- Jun 16, 2017
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I'm not sure I agree with this. Ren'Py is actually fairly well-suited for this game. The dev isn't trying to render anything 3D or even trying to use complicated shaders, all the art is pre-drawn. The sandbox concept works great in Ren'Py if you are using a map that you point and click to travel or clickable parts of interiors to move throughout (which STS does).Ren'Py was designed as an engine for visual novels, i.e. linear stories with occasional branching paths. Using it for a sandbox game like Summertime Saga has already taxed the engine to its limits, and the existing build has so many ugly hacks in it (like the pregnancy system) that the current devs have said it some cases it only works by accident. The Tech Update is trying to not only re-engineer the current systems to work properly, but also to prepare it for future new ones like the dating system. A more fully-featured engine like Unity could handle things, but like I said Unity builds don't play as cleanly with Android cross-compatability as Ren'Py does.
Given that the current coder seems to be spinning his wheels for longer and longer periods of time, it doesn't bode well for the project finishing anytime soon.
With their current assets and gameplay concept, the only thing switching to Unity would accomplish for them is having to write their own infrastructure from scratch. The problem with the coder appears to be that it's just 1 person working sporadically because this game is not their day job. Ren'Py isn't the bottleneck here, and Unity isn't going to provide any advantages over Ren'Py for this style of game.