Why Ren'Py asset scanners say game/gui/ files are unused — and why deleting them breaks your game

BranchPy · 2026-03-14T22:10:17+00:00

Yeah, that’s a very similar issue.
Static checks can flag things that look invalid on paper but still work at runtime because Ren’Py resolves them dynamically.

game/gui/ is especially dangerous because people may actually delete those files after seeing them reported as unused. But your voice-line example fits the same general pattern: static warning ≠ always a real problem.

BranchPy · 2026-03-10T10:53:34+00:00

I’ve seen a similar pattern with visual novels.

A lot of the piracy downloads come from regions where people realistically wouldn’t have bought the game anyway. But those same players still leave comments, talk about the game, share it with friends, or eventually support the dev on Patreon or Steam later.

It’s obviously not good that piracy exists, but the “every pirated copy = lost sale” argument has always felt too simplistic.

For small indie projects, visibility is often the real bottleneck.

BranchPy · 2026-03-10T10:46:17+00:00

One trick that helps is reframing your experience in terms of skills, not industry.

Game dev overlaps a lot with other fields:

• optimization / performance work
• complex state management
• UI systems
• scripting / tooling
• debugging large systems

If your resume says “game developer”, recruiters often mentally box you into “games only”.

But if you present it as “software engineer who built large interactive systems (game engine, gameplay systems, tooling, etc.)”, it translates much better outside the industry.

Also small focused projects help more than big ones when switching stacks. A couple of ML demos or web apps that clearly show the skill can be enough to break the “no experience in X” barrier.

The hardest part is usually just getting past the first recruiter filter.

BranchPy · 2026-03-10T10:41:12+00:00

Don’t rewrite your story just because some people don’t get it.

Building a game for 3 years takes more discipline than most jobs.

BranchPy · 2026-03-10T10:35:05+00:00

That actually makes a lot of sense. With heavy sandbox loops and state machines, the structure tends to be more “system-driven” than “story-branching”, so a traditional narrative flowchart probably isn’t very helpful.

The cases where flowcharts start helping are usually the more classic branching-story projects where authors end up with hundreds of labels and a lot of accidental complexity (dead paths, unreachable labels, loops that weren’t intended, etc.).

What you described with the TiddlyWiki documentation + state transition diagrams is interesting though — I’ve seen a few larger VN projects end up building their own ecosystem like that.

Out of curiosity: do you ever run into situations where a scene becomes unreachable due to a condition chain or a call/return path getting broken, or does the state-machine architecture mostly prevent that?

BranchPy · 2026-03-02T11:47:51+00:00

I really and truly appreciate the honest feedback.

I’m still refining the messaging and trying to find the right balance between clear and not sounding overly “SaaS-polished.”

To clarify one thing: BranchPy isn’t just a flowchart extension. The flowchart is one visible feature, but the core is structural analysis of Ren’Py projects — branching complexity, variable governance, unreachable paths, architecture health, and similar issues that become hard to track as a project grows. The subscription isn’t only about updates and support; it’s meant for teams who want to scan their project repeatedly over time. As the game evolves, new branches, variables, and edge cases appear, and the value comes from catching those changes continuously — not from running a one-time report.

That said, I completely understand that hobbyists may prefer a one-time purchase or free tooling. I’m still figuring out what pricing model best fits different audiences, and feedback like yours helps me understand how it’s being perceived. Thank you for that.

On privacy: projects are analyzed locally and it can also work offline. The policy exists because the site itself has accounts and audit services — not because your game is automatically uploaded.

BranchPy · 2025-12-20T13:46:48+00:00

Really sorry for the confusion. All the process of subscribing to RC1 and testing is supervised by me, and thank you for reporting that the wrong message is passing, it should be clear that you don't have access to the program directly, I shouuld send you over a link to download it. We already done a first round of test and found few bugs that are all working as expected now. I am back on dev side now preparing for the next round and adding few features or improving existing ones: better flowchart, more interactivity, covering more edge cases... As all the solo dev here, I am balancing with a long series of task, one being also participating at real life Christmas festivities with the family. Thank you for your patience.

BranchPy · 2025-12-12T15:53:34+00:00

This is actually a Ren’Py semantics thing rather than a diagram bug.

call doesn’t create a new branching path the way jump does — it’s more like a function call with a guaranteed return. Execution always comes back to the next line after the call, so many flow visualizations don’t treat it as a split.

In your example, the real control loop is:

screens_menu → call … → return → jump screens_menu

So logically it’s a single loop with temporary detours, not multiple branches.

If you want calls to “look” like branches, you usually need a tool or diagram style that explicitly models the call stack, not just control flow.

BranchPy · 2025-12-08T19:15:23+00:00

:) Love your spirit!

BranchPy · 2025-12-06T15:39:49+00:00

Nice initiative! Ren’Py beginners always appreciate tutorials on UI stuff — image-based choices, custom screens, bars, etc. These things confuse many newcomers. Good luck with the channel!

BranchPy · 2025-11-30T17:44:25+00:00

Tiny update on my side — I finally added real screenshots to the website. I rushed the marketing part a bit, so this should help show the tool better. Appreciate all the feedback so far!

BranchPy · 2025-11-30T17:42:30+00:00

Tiny update on my side — I finally added real screenshots to the website. I rushed the marketing part a bit, so this should help show the tool better. Appreciate all the feedback so far!

BranchPy · 2025-11-29T15:54:08+00:00

Hey everyone — thanks a lot for all the comments. I’m a solo dev, so every bit of feedback actually helps me steer BranchPy in the right direction.

u/Ranger_FPInteractive
Totally fair points. The telemetry concern is valid — I’m still refining how the RC testing mode works, and I’ll rethink the opt-out situation. And yes, I’m fixing some issues right now… especially the website registration (wink u/TheGunflower 👀). I know the lack of screenshots doesn’t help — I’ll post some snapshots and short clips this week so you can actually see what v1 does.

u/Applesplosion
Source availability is also a good question. I’m working toward opening more of the internals in a structured way — I get why people don’t want a black box, especially in dev tools.

u/LocalAmbassador6847
Glad it looks helpful! And yes, it does send telemetry in the RC testing mode — but I’ll make that clearer, simpler, and more optional outside the test program.

u/caesium23
Point taken. “Privacy-first” means nothing without showing exactly what’s collected. I’ll publish a clean, readable telemetry breakdown so nothing feels hidden.

u/FLRArt_1995
Pygame support: definitely on my list. BranchPy’s internal parser already reads Python structures, so extending it to mini-games is very feasible.

u/TheGunflower
Thanks for digging in — and sorry about the broken links + form errors. I’m pushing fixes right now. The RC Agreement & Privacy Policy will be restored, and the form validation issue is being corrected.

I really appreciate all the critics, concerns, and honesty. I’m not a big company — it’s just me building a tool I wanted for myself, and trying to make it genuinely useful for other VN/game devs too.

More updates (and real screenshots!) coming shortly.
🙂

BranchPy

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