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Choose New Project on the start page and pick a folder for it; its characters, scenes and pictures are saved there. Then click New Character, then New Scene. In the scene, add your character from the Add panel and click Render.

Click Open Sample Project on the start page, or in the Help menu. It has a finished living room scene with two people, clothes, poses, objects in their hands, lights and a short Ren'Py script. Changes to the sample are not kept; choose Save a Copy to keep them. It does not count toward the free project limit.

Rain and snow are in the Add panel's object library, on the Outdoor shelf, next to fog. Paths are there too, once the scene has a natural place. Background People has its own card in the Add panel: Add One or Add a Crowd. For a screen, pick the TV, laptop or phone and use the Screen card in Details, or right-click it and choose Screen.

With NovelStage Pro, choose NovelStage > MCP Server and turn it on. The window shows the address (http://127.0.0.1:7864/mcp) and how to add it in Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex, Cursor, VS Code, Gemini CLI, Windsurf, LM Studio and others. The AI app works in the project open in NovelStage, and you can undo each of its steps.

Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom, and Shift-drag or right-drag to pan. F frames what is picked. Click a person or object to pick it, and right-click for more, such as Sit Here or Put on Ground. Help > Keyboard Shortcuts lists all keys.

Base body packs (.novelstagepack files) are imported in the character editor, in the Basics step under Base body. A pack is used for characters of the sex it was made for.

Files you import, such as base body packs and 3D models made in other tools, are your responsibility. NovelStage opens them on your Mac and does not check or share their content.

A Mac with Apple silicon and macOS 26 or later. Rendering works on every Apple silicon Mac and is fastest on M3 or later, which have ray tracing in hardware. 16 GB of memory or more is recommended for large outdoor scenes and 8K pictures.

It depends on the picture size, the quality setting, what is in the scene and your Mac. On a MacBook Pro with M5 Max, a Full HD picture of a park scene takes about 14 seconds. 8K has four times the pixels of 4K and takes about four times as long. The render window shows the progress.

As PNG files in the scene's renders folder, inside your project folder. Pictures from a Ren'Py script go into a subfolder named after the script, one file per picture name. Show Pictures in Finder in the Story panel opens it.

Open a scene, open the Story panel and choose your .rpy file. Link each speaker to a person in the scene. Step through the lines with the arrow keys; NovelStage frames the speaker and sets their face. Adjust the view and choose Save Shot. Then click Render Waiting Pictures. Each picture is named for the script. The Scripts part of the NovelStage page shows an example.

No. NovelStage reads a copy of the script and never writes to your .rpy file.

NovelStage reads dialogue, narration, scene statements and character definitions, and skips python, screen, transform and similar blocks. A line it cannot read is listed with a note and only that line is skipped. Email us the part of the script if a normal line is not read.

The free version has every tool. Its limits are one project, two characters and two scenes per project, five pictures in the render queue at a time, and a small "Made with NovelStage" mark on pictures. NovelStage Pro removes the limits and the mark, and adds importing .glb and .gltf models, 32-bit OpenEXR export and the MCP server for AI apps.

Pro is a monthly or yearly subscription, or a one-time Forever purchase. All plans unlock the same features. The monthly plan has a one-week free trial for eligible customers. The App Store shows the price in your currency before you buy.

Sign in to the Mac with the same Apple Account you used to buy Pro, open the Pro window in NovelStage and choose Restore Purchases.

Subscriptions are handled by Apple. On your Mac, open the App Store, click your name, then Account Settings and Manage Subscriptions. You can also go to apps.apple.com/account/subscriptions. Cancel at least 24 hours before the renewal date to avoid being charged for the next period.

Refunds are handled by Apple, not by us. Request one at reportaproblem.apple.com, signed in with the Apple Account you used to buy.

No. NovelStage has no account, no ads, no analytics and no tracking, and it works offline. Projects stay in the folders you choose. Pose from a Photo uses Apple Vision on your Mac, and the photo never leaves it. Mirror My Face reads the camera on your Mac only while its window is open, and nothing from it is saved or sent. The MCP server for AI apps accepts connections only from your own Mac. Read the full privacy policy for details.