💬Text Messaging in Ren'py!💬

This Ren'py tutorial teaches you how to integrate a text messaging system into your game, with Nighten's Cell Phone Script! Learn the basics of the script, as well as how to customize it, and even convert it into a fullscreen game in itself!
Nighten's "Yet Another Phone":
nighten.itch.io/yet-another-p...
NOTE: Turns out, Nighten already made a version of this that takes up the fullscreen, and has a lot more options and functionality! Check it out here:
nighten.itch.io/renpy-simple-...
00:00 I am the self-declared "Bad Boy" of VNDevs
00:45 The Script Overview!
02:29 Make it a little more complicated...
04:07 ...Is this still the same script?!

[@Nighten]

Hi Matthew! I just found your video, and I'm soo so glad my code is helpful ❤ Thank you for making this video, it really warm my heart!

[@vimi]

Thanks for making such useful code!

[@anon5725]

@@vimi could you make a cookbook Video on how to upload your game/turn it into an application without Renpy

[@wraithrose]

@Nighten I'd love to know if there's a way to make the phone slide off screen the same way it slides up -- right now it just dissolves when you're done

[@Nighten]

@@wraithrose If I remember correctly the way the nvl screen is made make it a pain to play a slide off animation when the screen is hiding (because, under the hood, it constantly hide and show the screen, so it's hard to know when you should play the animation). It's probably possible, but I went for a simple solution when making this code

[@user-ey6bs1wq6c]

You said you would deliver the revised code by last weekend. Still, you don't have any answer. You are unilaterally disconnecting without giving a reason. I gave you the money first because you said you would have to pay to deliver the code. However, requests for correction of errors found in the code are being ignored. Please respect my project. Your behavior is too violent and irresponsible.

[@Katy133]

Vimi, you have just given both the Blooming Panic AND Mystic Messenger fandoms a LOT of power, and I'm all for it! X3

[@vimi]

Those...would have been good examples for me to use in this video 😶 I really need an advisory board for these things 😳

[@itsunofficiallywierd6384]

You might have posted this like a year ago but I seriously just found blooming panic yesterday. Just finished xyx route 😍

[@mauroifran7464]

This is absolutely amazing! My Ren'py game is heavily based around a phone system for questing, navigation, inventory, etc. I was already planning in adding a chat system but later on. But this... Being able to add it really early in the development phase, but also almost effortlessly... Dude, I really love these videos of yours. Thank you so much.

[@vimi]

That's pretty serendipitous!

[@Borsti]

It is scary how close you are to my coding process. I tried something similiar for a few days now and boom this video gets uploaded and now I know how to do it properly. Thank you!

[@vimi]

Next Ren'py Tutorial: how to spy on fellow devs 😈

[@missfrubby7814]

I screamed when I saw the title and thumbnail, thank you SO so much for making this. There aren't a lot of tutorials that showing texting for Renpy, so this is amazing!!

[@vimi]

Glad to help!

[@furryfr0g]

Not only have I found pretty much all of your videos incredibly informative but I really appreciate your personality as well so thank you for making me laugh out loud on over a dozen occasions keep up the great work!

[@SaneKoi13]

Honestly, I'm just having fun learning this and you're making it easier I appreciate it Vimi

[@vimi]

Yay! I'm glad I'm making learning fun!

[@watchandlearnLboard]

commented on something else recently but I really love your videos. a text messaging tutorial has literally no value for my visual novel, but I still feel like I learned a ton and have new ideas and inspiration. looking forward to more videos in the future !!!

[@NerdyLazorz]

You're doing amazing work with these videos, i've been wanting to make a visual novel for years, and i was able to make a simple little coffee date visual novel because of you! (and some other videos, but you break things down in such a way, where i can't mess it up lol) Thank you!

[@vimi]

Thank you! I'm glad I could help!

[@jerzygameboy8041]

Man I can not say Thank you enough! Before this video I was going crazy trying to get this to work! Thank you so much for helping me!

[@lovely-ny5lx]

Hi Vimi, I just recently found your channel and I just wanted to say thank you so much for creating such amazing and easy to follow tutorials. Learning to program is so daunting for newcomers like myself but you make it so much fun and interactive! I feel so motivated every time I watch one of your videos to go out there and see what I cook up (hehe!) I was wondering if maybe for your future mini tutorial or cookbook series you'd consider things like teaching how to customize your executable renpy game's icon or maybe customizing the main menu a little more like making sprites dissolve in/ out of it or animating the buttons when they first appear. Just my wild opinions, haha, but I can't wait to see what's next for you! Much love from Brazil! 🇧🇷

[@vimi]

I'll add those topics to my list!

[@miserablepumpkin9453]

Oh hey, I've been looking at this little project and trying to figure it out for a while now, thanks for covering it!

[@vimi]

No problem!

[@rinac2850]

awhaduahw i was hoping you'd do a video like this- what a lifesaver!! Thank you for the very informative video!

[@vimi]

You're welcome!

[@DanganSS]

As usual, excellent work xD I use Ren'py for my KZbin video's and I have to admit, since discovering your channel, I'm getting lots of creative ideas ;) Many thanks

[@vimi]

Subscribed!

[@DanganSS]

@@vimi Thanks so much! I hope you like Danganronpa xD

[@ryasta01]

Currently working on my first Ren'py game, and your videos have been giving me a lot to think about. I already wanna try using this script in another project

[@vimi]

This script is so cool i wanna make a project just to use this feature :0

[@RockerStarrr]

That's so interesting! Let the Renpy community know when you finished the game!

[@ryasta01]

@@vimi I was watching the video like "Okay. This seems handy." But the moment you showed off making the entire game just the phone screen, my mind went off on ideas. I love your videos so much!

[@RockerStarrr]

FIRSTT! I always love your videos Vimi, they're so helpful and insightful. Appreciate the effort into helping Renpy developers!

[@vimi]

This is partially self motivated - when people ask me questions, I can refer them to my videos 😜

[@RockerStarrr]

@@vimi That's very inspiring!

[@cyfangz9238]

Always discovering something new here. I love it!

[@vimi]

Thank you!

[@shaynsnyolo]

Thanks for yet another renpy masterclass

[@vimi]

🧐

[@craft1y]

Honestly amazing!

[@andersfreemann]

This is so cool I'm writing a psychological fantasy thriller right now; but I wonder which type of projects I might work on in the future

[@Sammxtar]

This reminds me a lot of Mystic Messenger...And gives me a lot of ideas! Also, your videos are amazing, i made some projects for my university that worked really well! Thanks a lot!

[@obiwankenobi7456]

New video from the bad boy of visual novels letsgooo

[@vimi]

LETSGOOO

[@Dizzydizzydizzy7]

This'll be real helpful for alot of renpy devs 🤩🤩

[@vimi]

🤞🤞🤞

[@gauu2309]

Thank you, it’s really easy to understand what you said

[@RockerStarrr]

Agreed. Vimi is a wonderful teacher

[@vimi]

✌️

[@ZastieMoon]

Everything working out perfectly! Was able to adjust the size, background, add new characters & their respective icons, etc. Only thing I can't seem to add to this is changing the color of a character's name while in the phone messages. I can change their text color (VIA [what_color]), but not their name's color (tried [color="#FF80C9"]). Apart from me being incredibly picky about a small detail, EVERYTHING I was looking for in a code like this was here, and it's flabbergasting how easy it's been made to use. Thanks so much for the tutorial, and thanks to Nighten for writing all of this as well!

[@fagatron420blitz]

hii were u able to find a way to change the character names?

[@Pyonkotcchi]

​@@fagatron420blitz I THINK i figured it out if youre still wondering! Right in the section that says "if d.who != MC_Name and previous_d_who != d.who: text d.who" i changed "text d.who" to "text d.who color d.who_args["color"]" and now it's pulling the colors from the names i defined.

[@faye6461]

Hey! I love your channel, you've helped me a ton

[@faye6461]

also i was wondering how youd make contacts you can click on? like i.e, i have a choice to either talk to girl1 or boy1 , each having different dialogue?

[@vimi]

@@faye6461 You'd want to set up a separate menu that uses the same same dimensions as the phone - luckily, that vbox I showed you that changes the phone dimensions is ALSO a great baseline to throw buttons on that screen!

[@dkdkdnffjxjdj6019]

THANK U GOAT

[@yanniewong2550]

Thank you for teaching us how to make a test messaging system! This is so helpful. Could you please also teach us how to make a calendar system, that there is a year, month and day system (not real local current time) in the game, like on a certain day, you will receive a text from one of the characters?

[@vimi]

Yeah, I have a simplified version of that in my Night/Day Cycle video - in that, I only cover a few months worth, but it can easily be expanded for a full year!

[@tylerhale5837]

First I'd like to say, amazing!! This video helped me so much in learning how to use the phone system, as well as being a bsis for customizing it. Keep up the awesome work. Second, After going back and forth with this for a bit, I've finally got it working the way I want bar one feature I'd like. If anyone has thoughts on how to achieve it I'd love to hear them. Put simply, I want a character to be able to send a text, change their mind and delete said text after a couple seconds. I can't really find any info on how to do this, so I'm hoping someone here might have some idea. Thanks in advance for any help, and apologies for using a youtube comment to ask for help :p

[@vimi]

I am not sure how I'd go about that!

[@tylerhale5837]

I'm back again! It's probably pretty messy, but at least for my needs it works. Figured I'd put it here just in case people in future want to do the same kinda thing. It doesn't have a timer on the secret message, mostly because I myself just prefer to have time to read it. I hope this helps at least someone. Please let me know if you use it, just because I'd love to see what people make! Edit: After a bit more digging, I've found that I have a LOT to learn, and there is a much simpler way. You can also add {nw} into the message, to make it send immediately but I'd suggest not doing that for the secret, it makes it nigh impossible to actually read before it disappears. t1 "Oh no my big secret!" $ nvl_list.pop() t1 "And now it's gone!" default persistent.admission_y = False # tbh I'm not 100% on if this is needed but I like having my stuff documented up the top so I can keep track of it all. $ persistent.admission_y = False # this is mostly for testing purposes $ renpy.checkpoint() if persistent.admission_y == True: t1_nvl "You uh.. didn't see that, did you?" # what they will say after deleting below text else: $ persistent.admission_y = True t1_nvl "Insert secret here" # the text that will show and then be deleted $ renpy.rollback(force=True, checkpoints=1)

[@anjalikai2051]

This is perfect! Your videos have been getting me through this game jam. Do you think it would be trivial to be able to add choices for the player to choose in the cell phone? 👀

[@vimi]

I haven't tried putting NVL menues in the phone yet, but I don't see why not?!

[@megdevine5784]

i was wondering the same thing! the creator of the code also made one where the phone takes up the full screen which has a menu system built into the code if that's helpful, but i can't figure out how to make it work in my game (where the phone is only part of the screen) D:

[@vimi]

@@megdevine5784 D'oh! How did I not see this?! I'll add it to the description!

[@Mehdix69]

You got this

[@weltonn]

thank you!

[@HobokenSquatCobbler]

Thanks so much for this! I think it will add a great feel to my VN. As a way to give the player the ability to gain some fun context about the game, I'd like my text history to show past texts as well as those that were sent during the game... in other words: messages that were exchanged before the game even started I'd "seed" the history with. How would I do that?

[@polishguy3414]

Thanks, this will be usefull!

[@vimi]

👍

[@msgemini4305]

Thanks vimi

[@patriciabernal8254]

Hi, thanks for your videos!!!! Could you have several nvl with different backgrounds for each character?

[@kctoygacha5069]

THANKS

[@vimi]

You're welcome!

[@hulf2012]

Just to say Thank you

[@vimi]

You're welcome!

[@internets2009]

Hello Vimi!! Thank you so much for the tutorial, I have a question. How can I make the fullscreen texting horizontal? I tried my ideas but it looks a bit broken. The project is 1920x1080

[@harumimaru]

Hi Vimi, I love your video. I just got into Renpy and currently working on very important project. My project have a mechanism where you can see your achievement through the phone. But I found myself stuck in this situation. If you read this, can you provide me some advice?

[@igretrovods9189]

Hey, can you do “a character will remember that” pop up message and how to make more complex choice depending features? Telltale games style.)

[@vimi]

Ren'py has a native "notification" function, but I'd recommend just making a custom screen that you manually call when you make these decisions!

[@NahrAlma]

Not a fan of using the nvl system for this, but the code did help. I tried to get the message background done properly, but when using a Solid you can't have rounded corners and when using an image it never resized properly for me. The solution apparently is to use a frame within a frame. Sometimes coding makes me hate the person whose code I have to work off of. Apologies my dear RenpyTom. I still hold you in high regards ;)

[@desavinearts]

Hey ! this was a very infomrative video!! I wanted know what you would do if you wanted the text mesaging part to happen at the end of your game rather than the begining . how would you go about that?

[@vimi]

If you want to flip between regular nvl mode and the texting nvl mode, I'm pretty sure you can change the code " define nvl_mode = "phone" " to use "default" instead of define, and then whenever you want to change from one to the other, change the variable nvl_mode between "phone" and "other."

[@SacredSage88]

I tried to put this in my renpy project. Everything is works fine besides the fact if I go back into messages it runs through them all again rather than remembering where it left off at, suggestions?

[@XsivGaming]

hey buddy, could this be manipulated to play a mini game on the phone? for example a tinder style like or not! just in case your wondering i'm creating a dating sim and looking to add a smash or pass system, thank you kindly for the excellent videos

[@P-P-Panda]

Omg yessss

[@vimi]

yessss

[@max-zq7nj]

hey could you do an additional tutorial that expands on "changing" the phone? like to a more desktop-style format, ie discord, with characters still being able to talk like this.

[@vimi]

There's a team working on a psuedo-OS that does what you describe, but it's a LOT of work. Check out the video here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hH-vqpqArqd1ors Depending on what game you're making though, that might be too much! It's a lot easier to determine EXACTLY what your "desktop style format" needs, break it down into manageable chunks you know you can make, and build it from there. Usually, what you build will end up being surprisingly simple on the dev end, but if you design it well, it should look fairly robust on the player end!

[@user-se9yy3vp8u]

Hello, your video is very helpful for me to make a game. Thank you. But I have one question for you. I want to change the message text size. Where is the value to change the text size?

[@hetamazment1101]

Hey, I was wondering if there was a way for Ren'Py to create a text file on the users desktop? Its something I think would be cool to implement in a horror setting or as a fun way to break the fourth wall. Love the tutorials btw!

[@vimi]

Ren'py natively only lets you modify files within the game directory; this is how the original DDLC did most of their file manipulation! If you want to save files outside of the game directory, you can do that with python code! Here's a stack overflow thread with a solution: stackoverflow.com/questions/55926097/write-to-any-users-desktop-in-python That being said, SOME players might find it spooky, but MOST will assume the game is malware, uninstall it, warn others not to download it, and you might have your game taken down from whatever sites you have it hosted on. After all, if you're installing files on their desktop, what ELSE could you have installed on their computer?

[@hetamazment1101]

@@vimi hmmm I guess I never thought about it that way. That is very true. I'll keep that in mind. Thank you!!

[@lexlenard4663]

Hello, i'm here because I just used Renpy recently and feel i learned new thing to try from this video. The thing i wanna ask is can we made RPG game in Renpy?

[@vimi]

Yes, but with more work depending on what you need. It's easier to add Visual Novel elements to an RPG engine than it is to add RPG elements to a Visual Novel engine.

[@OrganicOrc]

Thank you so much for the helpful video. Got the phone working like a charm. Now, I'm trying to make the images that are sent through the phone be clickable. Seeing as the pictures need to be pretty minimized to fit into the phone, I'd like to be able to click on them to see a bigger version of the picture. I'm struggling with this, however, as I understand I'd have to use screens to make a functioning imagebutton. The way to implement images in the phone seems pretty set in stone, so I can't wrap my brain around how I'd solve this. Anyone got any ideas?

[@ProSoccerOnlineTV]

Hello, thank you very much for sharing this code, it is very useful to me! However I have a problem that I can't solve. When the number of 6 messages is exceeded, the oldest message is deleted, so the number of messages displayed is never greater than 6. How can I solve this problem?

[@ProSoccerOnlineTV]

Fixed! Problem was "define gui.nvl_list_length = 6" located at "gui.ryp".

[@salvochiarenza3340]

First of all, everything works correctly and I thank you very much. One question, is it possible to view chats without having to write? Let me give you an example: A chat ends and I close the phone. With a button, I would like to view that chat I wrote, but without additional dialogues, as if I just wanted to observe it. But if possible, trying to separate the chat between player with guy 1, and player with guy 2. (Obviously by clicking a different button) I know how to use buttons and screens, I just wanted to understand how to show chats

[@vimi]

Because this system uses the nvl mode as a base, I'm not sure how to do that with this code; you might be better off writing your own dialogue screen system, instead of trying to make this one fit.

[@salvochiarenza3340]

@@vimi Okay, thanks for the answer!

[@daliasb6425]

Thank you Vimi for this great video. But I have a hesitation with adding more than one chat icon. I tried adding a third icon, but the icon photo from another chat was repeated. How can I solve it?

[@vimi]

You need to make sure every character with a unique icon gets their own nvl character definition, then get a name definition, and use that name definition to set their icons in the "elif d.who==" section there. You gotta ago through absolutely everything to make sure you have all the variables set for each of your characters.

[@VanilleRayne]

I wonder if there is a way to edit this to be able to have multiple characters sending and receiving texts not just one character sending texts.

[@Idle_Michi]

OMG, I love it but I would like to know if there is a similar one or what can I configure so that instead of being vertical the phone is horizontal and bigger?

[@vimi]

You can just change the size of the phone screen - I cover most of the basics at the time stamp below, and you can even see the script for setting the phone background size where I cover "how to change the phone background". kzbin.info/www/bejne/r3-zmp6thaiZodU

[@cornboi4843]

Question! would it be possible to have the fun stay up as you are making a dialogue choice instead of it disapearing? it would be nice to be able to re read the previous texts to make your choice. thank you!

[@gejzir7804]

did you found a solution?

[@benjaminmartin8554]

I am a year late to this but I am trying to incorporate the phone into my VN but both the main character and the others are all received frames, the main character is not yellow they are all just white and on the left hand side. somewhere its not recognizing my character but ive read through the code and just dunno whats happening.

[@user-py8kj5ve4y]

Hey, I think ill be using this as a frame work but I'd like to ask how to expand into some more complex features. I wanna start with a home screen with various app icons that the character can tap which would load into either news articles he can scroll through, text messages he can read, an online store, etc. Would you recommend some type of Imagemap to implement this? I'm new to ren'py. Also keep in mind the phone won't be the whole game so it'll just be displayed on the side of the screen like in the first part of the video

[@vimi]

You can set up imagebuttons using screen language (Check out my screens video!), and you'd remove the background image and resize the window however you want to, to fit it in the area (which I covered in this video - just change the proportions and placements to fit what you need!) It can get a little overwhelming setting up a fake computer set up like that, so make sure to separate it into small, manageable chunks! Best of luck!

[@user-py8kj5ve4y]

Okay, pretty late but I've made some decent progress. There's one thing peeving me though -- how do I make it so I can advance the conversations by clicking on the phone? Right now it only continues if I click outside of the nvl phone.

[@samueldecarvalho6011]

wow! this is really awesome :D thanks! I'm just having trouble to fix the sender when the MC has a variable name - the player chooses it. Do u know how to fix that?

[@vimi]

I have some ideas, but nothing that I've tested out! I've suggested to other people that they should find another variable to associate with it other than the character name, but I'd have to revisit this at some point to figure out a specific solution!

[@LogicPhilosophy]

Here is what I did. I went into the PhoneTexting.rpy and deleted the MC_Name definition. Then, I took the variable I was using for players (based on their input). In my case, it was player_name and then replaced each MC_Name in the code with that variable: player_name. Only the replace is really necessary.

[@Nw-vs9jq]

Hey vimi I hope you're doing well, Ikk it's been a long time since this video was out but do you have any idea how can the background change throughout the game? Like idk after a certain choice the background of the phone changes? Any advice? Thank uu i advance

[@vimi]

Use a condition switch to define an image dependent on another variable, and use that image as the phone background: www.renpy.org/doc/html/displayables.html#ConditionSwitch

[@Nw-vs9jq]

@@vimi you're awesome, thank you for the reply!

[@cornboi4843]

Hi Matthew! i have a question. if i were to want to have multiple chats going on where you can type to multiple different people? like a contact list almost. would that be possible?

[@vimi]

Multiple chats simultaneously? I think that would require a separate, far more robust system; this just hijacks the nvl screen setup.

[@fumainc.4403]

Can some one help i'm pretty new to all this and the code isn't working for me.

[@haileyvanisko2959]

I see that the nvl mode scene is set up as "if nvl_mode == "phone" to use the phone and if it isnt, to use the default nvl window. How do you set that up in the actual game script? I have tried doing "nvl_phone", "nvl mode = phone", and "nvl phone".

[@vimi]

It should work like changing any other variables, like with $ nvl_mode = "phone". To change it back to regular nvl mode, you can set it to anything else, like $ nvl_mode = "classic"

[@AnnnEXE]

You can still keep the old nvl screen, too, by just changing the name of it, right?

[@G0RG3H]

how are you so close to what im doing with your tutorials -

[@vimi]

MAGIC!

[@crimsonabyss2416]

Hey, so I solved my last problem, but how do I clear the chat history so whenever someone opens the phone again, it's a clear chatroom?

[@vimi]

Sorry I saw this so late! I think "nvl clear" is what you need!

[@Osjey]

i dont understand, i watched this video several times and I can't grasp it or implement the phone into my game... :( I'll try another day

[@vimi]

Is there any specific element of it you're having trouble with?

[@cornboi4843]

Hey do you have any idea how to keep the phone up on screen as you are making a choice? Thanks!

[@mangodelmal9753]

This is probably a very dumb question (bc I'm but a clueless beginner), but could you go back and forth between fullscreen phone and standard visual novel with this?

[@vimi]

Yup! This takes advantage of Ren'py's NVL mode, and provides transitions whenever you enter and exit NVL text. If you want to move from the text system to ADV mode, you just type out regular character text instead of NVL text!

[@extremelyhappysimmer]

is there a way to make the mc name a variable from the script file?

[@Fallenay]

Currently working on a game with a ratio of 1280, 720. The phone appears to not fit on the screen and I was wondering if there's a way to shrink it without editing the images themselves

[@vimi]

It's a LOT easier to just edit the image themselves - adjusting image scale directly using screen language is a bit difficult. The best way to do it in code is to rescale the images with a custom image definition, where you can rescale them, and then use those image definitions in your screen language.

[@Fallenay]

@@vimi thank you!

[@fagatron420blitz]

hi vimi~ I have a question how do u set the characters' name to a different color? I tried using the what_color demand but it ended up changing the text color INSIDE their textbox 😩💔 thank u!

[@vimi]

It should just be: define character_name = character ("Name", color="#ffffff") < that little color line is the important bit.

[@tails_the_god]

monika texts... Just Monika

[@rouelcraigmendoza8905]

Hi could you make a tutorial on how to build Ren'py games for Android devices. Thanks

[@vimi]

I'll probably get to it at some point! For now, in your ren'py launcher under "Build Distributions", you'll find "ANdroid". Click on that, and it will give you access to some debugging tools where you can test your game in an android environment, and lets you export your APK!

[@myushankaiswarm]

I wanna do something similar to this, but I just can't find out how to make it so that if you type a specific thing, it'll lead to a different route. Any suggestions?

[@vimi]

There are a LOT of different ways to do that, depending on exactly what your needs are, so I have a hard time answering that question - sorry! Best I can say is to try to plan out some feasible architecture early on, and try to stick to your technical constraints!

[@Godzillah]

Your video just give me an idea I am gonna copy all the game files into the new Renpy games maker it’s not an edit game anymore it will be a new game.

[@BretRichter-th7xc]

Hi, I first want to say thanks for such informative videos. I learn so much from every one of them. I am still learning my way through everything. I know this is an older video but I'm still holding out hope. I am trying to use this phone in my game. I have everything working flawlessly except for one thing. The different images for the different speakers. I can change the icon for the send and receiver no problem. They show up as they should. My problem is when I try to add more characters with their own images with the elif statement. It still shows the default icon. I am sure it's something so simple that I am missing, but I have been going back and forth for hours and can't figure it out. Like I said, I know this is an old video but I do hope someone can enlighten me. I'm at my wits end. Thanks in advance and thanks again for the helpful videos.

[@vimi]

Did you define the character name first? Because I have 3 characters in my sample game, and it depends on just a couple of things being set: First, defining the name for the character: define vimi = "Vimi" Then, displaying the icon: #If this is the first message of the character, show an icon if previous_d_who != d.who: if d.who == MC_Name: $ message_icon = "phone_send_icon.png" elif d.who == vimi: $ message_icon = "phone_vimi_icon.png" else: $ message_icon = "phone_received_icon.png" Those are the only two big tweaks I made to include more characters!

[@BretRichter-th7xc]

@@vimi Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. I definitely did. I have the character defined in the script.rpy and the phonetexting.rpy. I have tried only one or the other as well. I know the image works, I tied it to the Mc and it displays fine. The text all displays correctly with the correct names. I even got the user defined Mc name displayed correctly, it's just the image for added characters that does not work, goes back to default. I know it is something simple just can't figure it out. Thanks again for taking the time, I know you have got to be busy.

[@angshappy3424]

could you make a similar tutorial with a discord type of layout? (discord is a messenger app) I understand, I'm just very confused on how to change the layout.

[@vimi]

That's a very complicated request! I probably won't tackle anything like that anytime soon, but if I were you, try to break down your project into manageable chunks, and built it segment by segment! For a mock discord, the text messaging app, with some modification, could work as the text window, but you'll have to build a system for adding time stamps, decide how complicated you want to get with channels and tabs, as well as any DMs! Personally, I like to try to fake a lot of that functionality whenever possible, but it's still quite an undertaking!

[@angshappy3424]

@@vimi ah, sorry. to be more specific, what confuses me is how to get the messages to smoothly appear and move the previous ones up every time the player clicks on the mouse.

[@vimi]

@@angshappy3424 I'm not sure! I'll look into that!

[@Tarcriu]

Hey, Vimi, I'm a total newbie, my game has 3 MC options to chose, do you have any tips on how to make each of their phones different?

[@vimi]

You can change the phone background dependent on a variable set when the the user decides between the 3 MCs. Something like: image whatever_the_phone_image_is: if MC == 1: "mc1_phonebg.png" elif MC == 2: "mc2_phonebg.png" else: "mc3_phonebg.png"

[@Tarcriu]

@@vimi thank you, I'll try Pretty sure it will work if I have a different model for each phone

[@jiyeonkim9130]

thank you! I want to put in the options to answer in message, what should I do?

[@vimi]

This uses nvl mode, so you can still use choice menus in here, but if you want to make the choices something external to the phone, you might want to make a separate screen>

[@jiyeonkim9130]

@@vimi Thank you. Which rpy file code should I modify?

[@vimi]

​@@jiyeonkim9130 If you're just using the menu options, that's the .rpy file. If you're thinking about making a custom choice screen, check out my screens tutorial!

[@BlueBizen]

Hi, thank you for the video. I'm a little confused why I have to define the characters twice in both the script and the phonetexting.rpy. Am I missing something here? Also I tried replacing the icon/frame files but it's all showing up as the main character icon. Could you please elaborate on how to link what we do in phonetexting.rpy and script characters? Mine doesn't seem to be working at all as intended haha

[@vimi]

The name in the phonetexting.rpy definition - for example, the name "Nighten" in the line: > define MC_Name = "Nighten" has to match the name of a defined NVL character: > define n_nvl = Character("Nighten", kind=nvl, image="nighten", callback=Phone_SendSound) If I change the name "Nighten" in either of those definitions, the connection will break.

[@BlueBizen]

@@vimi thank you for the reply, I thought that's the obvious answer but had a typo breaking it. Is it possible to then do dilemma branching/choices through this phone system then too?

[@vimi]

​@@BlueBizen Yes!

[@genshinfiok]

Hi! How can I change the style of the names? I find only the hex code of messages.

[@vimi]

You should be able to change the character's nvl style the same way you would any other character!

[@spicypeachdev]

Hey there! Have you ever considered making a video going over how to add a secondary dialogue box? Like one for normal character speech and another for the narrator I've seen a few RenPy games do that (Cafe in the Clouds, for example), but there don't seem to be very many tutorials going over it

[@vimi]

I have one planned, but it's going to be released in conjunction with a bigger video I have in the works 🙂

[@spicypeachdev]

@@vimi ok awesome! I'll be waiting patiently for when that video drops then ^^

[@speed025]

Hello I tried using it in my game but whenever a character other than MC starts speaking "type error must be real number not ALT trasnform" occurs even when I copy paste the entire code for original source can someone please help

[@vimi]

Anywhere there is an error, it will generally tell you what line the error is occurring at. Take a look at that line, and see how it differs from the example code the project comes with; either you wrote it in a slightly different way, or something else that isn't running properly.

[@bluewolfangel28]

Just a question, so I did it where the player can insert their own name in the game with renpy.input and labeled it as [player_name]. But when I put in MC_Name “[player_name]” it doesn’t show the phone send icon like it’s supposed to. Just the received icon as if it’s another character and not the main character. (Unless of course the player decides to literally put [player_name] as their character name in the game) Anyway to fix this?

[@vimi]

Ok, this is the second time I've heard of this happening! I would use a different variable to set who is speaking.

[@bluewolfangel28]

@@vimi Alright! I think I got it thank you! :3

[@rando99]

@@bluewolfangel28 Did you have any luck? I have the same problem :(

[@bluewolfangel28]

@@rando99 I decided to use a different variable since technically for the player they don’t need to see their own name 👍

[@rando99]

@@bluewolfangel28 Oh shit you're right, thanks so much!

[@yanniewong2550]

I don't understand why...but when I try to add the phone system to my own game, the mc dialogue shows in the same way as eileen: white circle on the left and white bubble background. I let the player to input their first name and last name and combine them to be the full name. Below is how I define main character name: in script.rpy: define n = Character("[full_name]") define n_nvl = Character("[full_name]", kind=nvl, callback=Phone_SendSound) $ full_name = last_name + first_name in phonetexting.rpy define MC_Name = "[full_name]" Is there a way to solve the problem? And I would also like to know, is there a way to clear the phone dialogue everytime that event has ended? I want to call the phone screen up in a certain event showing dialogue with character A. And then in another event, call the phone screen to show dialogue with another character B. It is strange to have the previous dialogue shown when talking to new character....

[@vimi]

Another user had that problem with custom names, and I'm honestly not sure what the solution is other than to try to link the phonetexting variable to something other than the name. Clearing the dialogue text is easy, though! It's just NVL mode as a base, so you can just add "nvl clear" to clear that text~

[@bonemarrowbaby3775]

I downloaded the phone thing and literally as soon as i ran my game, the whole setup, the images, the positions, everything was completely changed and i have no idea how to fix it 😭

[@vimi]

When you say "you downloaded the phone thing", what exactly did you import into your game?

[@TrueMonkeyNinja]

Is there a way to have the player read the text and then the player character comment on what they’ve just read (like a thought instead of a reply) before moving to another text?

[@vimi]

Yup! You'd just switch to a regular non-nvl character narration format, and it should automatically make the cell phone do the disappear animation, and cut to a regular view! If you want something more complicated, it might be worth making a custom screen for a thought balloon system!

[@TrueMonkeyNinja]

@@vimi Thank you so much! I’ll give both a try! 🙏 The characters receive messages in an orb in the game I’m working on and I kind of just started to side-eye and ignore the coding for those sections with a “come back later” 😂 so this video came at just the right time. And I really like the thought bubble system idea, I’ll play around with the code soon! Thanks again!

[@aeroblast11]

Hello! If you have time can I please get some help? How do I get the nvl navigator to start a new conversation? It works but I want a new window for a new character

[@vimi]

nvl clear

[@SaulD-xd6mj]

Hello, I wanted to know how to make a textbuttom be tocable after passing x moment of the vn

[@vimi]

www.renpy.org/doc/html/screen_actions.html#SensitiveIf I imagine this is the functionality you're going to want!

[@SaulD-xd6mj]

@@vimi yess, thank you very much

[@cappyadams]

Hey! sooooo the phone is too big. how do i change the size of it? the size of my game is 1280, 720

[@vimi]

I'd recommend changing the dimensions of the phone images directly in an image editor, and then change all the positional data, like I showed in the last section of the video.

[@cappyadams]

@@vimi Alrighty. Thanks for the help! :)

[@gabroks3808]

Is there a way to make a sender icon for multiple characters ?

[@vimi]

I imagine there is, but I haven't messed with that at all. If I were you, I'd start with trying to replicate the structure for multiple receivers, and use that in the sender format.

[@gabroks3808]

Hi again, I would like to correct my question, I was wondering I’d there was a way to make multiple main characters all with their perspective use this phone trick

[@DrGonzo62]

Too bad the source code has no comments at all. Makes it kinda difficult to modify and "to grow" from there...

[@DrGonzo62]

Where do I have to modify the code to fit the dialogue into a smaller frame? I can't get the text boxes and the dialogue to line up when I try to move and scale them around to fit.

[@gunslinger9786]

2:10 you never specified where this is? what folder do I have to open to even get to this so I can copy and paste it

[@vimi]

This is in the script.rpy file in that project - this is the one with "label start" in it!

[@gunslinger9786]

@@vimi I see it, thank you

[@sophomoricentertainment4827]

What if I wanted to have a character two phones systems active at the time? Like they have a secret life.

[@mehnajiktafena]

You and I are in the same boat mate ... there's so little info about phone texting games which is really shocking when you're just starting out ...

[@mehnajiktafena]

I will let you know if I learn to implement it properly

[@vimi]

This system just hijacks the NVL text display system; if you want multiple ongoing conversation threads, you'd have to construct a separate system entirely that fits your narrative's needs.

[@mehnajiktafena]

@@vimi It's awesome to see you're still replying to a year old video. I just wanted to say thank you and your videos have been really helpful😁

[@Yoo_Yoo_13]

Why MC_Name didn't show there....? & i want to display the main character name , what should i do ....?

[@vimi]

Just to be clear, you want it to display the main character name AND the icon? If so, I think you can use the what_prefix parameter as seen in the link below, but I haven't tested it - hopefully it should work: www.renpy.org/doc/html/nvl_mode.html#customizing-characters

[@Yoo_Yoo_13]

@@vimi okiee can you please make a video for that cuz it would be helpfull :')

[@zeviolett]

i swear i followed it exactly but why are all the messages showing up as received 😭

[@vimi]

I'm not sure! I'd have to see your code!

[@k31un]

hello just wondering if you have found the solution as im having a similar problem right now

[@zeviolett]

@@k31un gosh i’m sorry this was so long ago i have no idea. but it definitely is fixable . and i suck at coding so i don’t think it was that hard

[@furryfr0g]

Can I still use NVL mode or does this override it?

[@vimi]

Unfortunately, it overrides it.

[@furryfr0g]

@@vimi thx for quick reply. saved me time trying it out only to end up disappointed. My current project uses a fair amount of NVL but I'd like to incorporate the phone also!

[@salvatoreharan]

This was not nearly in depth enough ... or I just suck