this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2023
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Programming
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ren'py and game maker interest me can you tell me more about them, are they free, how do i start, and feel free to share whatever. i think visaul novels are cool but i cant draw jack and they look hard to make and mos thave cut scenes or menus or just detail.
Ren'py uses Python (which is an easy to learn language), and has a lot of built-in functions that are specifically geared towards visual novels - text boxes, character portraits, that sort of thing. You can find a pretty good quick-start tutorial here. Ren'py is 100% free.
Gamemaker Studio is a very beginner-friendly (while still very powerful) option; it allows for a much wider range of projects (as it isn't geared towards one specific genre, like Ren'py). It's "free"; it uses a subscription model, but there's a free "demo" version that (unless something has changed) you can use forever; the only substantial limitation is that you can't compile a final game build with it... if you get to the point where you have something that's finished and ready to publish, you can subscribe for 1 month to their premium license, compile your game, and cancel it. It has options for actual programming, or a "drag and drop" interface, where you're basically building your game logic using ready-made "blocks" that you input data into to tell the engine what to do. It's pretty intuitive and a good place to start. There's a wide range of tutorials here.