New theme.

[PyTom]

Okay, so the roundrect theme is already getting a bit long in the tooth, with several games having used it. I'd like Ren'Py to have a new default theme. And I think this time I'll open the floor to others to design it.

A theme consists of looks for the following:

- The in-game window.
- The main and game menu windows.
- Labels
- Buttons (5 states: idle, hover, selected-idle, selected-hover, disabled)
- Sliders (2 states: idle, hover)

If people want to come up with basic ideas for a look, I can code it. (Or you can code it too, and I can just add it into Ren'Py.)

[monele]

Is the implicit goal to get a big list of themes for the maker in the end? . Though... I'm not sure how to make something simple yet different and, most importantly, *neutral* ô_o;... Square... rounded rectangle... what's left?

[PyTom]

Well, we don't have a particularly good square theme right now. So that would be nice. Also, some alternate colorations of the various themes could be useful. And I'd like games to look a little more distinct from each other, so I'll probably have Ren'Py pick a theme at random each time a new game is created.

I'd also like game-makers to have more options to pick from, even if noone ever does.

I might also separate out the game/main menu themes from the theme used by the in-game window.

Frankly, I'm sick of looking at the current theme (with its C=64 color scheme), and would like a change.

[Zarcon]

If you give a set of sample images I'll be more than happy to make a few.
Unless I can find them in the Ren'Py package...which I can't, so they're either not easily obtainable or I'm blind. Probably the latter.

I just need to know general sizes and limitations.

[PyTom]

There aren't sample images here. What I'm looking for is theming concepts, and then I'll go and implement them.

(Hm... maybe a way of specifying a theme in which we start with an image is the way to go.)

[monele]

Can we come up with complex things such as "how does the main menu appear?" and suggest things like what we've seen in O3? I'd see that as more useful than just giving new recolors :/ (actually, recolors are just a set of parameters for the round_rect theme, right?)

[mugenjohncel]

Can we come up with complex things such as "how does the main menu appear?" and suggest things like what we've seen in O3? I'd see that as more useful than just giving new recolors.

Same here...

I too am wondering... how did he do it?

A tutorial or a step by step how to do it example would be nice.

[mikey]

One thing about different schemes is that it's easily customizable for beginners (even I was able to recolor the buttons in The Question and it made a big difference IMO). An advanced tutorial for O3-style fancy things is undoubtedly interesting, but that is relatively advanced stuff, even if done step-by-step, you need to understand the processes to be able to make derivatives that don't look like O3 with slightly repositioned buttons.

So I see a new theme more like something for the beginner, and to prevent games from looking samey. Of course advanced tutorials and "making of" for difficult topics can be useful as well.

My suggestion for a new theme is a bitmap-button-based one. I think Blade has this and it's extremely flexible. You can easily create your own buttons (have set sizes of the bitmaps for each resolution) and give your game a unique style. In conjunction with a custom textbox and sliders in same theme, this is a cheap way of making it very disticntive. Plus, you can use a lot of fancy fonts and text effects, since it's a bitmap.

So that's my suggestion. It may not be a "theme" in that sense, but it would be a very nice feature.

[DaFool]

I second the bitmap-based idea also.

In the meantime when I'm about to release a game, I would make a mockup menu in Flash, show it to PyTom to see if such a thing can be done in Ren'Py.

Of course that would mean that the customization will be specific to the game, but the lessons learned can be ported to future features (i.e. such as O3's subtitle text effect).

[mugenjohncel]

I too am with bitmap based menus.

It will definitelly make customising individual Ren'py games easier (...for most of us).

[PyTom]

The problem with bitmap based themes/menus is that things in Ren'Py tend to be automatically sized. For example, a button resizes itself to match the text inside it. I'm not sure how to take that into account. I'll try to figure it out, but probably not for another release or so.

[absinthe]

Here's a (very) basic theme idea I've been kicking around for a few days, not sure if it's a good blend between "generic enough for people to use for any game" and "stylin' enough to knock the socks off visitors", but I like it.

Oh, and it'd probably be better in darker colors, but I was halfway through my tinkering when I realized this and had already merged a few layers. Just imagine it's in sexah blacks and blues or something.

[absinthe]

And a few more color schemes for roundrec, since color is good.

[absinthe]

(The actual file.)

[PyTom]

I like the bars theme... with the exception of the actual bars, for volumes and the like. They look too much like buttons to me. I can probably turn this into something that can be recolored, like RoundRect.

EDIT: Or maybe not... I need to give some thought to how those backgrounds will work. We can't have buttons overlap.