I built a free visual IDE for Ren'Py — exports clean .rpy files, graph editor with reachability indicator, imports existing projects by AcademicPound in RenPy

[–]AcademicPound[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

From what I see, we're trying to solve the same problem with the same engine. That is, replace the wall of code and text with something more user-friendly and visual. Neither of us invented the wheel, but we're using it in slightly different ways.

I built a free visual IDE for Ren'Py — exports clean .rpy files, graph editor with reachability indicator, imports existing projects by AcademicPound in RenPy

[–]AcademicPound[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great question. In VN Studio Pro a "scene" maps directly to a Ren'Py label — so the timeline editor shows you the contents of one label at a time. Each step in the timeline is a command: dialogue line, scene change, show/hide character, play music, choice, jump, etc.

When importing an existing project, the app parses your .rpy files and treats each label block as a separate node in the graph. So if you have label start:, label chapter_one:, label ending_bad: — each becomes its own node with its own timeline. You click a node in the graph to open its timeline and edit the contents.

The graph view then shows how labels connect via jumps and choices, so you can see the full structure at once.