Website Update (2008-10-09)

[PyTom]

I did a few more updates to renpy.org.

http://www.renpy.org/wiki/renpy/Why_Ren'Py%3F

There is now a new "Why Ren'Py?" page, which tries to explain the benefits of Ren'Py to someone who's considering it. I'd like feedback from people as to what they think about this.

http://www.renpy.org/wiki/renpy/Home_Page

Has been redesigned a little, to try to make the top part a little less wordy, and to direct people to the new page.

The featured game pictures are now linked to the description of the game, rather than the totally useless image description page.

Two games were removed from featured game status:

- The Garden Society: Kykuit
- Go! Magical Boy

This is largely because they didn't run on Linux and Mac, like the new featured games do. Two games were added:

- RenAi Blogger
- Real Life: A Bishoujo Adventure

If people want to suggest new games to be featured, please let me know.

[KomiTsuku]

Those two big blocks of white space at the very top are a bit distracting, but other than that and a few typos, it looks very nice.

The two new featured games were good picks. I support that decision 100% !

[PyTom]

Those two big blocks of white space at the very top are a bit distracting, but other than that and a few typos, it looks very nice.

I'm not sure how to work around the whitespace without losing the alignment of the pictures to the text. If anyone has any ideas...

Which typos?

[DaFool]

Two games were removed from featured game status:

- The Garden Society: Kykuit
- Go! Magical Boy

This is largely because they didn't run on Linux and Mac, like the new featured games do.

Is there any way they can still be featured? It's like removing 2 classics from a summer reading list for not meeting new specs.

[PyTom]

My real issue is that people would go to download them, and they then wouldn't run on their computer. If someone was to upgrade them to a modern version of Ren'Py and build all the distribution, I'd put them back.

(And people remove books from summer reading lists all the time.)

[Alessio]

That's a good point. My plan was to update G!MB to the latest Ren'Py version and to include its sources at the same time. Actually I wanted to finish my current project first, but then again maybe I should rethink the priorities...

[monele]

A few notes : "Find out more" didn't pop out immediately. My eyes went for Download first, then went down the list... and only because I was wondering *where* the mentioned "Why Ren'Py" link was, I looked around and finally found the link on the right. Probably just me, but I thought I'd mention it. Remember, center/middle is where the eyes go first in an interface

On "Why Ren'Py" : can Ren'Py play animated GIFs? (I'm not sure anymore) If not, be sure to indicate it. Actually, indicate it if it does, it can be a good selling point.

Might be good to say "Windows 2000, XP, Vista" and not just "2000+".

Ren'Py takes care of many of the gameplay details

(for sim games)
Which details exactly? Is this referring to the dating sim package?
I also wonder if it would be wise to add that making a sim game is "advanced use".

[Nikolai]

I also noticed that there is a picture on that page that claims to be from Moonlight Walks 2.0. Does this game actually exist (or is it in development)? I know the story and all, but the artwork is fantastic!

[Adorya]

Why "why"?
Because "why" imply a cause, it implicitly feature something that is better than an existing something else *couh* another sim dating engine *cough*, so it imply the visitor is not a newbie which might not be the case.

Maybe replace by "what"?

It is also possible to make a giant commercial appealing title like "Ren'py, the new uber complete extra game engine which everyone would want because of its features listed below", but this kind of self advertisement never worked but for big companies like Google so...

[delta]

Why "why"?
Because "why" imply a cause, it implicitly feature something that is better than an existing something else *couh* another sim dating engine *cough*, so it imply the visitor is not a newbie which might not be the case.

Maybe replace by "what"?

It is also possible to make a giant commercial appealing title like "Ren'py, the new uber complete extra game engine which everyone would want because of its features listed below", but this kind of self advertisement never worked but for big companies like Google so...

Pretty much this. I'm not saying you can't do it, but personally I think it's pretty pointless. It makes it seem as there is this huge brutal competition between VN engines, which is not really the case. There is no alternative to Ren'Py anyway (Blade is commercial, ONScripter is old, KiriKiri has no English documentation, Novelty is still in alpha, etc...)

[Adorya]

I often see on useful free tools author's website the comment under "why?" > "there was nothing that appealed me so I decided to make it myself". Also if I remember well this is on the ren'py website but I don't remember where I read it, so it might be nice to put it in highlight in the front page, something like :
- "what is it?" global answer, VN engine
- "why?" I decided to make it myself because...and/or "why this name?" because...
- "feature?" list of features...

Actually it's just missing the motivation lines and some tidbits to be complete, but I think that even for a newbie it's already a good starter.

[Jake]

I think it's pretty pointless.

It could also be read not so much as a promotion of Ren'Py over other, competing products, and more of a description of all the things the Ren'Py user can expect and thus doesn't have to do themselves. Not so much "Ren'Py versus <insert other engine here>" as "Ren'Py versus not bothering to make a VN because it's too much work" or "Ren'Py versus coding your own engine from scratch".