Ridiculous Amount of HELP! Requested

[TheOnlyOneKunobi]

Hello there people I'm interested in making my own Renai games using the fantastic Ren'Py engine, and should a thread already exist for these obvious questions then just point me in the right direction and I'll delete this.

With that said, SOME ONE HEEEELP! MEE!

Okay, calm.

It's really just a lot of small asthetic issues I need to sort out really as I can make the engine work pretty well. I've incorperated my own images including digital photos into my work and I got the events, transistions, variables etc down cold but here's my list of problems.

1: What do I save an Image as to use it as an Icon for my game?

2: What Image editer do you guys use? I only have (shamefully) paint which leaves white bits around images, do you use Shop Pro or something and where can I get it for free?

3: What word procceser do you use? I've not got microsoft Word but Works and some scripts (which I've tried to open out of curiosity) havn't been compatable even in Note Pad.

4: all my current work merely stems off a highly edited version of the Ren'Py demo that i've made, is there a way of starting from scratch from practically nothing?

Thanks to all responders.

[PyTom]

1: What do I save an Image as to use it as an Icon for my game?

While any format that Ren'Py supports will work, a png is probably the best.

2: What Image editer do you guys use? I only have (shamefully) paint which leaves white bits around images, do you use Shop Pro or something and where can I get it for free?

You can download the GIMP for free. http://www.gimp.org

3: What word procceser do you use? I've not got microsoft Word but Works and some scripts (which I've tried to open out of curiosity) havn't been compatable even in Note Pad.

You should probably use a text editor rather than a word processor. Let me reccomend the version of SciTE I put out on the web site.

4: all my current work merely stems off a highly edited version of the Ren'Py demo that i've made, is there a way of starting from scratch from practically nothing?

You could... but why bother?

[TheOnlyOneKunobi]

2: What Image editer do you guys use? I only have (shamefully) paint which leaves white bits around images, do you use Shop Pro or something and where can I get it for free?

You can download the GIMP for free. http://www.gimp.org

Thanks to you Py Tom, and thanks for making such an easily accessible engine (but I've tackled NWN so it's nothing too new).
Now excuse me while I giggle at the fact I'm downloading a GIMP. *snort*

[Megaman Z]

4: all my current work merely stems off a highly edited version of the Ren'Py demo that i've made, is there a way of starting from scratch from practically nothing?

You could... but why bother?

My two cents? Just copy the first init block (which defines all the crap that would take forever for your average person to figure out. emphasis on average) and start with that. the first label after that, I believe, should be "Start" (correct me if I'm wrong, PyTom]

Kunobi>>you seem to have goofed up on quoteing (either that or when you clicked "quote", you didn't delete "

") no biggie, and a simple fix. it just makes your message *that* much more confusing...

[TheOnlyOneKunobi]

Okay here's a new question, do you think a survival-romance Ren'Py game could work? My idea is to have loads of endings that could be considered bad (all the way up to being able to die) and endings for any of girls (or maybe even boys) that you make it out with. I think it has potential, some characters could become reliant on the player and develop a romance that way while others could stick with you for mutal survival that becomes something more. I'm thinking like the PS2 game SOS Final Escape in a way but with more characters and interaction between them.

The actual survival part will have prempeted clues about how dangerous a path you might take is now or later on, like at the start of the game the player is shown around the area with land marks and points of interest highlighted with hints to what may happen with them later in the game, choices made pre-disaster could also influence the characters you meet later and where the game proper begins. For some reason I wanna set it at a high school for at least one part of the game, seems like a good general purpose back drop to me.
But what theme survival should I go for? Natural Disaster could have things like falling buildings floods etc for the danger element but I kinda want to put zombie or two .............. hundred in it. Or maybe demons like in parasite eve or Silent Hill?

Regardless this would be a long project and probably not my first release but tell me what you think.....

[Megaman Z]

why not? we've practically had all the feasable ren'py game genre combinations presented so far!


(this is going to take a lot of planning and PM'ing from the looks of it...)


this would be what I already see coming: at least one imagemap, twenty-plus variables, and a lot of coding (more coding than in the original TOZ [which, as PyTom will always say, wasn't exactly a success (I am borrowing the base storyline from it for TOZSP)])

[mikey]

Regardless this would be a long project and probably not my first release but tell me what you think.....

It sounds interesting and if you have enough good ideas, nothing is impossible, I recall playing Phantom of inferno and it's almost a text game, but the way the visuals are and the text is presented, it really gives you that action feel, so I think a survival game isn't really impossible either. See reconstruction 01 for some ideas, plus Megaman_Z's imagemap idea could work as well. I wouldn't worry about the story yet. The story always (should) come only after the gameplay is decided on.

[TheOnlyOneKunobi]

Okay, today's subject? Sound.....
Where can I make my own songs (this is assuming I have any talent that is)? Sound affects are done in WAV format so that's good but I had an idea, instead of audio sound howabout sound captions like in comic books? If I really worked at it I could get the Japanese captions into the games.

[TheOnlyOneKunobi]

Okay, today's subject? Sound.....
Where can I make my own songs (this is assuming I have any talent that is)? Sound affects are done in WAV format so that's good but I had an idea, instead of audio sound howabout sound captions like in comic books? If I really worked at it I could get the Japanese captions into the games.

Edit: Whoops! Double post.

[Guest]

Sound affects are done in WAV format so that's good but I had an idea, instead of audio sound howabout sound captions like in comic books?

It'd be innovative, and also much easier to do than trying to make professional-quality sound effects.

[PyTom]

I'm not sure how well this would work, in practice. One of the the reasons for sound captions in comics is that the medium isn't capable of resolving real sounds... something that isn't a problem for modern computers.

I'd also oppose the use of Japanese captions. While it's usually fairly easy to get the gist of captions from the art in a manga, it's much harder to do so in a VN, because of the limited amount of art in a visual novel, as compared to manga or comics.

[chronoluminaire]

Regardless this would be a long project and probably not my first release but tell me what you think.....

It sounds interesting and if you have enough good ideas, nothing is impossible, I recall playing Phantom of inferno and it's almost a text game, but the way the visuals are and the text is presented, it really gives you that action feel, so I think a survival game isn't really impossible either.

I definitely agree. All sorts of games are possible, so go for it, Kunobi: cut your teeth on something really (really) small first, but after that, this sounds like a fine idea.

I wouldn't worry about the story yet. The story always (should) come only after the gameplay is decided on.

But this I have to really disagree with you on, mikey. I know that's how you do things, but it's really not everyone's preferred way at all. It'll depend which way round the idea comes. In the case of the Ren'Ai RPG project, it was conceived by the gameplay so that came first; but if the story is what occurs to you, then the story should be allowed to dictate what kind of gameplay would effectively accompany it.

[bookie]

wouldn't worry about the story yet. The story always (should) come only after the gameplay is decided on.

But this I have to really disagree with you on, mikey. I know that's how you do things, but it's really not everyone's preferred way at all. It'll depend which way round the idea comes. In the case of the Ren'Ai RPG project, it was conceived by the gameplay so that came first; but if the story is what occurs to you, then the story should be allowed to dictate what kind of gameplay would effectively accompany it.

I don't think I could ever work with the mechanics first and then think of a story to fit it. The way I approach games is that I have a story I want to portray and then I go about looking for the best way to portray it. It all depends on what aspect of the game is the most important to you I think.

[TheOnlyOneKunobi]

Well regardeless it looks like my first game will be entering the first stages of development now or by next week (i still have exams but that still leaves me with lots of free time, i've taken up napping!), y'see my sister/artist/storyeditor has come back home for the summer so I'm starting work now.
So from this point on expect lots of obvious questions, idiotic problems and frantic swearing on this little post.
Actually I couldn't of ask for a better location to begin with considering my theme. My game will be a classic "Holiday Romance" with cliches a-plenty! I live on the coast and too boot in a tourist trap of a village so there's loads of locations to photograph for the project (including a creepy hotel!)
I still need to think of a title for the game, currently I'm leaning towards Angelic 16. Which is a slight hint to a serceret I might add should the mood strike me.
The only thing I'm worried about is my sister's lazness damaging progress on this project, if the game gets delayed/abandoned it'll be because she get's bored and will stop drawing characters for me. Then I'll have to start making my own art which will sux (I took some lessons but never really did anything with it).
HOWEVER! I will not become caught up in this defeatist attitude! YOU HEAR ME! I WON'T GIVE UP! After all this won't be a big project just a whack at the whole thing to see if I have any talent.

[TheOnlyOneKunobi]

Okay this is double post but it's a technical question:

How do you use the persistant save feature in Ren'Py? I can't quite remember but I think you can use it to carry set values, I want to make so that after you get three different endings a new feature is unlocked and at the start of the next play you can choose to activate this seceret. But I don't know how to do this?