Why Ren'py?

After starring at a list of game engines for a long time, I decided to go with Ren'py. The game engine is easy, I can import my drawings, see my writing in action, and have fun with a hobby. There is hardly any effort in bringing a scene to the stage and having the characters talk either. I just need to know what are the names of the file that I want to bring on stage and post those files in the engine.

Example

label beginning

scene bg tank1 (insert scene here)

with dissolve

"stuff is happening" (narrative on screen)

A: "blah, blah, blah" (character "A" is talking)

B: "blah, blah" (character "B" is talking)

End Example.

Ren'py is mainly used for visual novels which means the engine requires a story. I have always wanted to make some kind of online series for people to enjoy and I have also wanted to revive my interests in writing for a long time. Ren'py will help me accomplish both dreams easily. I even began doing sketches in my notebook yesterday for the characters of my first game. Of course Ren'py is not the only game engine I will be using for life. There are other far more complex game engines out there such as flash and Unity3D (which I am experimenting with for a starting mainstream game company). For right now, I will relax and develop a few games in Ren'py.

By the way I ordered my first wacam tablet a few days ago. I cannot wait to use it.

Buying My First Tablet

In general Ren'py and making video game art requires a lot of digital artwork. Going solo on my first visual novel project I would like to provide my own artwork instead of paying someone to draw for me. Unfortunately I have never taken the time to fully understand how to color my pictures digitally. This picture is a result of me messing around with digital coloring.

This is Kneesocks from an anime called Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt.  Not a pretty sight and the process of preparing the line art was not painless either.  I have been told plenty of things about the wonders of a wacom tablet (digtial coloring is a lot faster with a tablet, I would not be struggling so hard to color if I had a tablet, etc, etc).

I know Best Buy sells tablets and I would have brought one there but research through the internet and friends have brought me to Amazon.  The majority of tablets at my nearest Best Buy are Bamboo tablets.  From what I can remember of using one of those things was that I did not like using the darn thing and even went back to using my mouse.  I did not feel like I was using a didgital pencil at all.  Lastly I can get a wired Medium Intuos4 Wacom Tablet for $50 cheeper than a wirless one at Best Buy.  I will update when I get the item and spend some time with it

We Meet Again

This is not my first time writing a blog or even writing on this website. Here is a an old blog that I wrote a long time ago.  Warning: OLD BLOG I do not get much entertainment from doing reviews anymore (also the channel which hosted the relaity shows I reviewed got cancled).  I would like to take a different subject instead of doing reviews on various media.  How's about joining me in my journey in learning how to become a indie game developer?

I graduated from ECPI University last March of 2011 with a Bachelor's degree in Computer Information Science.  The major was however called "Game and Simulation" (I will explain why these words are in qoutations later) and I am egar to learn and make some video games.  Hearing people's opinons on game developing, my art, ideas, or programing will help make me a better indie game developer.  I am currently starting out small with a game engine called Ren'py.

I hope you enjoy your stay here.