[OLPC-Games] Ren'Py and Visual Novels games

[jofate at jotaro.com]

> On Sun, Feb 25, 2007 at 04:31:11PM +0100, francois schnell wrote:
> Yes, that's a good point. I think those games are very XO-friendly, as
> they
> are very similar to ebooks: static, so the CPU can be stopped, and with
> simple interaction, so it can be played with the screen covering the
> keyboard+trackpad. Storing a lot of pictures is the biggest problem, as
> performance won't be one in my very humble opinion.
> Those kind of games are already possible with Scratch, even if it's not
> the best tool for this.

I think Ren'py is a great idea for an OLPC activity.  The integration of
the scripting language with Python is simple, powerful, and well
thought-out.  Graphics may not be as big a concern as you'd think, since
you can describe cartoony characters (as are common in these types of
games) easily using vector graphics, which should compress nicely.  The
down-side is that vector graphics may be harder for kids to author
themselves, if a tool like Inkscape isn't available.  A basic set of
paper-doll-style models (maybe even parameterizeable models?) might help.

Working around the lack of SDL may be a little tricky but not impossible. 
If I recall correctly from the last time I looked at the Ren'py source, it
abstracts most of the drawing/interaction using a "retained mode" graphics
model, which might make it easier to substitute HippoCanvas/GTK for SDL,
although you may have to lose some of the fancy transition effects.  And
any mini-games that you would typically code in Pygame would have to be
coded in GTK, which may be more difficult for kids to write.

I hadn't heard of Scratch.  It looks like Scratch's interface would be a
lot easier for kids to author with than Ren'py, which after all is just
text files.

-- Joe