Do you have to write "init" to start your init block?

[TheOtherNewGuy]

Using Ren'Py 6.99.11

Getting ready to ask my next real question, but this is something I've wanted to ask for a while.

In my game I have images and characters defined before the "label start" statement (if "statement" is the right word to use), and my game seems to work fine, so does this mean you don't have to actually write "init" at the top of your script? Is an "init block" just the space before the start label?

[indoneko]

IIRC, new renpy no longer needs us to declare the images the init: section, so if your game is relatively simple, you might get away without it.

[PyTom]

Also, certain statements - define, image, transform, and style - are automatically placed inside an init 0 block if they're not already in an init block. So unless you want to mess with priority for some reason, you don't have to include an init block around them.

[TheOtherNewGuy]

Hmm, okay cool. Thanks for these answers.

Also, PyTom. Out of frustration I may have mentioned in some of my posts that the documentation was hard to understand. Just wanted to clarify that, first and foremost, I'm really glad it's there, if not simply because smarter people can understand it and explain it to others. So, thank you for all the time it took to write it up, updating the software, etc.