its straightforward enough that simply downloading, installing and hitting the "create new project" and spamming through the menu and then opening script.rpy to see the code which will tell you like 70% of what you need to make your first vn.
there no need to be afraid just because the word 'code' was mentioned. ren'py's own language is just copy pasting stuff back and forth and inserting your own names and pictures. its nothing like C# or java or whatever languages exist cause i know jackshit about any of that and dont know how to do programming
anyway, inside the main script file, script.rpy, are commented instructions on how to name a character, place a sprite, place a background, and put in text and you can basically make a vn with these things.
i can not stress it enough KEEP IT SIMPLE, especially if you're starting out. making things complicated or planning massive projects is just shooting yourself in the foot. better to make 2 minute game than get stuck trying to make a epic masterpiece
like just trust me, if its your first game and you find yourself scouring through gui.rpy and screens.rpy and feeling hopeless and lost, question your life choices and think about what nadia would say. she would say to get the hell outta there and go back to script.rpy thats where the magic happens!!! worry about the other stuff for your NEXT game. finishing a project is the hardest part so that should be your first goal!!
writing a story is its own thing. however anyone can write and its better to write a shit story than no story. that way you have something to build on and get more comfy with your own art process. its what me and everyone else who makes vns and any other art or skill or hobby have done too. making a bad story is better than making no story. thats how you improve. just make a story and put it out.
i think a lot of people dont realise that when it comes to any form of art, but writing especially, its the heart that matters. and im not like saying that just to be cheesy, art is about communicating things to the reader and most of the time the shit thats going on in an inviduals head has something interesting going on and even an amateur first time writer can put down fun and exciting things. technical skill and experience is a cumulative thing that only makes it easier to find your own voice and figure out how to get your projects out there. so many times ive read something brilliant just to be surprised it was the first vn the author put out. that happens a lot
if you like what some other vn/manga/anime/story does copy it and smash these inspirations together to make your own thing. save pictures and lines you see that get you inspired if you need inspiration and references for your own story. everything in this world is inspired by other things someone else has made. its not stealing unless you get absurd and download someone elses game and take out half the assets and put them in your own game and pretend you didnt
if you have interest do yourself a favour and make a vn. as far as game development goes its one of the most accessible options out there . ren'py is an amazing engine having all the vn necessities already in place since that allows you to just focus on the story and not have to worry about setting things up yourself and scrambling with advanced code unless you really want to. you can get so far just writing "how to do x in renpy" to google
its important to know that its a fake and unreasonable expectation that selfmade indie games HAVE TO look like remastered tsukihime or umineko just because they're also visual novels. instead go look at the original versions and how far they get with far simpler solutions
but for even simpler solutions, for example my vn ( slime feet ) uses no art and instead free to use photos smasjhed together and music which i grabbed online that anyone else could have access to as well. making anything is about getting creative with what you have available and some of my favourite visual novels have heavy use of creative combinations like these. ( victim doll ) ( planetary attraction ) ( the great i am ) ( this superficial world ) ( paper girl chain ) (everyoine should play these all by the way.)
go dig through some visual novel or visual novel adjecent jam entries on itch io and build an idea of what the gays are actually making. here are the entries for two jams ive hosted. menhera vn jam and yuri game jam 2024, but keep in mind a good portion of these entries are by developers who have already made a lot of games in the past and comparing yourself and your projects expectations directly to them would be unreasonable
what i want to say is that even if your game doesnt have perfectly rendered animated anime girls and handpainted backgrounds there is an endless way to still have visuals and put together a game. you do not even need to draw a single thing to make a vn if you dont want to. but that being said, i rather see a vn with bad art than no vn at all. the only way to improve is by Doing instead of Worrying
for images and backgrounds my advice is to either use sites like pixabay or just google "CC0 pictures" and you can use these in your games uncredited.
when you have pictures you can thjrow them into krita, photopea or whatever you want and google "how do i x" questions until you know what to do what you want. personally when i do backgrounds is just like to stack some layers and try if color dodge or multiply layer mode looks more fun or simply just run them through filters. this is what i always do and its a classic vn background solution for a reason, even games like tsukihime, higurashi and umineko have used this
one background trick is that if you have blender skills you can make a scene there as well, either use the renders directly or throw some effects. there are also sites for free to use models you should be using because i thikn its a waste of time to make every single lamp or door handle from scratch when someone else has already done them and is letting you use them for free.
there are sites like DOVA-SYNDROME for music,freesound.org and pixabay again for sound effects. these are the ones i generally use and sometimes i just throw "CC0 -thing i need-" into google and usually i have no problems finding what i need
heres a link for a directory for an overwhelming about of CC0 assets
ultimately there is an infinite amount of free to use materials out there itching to be used, and a huge amount of them have a CC0 license which means you dont even have to credit them. however theres also other licenses that you can do wahtever the fuck you want to with and the only thing is just to throw in credits somewhere in your project
anyway but for real if you really are interested make a vn heres the renpy download link again in case you didnt click it the first time. nowyou have to do it under the threat of violence cause im holding a whip and making thOSE SCARY CR-
thank you for reading. godspeed