How to Make a Visual Novel Game in 10 Minutes – Python Ren‘Py Tutorial

Have you ever wanted to create an interactive story-based game? With the power of Python and the Ren‘Py Visual Novel Engine, you can make your own professional-looking visual novel in just 10 minutes—even if you‘re new to coding! In this step-by-step tutorial, I‘ll guide you through the process from setup to publishing. Let‘s jump right in.

What is a Visual Novel?

A visual novel is a genre of video game that presents a narrative through text, images, sounds, and music. The player progresses through the story by reading dialogue and making choices at key decision points, which can lead to different branches and endings. Popular examples include the Ace Attorney series, Steins;Gate, and Doki Doki Literature Club.

Visual novels have their roots in Japan but have gained popularity worldwide. The genre blends the immersive storytelling of novels with the interactivity and visual appeal of video games.

Introducing Ren‘Py – A Python-Powered Visual Novel Engine

While you could code a visual novel from scratch, there‘s no need to reinvent the wheel. Ren‘Py is a free, cross-platform engine for creating visual novels quickly and easily. It powers thousands of games by indie developers, hobbyists, and professionals alike.

Here are a few reasons to love Ren‘Py:

• Built on Python: Ren‘Py uses a simplified scripting language that compiles to Python code under the hood. If you know basic Python syntax, you‘ll feel right at home.
• Simple but powerful: You can make a complete game without writing a single line of Python. But if you want more control, you can leverage the full capabilities of Python to add minigames, complex logic, and custom algorithms.
• Cross-platform: Ren‘Py works on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, and even the web. Write your game once and distribute it everywhere.
• Open source: Ren‘Py is free and open source software under the MIT license. You can use it for both non-commercial and commercial projects.

Now that you know the awesomeness of Ren‘Py, let‘s get it installed and make your first game!

Step 1: Download and Install Ren‘Py

Head over to the official Ren‘Py website at https://www.renpy.org/. Click the download link for your operating system (Windows, Mac, or Linux).

Once the download finishes, run the installer program. It will prompt you for a location to install Ren‘Py and give you the option to associate .rpy files with Ren‘Py. I recommend keeping the default options unless you have a specific reason to change them.

After installation, you should see the Ren‘Py launcher appear. It will present you with a list of built-in tutorial and sample projects on the left. I highly recommend playing through "The Question" to see what a basic Ren‘Py game looks like.

Step 2: Create and Launch a New Project

From the Ren‘Py launcher, click "Create New Project." Choose a name for your game (I‘ll call mine "MyNovel") and select a resolution. The default 1280 x 720 works well for most games. Click "Create" to generate the project files.

You should now see your newly created project in the launcher. Go ahead and launch it by clicking "Launch Project." Ren‘Py will open the game in a new window, and you can progress through the sample dialogue with a couple of clicks.

Congratulations, you‘ve just run your first Ren‘Py game! The sample dialogue is not very exciting though, so let‘s customize it with our own story and characters.

Step 3: Write Your Script

Back in the launcher, click "Open Directory" next to your project name. This opens the file explorer to your project‘s base directory. Locate the "game" subdirectory and open the "script.rpy" file in your favorite text editor. I recommend using an editor with syntax highlighting for Ren‘Py like Editra or jEdit.

You should see the following boilerplate code:

# Declare characters used by this game.
define e = Character("Eileen")

# The game starts here.
label start:

    # Show a background.
    scene bg room

    # This shows a character sprite. 
    show eileen happy

    # These display lines of dialogue.
    e "You‘ve created a new Ren‘Py game."
    e "Once you add a story, pictures, and music, you can release it to the world!"

    # This ends the game.
    return

Let‘s break this down line-by-line:

• define e = Character("Eileen") creates a Character object representing Eileen. This lets us display dialogue by this character using the e shorthand.
• label start: indicates the start of the game. Every Ren‘Py game must have a label named start.
• scene bg room sets the background image to "bg room.png" located in the "images" directory.
• show eileen happy displays the character sprite "eileen happy.png" on top of the background.
• e "..." displays a line of dialogue by the character Eileen. The quotes contain the dialogue text.
• return ends the game and returns to the main menu.

With this foundation, we can start customizing the script with our own story, characters, and dialogue. For my example game, I‘ll create a scene with two characters: Alice and Bob.

# Declare characters
define a = Character("Alice")
define b = Character("Bob")

# The game starts here
label start:

    # Scene 1: Alice‘s room
    scene bg aliceroom
    with fade

    show alice happy
    a "Hey Bob! Thanks for coming over."

    show bob smile at right
    with moveinright
    b "Of course! What did you want to show me?"

    a "I made a new game in Ren‘Py. Want to try it out?"

    show bob surprised
    b "Wow, your own game? That‘s impressive!"
    b "I‘d love to play it."

    hide bob
    with moveoutright

    a "Okay, follow me to the computer."

    # Scene 2: Computer screen
    scene bg computer
    with pixellate

    a "Here it is - my first visual novel!"
    b "The graphics look great. I can‘t wait to see the story."
    a "Let‘s play through it together."
    b "Sure, you can guide me through the first few choices."

    # This ends the game.
    "To be continued..."
    return

There are a few new concepts and statements here:

• Multiple characters: I define two characters, Alice and Bob, allowing either one to speak dialogue.
• Transitions: The with statement applies a transition effect between scenes and images. Common built-in transitions include fade, dissolve, and pixellate.
• Positions: By default, images are shown centered. Using at right or at left displays the image on the specified side of the screen.
• Special transition effects: In addition to the built-in transitions, you can use special effects like moveinright and moveoutright to slide characters on and off the screen.
• Ending line: The last line "To be continued..." is not spoken by any character. It will display as centered text before the game returns to the main menu.

Feel free to modify the script with your own characters, dialogue, and scenes. You can find free graphics and backgrounds to use in your game on sites like lemmasoft.renai.us and itch.io. Save them to your project‘s "game/images" directory.

After updating the script, launch your project from the Ren‘Py launcher again, and you should see your changes in action!

Step 4: Adding Menus and Choices

To make your visual novel more interactive, you can present the player with choices that affect how the story unfolds. Ren‘Py makes this easy with the menu statement.

Let‘s modify the script to let the player decide which game Alice shows to Bob:

    menu:
        a "Which of my games do you want to try first?"

        "Fantasy RPG":
            jump fantasy

        "Science Fiction Adventure":
            jump scifi

label fantasy:
    a "Okay, let me load up the fantasy RPG I‘ve been working on."
    "Alice boots up her fantasy role-playing game." 
    b "Ooh, I see dragons!"
    jump game_end

label scifi:
    a "I thought you might like the sci-fi adventure game better."
    "Alice launches an outer space exploration game."
    b "Wow, the 3D graphics are out of this world!"          
    jump game_end

label game_end:
    a "What did you think? Should I release it?"
    b "Absolutely! I can‘t wait to play the full version."
    a "Thanks for the feedback and encouragement!"

    # This ends the game.
    "The End."
    return

The menu displays the prompt and a list of choices. Each choice has an indented block that runs when the player selects it. The jump statement sends the player to a different label depending on their choice.

I also added a few new labels (fantasy, scifi, and game_end) to organize the flow of the story. This makes the script more modular and readable.

Step 5: Customize the Game Settings

In addition to the story and graphics, you can customize many other aspects of your game like text speed, fonts, resolution, and more. These settings live in separate scripts under the "game" directory.

For example, you can change the default text speed by editing options.rpy:

## Text speed
default preferences.text_cps = 50

The cps stands for "characters per second." A value of 50 means 50 characters will be revealed each second, creating a nice typewriter effect. Adjust it to your liking.

You can also enable players to skip through dialogue they‘ve already seen by adding this line:

## Allow skipping seen dialogue
define config.allow_skipping = True

To modify the look and layout of in-game menus and screens, open up screens.rpy and gui.rpy. These files control the appearance of the main menu, preference screen, dialogue box, and more. I encourage you to explore the available options and experiment with different styles.

Step 6: Package and Distribute Your Game

Once you‘re happy with your game, it‘s time to share it with the world! The Ren‘Py launcher makes it painless to build a package containing everything needed to play your game.

From the "Build Distributions" tab, you can choose from three formats:

• PC: Create a ZIP archive with Windows, Mac, and Linux executables. This is the most common distribution format.
• Android: Build an Android app package (APK) to run on smartphones and tablets.
• Web: Generate files to play your game in a web browser using HTML5 and JavaScript. Perfect for sharing a demo on sites like itch.io.

Select your desired format and click "Build." Ren‘Py will churn for a bit and spit out your packaged game in the "bin" directory of your project. Upload it to itch.io, share it with friends, and pat yourself on the back for making your first game!

Where to Go From Here

Whew, that was a whirlwind tour of visual novel development with Ren‘Py. You now have the core skills to make your own interactive stories, but there‘s so much more to discover. To level up your Ren‘Py mastery, check out these resources:

• The official Ren‘Py documentation at https://www.renpy.org/doc/html/ covers every feature in great depth.
• The Lemma Soft Forums at https://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/ are a friendly community of Ren‘Py developers. You can ask questions, get feedback, and join game jams to practice your skills.
• The book "Visual Novel Maker: Introduction to Ren‘Py" by Brent Neumann is a comprehensive guide that walks you through making a complete game from start to finish.
• My "Python Basics for Ren‘Py Developers" course on Udemy teaches you the fundamentals of Python programming in the context of Ren‘Py. Perfect for aspiring game devs!

I hope this tutorial has sparked your excitement to create visual novels. With a little practice and a lot of imagination, you can craft games that touch hearts, provoke thoughts, and entertain players around the world. So what are you waiting for? Go forth and make your dream game a reality!