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#31 Post by **PyTom** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 5:02 pm

The site is now live at http://www.renpy.org/. Thanks to everyone who's been contributing.

If people could give the cookbook a little love, that would be nice. I plan to add things to it on response to questions from the forum. (Also, some of the extras will be moved into the cookbook.)

yummy · #32 Post by **yummy** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 11:21 am

Hehe starting to contribute to the recipe book

I still don't really get how to make a good layout so feel free to revamp the recipe I added

#33 Post by **PyTom** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 12:24 pm

yummy wrote:Hehe starting to contribute to the recipe book

I still don't really get how to make a good layout so feel free to revamp the recipe I added

First, let me thank you for contributing.

I rewrote your recipe to use Fade, rather then to use zorder and the like I think you'll agree that the current version is a little easier to use.

Alessio · #34 Post by **Alessio** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 4:23 pm

PyTom wrote:The site is now live at http://www.renpy.org/.

Whopee! One more step towards world domination! :)

yummy · #35 Post by **yummy** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 6:27 am

Yay the flash effect is easier to use, I agree

I hope it'll be somewhat useful for others

The only difference is the "fadeout" effect with the zorder method, but it's only a matter of personnal aesthetics.
Thank you Pytom for revamping my version

Jake · #36 Post by **Jake** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 8:29 am

One thing I would suggest - I looked around the site for several minutes, and while I didn't examine every single document I think I probably looked more deeply than the average just-nip-in-and-add-this-bit-of-useful-info user - it might be useful to write a style guide, even if it's only very brief; perhaps even just appended to the bottom of the edit page.

If nothing else, having looked at yummy's original cookbook entry the other day, it would be good to suggest keeping example code to about 70-character-wide rows, since that's about all you can display on a 1024-pixel-wide monitor without needing to scroll... since the scrollbar (at least in most of the browsers I've tried) applies to the pre element that the code is in rather than the whole window, it would be incredibly frustrating to have to scroll left and right through a code example taller than the page.

yummy · #37 Post by **yummy** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 10:26 am

Well it's true I fail at editing articles on Wiki, since I don't know the syntax

However, there's actually a short "style guide" as you call it, I didn't summon enough courage to go through it all but I intend to cover it someday, when I finish the game I'm currently writing - at least.

mikey · #38 Post by **mikey** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 2:05 pm

Since some people are still finding it difficult to get started with Ren'Py, despite the tutorials and so, I was wondering about a minimalistic tutorial... more like an Idiot's guide, that would have example "games" that people could use to experiment with.

Yes, this has been thought of before, but actually it's still very complicated to get into the thing - or rather, it could be easier. So I experimented and tried to delete everything I could... and wonder of wonders, I could get a stable "game" going by deleting the ENTIRE CONTENTS of the game directory and just having a single file, script.rpy in there, with the following:

Code: Select all

label start:

    "So..."
    "This is how it works..."
    "It's very simple, isn't it..."
    "You just write lines of text."
    "Well, I think that's enough."
    "THE END."

    return

Great, I thought. Now, I added a 800x600 picture to the game directory, and in the same simplistic style expanded the script:

Code: Select all

init:

    image park = "park.jpg"


label start:

    "So..."
    "This is how it works..."
    "It's very simple, isn't it..."
    "You just write lines of text."
    "But what if you want pictures?"
    "Hmmm..."

    scene park

    "Hey, that's great."
    "I like this place."
    "But it's time to go."
    "THE END."

    return

... and then, I added Eileen... (and eileen.png into the folder)...

Code: Select all

init:

    image park = "park.jpg"
    image eileen = "eileen.png"


label start:

    "So..."
    "This is how it works..."
    "It's very simple, isn't it..."
    "You just write lines of text."
    "But what if you want pictures?"
    "Hmmm..."

    scene park

    "Hey, that's great."
    "I like this place."

    show eileen

    "Hey, here's Eileen."
    "But I don't have time to talk."
    "THE END."

    return

... and it all worked, no problems. Sure everything is default, but for the starter it's IMO really great, that the engine is so forgivable - you don't NEED to declare anything more than what's absolutely necessary. And these scripts prove it.

I just wondered whether an Idiot's Guide like this would help. You see all the comments in the demo game are nice, but they are really confusing and having it put so simply, it would be an enormous help for anyone who is beginning.

In these scripts, you just need to look at them and you know how the things work. And like this, step by step, if we could put together a truly intiutive and easy-to-get-into tutorial, it could IMO help newcomers a lot - not to mention it could probably also help Ren'Py's image, as the only serious competition, blade is boasting simplicity - but it doesn't really get a whole lot easier than those simplified files (I mean, you can have a working text-only VN with ONE FILE that is dead-simple and clear) - and you could prove that by having parallel code examples that do the same thing, Ren'Py is in fact very easy, but a lot of that simplicity is hidden in the pile of comments and a truly big demo game.

Anyway, your thoughts?

#39 Post by **PyTom** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 2:23 pm

I'm thinking something like this will be coming out in the 5.6.2 timeframe... but I might break that up, and move a simple game into 5.6.3.

A start is at:

http://www.bishoujo.us/wiki/Simple_Command_Reference

But then I got tied up with other things.

Watercolorheart · #40 Post by **Watercolorheart** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 5:59 pm

^I like what mikey's saying because I know where he's coming from. I remember starting out with some of my first visual novel projects ... um ... it was either Crisis Angel or Shifted ...

But, I always thought the demo script combined with the script of Moonlight Walks ... most of the time, I managed to figure out how to do something.

Will there be a way to download the entire Wiki in one go? How do I save it like a tutorial file?

#41 Post by **PyTom** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 12:06 pm

I just added in the redirections from bishoujo.us to renpy.org. So now all Ren'Py traffic should be headed to the new address.

Time to get to work on 5.6.2.

BCS >>> There's no way to save the entire wiki. What we will be doing is exporting the Reference Manual (and maybe some of the other documentation) to static HTML files, and including them with future Ren'Py releases.

Adorya · #42 Post by **Adorya** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 3:08 pm

Re-upping this thread because I am pleased to see the Cookbook and documentations pages filling fast, however I wanted to format a bit the Cookbook section (some codes could be in some subsections like Settings codes, Features code, etc...) but I couldn't do it (editing the Cookbook refer to a sibling page that I can't access).

Well, if someone have upper privilege access who agree to edit it can do it, it would be nice

#43 Post by **PyTom** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 3:19 pm

What are you trying to do with the cookbook page that you can't do? At least for me, it seems to be working fine. (You do need to be logged in to do everything, though.)

Jake · #44 Post by **Jake** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 4:57 pm

PyTom wrote:What are you trying to do with the cookbook page that you can't do? At least for me, it seems to be working fine. (You do need to be logged in to do everything, though.)

It sounds like Adorya's trying to categorise the items in the cookbook - looking at the source of the page, it seems it's including them all in one swoop with a 'get all siblings' element, which means the items can't be ordered or categorised in subheadings.

I'll agree it's pretty messy and random, the way it is... at the very least I think it'd be an improvement to have one item a line (or one line an item) for legibility's sake, but I'm no Wiki whizz... is that kind of thing possible with the automation that's going on there?

#45 Post by **PyTom** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 5:17 pm

Probably not... but if someone wants to go and categorize everything by hand, I'd be all for it.

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