I Need Help With: Images, Creating a Game Menu, Name Input

[appleangel]

Hello! My name is Kelsey and I'm new to both the forums here and to using Ren'Py. I'm currently working on a dating sim game project and I wanted to use Ren'Py since I have heard some good things about it and that it was usable on both Macs and PCs. I'm pretty new to this software though so I have a few questions about getting started with it:

1. What is the image size limit for games? I want to know how big I should make the graphics since I don't want to make them too small and look pixelated when you resize the game window.

2. How do you create/code a game menu for your game? I wanted something laid out like this:

GAME NAME LOGO

New Game
Load Game
Extras
Settings

I'd also like there to be music, and maybe have a scrolling image for the background? Maybe you can highlight the options when you hover or select them?

3. How does Name Inputting work? I would like to people to enter their name at the beginning, like say you type "Steve", and in the game pending on the name you entered the characters will call you that name ("Hello Steve!") in dialog boxes.

Please let me know if you also have any tips or suggestions for newcomers to Ren'Py, any help would make a huge difference to me. Thank you!

[Alex]

Hello!
Here are some useful links:
1 - http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... 9&#p157347
2 - http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... 51&t=20720
3 - http://www.renpy.org/doc/html/input.html

http://www.renpy.org/wiki/renpy/FAQ
http://www.renpy.org/doc/html/index.html
http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... 51&t=22393

[TheTraveler]

"Please let me know if you also have any tips or suggestions for newcomers to Ren'Py, any help would make a huge difference to me."

Start with a less ambitious project would be my advice. Do something simpler to get an understanding about how things work. Add features as you learn them. Taking on a large project right from the start usually ends up in frustration, failure and abandonment. Start small and work up as your understanding and experience increases.

I'm speaking from over 20 years experience as a programmer, but I too am new to Ren'Py, and on the same learning curve in using it.

Cheers.

[appleangel]

Thank you everyone for your help, I'm starting to get a little bit of the hang of it.

However I have a new problem now. When I preview the game and I have images show up in the game there's text at the top that says "missing images (image name)", but the thing is that it shows the image in question despite it saying that it's missing. Is this an error or is this normal? Also, if you have images do they go in the file marked "game", since that's where I have my image and music files currently saved?

[Donmai]

All your game assets (images, sounds, music) must be inside the game folder of your project. You can create subfolders inside the game folder to organize your assets. Then you would use them like this:

Code: Select all

init: 
    image laura = "laura.png"

or

Code: Select all

init:
    image laura = "sprites/laura.png"

if you created a subfolder for your sprite images inside the game folder. You can define your sound effects and music as you did with the image files, or you can call them directly:

Code: Select all

init:
    define blang = "sfx/blang.ogg"

Code: Select all

play sound blang

or

Code: Select all

play sound "sfx/blang.ogg"