Ren'Py Minigames 101

Name: Ren'Py Minigames 101
Rating: 4.1 (38 reviews)

Learn to build minigames in Ren'Py & Python by building a Rhythm Game from scratch

Created byLynn Zheng

Last updated 2/2024

English

English [Auto],

What you'll learn

Building minigames in Ren'Py
Creating custom displayables in Ren'Py

Course content

4 sections • 15 lectures • 1h 15m total length

How to Use the Course Material2:37
The included downloadable material is the source code of the completed rhythm game project. For the material specific to each lecture, please check out the Course Material GitHub link in the External Resources.
Introduction to Screens and Displayables in Ren'Py4:45
Implement Creator-Defined Displayables6:43

Render the game screen and the tracks on which notes will appear4:35
Render a static game screen with four vertical tracks for the up, down, left, and right keys, compute offsets and bar dimensions, and map drawables to create the track layout.
Render the moving music notes12:50
Render time-based scrolling music notes across tracks, using onset times, track offsets, and a three-second life to animate notes in a Ren'Py minigame.
Time the music notes according to the custom music file5:10
Generate beat maps using Aubio in Python4:03
Aubio not working for you? Try Librosa (next lecture)
If you run into issues installing Aubio, no worries - you are not stuck. The next lecture covers a better-maintained library that is a perfect replacement for Aubio.
Generate beat maps using Librosa in Python3:35
Librosa is a package under active development and maintenance. They may change their API at any time.
For example, for learners in 2023, you might need to change the code as follows:

From:
x, sr = librosa.load(file_path)
onset_frames = librosa.onset.onset_detect(x, sr=sr, wait=1, pre_avg=1, post_avg=1, pre_max=1, post_max=1)

To:
y, sr = librosa.load(file_path)
onset_frames = librosa.onset.onset_detect(y=y, sr=sr, wait=1, pre_avg=1, post_avg=1, pre_max=1, post_max=1)

See https://librosa.org/doc/latest/generated/librosa.onset.onset_detect.html#librosa.onset.onset_detect
Play music and read the beat map files into Ren'Py4:34
The line of code to read in the file has been updated for Ren'Py 8 so it will be different from what's in the video.
Instead of:
with open(beatmap_path_full, 'rt') as f:
text = f.read()

We will use the open_file function provided by Ren'Py like this:
with renpy.open_file(beatmap_path, "utf-8") as f:
text = f.read()

Requirements

Basic knowledge of Ren'Py
Basic knowledge of Python strongly recommended
Basic knowledge of programming

Description

Are you interested in game development and want to create engaging 2D minigames? Are you a Ren'Py developer looking to implement minigames in your projects? This is the course for you.

This course, Ren'Py Minigames 101, covers all the fundamentals you need to build your own minigame in Ren'Py.

We will develop a Rhythm Game from scratch and in this process, you will learn all the necessary Ren'Py and Python skills for working with Ren'Py's Creator-Defined Displayables.

In each lecture, we will make incremental changes to our code, and, at the end of every lecture, we will have a runnable Ren'Py project that shows tangible progress towards the final completed project.

Some topics that we will cover:

Ren'Py Screens
Ren'Py Creator-Defined Displayables
Rendering the game view
Implementing player controls with PyGame
Timing the music notes to any song with Python packages like Aubio and Librosa
Enhancing player experience with a Heads-Up Display (HUD) and other visual cues
Designing bonus features for the Rhythm Game

Some experience with Ren'Py, Python, and programming is strongly recommended. This course assumes Python knowledge including data structures (list, dictionaries), functions, and classes (Object-Oriented Programming).

If you need to brush up on your Python skills, check out my tailored Python for Ren'Py course on Udemy.

By the end of this course, you will:

Have implemented a rhythm game from scratch
Be able to build bonus features for the rhythm game if you wish
Have the skills to build your own minigame in Ren'Py and Python

Join me in this course to level up your programming and game development skills and develop a minigame for your next Ren'Py project!

Who this course is for:

Beginner Python developers looking to create games
Ren'Py developers looking to add minigames to their projects
Anyone interested in 2D game development

Ren'Py Minigames 101

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Introduction3 lectures • 14min

Rendering the Game View6 lectures • 35min

Detecting Player Interaction Events3 lectures • 18min

Bonus Features, Course Recap and Conclusion3 lectures • 9min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: