Ren'Py art: a picture for every scene in your script

Start from the script you have

NovelStage reads dialogue, narration, scene statements and character definitions. It skips python, screen and transform blocks, and if it cannot read a line it notes that line and moves on. It works from a copy, so your .rpy file is never changed.

define a = Character("Emma")
define d = Character("Jake")

label start:

    scene bg living_room

    "The rain had not stopped all afternoon."

    a happy "You finally made it."

    d "Lost? I've been here a hundred times."

From lines to pictures

1. Open the script

   Open a scene, open the Story panel and choose your .rpy file. Its lines appear over the view.

2. Link the speakers

   Pick which person in the scene plays each speaker, and whose thoughts the narration is.

3. Step through the lines

   Use the left and right arrow keys. NovelStage frames whoever is speaking, opens their mouth and sets the expression the script asks for.

4. Save a shot

   Adjust the camera or a pose if you want to. Press Save Shot, or Try Another Angle first. The picture joins the queue and the next line comes up.

5. Render them all

   Click the Waiting Pictures button in the story bar, and the queue renders one after another.

How the files are named

Each scene statement gets one picture. Lines under it share that picture, so to change the picture partway through a conversation, add another scene statement to your script.

Files go into a folder named after the script, inside the scene's Renders folder. Show Pictures in Finder in the Story panel opens it.

Loading the pictures in Ren'Py

Copy the PNG files into game/images. There is one thing to know here. Ren'Py names an image after its file, with the extension removed, and a space in the file name is what separates the tag from its attributes. So bg_living_room.png becomes the single image bg_living_room, which is not the same as bg living_room. Your scene line will not find it until you do one of these:

image bg living_room = "bg_living_room.png"

That line goes near the top of your script, once for each picture. The other way is to change the statement to scene bg_living_room. Either works. While you develop, Ren'Py shows a placeholder with the name of any image it cannot find, so a quick run through tells you what is missing.

When the script changes

A saved shot keeps the scene as it was. If you rewrite a chapter or rework a set, go back to the line, change what you need, update the shot and render again. Everything else stays where it is.

Ren'Py is a free visual novel engine made by others. NovelStage is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Ren'Py project, and you do not need Ren'Py to use the app.