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<html><head><title>Before You Begin - Ren'Py Visual Novel Engine</title><link href="../shared.css" rel="stylesheet"><link href="../monobook.css" rel="stylesheet"><link href="../common.css" rel="stylesheet"><link href="../monobook2.css" rel="stylesheet"><link href="../docs.css" rel="stylesheet" /></link></link></link></link></head><body><div id="bodyContent">
<p class="docnav"><a href="../index.html">documentation index</a></p><table class="toc" id="toc" summary="Contents">
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<td>
<div id="toctitle">
<h2>Contents</h2>
</div>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#Before_You_Begin"><span class="tocnumber">1</span> <span class="toctext">Before You Begin</span></a>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-2"><a href="#Download_Ren.27Py"><span class="tocnumber">1.1</span> <span class="toctext">Download Ren'Py</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-2"><a href="#Think_about_the_story"><span class="tocnumber">1.2</span> <span class="toctext">Think about the story</span></a>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-3"><a href="#Planning"><span class="tocnumber">1.2.1</span> <span class="toctext">Planning</span></a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toclevel-2"><a href="#Start_making_your_game"><span class="tocnumber">1.3</span> <span class="toctext">Start making your game</span></a></li>
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<p><a id="Before_You_Begin" name="Before_You_Begin"></a></p>
<h2><span class="mw-headline">Before You Begin</span></h2>
<p>There are only two requirements to get started with this tutorial:</p>
<p><a id="Download_Ren.27Py" name="Download_Ren.27Py"></a></p>
<h3><span class="mw-headline">Download Ren'Py</span></h3>
<p>1. You have to download Ren'Py from the <a href="/wiki/renpy/Download_Ren%27Py.html" title="renpy/Download Ren'Py">Official Download Page</a> and install it.</p>
<p><a id="Think_about_the_story" name="Think_about_the_story"></a></p>
<h3><span class="mw-headline">Think about the story</span></h3>
<p>2. You have to have some idea what the story that you want to tell is. You don't need to have a complete outline, or know all of the characters, though that might be a good idea as a story telling practice (many, though not all, people believe that you should know your entire story at least at a high level before you start to write any of it down). But at a minimum you just need to have a basic idea of at least two characters, a setting, and some idea of where your plot is starting.</p>
<p><a id="Planning" name="Planning"></a></p>
<h4><span class="mw-headline">Planning</span></h4>
<p>You can, of course, jump straight into a mega project, but experience shows that one of the main reasons for projects not being completed is that it was just too huge and ambitious.</p>
<p>It's a good idea to consciously aim to keep your first project small and simple.</p>
<p>As a guide, 5000 words of story-text is usually about 15 minutes of playing time. 30-45 minutes of playing time is a realistic target.</p>
<p>Producing art takes a lot of time. While you don't want to let it dictate the story, it's sensible to limit the number of locations (and therefore backgrounds) where you can. Likewise having a large cast will increase the artist's workload dramatically - unless you're happy for the characters to have only one pose and one expression.</p>
<p>Just to give you an idea, below are the "profiles" of some <i>completed</i> first-time projects:</p>
<pre>
Project 1
Creative team: 2 (1 writer, 1 artist)
Development time: 1 month (NaNoReNo)
playing time: 30-45 minutes
Story length: 17466 words
Cast: 3 characters, 38 sprite images
Story world: 15 backgrounds (filtered photos)
Music: none.
</pre>
<pre>
Project 2
Creative team: 1 person
Development time:
Playing time: 30 minutes (but had shoot-em-up elements)
Story length: 8000 words
Cast: 3 characters, 45 sprite images + 3 minor characters
Story world: 12 backgrounds, plus rendered spaceships
Music: from the web.
</pre>
<pre>
Project 3
Creative team: 1 person
Development time: 2 months
Story length: 1507 words,
Only one ending (kinetic).
Cast: 3 characters. Everyone has only one pose.
Main character has 7 expressions, while the others have 4 and 1.
Story world: CG and 4 painted backgrounds
Music: 3 tracks from the web.
</pre>
<p><br />
And a major project just for comparison:</p>
<p><br /></p>
<pre>
Project 4
Creative team: 2 people (artist/writer, musician)
Development time: 2 YEARS
Story length: 51756 words,
6 main endings plus a couple of "you die" dead ends.
Cast: 9 characters, 65 sprite images
Story world: 86 backgrounds (50% filtered photos)
Music: 8 tracks, composed for this work
</pre>
<p><br />
So you see, projects can be as big or as small as you like.</p>
<p><a id="Start_making_your_game" name="Start_making_your_game"></a></p>
<h3><span class="mw-headline">Start making your game</span></h3>
<p>That's it. You're now ready to get started.</p>
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