Lemma Soft Forums

Samu-kun wrote:I heard from Taleweaver that Homeward runs really slowly on netbooks. Considering that it's pretty much a vanilla visual novel with nothing fancy going on, I hope that the performance can be boasted.

PyTom wrote:

Presumably, any Ren'Ai game that isn't built from the ground up in C, C++, Objective-C or Javascript will be given the Steve Jobs Stamp'o Rejection. Or am I reading this inccorectly?

From what I understand, this is correct. According to multiple news sources, the new developer agreement says:

3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).

The way I read this, if applied consistently, it pretty much bans all visual novel engines from the iPhone/iPad/iPod platform. Since all visual novel engines that I know of use a scripting language to describe their games, if applied consistently, this clause makes them all now unacceptable to Apple.

In fact, this clause bans any language designed in the past 15 years from running on the iPlatform.

Now, I wasn't actively pursuing Ren'Py development for the iPlatform, because the next clause of the agreement bans interpreted languages. I had some ideas on how to get around this using Cython, but I didn't have time to pursue them. I'm kinda glad I didn't, because this new development makes those ideas moot.

Unless Apple changes their policy, the chance of a Ren'Py port to the iPlatform is now 0. I will not waste my time working on a project that Apple will reject.

I encourage people to avoid purchasing Apple products (with the exception of the Macintosh). I've always been uncomfortable with Apple's restriction of the sort of content they allow on their platform, which would prevent many fine visual novels from being ported there. Couple that with inane technical decisions that benefit Apple while hurting developers (and eventually, users), and I can't see any good reason to purchase iPlatform products.

Especially now that there are, or soon will be, products available that dominate the iPlatform products in every way.




I suspect Android will be the next platform I support. I have a good idea on how the port will work, and so the big holdup is getting the time to develop it. (Also, my current phone is a little too wimpy to support Ren'Py, so I'm waiting for my contract to be up in October to get a new phone.)

I also have some ideas on web delivery of Ren'Py games, where the Ren'Py engine runs on a server and streams down a list of display commands to a thin client. But that's not something I've totally thought out yet, and I need to run some experiments to decide if it would work well enough in practice to be worth pursuing.

choklitchan wrote:As a note; Android IS being supported now by RenPy, but I think it's still being tested; as it's a bit buggy.
^_^ Hope this helps.