Creating a Dating Sim - is Renpy suitable & do similar games exist?

[Waltercc]

Hi all,

I'm currently experimenting with Renpy and it's looking very nice, very clear and straightforward. So far so good!

My goals for the game I'm planning to create are rather ambitious (although I'd start with a very limited Minimum Viable Product with just a couple of characters and backgrounds):
- dozens, maybe even hundreds, of characters
- an enormous amount of dialogue (written and perhaps voiced)
- branching dialogue options
- integration of micro-expressions (so something like animated gifs or transitions between character graphics would be needed).
- dozens of background images

I'm quite familiar with Javascript myself, so learning another language like Python shouldn't be too much of a challenge.
My feelding is that I'll probably need it extensively for the dialogue options.

My goal is to make the best, most realistic (although with animated characters) and useful dating simulator there is.

- Will Renpy be able to handle a game of this type and size?
- Is there anything I should be careful of when creating a game of this type?
- Are there in fact similar games already created using Renpy (that I can perhaps take a peek in the source code)?

I'm kind of jumping in and learning as I go, so any feedback is welcome!

[drKlauz]

Yes, quite big share of dating sim games done with RenPy.
Check f95zone, very NSFW, but can give you idea of market.
Only thing what can be problematic is getting complex animation (Spine/DragonBones) working. RenPy native animation can be enough tho, depending on your needs.

Come to think about it, if you familiar with javascript some chromium-based game engines could be better option, as you can just drop Spine runtime there and have full animation support, along with other features not found in RenPy.

[Waltercc]

Yes, quite big share of dating sim games done with RenPy.
Check f95zone, very NSFW, but can give you idea of market.
Only thing what can be problematic is getting complex animation (Spine/DragonBones) working. RenPy native animation can be enough tho, depending on your needs.

Come to think about it, if you familiar with javascript some chromium-based game engines could be better option, as you can just drop Spine runtime there and have full animation support, along with other features not found in RenPy.

Thanks for the advice! Actually I'm not planning on doing 3D models.
It's too time intensive I think, and the focus is on the dialogue and 2D faces will probably suffice to show the emotions I want to display (happy, sad, fear, surprise, anger, disgust).

[SypherZent]

Ren'Py is capable of pretty much anything 2D in my experience.
Might even be possible to integrate 3D functionality.

Just have to work with Python's standards, and preload images and optimize game code properly.
For animations, best way is to work with spritesheets in my experience.
Trial and error, and asking in these forums will get you there.

So far, I have developed a real-time shmup and currently working on two different RPG games with Ren'Py.
There's no limit that I can tell, as far as what Ren'Py can achieve.

Here's a trailer of one of my upcoming productions. Currently working on the demo release.
This should give an idea of just how far Ren'Py can go.

[VideoGameVet]

Ren'Py is capable of pretty much anything 2D in my experience.
Might even be possible to integrate 3D functionality.

Just have to work with Python's standards, and preload images and optimize game code properly.
For animations, best way is to work with spritesheets in my experience.
Trial and error, and asking in these forums will get you there.

So far, I have developed a real-time shmup and currently working on two different RPG games with Ren'Py.
There's no limit that I can tell, as far as what Ren'Py can achieve.

Here's a trailer of one of my upcoming productions. Currently working on the demo release.
This should give an idea of just how far Ren'Py can go.

This is impressive as heck. And I was worried about how I would do an "Oregon Trail" type of game.

Is there a tutorial on how to do the status bars to indicate Funds, Health, Food etc.?

Thanks.

[SypherZent]

I'm sure you will find a lot of info here in the forums, or you could just ask in these forums how to make a bar like that.
There's also a Ren'Py Cookbook section here, with some code snippets that may be helpful if you're still learning the engine.

This trailer covers what has been done in 113 days of development.
So, it's not like it will take very long to make something like this, either. It isn't years of work.
Especially once you have learned the ins and outs of the engine.

I've actually wanted to make tutorials myself, but my resources are so low that I've been unable to take the time.
Once I'm able to release this production, if it does well, perhaps I'll have enough food each day to be able to dedicate to creating a tutorial series.
Right now I'm literally starving and I almost died last year from overworking (4000 labor hours in 9 months), so, I'm not in the best position for it, sadly.

[Waltercc]

Thanks for the advice, I've bought "How To Date A Magical Girl" on Steam and finished the game and a few of the "routes".

Thought it would be interesting to check it out since apparently it's also created with Renpy. I'm aiming for something quite similar, so it's good to see what's possible here (also great attention to detail from these creators). But more complex with regards to the dialogues and how the actual affection system works.

I managed to create a small game with placeholder backgrouds and character art, where you can make decisions and the game keeps score of the points. If you have enough points, she asks you on a date. If not, she says something else. Pretty simple, but at least it's a place to start. Also I didn't find the switch to Python too hard.

Once concern I have is, if (in the best case scenario) I have a lot of characters and I'm able to go the route of actually doing voice-overs for all of these charaters, that it will perhaps create problems concerning filesize, packaging etc.

Text-to-speech would be ideal (since we're talking a LOT of dialogue), but as far as I know the technology isn't convincing enough just yet... you'll probably still get that "robot" feel.

[zankizuna]

I thought when looking at the renpy.org website it was supposed to be obvious that Renpy has always been about making Dating sims. And Visual novels.

Go for it. Ren'py is the best dating sim engine.
Imho but yes it is also the truth depending how well you study it uguu