For this project, I chose to use Ren’Py as the main game engine rather than Unity. After doing some research I found Ren’Py was a better choice for this visual novel for several reasons.
Why Ren’Py?
- Built for visual novels- Ren’Py is specifically designed for creating visual novels and interactive story-based games. It supports essential features like branching dialogue, choice menus, character sprites, transitions, and textboxes out of the box.
- Simplified scripting language- Ren’Py uses a custom scripting language that’s beginner-friendly and easy to understand. This will allow me to focus more on story structure, pacing, and player agency rather than complex coding.
- Faster prototyping- Since Ren’Py handles core visual novel elements, I will be able to prototype scenes, test interactions, and implement changes quickly, which will help speed up the development process
- Asset integration is straightforward- Importing and displaying assets like character sprites, backgrounds and audio is simple. This means it will be easier for me to swap out placeholders.
Why not Unity?
- It would take more time to build basic visual novel features from scratch
- It’s more complex to implement UI, branching dialogue systems, and scene transitions.