📣5 Ren'py Tricks You Probably Didn't Know!

[@RockerStarrr]

Wow! A veteran renpy programmer teaching those new to Renpy, now that's a rare kind person! You're just so underrated Vimi!

[@vimi]

🥰

[@tainapsilva]

Ctrl+g find the number line, I really use this a lot when translating. And, I loved these tips, some I already knew, but the TODO is amazing. Thank you so much ❤

[@vimi]

OOOOOH I didn't know about that one! I might add that to the next video 😜

[@shaynsnyolo]

this guy shall be nominated for renpy hall of fame if it does ever exist

[@vimi]

I SHALL BUILD THE HALL

[@Nagytika]

Image location picker actually a very usefull thing...especially if you are building an ingame gui or buttons

[@badmustard2070]

I love atom, but since Microsoft owns both Atom (GitHub) and Visual Studio they are archiving all Atom projects and repos in December 2022

[@vimi]

I guess I better figure out how to get Visual Studio working with Ren'py, then!!! Thanks for the heads up!

[@badmustard2070]

@@vimi on windows right-click on an .rpy file, select Open With (even if the Visual Studio Code is listed there) find Visual Studio Code again, and be sure to select "Always use this app to open .rpy files" in your RenPy launcher Preferences, change the Text Editor to System Editor finished now you have to figure out how to use VSCode

[@vimi]

@@badmustard2070 haha i meant that I have a weird error popping up on my end when I've been trying to run it - I didn't do the "open with" thing first, so that might be my issue!

[@zaeriz3458]

The amount of times I cursed when you talked about the developer tools... *quietly sobs*

[@vimi]

They're definitely something that fits with certain developer's workflows better than others!

[@zaeriz3458]

@@vimi Didn't even know they existed.

[@JenEFunworks]

In only 0:40 secs in and you saved me from an world of headache with the VERY FIRST TRICK. Thank you so very much for teaching this.

[@rkgrkg]

lol, same!

[@Strangepaper]

Please make a video that will once and for all convince me to stop wasting time on Tyranobuilder and Visual Novel Maker.

[@vimi]

I actually have not messed around with either of them, so I wouldn't feel comfortable making any videos critical of them. Feel free to give Ren'py a try and see if that works for you - I have a video that has all the code you'd need to build a game in 44 lines!

[@Strangepaper]

@@vimi ok how about a video on big picture things like intelligently structuring your novel to include things like overland maps and day/night cycles?

[@vimi]

@@Strangepaper I have a day/night cycles video, if that helps :)

[@cryptogenik]

Atom is dead Visual Studio Code is King

[@aeugchad]

You should use the VSCode Ren'Py extension the guy who drew the .rpy file icon is very sexy

[@igretrovods9189]

Thanks man! I've been using Developer Menu often for sure. Would be cool to see tutorial on alpha masks. Like, how to hide parts of a sprite with alpha masks in animations :)

[@AP-xj3iz]

it's also been helpful for me to assign atom's "save all" shortcut to ctrl shift s, especially when working with multiple open files at once

[@jewelsfantasy535]

image location picker is super useful for imagemaps as far as I remember :b

[@vimi]

Which reminds me, I'll have to cover image maps at some point in the future...

[@Borhamus]

nice video but! Where a re your links of your games and your social media?

[@vimi]

I hide them so no one talks to me.

[@Borhamus]

@@vimi but your games? That would be a nice income(? I surely buy some of them n.n

[@sugarwaifu7211]

I have a question, will you record a tutorial on how to upload live2d characters to renpy? When I upload them I have an error :( and there is no decent guide anywhere ... AND I LOVE YOU

[@undefinedindustries9254]

How did you make your trailer??

[@vimi]

Screen recordings of my game, and then I assembled the trailer in adobe after effects. Now DaVinci Resolve is my video editor of choice!

[@Iceblade269]

I've coded several VNs, and never knew about the developer tools. OMG the amount of time I could've saved.... X.X

[@dripzone2960]

Could you make a tutorial on a gallery function? Like where you can view images from the game at anytime?

[@vimi]

That tutorial is on the docit!

[@obiwankenobi7456]

This just made making visual novels much more convenient, thank you forever

[@vimi]

You're welcome forever!

[@spinachartichokeditz7720]

You're a life saver with the word wrap tip!!! Ahhh thank you!! :)

[@vimi]

That one was a definite game changer!

[@jiyeonkim9130]

I always watch it well. Thank you! Can you upload the video of making inventory?

[@Borsti]

I kinda knew most of those tips. But for example the ToDo one, oh god. It will save so much time. I won't run into the problem that I forgot something ever again haha Thank you!

[@vimi]

I think that one I found in a ren'py changelog! There are so many little improvements added that get lost in the cracks!

[@Katy133]

Thank you so much for introducing me to the Variable Viewer! TuT

[@takirafds]

how do I do a report card like in Danganronpa where you can see what you know about the characters?

[@salvochiarenza3340]

Can you make a video where you explain how to create an inventory system? However I appreciate your videos too much, they helped me a lot and you explain very well. Well done

[@vimi]

I've actually been struggling with an "inventory system" video for a while, because that simple concept can mean VERY different things on the back end for different use cases! When I do tackle it, I think it'll be a way to sneakily cover defined classes!

[@salvochiarenza3340]

@@vimi Thank you for the time you dedicate to these videos of yours. You deserve more

[@a-3841]

oh you got me at 2:14 yikes

[@Coffeeology]

I got to ask, what's the model over your left shoulder?

[@vimi]

That's a tiny little Optimus Prime I got from a LootCrate!

[@Coffeeology]

@@vimi your other left ;)

[@vimi]

@@Coffeeology Jolyne Cujo from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure!

[@dripzone2960]

You are helping ne so much on my project thank you

[@vimi]

Glad I could be of service!

[@gudty._.7465]

MAAAAN I AM SO GLAD I'VE FIND UUUU

[@vimi]

AND I'LL ALWAYS BE HERE FOR YOUUUUU

[@angel5dl]

Great video! Knew some of these tips tho the TODO one is amazing! I literally just wrote some to-dos down on paper today but now I see this tip and I’m thinking “now I know what what doing tomorrow” 😂

[@vimi]

They're very useful for a lot of little tasks that need to get done!

[@FriendlyNeighborhoodCityzen]

Heyo, I came here specifically because I had a very specific question and I'm not entirely sure if this is even possible, but, long story short, I've been actively working on my VN project for about 10 months now. I haven't done an overview of the whole project so far, so I'm not entirely sure how long the VN actually is (while running on Auto). My question is: Is there any way to accurately determine or calculate how long your VN will take from beginning to the last point while on Auto? Thank you in advance. I can't think of any other solution than to manually count the hours while the game runs or make an estimation based on word count, but that's not really what I'm looking for.

[@vimi]

It would depend on the computer - auto is just running through the vn as fast as the computer can, so a high end rig is gonna have a faster auto speed than a 15 year old machine. Why do you need to know the auto speed???

[@FriendlyNeighborhoodCityzen]

@@vimi Because I want to play the game on auto and I want to know the current scope of the game because as it stands, I got no clue whether my VN is 8 hours or 10 hours or 15 hours, and I don't want it to be extremely long. I've lost track of how much content I've done because I love writing and I always want to write more. But wouldn't this case heavily depend on the auto speed you play the game at? That's why I was wondering, how can I calculate the time with the variable of adjustable auto speed. As it stands my only idea is to let the game run at night and have a ballpark estimation of how long the game is. If the game's still running by the time I wake up, then the game should be this long, but that's not functional at all.

[@greypufferfish4036]

Thank you for these amazing videos. Straight to the point and easy to understand. I shall be hoarding all this information until the end of time

[@vimi]

hoard away!

[@andersfreemann]

Your videos are great

[@vimi]

Thank youuuu!

[@samanthamontoya9670]

Hi, I don't know if you are going to read this, but thank you for your hardwork. I actually started using Ren'Py watching your tutorials, I'm writing a side story from another story that a friend created for WoD. n00b question, for some reason none of these shortcuts are working on my project, but when I make a new one with no modifications they work fine, so I don't know what's going on.

[@vimi]

Thank you for your nice comments! I am also a little confused why the shortcuts wouldn't work in your current project, but that is DEFINITELY a workaround I've had to do before!

[@samanthamontoya9670]

@@vimi Hello again. I moved all my images, audio and script to a new project and now it works!

[@DeathRayGraphics]

Fred Basset and Ren’Py… a winning combination????

[@cowocowu]

Off topic question - is there a way to make renpy open fully in the browser ? i know it has somewhat this functionality , but it requires the person to have the files already on their computer+ plus it's in Beta. i was hoping for maybe a tool or a way to make a renpy game work fully over the internet is it possible ? like Twine does for instance , this way just by sharing a link people can play the game

[@vimi]

Ren'py does have web support; you need to find somewhere to host it, and there is a loading process, but as long as you add a splashscreen and preload page, it can feel pretty seamless!

[@cowocowu]

@@vimi thankkss for the reply !

[@hanjoleh3203]

Hi! I just found channel and I’m not entirely sure if you have covered this already, but do you have any idea if it’s possible to make a (interactive) flowchart in Renpy? (First example to pop up in my mind is Raging Loop 😅). Basically one that shows the Player’s progress and branches that choices lead to, and the Player can choose to return to that specific choice/branch if they wish to?

[@vimi]

YES, that's very doable! The trouble is, a lot of broad tutorials like "RPG fight system", or "Inventory" or "interactive flowchart" are things that are heavily dependent on your needs; I can make an rpg fight tutorial, but once you say "I want to do that, plus it needs to do X", it's easier to start from scratch than to modify the code I suggested! The best advice I can offer is that you don't want to make something 1:1 with another game built in another engine; instead, create a list of needs for your module, and then design something strictly around fulfilling those needs as succinctly as you can within your skill level.

[@hanjoleh3203]

@@vimi I see. Thank you for your help! ^^

[@matt_eae]

Please! Make a video how to make battles in visual novels

[@vimi]

I could do that...

[@lgachaboyyt]

Do you recommend editra, or will vs code work?

[@vimi]

I usually use vs code; I haven't used editra enough to fairly compare and contrast the two.

[@Braincain007]

Hey, random question, do you watch Matt Colville? cause when I heard you say Doobly Doo thats who I immediately thought of

[@vimi]

I got it from Mike Rugnetta's videos for PBS Idea Channel. He described them as "doobly doos", and it just stuck that way in my head for years!

[@Braincain007]

@@vimi huh amazing coincidence!

[@SaulD-xd6mj]

I was researching from this video and discovered the linear. I saw that it takes 1.0 seconds to finish the movement, is it possible to make it faster?

[@twopercent5718]

8:46 I realised I didn’t save like ten minutes ago, why am I only getting this now😭

[@G0RG3H]

can you make a video on how to make a trailer, either in renpy or in general

[@vimi]

Sure!

[@G0RG3H]

@@vimi i really appreciate what you do man, thank you

[@ProPinkist]

Your videos are amazing; not sure if you'll see this but I have some noob renpy questions. 😓 Firstly, is it possible to have multiple different fonts for your menu text? From what I can tell, renpy only has two font categories, one for in-game dialogue text and one for all UI menu text, but I'd kinda like to be able to have say the labels in the menus be one font, and the regular sub-text in About, History, Help, Preferences, and the quick menu be a less fancy font.... And secondly, I feel so dumb but I cannot for the _life_ of me figure out how to readjust the position of the page labels in the top left corner of the in-game menu, aka the labels that say "Save" "Load" etc to show what page you're on. Any help is appreciated 😖

[@vimi]

You should be able to change the placement of the in-game menu in the screens.rpy file; you can either change the variable value that determines their positioning, or you can adjust the placement for each text button! Likewise, if you want to change the font in those textbuttons, you should be able to use any of the text tags you use in dialogue (I think {font="fontname"} would work!)

[@matt_eae]

good night, today i downloaded ren py and tried to open the script.rpy but it doesn't come in, and it says i need an application to open .rpy files can you help me?

[@vimi]

Open the files from the renpy launcher

[@naeshm9685]

When I change something in script file and click shift + r the game reload but closes within seconds, it's happening everytime

[@vimi]

That's weird?! Do any error messages pop up, or does it just close?

[@naeshm9685]

@@vimi it just closes without any errors, I need to launch it again to see the changes I made, then it works perfectly fine until I change something and click shift + r again

[@vimi]

@@naeshm9685 That's a weird one! I am not entirely sure how to solve that?! Best of luck fixing that 😰

[@Katthecateringcat]

I subscribed to you just now. You're like a Renpy God father. I hope I can make my own visual novel game. I just want to make my own game before I died. 😭 Guide me, Renpy Godfather !! 🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲

[@vimi]

Best of luck on making a game! I'm rooting for you!