Night Stand Visual novel Kinmoku Kinmoku October 20, 2016 No No Yes Yes Yes
Planet Stronghold Visual novel, RPG, Sci-fi Winter Wolves Winter Wolves February 28, 2011 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Raptor Boyfriend Visual novel, Dating sim Rocket Adrift Rocket Adrift July 15, 2021 No No Yes Yes Yes
The Royal Trap Visual novel Hanako Games Hanako Games February 23, 2013 No No Yes Yes Yes
Scarlet Hollow Visual novel, Horror Black Tabby Games Black Tabby Games June 11, 2021 No No Yes Yes Yes
Slay the Princess Visual novel, Horror Black Tabby Games Black Tabby Games October 23, 2023 No No Yes Yes Yes
Summer Session Dating sim Hanako Games, Tycoon Games Hanako Games, Tycoon Games July 2, 2008 No No Yes Yes Yes
Tales of Aravorn: Seasons of the Wolf Visual novel, RPG, Fantasy Winter Wolves Winter Wolves November 15, 2014 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Vera Blanc series Visual novel, Mystery Winter Wolves Winter Wolves June 30, 2010 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

See also

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References

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Notes

  1. ^ Date of first completed public release, regardless of platform or region.
  2. ^ 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

  1. ^ "Art Card Information". www.renpy.org. Retrieved 2021-07-06.
  2. ^ Lin, Maria (December 2005). "Returning the Love: Three Fans Taking the Next Step". Animefringe. ISSN 1705-3692. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  3. ^ "License". Ren'Py. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  4. ^ a b c d "The Ren'Py Visual Novel Engine". Ren'Py. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  5. ^ "Writing Visual Novels with Ren'Py: The Ren'Py Tutorial". Ren'Py. Retrieved 5 Oct 2019.
  6. ^ "Building Distributions". Ren'Py. Retrieved 5 Oct 2019.
  7. ^ "Why Ren'Py?". Ren'Py. Retrieved 5 Oct 2019.
  8. ^ "Installing Ren'Py on Gentoo Linux".
  9. ^ "games/renpy". OpenBSD Ports at ports.su. Retrieved 5 Oct 2019.
  10. ^ "Ren'Py 6.99". Ren'Py. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  11. ^ D., Konstantinos (8 May 2012). "Indie Tools: Ren'Py". Indie Games Plus. Archived from the original on 5 May 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  12. ^ Wiesehan, Robert (7 July 2014). "Learn To Make Your Own Visual Novels With Ren'Py, Or Play One Of These". MakeUseOf. Archived from the original on 9 July 2014. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  13. ^ Vincent, Brittany (2 April 2020). "The best engines for making your own visual novel". PC Gamer. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
  14. ^ Stuart, Keith (20 March 2014). "How to get into the games industry – an insiders' guide". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  15. ^ "Experimental Game Design". mycours.es. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  16. ^ Sullivan, Dean; Critten, Jessica (2014-11-01). "Adventures in Research Creating a video game textbook for an information literacy course". College & Research Libraries News. 75 (10): 570–573. doi:10.5860/crln.75.10.9215. ISSN 0099-0086.
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