What you need to develop with Ren'Py
A computer or laptop
This may seem obvious, but you need a computer that runs Windows, MacOS, or Linux to run the Ren'Py development environment. Unlike other engines you cannot develop just using a web browser on a tablet. It needn't be a particularly fast or capable machine, so older hardware will work. On the Ren'Py website it does say it runs on Android, iOS, and on the web, but the is for the finished game, not for development.
Ren'Py
You need a copy of the Ren'Py Launcher . Pay particular attention to the installation instructions if you are working on a Mac.
At the time of writing there are two concurrent versions of Ren'Py. Ren'Py 7.x has been around for a while and uses Python 2. Ren'Py 8.x is relatively new, and uses Python 3. Unless you've a good reason not to choose Ren'Py 8.x. There are some important differences in the two versions of Python so when searching for things on the web, be sure to specify which version of Ren'Py and which version of Python you are using. Some sites also have content that goes back to Ren'Py 6 and earlier.
A code editor
You can edit script files with almost any editor (I'm guilty of using the
venerable vi on occasion), but a modern one designed for
code has a lot of benefits and will save you time with features like:
- Syntax highlighting
- Shifting blocks of text left and right
- Auto-complete
- Bracket matching
- UTF-8 clean for accented characters
- Source control integration
Edit File
on the launcher it will prompt you to choose or install an editor.
Note: When choosing a font for your editor make sure you can tell the following letters apart: 'l' (ell), '1' (one), and 'I' (aye) also 'O' (oh) and '0' (zero).
An art program
A Visual Novel needs art, so you need some way of creating that. This is going to be down to personal preference, and the art style you have in mind for your game. This need not cost money. There are good open-source solutions out there.
Backups!
You absolutely need backups. You are going to be putting a lot of time into your game and it would be a shame to lose all that work to a hardware failure, theft, or act of god. Get in the habit of making backups now. I'm not going to say this again. Actually I will when we talk about source code control...