2009 Year in Ren'Py

[PyTom]

(Last year's post.)

The start of another year means it's time for my annual year in Ren'Py post.

The motto of the Ren'Py 6 series was "The World Creates". In 2009, I think that aspiration was something that we reached. According to Google Analytics, Ren'Py was downloaded 15,191 times in 2009, from 122 countries and territories. A few years ago, I would have estimated the total market for Ren'Py as maybe a hundred people... reality has proven me wrong.

Last year, 50 games were released with Ren'Py. This year, we had reached 50 games by August... and what's more, that only includes games on the game list. To some extent, 2009 was the year we lost track of Ren'Py. In much the same way there's no comprehensive list of Python or C programs, there are now enough Ren'Py games that tracking them all has become difficult. (I do plan to spend some time on this in the future, however.)

2009 saw 6 releases of Ren'Py: the 4 releases of the 6.9 series, and the 2 releases of the 6.10 series. Some of the new features added were:

* The superseding of special-purposed functions with the Transform class and ATL.
* A new rendering system that supports subpixel drawing.
* A new audio/video system that supports many more formats.
* The define, pause, transform, and window statements.
* A new launcher, supporting multiple editors, proper mac apps, and a combined distribution.

Among dozens of other features.

There were a couple of issues that cropped up in 2009. Stability wasn't what I'd like it to be, and so I'm now constantly looking for analysis tools to ensure that Ren'Py remains reliable even in the face of large changes. My health was an issue that slowed us down over the course of the year, but now that's mostly back on track. I also graduated for good, and had to figure out how to balance the various aspects of my life.

Right now, I have plans for one minor and two major releases, so it doesn't look like Ren'Py will be stopping, or even slowing down, for quite some time.

Once again, I'd like to thank the community that makes Ren'Py shine. Without the people who use it --- the people who make games, and the end-users who play those games --- Ren'Py would be nothing at all. Thank you for letting me make the paintbrushes.

[jack_norton]

And as one of renpy developers, let me say thank you for making such great paintbrushes
This year I hope to release some stuff I started working last year, very custom stuff (that only uses Renpy functions without Pygame) that should show how Renpy can be used to make strategy, simulations, rpg games. I really think that considering it only as a "visual novel engine" is starting to be inappropriate!

[Samu-kun]

That's good news. Maybe if more people keep downloading renpy, then by its logical extension, more games featuring cute girls might get released... Mmm... One can hope...

[chronoluminaire]

That's good news. Maybe if more people keep downloading renpy, then by its logical extension, more games featuring cute girls might get released... Mmm... One can hope...

Well, this was PyTom's stated intention for writing Ren'Py in the first place, after all. (Okay, he actually phrased it as "want to play more visual novels in English", but we can interpret that how we like )
Congrats, PyTom. And I'm glad to have contributed to three of those releases, and I'm certainly not stopping now

[delta]

(When was the last time you completely redid your game because Ren'Py keeps changing core functionality?)

[A Terrible Rabbit]

Delta, you seem to know a lot about coding. If you hate this engine so much, there's a lot of other ones to use.

[delta]

Sure, let me just throw away these 2 years of development time and start over.

[A Terrible Rabbit]

There an older version you liked? It's too bad you're having so much trouble with the new update. I haven't downloaded it, either, but we can still use the older versions, right?

[RayRayTea]

Thanks for all the hard work, PyTom. RenPy is nothing short of amazing.

Ray from Nekomura Games

[Ruruka-chan]

I have problem with this game The Netterstadt Troll I agree nobodys good ending. if somebody can help me please. a walkthrough is okay

[Blue Lemma]

Sure, let me just throw away these 2 years of development time and start over.

If the functionality's changing in an inconvenient way, I'd strongly consider just continuing to use the old version. I assume it would still work in most cases.

[rocket]

Right now, I have plans for one minor and two major releases, so it doesn't look like Ren'Py will be stopping, or even slowing down, for quite some time.

Hooray! That will make for a very Happy New Year!

My New Year's resolution is to finish my latest Ren'Py project.

[Cironian]

Sure, let me just throw away these 2 years of development time and start over.

If the functionality's changing in an inconvenient way, I'd strongly consider just continuing to use the old version. I assume it would still work in most cases.

I'm still writing my story on 6.6.3 (20 out of 23 chapters done, yay me!), but I've intentionally held off on most effect and transition coding for now. Hopefully, this will allow me to switch easily to the latest version once I'm done with the basics.

Right now, my script is peppered with TODO comments whereever something other than text output is supposed to happen on the screen.

But yes, if the script format turns out too incompatible, I'd have no problem releasing with an old engine version either.

[JinzouTamashii]

Hey, I'm just as stubborn as you about moving to a new version.

I still haven't learned ATL properly—through practice and not copypasta Wikicoding.

[Schnauzer]

Nice words PyTom! (almost with tear on the eye lol) I just wanna thanks and congratulate to you an the other people who coperate with the development of any Ren'Py's versions. The software you have made and have been working on is pretty awesome and it motivates many people of the gamer/friki/otaku/geek comunities who have been desired to create a game but don't have enough knowledge about programming to start from zero. For me Ren'Py was a love at first sigth when I discovered it and then I comparate it with other similar tools like NSCripter, novelty and Blade Engine. And actually, being Ren'Py the software I'm using to work in my thesis I must re-thanks you man!