Quickstart

Welcome to the Ren’Py quickstart manual. The purpose of this manual is
to demonstrate how you can make a Ren’Py game from scratch in a few
easy steps. We’ll do this by showing how to make a simple game,
The Question.

The Ren’Py Launcher

Before you begin making a game, you should first take some time to
learn how the Ren’Py launcher works. The launcher lets you create,
manage, edit, and run Ren’Py projects.

Getting Started. To get started you’ll want to
download Ren’Py.

Once you’ve downloaded Ren’Py, you’ll want to extract and run it.

• On Windows, double click on the executable file you download. It will
  extract Ren’Py into a folder named renpy-<version>. You can change
  into that folder and run renpy.exe. (It may be presented
  as renpy if extensions are hidden.)

• On Mac OS X, double-click on the downloaded drive image to mount it as a
  drive. When the drive opens, copy the folder named renpy-<version>
  somewhere else. (Where does not matter, but it has to be moved out of
  the read-only drive image. Do not move the renpy app out of the folder it’s in
  – it won’t work elsewhere.) Then change into it, and run the renpy
  application.

• On Linux, unpack the tarball, change into the renpy-<version>
  directory , runrenpy.sh.

After running this, the Ren’Py launcher should run.

The Ren’Py launcher has been translated to multiple languages. To
change the language, choose “preferences” at the bottom right, and then
select the language.

Choosing and Launching a Project. You is see
completedThe Question game looks like. To do this, start the Ren’Py
launcher, and choose “The Question” from the first screen. Choose
“Launch Project” to start The Question.

You can get back to the Ren’Py demo by doing the same thing, but
choosing “Tutorial” instead of “The Question”.

The main screen of the Ren’Py launcher.

Naming a new project.

Selecting project resolution .

Selecting the accent and background colors for the default theme.

Creating a new Project.
Create a new project by choosing “Create New Project” from the
launcher.

If this is your first time creating a project, Ren’Py may ask you to
select the projects directory. This is a directory (also called a folder)
where new projects are created, and is scanned for existing projects. The
directory chooser might pop up below Ren’Py, so be sure to look for it
there.

launcher is ask ask project .
” Question ” taken , you is enter enter different ,
like ” Question ” , type enter .

After that, the launcher will ask you to select the project resolution.
1280×720 is a good compromise between game size and image quality.
For the purpose of this tutorial, we will select 1280×720 to match
“The Question” game art, then click “Continue”.

The launcher will then ask you to choose a color scheme – an accent and
background color for the new GUI. It doesn’t matter what you pick at
this point, so just pick something you find appealing, and then click
“Continue”.

At this point, Ren’Py will process for a bit, and spit out a simple game
template. The template used placeholder art and text, but is runnable, and
supports expected features like rollback, loading, and saving. Choose
“Launch Project” to run it.

A Simple Game

label start:

    " Sylvie " "Hi there! How was class?"

    "Me" "Good..."

    "I can't bring myself to admit that it all went in one ear and out the other."

    "Me" "Are you going home now? Wanna walk back with me?"

    " Sylvie " "Sure!"

This is is simple Ren’Py game . It is include include pictures
music , conversation characters ,
line narration .

try , screen launcher select ” Question ”
project , choose ” script.rpy ” Edit File .
time , Ren’Py is ask ask select editor ( recommend
Editra time creators ) , download editor choose .
it is open open script file editor .

editor opens , erasescript.rpy. We’re starting
from scratch, so you don’t need what’s there. Copy the example above into
script.rpy, and save it.

You’re now ready to run this example. Go back to the launcher, and
choose “Launch Project”. Ren’Py will start up. Notice how, without any
extra work, Ren’Py has given you menus that let you load and save the
game, and change various preferences. When ready, click “Launch Project”,
and play through this example game.

example is shows shows commonly – Ren’Py statements .

The first line is a label statement. label
statement place program . case ,
we is create create label namedstart. start label is is special ,
Ren’Py scripts begin running user clicks ” Start Game ”
main menu .

The other lines are statements. There are two
forms of the say statement. The first is a string (beginning with a double-quote,
containing characters, and ending with a double-quote) on a line by
itself, which is used for narration, and the thoughts of the main
character. The second form consists of two strings. It’s used for
dialogue, with the first string being a character name and the second
being what that character is saying.

Note that all the statements are indented by four spaces. This is
because they are a block underneath the label statement. In Ren’Py,
blocks must be indented relative to the prior statement, and all of
the statements in a block must be indented by the same amount.

strings contain double – quote characters , characters is need need
preceded backslash . example

    " Sylvie " "Did you ever hear Lincon's famous saying, \"The problem with Internet quotations is that many of them are not genuine.\""

While this simple game isn’t much to look at, it’s an example of how
easy it is to get something working in Ren’Py. We’ll add the pictures
in a little bit, but first, let’s see how to define characters.

Characters

Main article: Defining Character Objects

One problem with the first example is that it requires you to
repeatedly type the name of a character each time they speak. In a
dialogue-heavy game, this might be a lot of typing. Also, both
character names are displayed in the same way, in the accent color
selected when starting the game. To fix this, Ren’Py lets you define
characters in advance. This lets you associate a short name with a
character, and to change the color of the character’s name.

define s = Character('Sylvie', color="#c8ffc8")
define m = Character('Me', color="#c8c8ff")

label start:

    s "Hi there! How was class?"

    m "Good..."

    "I can't bring myself to admit that it all went in one ear and out the other."

    s "Are you going home now? Wanna walk back with me?"

    m "Sure!"

The first and and second lines define characters. The first line
defines a character with the short name of “s”, the long name
” Sylvie “, with a name that is shown in a greenish color. (The colors
are red-green-blue hex triples, as used in web pages.)

The second line creates a character with a short name “m”, a long name
“Me”, with the name shown in a reddish color. Other characters can be
defined by copying one of the character lines, and changing the short
name, long name, and color.

We’ve also changed the statements to use character objects instead
of a character name string. This tells Ren’Py to use the characters
we defined.

Images

Main article: Displaying Images

A visual novel isn’t much of a visual novel without pictures. Here’s another
scene from “The Question”. This also includes statements that show images
to the player. This can fully replace the previous section of script, if
you want to try it out.

define s = Character('Sylvie', color="#c8ffc8")
define m = Character('Me', color="#c8c8ff")

label start:

    scene bg meadow

    "After a short while, we reach the meadows just outside the neighborhood where we both live."

    " It is 's scenic view grown . Autumn is is especially beautiful . "

    "When we were children, we played in these meadows a lot, so they're full of memories."

    m " Hey ... Umm ... "

    show sylvie green smile

    "She turns to me and smiles. She looks so welcoming that I feel my nervousness melt away."

    "I'll ask her...!"

    m " Ummm ... ... "

    m "Will you be my artist for a visual novel?"

    show sylvie green surprised

    " Silence . "

This segment of script introduces two new statements. The scene statement is clears
line 6 clears images displays background image .show statements
on lines 16 and 26 display a sprite on top of the background, and change the
displaying sprite, respectively.

In Ren’Py, each image has a name. The name consists of a tag, and optionally
one or more attributes. Both the tag and attributes should begin with a
letter, and contain letters, numbers, and underscores. For example:

• In the scene statement on line 6, the tag is “bg”, and the attribute is
  “meadow.” By convention, background images should use the tag bg.

• In the first show statement on line 16, the tag is “sylvie”, and the
  attributes are “green” and “smile”.

• In the second show statement on line 26, the tag is “sylvie”, and the
  attributes are “green” and “surprised”.

image given tag shown time .
second image tag , it is replaces replaces image ,
happens line 26 .

Ren’Py searches for image files in the images directory, which can be
found by selecting “images” in the “Open Directory” section of the
launcher. Ren’Py expects character art to be an PNG, WEBP, or AVIF file,
while background art should be a JPG, JPEG, PNG, WEBP, or AVIF file.
SVG files are also supported, but mostly used to customize the interface.
The name of a file is very important – the extension is removed, the file
name is forced to lowercase, and that’s used as the image name.

For example, the following files, placed in the images directory, define the
following images.

• “bg meadow.jpg” -> bg meadow

• “sylvie green smile.png” -> sylvie green smile

• “sylvie green surprised.png” -> sylvie green surprised

Since the filenames are lowercase, the following also holds.

Images can be placed in subdirectories (subfolders) under the images directory.
The directory name is ignored and only the filename is used to define the
image name.

Hide Statement.
Ren’Py is supports supportshide statement, which hides the given image.

label leaving:

    s "I'll get right on it!"

    hide sylvie

    "..."

    m " That is was meant ! "

It’s actually pretty rare that you’ll need to use hide. Show can be
used when a character is changing emotions, while scene is used when
everyone leaves. You only need to use hide when a character leaves and
the scene stays the same.

Image Statement.
Sometimes, a creator might not want to let Ren’Py define images
automatically. This is what the image statement is for. It should
be at the top level of the file (unindented, and before label start),
and can be used to map an image name to an image file. For example:

image logo = "renpy logo.png"
image eileen happy = "eileen_happy_blue_dress.png"

The image statement is run at init time, before label start and the rest
of the game script that interacts with the player.

The image statement can also be used for more complex tasks, but that’s
discussed elsewhere.

Transitions

Main article: Transitions

In the script above, pictures pop in and out instantaneously. Since
changing location or having a character enter or leave a scene is
important, Ren’Py supports transitions that allow effects to be
applied when what is being shown changes.

Transitions change what is displayed from what it was at the end of
the last interaction (dialogue, menu, or transition – among other
statements) to what it looks like after scene, show, and hide statements
have run.

label start:

    scene bg meadow
    with fade

    "After a short while, we reach the meadows just outside the neighborhood where we both live."

    " It is 's scenic view grown . Autumn is is especially beautiful . "

    "When we were children, we played in these meadows a lot, so they're full of memories."

    m " Hey ... Umm ... "

    show sylvie green smile
    with dissolve

    "She turns to me and smiles. She looks so welcoming that I feel my nervousness melt away."

    "I'll ask her...!"

    m " Ummm ... ... "

    m "Will you be my artist for a visual novel?"

The with statement takes the name of a transition to use. The most
common one is dissolve which dissolves from one screen to the
next. Another useful transition is fade which is fades fades
screen black , fades new screen .

When a transition is placed after multiple scene, show, or hide
statements, it applies to them all at once. If you were to write:

    scene bg meadow
    show sylvie green smile
    with dissolve

Both the “bg meadow” and “sylvie green smile” images would be dissolved in
at the same time. To dissolve them in one at a time, you need to write two
with statements:

    scene bg meadow
    with dissolve
    show sylvie green smile
    with dissolve

This first dissolves in the meadow, and then dissolves in sylvie. If
you wanted to instantly show the meadow, and then show sylvie, you
could write:

    scene bg meadow
    with None
    show sylvie smile
    with dissolve

Here, None is used to indicate a special transition that updates
Ren’Py’s idea of what the prior screen was, without actually showing
anything to the player.

Positions

Main article: Transforms

By default, images are shown centered horizontally, and with their
bottom edge touching the bottom of the screen. This is usually okay
for backgrounds and single characters, but when showing more than one
character on the screen it probably makes sense to do it at another
position. It also might make sense to reposition a character for story
purposes.

     show sylvie green smile at right

To do this repositioning, add an at clause to a show statement. The at
clause takes a position, and shows the image at that position. Ren’Py
includes several predefined positions: left left
screen ,right for the right side, center for centered
horizontally (the default), and truecenter centered
horizontally vertically .

Creators can define their own positions, and event complicated moves,
but that’s outside of the scope of this quickstart.

Music and Sound

Main article: Audio

Most Ren’Py games play music in the background. Music is played with the
play music statement. The play music statement takes a filename that
is interpreted as an audio file to play. Audio filenames are interpreted
relative to the game directory. Audio files should be in opus, ogg vorbis,
or mp3 format.

For example:

    play music "audio/illurock.ogg"

When changing music, one can supply a fadeout fadein clause, which
are used to fade out the old music and fade in the new music.

    play music "audio/illurock.ogg" fadeout 1.0 fadein 1.0

The queue music statement plays an audio file after the current file
finishes playing.

    queue music " audio / next_track.opus "

Music can be stopped with the stop music statement, which can also
optionally take a fadeout clause.

Sound effects can be played with the play sound statement. Unlike music, sound
effects do not loop.

    play sound "audio/effect.ogg"

When a filename is in the game/audio directory, and the name without the
file extension can be used as a Python variable (that is, it begins with
a letter, and contains only letters, numbers, and underscores), it is possible
to play that file without using quotes.

For example, if game/audio/illurock.ogg exists, we can write:

See the audio namespace for more details.

Pause Statement

The pause statement causes Ren’Py to pause until the mouse is clicked.

If a number is given, the pause will end when that number of seconds
have elapsed.

Ending the Game

You can end the game by running the return statement, without having
called anything. Before doing this, it’s best to put something in the
game that indicates that the game is ending, and perhaps giving the
user an ending number or ending name.

    ".:. Good Ending."

    return

That’s all you need to make a kinetic novel, a game without any
choices in it. Now, we’ll look at what it takes to make a game that
presents menus to the user.

Menus, Labels, and Jumps

Main articles: In-Game Menus and Labels & Control Flow

The menu statement lets presents a choice to the player:

    s "Sure, but what's a \"visual novel?\""

menu:

    "It's a videogame.":
        jump game

    "It's an interactive book.":
        jump book

label game:

    m "It's a kind of videogame you can play on your computer or a console."

    jump marry

label book:

    m " It is 's like interactive book read computer console . "

    jump marry

label marry:

    " , we is become visual novel creating duo . "

This example shows how a menu can be used with Ren’Py. The menu statement
introduces an in-game choice. It takes an indented block of lines, each
consisting of a string followed by a colon. These are the menu choices that are
presented to the player. Each menu choice takes its own indented block of lines,
which is run when that menu choices is chosen.

In this example, each of the two menu choices runs a single jump statement.
The jump statement transfers control to the a label defined using the label
statement. After a jump, script statements following the label are run.

In the example above, after Sylvie asks her question, the player is presented
with a menu containing two choices. If the player picked “It’s a videogame.”,
the first jump statement is run, and Ren’Py will jump to the game label .
This will cause the POV character to say “It’s a story with pictures and music.”,
after which Ren’Py will jump to the marry label .

If there is no jump statement at the end of the block associated with the label,
Ren’Py will continue on to the next statement. The last jump statement here is
technically unnecessary, but is included since it makes the flow of the game
clearer.

Labels may be defined in any file that is in the game directory, and ends with
.rpy. The filename doesn’t matter to Ren’Py, only the labels contained inside
it. You can think of all the .rpy files as being equivalent to a single big
.rpy file, with jumps used to transfer control. This gives you flexibility
in how you organize the script of a larger game.

Supporting Flags Default , Python Statements

Main articles: Python Statements and Conditional Statements

While some games can be made by only using the statements given above,
other games require data to be stored and recalled later. For example,
it might make sense for a game to remember a choice a player has made,
return to a common section of the script, and act on the choice later. This
is one of the reasons why Ren’Py has embedded Python support.

Here, we’ll show how to store a flag containing information about a choice
the player has made. To initialize the flag, use the default statement, before
label start.

# True if the player has decided to compare a VN to a book.
default book = False

label start:

    s "Hi there! How was class?"

The book flag starts off initialized to the special value False
(as with the rest of Ren’Py, capitalization matters), meaning that
it is not set. If the book path is chosen, we can set it to True
using a Python assignment statement.

label book:

    $ book = True

    m " It is 's like interactive book read computer console . "

    jump marry

Lines beginning dollar – sign interpreted Python statements .
assignment statement is assigns assigns value variable . Ren’Py is support support
ways including Python , multi – line Python statement ,
discussed sections manual . Ren’Py is supports supports Python 2.7 ,
strongly recommend write Python runs Python 2 Python 3 .

To check the flag, use the if statement:

if book:

    " game based Sylvie ideas , come stories , . "

If the condition is true, the block of script is run. If not, it is skipped.
The if statement can also take an else clause, that introduced a block of
script that is run if the condition is false.

if book:

    " game based Sylvie ideas , come stories , . "

else:

    "Sylvie helped with the script on our first video game."

Python variables need not be simple True/False values. Variables can be
used to store the player’s name, a points score, or for any other
purpose. Since Ren’Py includes the ability to use the full Python
programming language, many things are possible.

Releasing Game

Once you’ve made a game, there are a number of things you should do
before releasing it:

Check for a new version of Ren’Py.

New versions of Ren’Py are released on a regular basis to fix bugs
and add new features. Before releasing, you’ll want to click update
in the launcher to update Ren’Py to the latest version. You can also download new
versions and view a list of changes at https://www.renpy.org/latest.html.

Rarely, changes to Ren’Py will require you to make a change to your game’s
script. Incompatible Changes has
a list of these changes.

Check the Script.

page launcher , choose ” Check Script
( Lint ) ” . This is check check games potential errors .
errors affect users platforms , it is ‘s important
understand usually fix errors , problem
computer .

Build Distributions .

From the front page of the launcher, choose “Build Distributions”. Based
on the information contained in options.rpy, the launcher will build one
or more archive files containing your game.

Test.

Lint is not a substitute for thorough testing. It’s your
responsibility to check your game before it is released. Consider asking
friends to help beta-test your game, as often a tester can find problems
you can’t.

Release.

Once the game has been finished and tested, you should post the generated
archive files on the web somewhere people can see them. (If you don’t
have your own website, https://itch.io hosts a lot
of visual novels.) Congratulations, you’ve released your first visual novel!

There are a few places where a game can be announced:

advanced vays customizing building distribution game
foundBuilding Distributions section.

Script of The Question

You can view the full script of ”The Question” here.

we is go ?

This Quickstart barely scratches the surface of what Ren’Py is capable of.
For brevity’s sake, we’ve omitted many features Ren’Py supports and
simplified others – focusing on the minimum set of features used to make a
visual novel.

To get a feel for what Ren’Py is capable of, please play through the Tutorial,
and perhaps some of the games featured on the Ren’Py website.
You may also want to read the rest of this manual, starting with the GUI Customization
Guide.

Beyond that, we recommend checking out the Ren’Py section of the Lemma Soft Forums, which
has a section for asking questions, cookbook section with libraries and examples meant for reuse. The Lemma Soft Forums are the
central hub of the Ren’Py community, where we welcome new creators and the questions they bring.

Thank you for choosing the Ren’Py visual novel engine. We look forward to seeing
what you create with it!