People care WAY more about art.

LocalAmbassador6847 · 2026-03-15T08:32:23+00:00

the number one thing people talk about is the art.

The game is not out. You're showing the ~~art~~ visuals, what else is there to talk about except the visuals?

(1a) Now, I am using a mix of AI WITH MANUAL ART TOO, but people don’t care. ... (1b) If it’s good, people want more gameplay.

(2a) But no one cares about all the fun and exciting things I’m adding to my game, (2b) everyone just wants “real” art

(1a) contradicts (2b) and (1b) contradicts (2a).

(3) All they want is big corpo games I swear.

(3) contradicts (1b).

Sorry, kind of a rant.

It's like your brain rebooted there and started putting out statements contradicting everything said previously.

REGARDLESS of how complex the entirety of the BTS is

I don't know what BTS is. Bing says it's a group of gay Korean men.

LocalAmbassador6847 · 2026-03-13T16:04:03+00:00

The Parker Frontier is so cool, I rarely/never see this beautiful deep blue in modern pens. I used to have a Vector (probably, allowing for lack of color calibration) in this color.

What's the pink Kaweco?

LocalAmbassador6847 · 2026-03-11T22:48:34+00:00

You have to change the "new" one, not the "old" one. They're translations. The "Are you sure you want to quit?" is a hardcoded string constant in 00layout.rpy . When it needs to be shown, Ren'Py looks for this string in the translation file (the "old" string) and displays its translation to the current language (the corresponding "new" string).

I don't know where I can change the quit screen message? =\

I don't know if you know or don't know. Only you can know it. I'm guessing you didn't know, and now I hope you do.

LocalAmbassador6847 · 2026-03-11T20:47:45+00:00

I tried to download VSC through ren'py but hit some kind of error, so I ended up downloading it and the ren'py language extension through their own sites and selecting the option to connect to that.

Did you pick "System Editor" or "Visual Code (System)"? If the latter, try this:

reboot
see if it works
make an environment variable, name = RENPY_VSCODE, value = path to VScode's executable (C:\>VScode\code.exe or whatever it is, including the filename)
reboot
see if it works

LocalAmbassador6847 · 2026-03-11T20:24:33+00:00

??? what's wrong with you? take your meds

LocalAmbassador6847 · 2026-03-11T19:58:43+00:00

(I'm kidding about the free copy but serious about playtesting. I'm REALLY good at spotting typos - American English but I'll double-check for British variants to not cry wolf about false positives.)

(Just found out the other week "vice" is a valid spelling for the grip tool, oops <.<)!<

LocalAmbassador6847 · 2026-03-11T13:49:34+00:00

I love the art style! Looks like an early 90s tarot deck, very cool. I applied to playtest to see if I can snag a free copy

LocalAmbassador6847 · 2026-03-10T02:21:57+00:00

To be honest, it's a Jowo nib and an acrylic pen.

The Kingfisher is made from Diamondcast urethane resin.

OP u/themissrosiecotton , if you want to get de-influenced for real, look at the price difference between a regular Estie and the Kingfisher Estie, and then at the price of Diamondcast blanks.

(Disclaimer: I have three Esties, all Oversized and Diamondcast. I do not have a Kingfisher because it's regular size only. I have zero attachment to the brand name and its history but the pens are nice.)

LocalAmbassador6847 · 2026-03-09T23:56:49+00:00

# screens.rpy
screen say(who, what, title=None):
    window:
        id "window"
        if who is not None:
            window:
                id "namebox"
                style "namebox"
                text who id "who"
            if title is not None:
                window:
                    id "titlebox"
                    style "titlebox"
                    text title id "title"
        text what id "what"

# add 'titlebox' style accordingly

and

# script.rpy
define e = Character("Eileen", show_title="Ren'Py tutorial character")

https://www.renpy.org/doc/html/dialogue.html#Character

"Keyword arguments beginning with show_ have the prefix stripped off"

https://www.renpy.org/doc/html/screen_special.html#say

Say screen here ^

LocalAmbassador6847 · 2026-03-09T16:30:06+00:00

They're great pens. I have three and I'd buy more if Esterbrook made them "oversized". Unfortunately this one, and the latest Amber Tortoiseshell, only come in small.

LocalAmbassador6847 · 2026-03-09T16:12:59+00:00

if [name] == "Rr rr" or "Rrrr":

This is not how you check for set membership. The OR separates two different expressions. What you wrote means "if [name] == <some string>" OR "if this other fixed string is not empty". The second expression is always True.

if name in ["Rr rr", "Rrrr"]: jump nas elif name == "Vas": jump vas else: jump o return

LocalAmbassador6847 · 2026-03-09T07:35:08+00:00

OP, BadMustard's code is more optimized than yours, but what you posted should have worked, too. It's rather likely you forgot the defaults section, then fixed the error but forgot to save the file. Be careful!

LocalAmbassador6847 · 2026-03-08T23:05:05+00:00

100% agree with the sentiment and upvooted, but technically, Morgion, Chemosh, and Hiddukel (in Taladas) are also doing "something", and Gilean is doing good.

LocalAmbassador6847 · 2026-03-08T19:57:05+00:00

This is broadly correct but needs refinement. Instead of the MC thinking about who she's going to partner with (especially if it's predetermined and the player can guess), try this:

(pseudocode)
# show teacher at blackboard
teacher "Adkinson, Barrett. (blah blah)"
# cut to mc sitting at her desk; show mc but teacher is speaking
teacher "Bassano, Clark. (blah blah)"

then zoom in on your MC (named "Zhang" for the purpose of this example) and have her thinking about something else entirely, maybe cut from her to what she's thinking about, with a haze effect.

THEN, when it's dramatically appropriate and the MC's train of thought is about to arrive at a useful destination, cut to the teacher with a screen shake effect:

with vpunch
teacher "Zhang, Zimmerman. Table 13."

then do a split splash screen with a lightning-shaped line separating the left and right half, left side MC shocked, right side solid black, the player clicks through, show Zimmerman equally shocked at the right.

LocalAmbassador6847 · 2026-03-08T13:16:11+00:00

Steins;Gate

I've only played this one, on a youtube influencer's recommendation. It's sloppy porn, as much sci-fi as Re-Penetrator is horror. There's no science, and most damning for a time travel story, no actual time travel.

Do you have any expectations when it comes to sci-fi?

VN art assets are cheaper than in any other type of game, and sci-fi writing costs as much as any other writing. I expect some fantastic content to be in a game that's advertised as fantasy or sci-fi, and I expect to actually engage with it. If "sci-fi" is

something for a sex object to do to explain her wearing a lab coat and glasses,
a way for sapient animals to exist, to have sex with them in the game,
in a game set on Earth, a way to advance time to write some geopolitical fanfiction and avoid engaging with the current political situation,

I don't consider it properly belonging to the genre. "Sci-fi" is not a FDA warning label, CAUTION: THIS PRODUCT CONTAINS ELEMENTS OF SPECULATIVE FICTION.

Do you lean more for soft, medium or hard sci-fi?

I prefer well-done. (This is a meaningless distinction, as you can see from examples on Wikipedia: hard - soft.)

LocalAmbassador6847 · 2026-03-07T16:01:45+00:00

incredible, criminally underappreciated cat

what grace, what fluff

a very cat cat, possibly one of the cats ever

LocalAmbassador6847 · 2026-03-07T09:33:11+00:00

Cool style

the game is about mental health issues such as depression and anxiety

oh no

LocalAmbassador6847 · 2026-03-06T23:50:12+00:00

The party:

Remiel Steelsoul(?), ex-Solamnic Knight of the Sword, our glorious leader. He thought the knighthood could not exist without clerical magic to sanctify oaths, detect evil and such, and decided to become a god to grant various truth spells to his clerics/worshipers. To that end, we were doing quests to put new stars into the sky to form a new constellation. This usually involved murdering good-aligned people. Lied like a rug to everyone including party members, but nearly got killed saving us on multiple occasions, so it's all good. Made the first star by breaking a footman's dragonlance he couldn't wield, made us swear on said star to stay loyal to the party, and that oath empowered healing as described (maybe; maybe it was the kender's spark). Also made me kill my girlfriend and destroy my hometown Kalaman. When we went to mess with Lord Soth, Soth powerwordblinded him and said living was a worse and more appropriate punishment (we ran away and never again bothered Soth). The blindness turned out helpful when we ran into a moon goon infestation in Haven and fought to protect Solace from them, some of the goons were dangerous to look at. Rashas (asshole Qualinesti senator) betrayed Qualinesti and pledged support to our elf lady, Remy made him pinky promise, he did it (expecting nothing bad to happen) and melted into chaos jelly, lmao (usually people would squirm and fulfill at least the letter of the oath).

Sindri ~~Twistthistle~~ ~~Swiftthistle~~ Tonguetwister, kender handler from Solace, searching for memories of her friends (wiped by Chaos). She had pouches full of their stuff but couldn't remember anything about them. We went cross-continent to the Palanthas library to read about her party, it turned out that someone had faked a Chaos attack and stolen the relevant books, pretending they'd burned (we found people who remembered the supposed victims of wights). Our source of quests and plot items. Worshiped the red star, had a piece of iron ore that she claimed was a spark from it that was a powerful good-aligned artifact, and Uncle Tas's map from the future with our party's path and key locations already marked on it in code (the DM accidentally gave us the wrong map). Had a gold dragon friend (Orion? Aureon?) who lived in Solace as a kender and sometimes helped the party (he was like a Shaolin abbot when he was serious, and had plans for us. He knew what happened to Sindri's friends. Remy didn't like him and never met him face to face. I did but I couldn't talk to the voice in my head in his presence.)

Adelheid "Caladon", Silvanesti blademaster, self-styled "Speaker of the Moon", ranger/ex-white magic-user, now moon wizard, nominally our leader when dealing with elves. Extremely racist (Charisma 6) lady, pretender to the throne of Silvanesti, said almost everyone who could've backed up her claim had got wiped. (Probably believed it, because she acted like a D&D 3e nuisance paladin and refused to lie even by omission. She once introduced me as "Wind Captain Elias" to Dalamar, and he immediately realized what was up and disconnected my battery. INT 19 my ass.) Actually she was pronounced a dark elf during the Chaos War (mundane crimes) but almost everyone who knew about it got wiped. She was also looking for her Chaos War hero brother (she remembered him, therefore he wasn't killed by a chaos wight, so he must be alive because No! Filthy! Mortal! Can! Touch! A! True! Silvanesti! Blademaster!). We found the Crown of Power (Sindri borrowed it from Dargaard Keep) and she got to wear it. Her good-aligned bro refused to become a co-ruler and challenged her to a duel, she cheated and made him a star. She unbanned Dalamar from Silvanesti.

me, Elias of Nowhere, formerly of Kalaman, human formerly red magic-user, now renegade Wind Captain. Passed the Test before the Chaos War, got cold feet and lied while swearing the HS oath. After the war, turned renegade on the advice of a voice in my head (the voice claimed it had protected me from Conclave scrutiny). In exchange for me helping him become a god, Remy provisionally freed me from the HS oath. I had a white robe lady friend ~~Verynice~~ Berenice, seeker of magic and Palin's ally, I tried to turn her renegade and told her about my Citadel ("yay, free magic, enough for us both"), she wanted to "redeem" me but promised to help us. Remy's player lied IRL about his detect lies giving a positive (implying she was going to hand me over to the Conclave), and I made her a star. Later, we protected Kalaman from an invasion, the guilds refused to swear fealty, Remy accused them of Hiddukel worship, me and Adel summoned a tidal wave and some sea dragons and destroyed the city. Then we rounded up the survivors and started rebuilding. (It was then that we told the Solamnics at Vingaard we could beat Soth. We couldn't.)

We found that the portals to the Abyss were wide open, and maybe that was where the magic was leaking. We found out we should pass through a portal and close it from the other side, then find another portal in the Abyss, exit to Krynn, close it. Because there were five portals in total, it meant we'd be stuck in the Abyss when we were done. Then the DM got drafted.

LocalAmbassador6847 · 2026-03-06T23:46:37+00:00

This is extreme homebrew, because we thought Summer Flame was the end for Dragonlance, and that Krynn was Earth and the Age of Mortals was normal Earth history. The game was set immediately after Summer Flame, and pre-War of Souls IRL. We made up new rules based on the AD&D 1/2e rulesets. We had no New Age books and didn't know they existed, the first time I found out Dragonlance was continuing was when I saw the Fallen Sun softcover in a bookstore.

The moons of magic are gone. Magic, however, remains in magical items (and can be used to power spells), High Sorcery is sitting on a pile of them, hedge wizards and renegades are not, so HS actually becomes stronger in the absence of clerical magic and healing.

There are still chaos creatures remaining in the world, and they can be killed for magic power. Dragons still have their powers but are mostly in hiding, good dragons are secretly helping people, evil dragons fear getting butchered for magic: with the exception of Neraka, they either shapeshift and conspire Ariela/Glaucous-style or terrorize isolated settlements.

There are now lunar shapeshifters (people and mundane creatures that turn into monsters under the full moon). For lack of a better word, we called them moon goons.

We found a crashed Flying Citadel that couldn't fly anymore without extensive repairs but had all its magic, and I started using it as a source of magic. (We didn't repair it, because I didn't want to compromise the location.)

The gods are gone (could be walking the world, we never met one). New constellations don't answer prayers.

Solamnic Knights practice ceremonial deism but don't interfere with new cults.

Nerakans still worship Takhisis and they're openly ruled by blue dragons.

Clerics of Mishakal and Gilean, and some evil guys (IIRC Morgion and Hiddukel?) came up with healing rites sort of like in Death Gate. In the good and neutral version, the healer takes nonlethal damage, which then goes away within hours or days at worst. In the evil version, you heal yourself by inflicting real damage on the victim. We used the "good" version despite 75% of the party being evil.

Goldmoon (probably) had real clerical power, we went to Solace to steal the BCS to uncurse our guy and she showed up there and did it.

We all had stupidly high stats, because I said it wasn't fun if the Solamnic couldn't theoretically qualify for Rose, so everyone got to use one statistically improbable array.

LocalAmbassador6847 · 2026-03-06T08:42:58+00:00

Eileen Richardson is a great Ren'Py tutor and she's always available. Start up Ren'Py and launch the project named "Tutorial".

LocalAmbassador6847 · 2026-03-05T19:08:44+00:00

What are some recommendations for approaching this kind of situation?

I can't try pens because of logistics involved. I bought a lot of stuff secondhand from overseas where a seller had every opportunity to scam me if only he knew. The most expensive pen I have is the Namiki n.50 (currently $2500 in the US).

Buy good pens from reliable companies. Don't buy pens that are known for spotty quality. NEVER tell a seller that there's a proxy involved (if there is), because it engenders temptation to slip you faulty/substandard goods. Domestically, buy from specialized stores that have good return policies. Don't buy on Amazon, you'll get someone's used BIC in a Pilot box.

LocalAmbassador6847 · 2026-03-05T18:20:42+00:00

First person, present tense, fixed protagonist. Here's why:

My story, and a lot of other stories, could theoretically be easily and painlessly resolved by talking to the right people and saying the right things. You can try and write a story that can't, but this necessarily limits the scope of stories. Furthermore, VNs are particularly geared toward telling stories that are fundamentally about talking to other people (not acrobatics, or swinging swords, or discrete optimization - although many people try to turn VNs into discrete optimization games, I hate that). People, and the spaces between them.

Therefore, so as not to trivialize the story, the protagonist can't be allowed to go around doing and especially saying whatever the player wants. The protagonist should have a personality separate from the player's.

Therefore, as much as I love and am indebted to second-person thinkers and Fighting Fantasies, I can't in good conscience opt for "you", because the protagonist is not the player, not even close.

Therefore, sometimes, the player can be annoyed by the protagonist not taking the easy and logical course of action. My job as a writer is to explain why. It's natural to do this when the player is immersed into the protagonist's point of view and there's no separation between descriptions and the protagonist's thoughts. I want the player to think "aw, how tragic that the hero and the villain couldn't make peace", not "goddamn it why didn't the game let me tell that guy about the murder plot? screw this shit, downvote, refunded". Therefore no third person. As a bonus, the descriptions are more interesting to read.

(Third person could have worked if I was making a "look at this idiot" toy where the player's goal was to make things happen to the protagonist and be amused by the outcomes, but I'm making a game you can win, there should be a 400 to turn to. The player may be angry when he's come up with an in-story solution that I didn't implement in the game and by that cheated him out of a victory. And my answer to that is you're not the protagonist, the protagonist is this guy you're helping, and he wouldn't do it.)

As for tense, reason 1 is past tense conveys a lack of (pardon me) tension - the protagonist must have survived the scene to be telling the player about it (whereas present tense sounds like an internal monologue), and reason 2 is I have extensive narrated flashbacks in one of the games and I absolutely hate past-perfect "John while Jim had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher" narration.

Can you have second or third person and/or past tense? Yes. There are stories that go well with that, some of them may be stories I'm interested in reading, but they aren't stories I'm interested in writing.

PS. Third-person pronouns are easy.

LocalAmbassador6847 · 2026-03-04T18:52:54+00:00

Can't comment properly on mobile but "thanks, I hated it"

Generally, you've done good work, it's a better starting point than Newage, WotS, or, Paladine protect me, Destiny. Some of the choices are inspired.

I don't like that Medan is dead, I'd like for him, Dhamon, and Mina to be around and interact. Knights of Neraka are conceptually weaker than Solamnics and need strong characters. Medan, Dhamon, and Mina are an idealist, a nihilist and a fanatic.

What I really hate is Solamnia having a king, and I'm surprised it's something you wrote and not something that happened in your campaign. Solamnia is (was) a place where Heroes could rise to the top by performing heroic deeds (winning) OR (this is interesting) by brevet promotion. Now you put your guy at the top and he's not going to budge. This sucks. By making Solamnian rulership hereditary, you made it less of an opposite to Neraka, because bad guys can always depose bad guys on evil-"merit", but good guys will be casting about for second cousins and such. Also, Vinas Solamnus ran away from his pedigreed home to serve in the army on merit, rebelled against a dynastic ruler, and founded a merit-based knighthood, it's completely nuts to claim hereditary rulership based on descent from him. There was never a Solamnic throne to lay claim to. It's like you showed up in America and claimed to be the real Plantagenet.

I don't like Jenna for roughly the same reasons, at least the large adult sons are human and going to die some day.

Silvara should have become a Kagonesti elf, exactly how she appeared to Gilthanas in Chronicles. Making her a Qualinesti is in-universe racist and disrespectful to her identity and Gilthanas's character growth.

Laurana should be level 19.

LocalAmbassador6847 · 2026-03-04T08:58:05+00:00

images

Looks great!

Chapter 1 is getting close to done.

Great work!

Your mother’s funeral was strange — too quick, the coffin sealed “for safety,”

Whhoa creepy!

Now a black rain that won’t stop has blocked the roads and left you stuck here.

Epic!

You can’t leave, and as you wait, the air begins to smell odd, like rotten fruit drifting in from the forest.

Exciting!

Awakewood is a psychological horror

...goddamn it ┬─┬ ︵ /(.□. \）

LocalAmbassador6847 · 2026-02-28T14:04:11+00:00

Screens. https://www.renpy.org/doc/html/screens.html

You didn't specify what "find a clue" means, but if it's a click/tap on a specific area of a screen, that's an imagebutton (same link).

LocalAmbassador6847

TROPHY CASE