TyranoBuilder

[clyde]

It's crashy and you can run into weird problems. But it is so convenient and cheap. I really like TyranoBuilder.

 

I've made a tutorial that tries to demonstrate how easy and fast it is to make a simple visual-novel with no text-based scripting required. 

 

[ugly_cat]

Looks pretty neat! As someone who is somewhat of a programmer, Ren'py already fits the bill. I like how you can export to web though! Plus if you want to integrate something a little more complex, you're going to need to script and I'd much rather do that in python.

[clyde]

Looks pretty neat! As someone who is somewhat of a programmer, Ren'py already fits the bill. I like how you can export to web though! Plus if you want to integrate something a little more complex, you're going to need to script and I'd much rather do that in python.

 

Everything I've seen involving the script makes me no want to use it. To be fair, I'm not incredibly familiar with javascript or tyranoscript, but if I use it, I'm going to check and see if I just broke the game. The html export feature is the main reason I want to use this over Ren'Py (that and the drag&drop) , but I'm starting to see problems there too. There's probably a work-around, but right now, the game doesn't load completely before playing and this can create some pacing problems and unresponsiveness when playing on the browser. Responsiveness if very important to me; even though visual-novels rarely require dexterity, pressing a button and having snappy feedback is satisfying; pressing a button a few times and something happening a second later feels unpleasant. I haven't given up on TyranoBuilder, but I'm hoping for many improvements. Until then I will probably only use it for small stories and prototypes (while using only the most basic features).

[SuperBiasedMan]

That's an odd feature given how large visual novels can be contentwise. Is there perhaps a way that you can link URLs at least? Maybe have each chapter separated and then as a chapter ends the player is sent to a new page? I don't know if that could be done very seamlessly but it might be worth a shot?

[clyde]

I do need to play around with it more, but a big part of TyranoBuilder's appeal is having this stuff worked out by the template being so limited. It's a great tool and I use it, but I just wanted to point out that one of its major advantages over Ren'py either needs to be improved or requires more finesse than implied by the marketing message.

[plasticflesh]

I started messing with Tyranobuilder recently. Getting the branch / label / jump system working is not super intuitive. But I haven't tried to follow http://steamcommunity.com/app/345370/discussions/0/483367798501911066/'>any tutorials super closely yet.

[clyde]

I started messing with Tyranobuilder recently. Getting the branch / label / jump system working is not super intuitive. But I haven't tried to follow any tutorials super closely yet.

 

I didn't take me long at all to go through this tutorial step-by-step and once I did, I was sufficiently familiarized with all the main features.

I will say that you should stick to the main features that are in this tutorial because the scripting components seem to break my games constantly. Also I have no idea what "Clickable Areas" are for and they break my games. Don't let that discourage you, just stick with the basics (images, sounds, music, text, branches, labels, jumps, and new scenarios)  unless you are feeling like breaking some stuff to try it out. You can do a lot with the basics.

[plasticflesh]

Thanks for the link! And great advice about shying away from the scripting. They are pushing an update tomorrow that will add components for variables and custom save/load GUIs. Hopefully that will be handy.

[rincewitch]

I'm trying to learn TyranoBuilder for small-scale projects that can be played in browsers (as opposed to a Ren'py game or whatever--I'd feel weird asking people to download and install a separate application to play a 15 minute game), so it's nice there's a thread about it here!