Ren'Py's Public Image

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#1 Post by **PyTom** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 8:29 pm

(Continued from the thread on Blade, which was getting considerably off-topic.)

I would be happy to accept help with Ren'Py's public image. There are many areas that need improvement:

- The demo is obviously more of a tech demo then an example of a Ren'Py game. We may want to come up with a demo that focuses more on the stories people can tell with Ren'Py, and some of the cooler features, and make the tech demo into less of a demo game, and more of a standard distribution of Ren'Py.

-- As part of this, I think the art needs an upgrade.

-- As part of the demo, it might make sense to include trailers for some Ren'Py games.

- The Ren'Py website could also use a redesign. This should probably be lead by game-makers, as those people are the real target market for Ren'Py.

- Also, documentation and tutorials could be better organized. I was doing that for a while, but then life caught up to me.

- People should also take a more active role in publicizing Ren'Py... but I'm not sure what this should entail. (Other than I think SEO is sleazy.) But stuff like banners and press releases and the like might be interesting.

Well, I really want to see if people in the community step up. I'd like Ren'Py to be popular, as I think it's the best engine out there. But actually doing the work to make it so isn't as satisfying as working on Ren'Py and games.

Update: Oh, and let me point out two things. I'd prefer this to be as much as possible a collaboration, rather than a competition. That being said, at some point I'm probably going to have to make choices... I have styles of art I like (moé!), and some that I don't (sketchy, bishonens, sketchy bishonens). So please don't be offended if I don't like some particular contribution.

#2 Post by **Blue Lemma** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 8:56 pm

I don't think it would hurt to have all sorts of character types represented in Ren'Py's image, though, since it's for bishoujo and bishounen games both

Take the new Hirameki stuff for example. Lots of people will have their interest piqued by shoujo styles ^_^

#3 Post by **PyTom** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 9:03 pm

Hm... maybe you're right, at least for the demo. Well, I won't totally rule them out, provided they're not a large enough part of the thing to scare away bishoujo-lovers.

ShiraiJunichi · #4 Post by **ShiraiJunichi** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 9:04 pm

PyTom wrote:I'd like Ren'Py to be popular, as I think it's the best engine out there.

No... Ren'Py IS the best engine out there. It is the only TRUE OELVN engine! We must spread the truth of Ren'Py throughout the internet. This will be our crusade!

For the demo, a series of vignettes sounds like a good idea to me. This would easily broaden the scope of what could reasonably be demonstrated in a short amount of time. Plus it would show Ren'Py's versatility. If the Ren'Py demo was like the utsukushii demo by monele, people might think Ren'Py is only good for space games or something. If the vignettes all have different flavors to them, it will show that Ren'Py is useful for any genre. These vignettes can either be original, or just small clips from games that have already been released using Ren'Py. I recently though of a game idea, that might be a nice idea for a vignette in the demo.
I think the demo should also include a quick run down of Ren'Py's significant advantages- such as linux and mac support, and extreme ease of use. Emphasis on ease of use (What? I can do that?! And it's that easy?!!)

I think finding an official logo is important. But I'm not quite sure what your requirements are. All I can gather is that it should apply to general visual novels, and preferably be scalable from full screen to icon.

As far as publicity goes, I think most of us have a webpage or blog. I hadn't really thought about doing so before, but I can definitely put up a few links to these forums and the Ren'Py homepage.
If you want to go to extremes, we could all band together and google bomb "dating sim" ^_^

EDIT:
Oh, and I was wondering... wouldn't it be possible to use dynamic HTML to make the webpage look like a Ren'Py game? That could be kind of cool...

#5 Post by **PyTom** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 9:24 pm

ShiraiJunichi wrote:No... Ren'Py IS the best engine out there. It is the only TRUE OELVN engine! We must spread the truth of Ren'Py throughout the internet. This will be our crusade!

Woah, hold back on the evangelizing, preacher-man!

Ren'Py isn't perfect, and it may not be the best engine for any project. I think it's important to give people a fair assessment of Ren'Py, and let them decide if they want to use it. It's better to under-promise then over-promise.

That being said, a white paper comparing Ren'Py to ONScripter-insani and Blade for OEL VN development may be interesting.

I think finding an official logo is important. But I'm not quite sure what your requirements are. All I can gather is that it should apply to general visual novels, and preferably be scalable from full screen to icon.

The problem is, I don't have specific requirements. It's a blank. The "Eileen's Eyes" logo was okay, but perhaps too abstract. I couldn't see it on the corner of a website. Also, I'm sorta hoping a _good_ artist will step up and redesign some of my characters.

A picture I want drawn, even if it isn't an official logo, would be one of Eileen, in safari garb, with the pygame snake resting around her shoulders. (Pygame snake is at: http://www.pygame.org/news.html ... the controller is optional, the yellow, friendly snake is the important part.)

Perhaps something like this could go in a corner of a web page, or something. (I really don't know what I want. Would this scare people too much?)

If you want to go to extremes, we could all band together and google bomb "dating sim" ^_^

Linking Ren'Py, especially when new games come out, is not a bad idea. But I explicitly don't want people google-bombing. It's important to me that we be as upstanding as possible, and I'm not a fan of google bombing.

Piroshiki · #6 Post by **Piroshiki** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 9:32 pm

PyTom wrote:-- As part of this, I think the art needs an upgrade.

*raises hand*

I can do some art. My project kind of collapsed upon itself and turned into this scary digital blackhole which I'm not approaching until it has evaporated some, so I should have time for a bit of character design/CGing...

Samples: 1, 2

#7 Post by **PyTom** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 9:38 pm

Sure. Do you want to try your hand at Eileen? For the tech demo, we need happy, normal, and miffed images. Attire should be reasonably businesslike, but maybe still a bit cute. In other words, I don't know what I want attire-wise.

(Also, if you want to try the safari version, I'd appreciate it.)

Piroshiki · #8 Post by **Piroshiki** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 10:03 pm

No problem, I'll try to have the preliminary sketches for the tech demo drawings ready by Friday. Unless you want the safari version first? Though that may take some more time, since I've never drawn anything even remotely having to do with safari or snakes before...

#9 Post by **PyTom** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 11:51 pm

I'll be out of town from Fri - Sun. So really, whatever order you want to draw in is fine with me.

BTW, what ever happened to that manga you did?

mugenjohncel · #10 Post by **mugenjohncel** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 12:50 am

Uh... Can I volunteer to do Eileen Character Art?

I'll provide the sketches exactly 24 hours from now.

Yup! Count me in on spreading the word on Ren'py.

Now I have more reason and motivation to finish my game.
(OK so I've seen the blade demo and yes it does leave a lasting impresion because of the art and stuff but geez... the script really looked scary to me)

OK so Blade engine is covered by Slashdot so why not Ren'py?

Someone should give those guys a call and (politely) tell them why they should give Ren'py the same amount of coverage.

#11 Post by **PyTom** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 1:03 am

Well, I think we already have an artist volunteer. I would prefer to not get into a position where I have to choose between two sets of art. (And the time delay isn't a huge issue, honestly.)

mugenjohncel · #12 Post by **mugenjohncel** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 1:14 am

OK!

I'll concentrate on finishing my game.

lordcloudx · #13 Post by **lordcloudx** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 3:25 am

hey I'd agree with the short vignettes thingy

. Y'know have a different mood with each viewpoint and then you could make Eileen have a ren'ai story with an ending of her own maybe integrate the short demos into dream sequences of the main character who can be bit of a daydreamer etc. etc. then he'd realize that eileen is the best girl for him coz reality can be wonderful story better than any ren'ai visual novel that we can concoct. the end.

hmm.. kinda confusing. i'm saying that the maybe you could make the entire demo like a real ren'ai story. wherein maybe the main character is taking a walk with his girlfriend or childhood friend Eileen who'd start talking and maybe a keyword she says or some event like a black cat jumps out in front of you would trigger a dream sequence with a short vignette of one of the completed ren'py games, then character wakes up again and the sequence is repeated using another ren'py game until they reach the soda shop or something and the ending could be the realization of the protagonist that reality is bla bla.. etc.

then the tutorials could come after the story is finished or maybe as an entirely separat menu in the game.

Anyway, just sharing a random thought... so whadday think?

monele · #14 Post by **monele** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 3:39 am

I like the idea of dreams. Let's you show many genres of Ren'Ai games. Actually, why not take up the Quine idea and have the same hero thinking up his next game ? Just throwing ideas around and imagining the results... which would then be either other already made games, or clones of their genre.

In any case, I wouldn't mind working on the "polish" aspect of the product ^^ (y'know, effects...).

denzil · #15 Post by **denzil** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 4:12 am

Demos:
-DSE can be used as dating simulator demo, but it doesn't have graphic.
-I think there should multiple demos to show different things (and the demos should be separated into multiple files so people could easily find how things are done). And it might be good idea to move images into /game/images directory.
-Assuming there will be more than one demo - will all demos be in one package and will be run all directly from Ren'Py (menu with: "Run demo 1", "Run demo 2", "Run DSE"...) or will they have separate start files (like DSE now)?

Site/documentation:
-Reference manual is good when searching for something but is not good if you want to learn how to use Ren'Py (and current demo is too big now I think). There should be tutorials shipped with Ren'Py.
-Ren'Py homepage looking like Ren'Py game? Sounds like good idea.

Images:
-Images licence? I understand that current graphic is in Creative Commons but what about the new one?
-Some kind of userbar can be good for signatures while icons might be good for linking from game pages... By userbar I mean something like this:

-Why not a little competition for icons/userbar? (I understand why not for demo but icons shouldn't be that much work)

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