Tool Others Ren'Py Visual Dialogue Designer for Renpy?

[Cigam]

I was wondering if any of yall have had experience with any of these tools, and how well (or not) they can be used to make all of the dialogue and then export to Renpy?

Dialogue Designer: $9.99

You must be registered to see the links

Linux,Windows,Mac

TalkerMakerDeluxe: FOSS

You must be registered to see the links

Windows

ZTAB: Free (not open source software) as far as I can tell

You must be registered to see the links

You must be registered to see the links

Windows,(Linux Wine instructions in doc)

I am on Linux personally so probably would need to use the Dialogue Designer, but ZTAB does have Wine instructions, TalkerMaker might can do Wine as well. I have not tried any of them yet, and figured asking here first might give me more insight into which one to use. The first two export to JSON so a JSON to Renpy converter might need to be made? ZTAB has a Renpy exporter, but the program itself is a bit confusing from the looks of it compared to the other two. I am not sure which of them would be better. I just would like to visually see the dialogue and interactions in my game easily before getting to indepth in it.

Thanks

Edit

In the time while waiting for this to be approved I first tried running ZTAB through wine using its instructions and could open the app but export did not work and various gui elements were weirdly scaled. So I will need to test it in a Windows virtualbox or something. When I do setup that vbox I could test the TalkerMaker too.

I also went ahead and bought the Dialogue Designer 3.1.0 it is ok, not as powerful as I would have hoped, and it is only in JSON or TXT export. So would have to make or find a Renpy Converter if I really want to use it for that. If anyone knows of that converter already that would be nice to try. (See Edit3) The other thing about the Dialogue Designer is I could use the Godot PCK to project converter, then could tweak it to how I want it to be used. Not sure if I will try that though. I might just work with ZTAB and see if I can get it working.

Edit2

Renpy Script Parser: FOSS

You must be registered to see the links

Windows

This one looks promising too and is specifically designed for Renpy. I also cannot get it to work under wine though. So would need to test it as well in a Vbox of Windows.

Edit3

dxDD2RenPy: FOSS

You must be registered to see the links

Windows (says it is cross platform but I cannot figure out how to run it on Linux)

This is a Dialogue Designer to Renpy converter. I still need to test it out but it seems like it will do at least some of what I am wanting it to do.

 

[anne O'nymous]

ZTAB has a Renpy exporter,

That is an horror you would have a really hard time to maintain, or just edit in order to add your CGs.
Here's what the official example looks like in Ren'py:

Spoiler

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Renpy Script Parser: FOSS

You must be registered to see the links

Windows

It's an application wrote in Python and that have Qt5 as dependency. It's clearly not a "Windows only" software, and it would works on Windows only if you've previously installed the right LibQt.

This one looks promising too and is specifically designed for Renpy.

According to the description and screenshots, it's more a visual interface for Ren'py development than a pure dialog editor. Therefore it offer you a better overview regarding the flow of your game, but not effectively easy the devel.

dxDD2RenPy: FOSS

You must be registered to see the links

Windows (says it is cross platform but I cannot figure out how to run it on Linux)

By downloading the source and compiling them. But since it's wrote on C#, you'll need DotGNU and probably others dependency that aren't present natively on your system.

This is a Dialogue Designer to Renpy converter. I still need to test it out but it seems like it will do at least some of what I am wanting it to do.

According to the the sample on the Git page, it provide clean Ren'py code.



All this being said, whatever how good and efficient those tools can be, they'll never be as good and efficient as writing the code by yourself. As said above, they permit to have a good idea of the game flow, but for this they add an abstraction layer on top of the code, what mean that you'll have to deal with the limitations of this layer.
Ren'py is an engine still in development, that have many updates/years, each update coming with its own addition to the engine. There's already too many features, with too many variations, for a software working by abstraction to effectively support them all.

Writing games with Ren'py is something relatively easy, and most of the authors who use it had few, when not no, codding knowledge when they started.
If you effectively need a visual help to define and/or understand your game flow, there's software dedicated to this. But, whatever how good they can be, and the last two are, using an abstraction software to effectively develop the game would just add more complications. Firstly, you'll have to learn both how to use Ren'py and the software. Secondly, once you've generated the code, you'll have to go back on it, in order to fix possible the issues, and to add the parts that can only be done directly with Ren'py.
Therefore, better use directly Ren'py, it would remove two unnecessary steps.[/code][/spoiler]

 

[Cigam]

All this being said, whatever how good and efficient those tools can be, they'll never be as good and efficient as writing the code by yourself.
...
Writing games with Ren'py is something relatively easy, and most of the authors who use it had few, when not no, codding knowledge when they started.
...
Therefore, better use directly Ren'py, it would remove two unnecessary steps.

That makes sense, and I was wondering that myself after reviewing some of these programs. I will just work at getting better learning Renpy then, and see what I can make from that. I have some ideas, so will just start from that and might look at other renpy games to see code they did, to maybe incorporate them easier into my own game.

Also would it be helpful to send you or someone the dialogue designer files, if anyone wanted to try it or use it for something? Even though it does not really help for the Renpy stuff too much maybe someone could find it useful.

 

[anne O'nymous]

I will just work at getting better learning Renpy then, and see what I can make from that.

At first probably less that what you would be able to do with one of the two goods software of your list. But, unlike what would happen if you used them, with time you'll learn new ways to do this or that, what will open new possibilities for your project.

What I don't like with those software is their level of abstraction. It can be good when you're working on many engines ; you learn how to deal with the abstraction software and can easily switch from an engine to another. But when you're always working with the same engine it hide things that can be really interesting.
By example, Summertime Saga have a character that don't speak English. To represent this, they write the dialog line in Spanish, and use the dialog line parameters to provide (then later proceed) the English translation. The said dialog line parameters aren't used much in the game, but to have the idea to use them (and also probably to be able to use them), you need to deal directly with Ren'py language.

I have some ideas, so will just start from that and might look at other renpy games to see code they did, to maybe incorporate them easier into my own game.

I recommend you to look at many different games, that feel like be of different quality. One strong point of Ren'py is that there's rarely only one way to do something. Therefore, the more you'll games you'll look at, the more you'll be able to find a way that fit you, or at least feel better.
By example, there's a game that never ever use the menu feature. The author build his own way to do this, creating a tons of screens and all. It's not bad by itself, but it deprive him to some facilities. Simply because something like :

screen choice01():
    vbox:
        textbutton "do this" action Jump( "doThis" )
        textbutton "do that" action Jump( "doThat" )

label whatever:
    [...]
    call screen choice01

label doThis:
    [...]
    jump commonPartAgain

label doThat:
    [...]
    jump commonPartAgain

label commonPartAgain:
    [...]

Isn't as readable than :

label whatever:
    [...]
    menu:
        "do this":
            [...]
        "do that":
            [...]
    [...]

Therefore, his way to do being way less explicit, maintaining the game, to fix an error or correct a dialog line by example, tend to be a pain in the ass. You can also easily make an error when writing the name of the label, writing "dothis" in place of "doThis" by example, what can't happen with the menu statement.

It doesn't mean that what he do is wrong, just that there's easiest way to do.

Also would it be helpful to send you or someone the dialogue designer files, if anyone wanted to try it or use it for something?

Personally I don't need it, but if it's not something too big, you can attach it to a comment here, and whoever want to look at it can download it.

 

[Cigam]

I recommend you to look at many different games, that feel like be of different quality. One strong point of Ren'py is that there's rarely only one way to do something. Therefore, the more you'll games you'll look at, the more you'll be able to find a way that fit you, or at least feel better.

I have played some renpy games that have features I would like to implement. So I will extract their code and look at how they did it, when I get to that point in my story. I imagine that how I do it may not be the most efficient way of doing it since I am new to Renpy but I could always go back and refine the code when I learn more.

Personally I don't need it, but if it's not something too big, you can attach it to a comment here, and whoever want to look at it can download it.

For anyone interested in the Dialogue Designer program here are two different sets of download links. Individual zip links, and a folder that lets you download the individual or all of them as one zip.

DD_Linux_3.1.0.zip (35.15 MB)

You must be registered to see the links

DD_MacOS_3.1.0.zip (17.77 MB)

You must be registered to see the links

DD_Windows_3.1.0.zip (31.45 MB)

You must be registered to see the links

Folder of the individual zips (84.37 MB)

You must be registered to see the links

 

[jikame5321]

Yo! Thank you for uploading the program! I was hoping to at least be able to try the program before buying it! So thank you very much

 

[Cigam]

Yo! Thank you for uploading the program! I was hoping to at least be able to try the program before buying it! So thank you very much

Welcome! yeah as far as I know there is no like auth key so thats the full version. If he updates it I would have to post the newer version or you could buy it if you like it.

Cheers

Edit:
I actually think Dialogic looks pretty good but its designed for godot based games, but is a little more of what I was going for:

You must be registered to see the links

 

[Cigam]

Something that looks a lot closer to what I was going for is this but still is not exactly correct but am posting it here incase anyone else is interested. It is another open source Godot based tool but seems like a better option than the other paid one:

You must be registered to see the links