Who doesn’t love a good visual novel? English speakers are slowly catching on to what might my favorite video game genre, one that focuses on text-heavy narratives and “choose your own adventure”-like branching story lines instead of complicated, action-based gameplay. Whether it be a traditional dating sim, otome game, or something else entirely, visual novels are unique and now, even easier to make yourself!
Nyu Media has just announced plans to release an English version of the visual novel studio TyranoBuilder on March 27th for just $14.99. While Ren’Py, the go-to visual novel engine for many indie creators, is open source and supports Windows, Mac, Linix, and Android, TyranoBuilder appears to be much more flexible,* and may be even easier to use for newcomers to game development. Take a look at the launch trailer to get an idea of what the software looks like:
TyranoBuilder touts the ability to create games for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android (requires porting through a free thirds party app), as well as gaming devices that run HTML5, such as the Nintendo 3DS and PS Vita. While Linux is surprisingly absent, the HTML5 and iOS compatibility coupled with the studio’s very intuitive-looking interface make it look very appealing!
While developers familiar with Ren’Py may not be looking to switch, TyranoBuilder looks like it could be a great tool for those interested in trying out visual novel game development! Coupled with a Steam release, it has the potential to get even more people interested in visual novels, which can only be a good thing in my book! There will also be a demo available on the official site at a later date, so keep an eye out for that.
*I confess to know not much of anything about game development, so I am only saying this from the perspective of someone who has had a cursory look at both TyranoBuilder and Ren’Py! People familiar with Ren’Py, please feel free to chime in with your thoughts in the comments.
So, only recently have I started to seriously begin understanding C# (which itself has been a 5 year process because for whatever reason programming has never really “clicked” with me until now). With that said, I always found Ren’py a very easy to understand program and could mess around with it without much trouble. My feelings are similar toward Twine (probably the easiest way to get started with digital stories of all!) and Inform.
On the other hand, supposed friendly game-making engines have almost exclusively confused the heck out of me. Never could grasp Game Maker, for example, or the RPG Maker programs on PS1/PS2 and PC. As such, TyranoBuilder scares me a bit as I fear “ease of use” will translate into “weirdly obscure” at least as far as my personal comprehension goes. With that said, I’m still going to check it out!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Marcus! I have used Twine and thought that was pretty simple to get a hang of, so I’m sure if I gave Ren’Py a shot I’d feel the same way! Rather than the ease of use, I’m wondering if the ability to easily (?) port to HTML5 and iOS will be a major selling point here. I don’t think anyone’s ever brought a Ren’Py game to a game console?
Dunno about Ren’Py on consoles, but it’s cool to see that TyranoBuilder will allow for iOS/Android port as well as VIta and “DS” (assuming the site meant 3DS… lol). It seems easy enough to get onto the 3DS eShop – there are some real ‘gems’ on that service. Curious about Sony’s friendliness in regards to indie VN devs, though. There aren’t really any on PSN, just the releases from big name developers/publishers.
I haven’t gone too far into making with ren’py, but I have seen some games like Magical Diary that go a decent way out of the standard VN. But with a visual editior it looks like this will be a great way to make the traditional VN with ease. Ren’py isn’t hard to use, but it does require feeling a little comfortable looking at code which most people aren’t.
Although, I wonder if it can be used for the more “Novel” game. Where the text overlays over the whole screen rather than textbox like shown here. Asi that is something I much prefer when trying to deal with more monolog or description heavy stories. Admittedly, people rarely show off that style as it doesn’t trailer so nicely (it also for some reason just feels awful in 16:9 displays, despite looking fine in 4:3)
Having tinkered a fair amount with the RPG maker series on PC, and Ren’py, I think I’ll add this to my collection of engines for sure though. As Ren’py tended to want a little more presence of mind than I was putting in. Hopefully it’ll run on my adorable transbook 100.
Hmmm *looks into it more*
Looks like something really worth tinkering with. I might have to make a generic VN using it.
I’ve never really been in visual novel games or heavy story based, for that matter. Off topic(sorry), but you should play To The Moon and Kentucky Route Zero. 2 heavy based story games that use interesting mechanics and gameplay to just tell a story. I have them on Steam and I think you’d like them.
I’ve heard great things about both of those! I’ll try to play them when I have a chance 🙂
I would LOVE to see you make a visual novel, Rowan!
I will happily second both of them. Although I feel To The Moon might have been better as an “RPG Maker Movie” as opposed to it’s small elements of gameplay.
Kentucky though, man, it is a strange beast but one worth playing.
You mean another I hope? I already made one for that dating sim game jam.
KRZ is like playing an episode of the Twilight Zone. A mind trip.
haha, I want to get this just because the mascot looks so cute ^^
For the VN stuff….I think I only have scary Lovecraftian things inside me atm :/
Oh, I bought this. it’s nifty. Renpy is certainly better, but I certainly think for tinkering or even prototyping this might be great. The ability to easily output to HTML 5 is nice for freeware stuff too.
Awesome! I’ve got a review copy that I haven’t had a chance to dig into yet >_<
Oh wow that’s right, I totally forgot that one!! That feels like ages ago, hehe
I know right. Although, it was ages ago. 2013 was the year *checks* Bioshock Infinite, Black Flag, and DMC and Tearaway came out. Man was that really only 2 years ago…
I’d be willing to believe that TyranoBuilder is easier than Ren’Py to use to make standard VNs. Looking at even one page of the TB tutorial, I do believe it. But with TyranoScript being a pure scripting language, compared to Ren’Py co-opting a complete programming language (the full spec usable in addition to the simplified scripting version in Ren’Py), I find it hard to believe that TyranoBuilder would be even a fraction as flexible as Ren’Py, which could be, theoretically, used to include just about anything you want – including complete OTHER game engines, from a simple RPG to a fighting game or even Frets on Fire.