Ren'Py Launcher Free Background Project

[PyTom]

Original backgrounds are an important - but often underrepresented - part of the visual novel making process. While we have had many community-reusable sprites, we don't have as many backgrounds. So I've come up with the idea of the Ren'Py Launcher Free Background Project, in which free original backgrounds are featured in the Ren'Py 6.14 launcher. The project has the following goals:

* To promote background artists who work on visual novels.
* To provide an archive of original backgrounds that can be freely used by creators.
* To make the 6.14 Ren'Py launcher more visually interesting.

Ren'Py 6.14 will feature a new launcher. One idea I've had for the launcher is to use a muted visual novel-style background as the background of the workspace - my hope is that this will add some color and visual interest to an otherwise mostly text-based launcher. Generally, the background will be muted by overlaying a translucent color (probably white) on top of them, so the user can easily see the interface, without the background interfering.

Each time the launcher starts up, it will display the unmuted background for a short amount of time before fading in the interface. Although I haven't worked out all the details, portions of the unmuted background may be displayed for a short amount of time when changing screens. An option to display the launcher background will be part of the launcher interface.

The artist of the launcher background will be credited, and their website will be linked. This will be done in a prominent place, generally the first screen a creator will see.

As Ren'Py is an open source project distributed as part of several Linux distributions, all of the background images we distribute must be free enough. This generally means that they'll have to be licensed under the MIT, CC-BY, or CC-BY-SA licenses. Backgrounds created for this project will also be archived on the Ren'Py website, so we slowly get an archive of backgrounds that can be used on other projects.

Depending on response, I would expect that background art would be featured as part of a few versions of Ren'Py - figure for 6+ months.

As part of the goal is to to stimulate the creation of high-quality art that otherwise wouldn't have existed, I'm going to ask that all such art be original to the project, and not shown - in final form - before a Ren'Py release. I'd also like to promote 2D-style art, rather than obvious 3d renders or filtered photos. The art should be suitable for re-use as backgrounds of a visual novel.

A few rules:

1) I will decide which backgrounds are distributed with Ren'Py, and to make decisions on quality and suitability. If you have any questions about a planned work, please ask me before you throw a lot of time into a project - I'd really feel bad if your effort was wasted.

2) The image will be displayed at 800x600. Larger art and widescreen art is welcome, and the launcher will have the ability to crop and scale images.

3) Links from the Ren'Py launcher should go to a page that doesn't directly show adult content. Something like a deviantart page - where you need to register to see the naughty stuff - is fine, I just don't want people to be surprised when they click a link in the launcher.

4) Artists will retain the copyright to their work, provided it is licensed as described above.

5) The backgrounds should be suitable for use in a visual novel. That generally means that they shouldn't be overly distracting, and shouldn't contain foreground objects that would conflict with foreground sprites. Please ask if this

6) There will be a rolling deadline, in which images submitted while a particular Ren'Py major version is being developed will be considered for inclusion in that version. (The cutoff will likely occur sometime in the pre-release process.)

7) The backgrounds shouldn't contain controversial content. They should avoid the use of existing brands, logos, and political emblems. They should avoid the use of recognizable characters or people. Please don't include yourself in the background.

Some ideas for backgrounds: bedroom, classroom, park, fair, road, storefront, office, bathroom, kitchen, castle, spaceship ... but other ideas are also welcome, provided they're reusable enough.

[mugenjohncel]

COUNT ME IN!!!

They should avoid the use of recognizable characters or people. Please don't include yourself in the background.

OK... I'll behave this time...

"POOF" (Disappears)

[DaFool]

COUNT ME IN!!! "POOF" (Disappears)

I'd also like to promote 2D-style art, rather than obvious 3d renders

FAIL.

Ok, but seriously, only mugen is capable of making backgrounds to match the level of Piroshiki's Eileen sprites.

There is a valid reason why original backgrounds are hard to come by. I'd probably just go shopping at deviantart for some pros (like one of the people that works on jack norton's games for example).

[mugenjohncel]

FAIL.

So I guess 3D BG won't qualify huh... oh well... ;_;

Ok, but seriously, only mugen is capable of making backgrounds to match the level of Piroshiki's Eileen sprites.

Thanks for having faith in me... for that I'll draw a BG that will exceed and blow your expectations out of the water!!!... Look forward to it!

"POOF" (POWER UP!!!...)

[Auro-Cyanide]

Sounds like a nice idea. I would help but I don't use 3D software and so my turn around is very, very slow, even with my own projects ^^' Good luck though.

[PyTom]

Sounds like a nice idea. I would help but I don't use 3D software and so my turn around is very, very slow, even with my own projects ^^' Good luck though.

The turn around for Ren'Py is even longer - I don't expect the first cutoff to be for a few months.

[mugenjohncel]

Park...

"POOF" (Disappears)

[KomiTsuku]

Hmmmm... While I do utterly lack any ability in art, I do have another power that may help out here.

*goes to grab his Horn of Art Commissioning*

I'll keep you posted as we go along. I swore I was cutting down on commissions after the auto bill, but this is for a good cause. That, and I could use some more BGs for my projects as well.

[azureXtwilight]

UNCLE MUGEN IS AWESOME 8D

This thread is win, thank you!

[Auro-Cyanide]

Sounds like a nice idea. I would help but I don't use 3D software and so my turn around is very, very slow, even with my own projects ^^' Good luck though.

The turn around for Ren'Py is even longer - I don't expect the first cutoff to be for a few months.

Evidently you haven't seen me do a background (jk)
I'll see if I can find time to at least get one done or something. It would be nice to help out a little if I can.

[JustAnotherMe]

Maybe... I'll help... Can't promise it'll be fast though...

[KomiTsuku]

First one ready to deliver! Done by FalyneVarger, licensed under a NC SA BY-SA.

[Soraminako]

I know you said you prefer 2d drawings more than 3d or manipulated photography, but what's your stance on completely redrawn photography?
I usually lack the time to do all the backgrounds for my hobby projects from scratch, even though I fairly often have to draw such things also for work stuff. (Which is where the lack of time comes from...)

So, if using completely free-for-use copyright free photography redrawn into looking like 2d-from-scratch, it should be fine, right? ^^

Something like this? (Countryside + small castle in the background).

I've been meaning to give back to the ren'py community for some time, because of how awesome ren'py and the people helping here are, but I wasn't sure what to do for it. It would probably have ended up being character sprites.
If backgrounds can be more helpful, then yay for backgrounds.

[PyTom]

Completely redrawn is fine, I think. I just don't want photoshop filters - since I think in that case, it's far better to share techniques than complete images.

And let me just go back and thank Komi, Sora, and Mugen for contributing. I don't read this forum on a regular basis anymore, so I just noticed these - and they're really good. I'll be using them as I work on the new launcher.

[Soraminako]

Well, that background is originally based on a photo, but I use art software to repaint the whole scene and I make additional variations like a night version etc. by adding other details like light and stars etc. that the original didn't have since it was day.

The photo it's based on is also a copyright-free stock photo from a place that says they don't need credit, so anything based on their photos should be free for all uses in games etc. (Their TOS okayed all uses as long as we're not reposting the photos themselves as a stock-photo site to rival their own.)
We could always put the credit both to the stock photo place and to me, that would probably be the best.

Photoshop filters alone are nice but they just don't quite do enough to make a photo look like a drawing, usually.
So this type of method repainting it as a new picture is more time consuming but better.

If you're okay with that, I could submit more backgrounds like that for the project.