Hey everyone! In keeping with our (mostly) yearly tradition, we will once again be hosting our Valentine's visual novel Mini-Jam this weekend.
Running from 10 AM to 4 PM this Saturday, February 15th (the day after Valentine's day), we are hosting a short, casual jam focused on creating visual novels and dating sims using the Ren'Py Visual Novel Engine. Of course there is no requirement to use Ren'Py for your game, or to even make a visual novel for that matter. But if any of this sounds interesting to you, feel free to show up any time this Saturday in Gould-Simpson Room 930! No sign up required! And in case you aren't able to make it in person, all submissions can be emailed to gamedev@cs.arizona.edu.
If you have minimal programming experience, prefer the art and writing side of game development, or simply lack the hours in your schedule to dedicate to a full weekend-long game jam, the Valentine's Mini-Jam is the perfect time to knock out a fun narrative experience in just a few hours.
Jam attendees: In case the building is locked, make sure to join our Discord server and drop a message in the #help-im-locked-out channel.
What are visual novels?
Visual novels are interactive, narrative-focused games, typically illustrated with an Anime/Manga art style. There are lots of kinds of visual novels, though the most popular subgenres tend to be Role-Playing Games and Dating Sims. Some notable examples of visual novels include Doki Doki Literature Club, VA-11 HALL-A, Hatoful Boyfriend, the Ace Attorney series, and Monster Prom.
What's a Ren'Py???
Simply put, Ren'Py is a very easy to use game engine made for the express purpose of developing visual novels. It's based on the Python programming language, so it's very easy to pick up for programming newbies and veterans alike. Learn more about Ren'Py here: renpy.org.
If you missed Jade and Amanada's presentation on Monday regarding visual novels and the Ren'Py engine, you can view their slides here!
And if you have any questions about this game jam or other club activities, drop us a line at gamedev@cs.arizona.edu, or message us on our Discord.
