Ren'Py

Ren'Py Visual Novel Engine

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An example of a Ren'Py-created scene.
Original author(s)	Tom "PyTom" Rothamel
Developer(s)	Tom "PyTom" Rothamel
Initial release	August 24, 2004 (2004-08-24)
Stable release	Ren'Py 6.99.8 / December 25, 2015 (2015-12-25)
Development status	Active
Written in	Python
Operating system	Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, Android, IOS
Size	25 MB
Available in	English for the engine - UTF-8 use for resulting programs
Type	Game engine (visual novel)
License	MIT License
Alexa rank
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The Ren'Py Visual Novel Engine is a free software engine which facilitates the creation of visual novels, a form of computer-mediated storytelling. Ren'Py is a portmanteau of ren'ai (恋愛), the Japanese word for 'love', a common element of games made using Ren'Py; and Python, the programming language that Ren'Py runs on. Ren'Py has proved attractive to English-language hobbyists; over 850 games use the Ren'Py engine, nearly all in English.

Features

Ren'Py supports many of the typical visual novel features, including branching stories, save file systems, rollback to previous points in the story, a variety of scene transitions and so on. Ren'Py scripts have a screenplay-like syntax, and can also include blocks of Python code to allow advanced users to add new features of their own. As well, tools are included in the engine distribution to obfuscate scripts and archive game assets to mitigate copyright infringement.

Ren'Py is built on pygame, which is built with Python on SDL. Ren'Py is officially supported on Windows, recent versions of Mac OS X, and Linux; and can be installed via the package managers of the Arch Linux, Ubuntu, Debian, and Gentoo (in experimental overlay) Linux distributions. It has also been ported to Android, as well as OpenBSD and as of the pre-release of version 7, iOS.

Notable Ren'Py games

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

• Akabur
  • Princess Trainer
  • Witch Trainer
• BerndSoft
  • Bernd and the Mystery of Unteralterbach
• Christine Love
  • Digital: A Love Story
  • Don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story
  • Analogue: A Hate Story
• Cyanide Tea
  • Break Chance Memento
• Dischan Media
  • Cradle Song
  • Juniper's Knot
  • Dysfunctional Systems: Learning to Manage Chaos
• Four Leaf Studios
  • Katawa Shoujo
• Hanako Games
  • Date Warp
  • Long Live The Queen
  • Magical Diary
  • The Royal Trap
• Marcel Weyers
  • Sleepless Night
  • This Is Where I Want To Die
  • To Kill A Black Swan
• Nekomura Games
  • Princess Battles
• Paper Dino Software
  • Save the Date
• Riva Celso
  • Always Remember Me
  • Bionic Heart
  • Heileen
  • Loren The Amazon Princess
  • Planet Stronghold
  • Roommates
  • Summer Session
  • Tales of Aravorn: Seasons of the Wolf
• roseVeRte
  • Café 0 ~The Drowned Mermaid~
• sakevisual
  • Jisei series
  • RE: Alistair
• Soviet Games
  • Everlasting Summer
  • Winter Tale
• Spicy Tails
  • World End Economica (Sakai Visual port)
• Team NEET
  • Sepia Tears ~midwinter's reprise~

External links

• (Game database)
  • Ren'Py Translations into various languages
• Ren'Py forum