scene2.md

Scene 2

Our next scene happens on your way to Aling Nena's store. You bump into your friends Lita and Boy and you're now faced with another decision - will you break your promise to Aling Nena or remain true to your words?

In implementing this scene, we'll learn about:

• Positioning images
• Transitions
• Flags and if-else statements
• Jump statements

You'll first need to add two characters before the label start block along with the previous two characters.

define b = Character("Boy")
define l = Character("Lita")

In addition, we'll define two other variables called gamef and storef and set their values to False. Write them just below where you defined the characters before the label start block.

define gamef = False
define storef = False

Next, copy the assets bg street.png , lita.png, and boy.png from the assets folder into game/images.

Here is the full code for the next scene. Copy the following code into script.rpy after the label start block. It's a new label statement so it should not be indented inside the previous block.

label street:

    scene bg street with fade

    show nena

    n "Right, let's get started. We need to go to my Sari-sari store. Please help me for the day, Apo."
    
    hide nena
    
    show lita at left with moveinright
    l "Hi, Aling Nena and [name]!"

    show boy at right with moveinleft
    b "Hello po!"
    b "Long time no see, [name]! Tara, let's play!"

    show nena
    n "Naku apo, you said you'll help me."

    menu:
        "Lola, mamaya na. I'll play with my friends first.":
            n "Ay naku, apo. Bahala ka."
            jump game
        "Sorry Lita and Boy, I promised my Lola I'll help her today.":
            jump store
            
label store:
    $ storef = True
    pass

Create a new script called batobato.rpy. Write the following code:

label game:
    $ gamef = True
    pass

Try to run the game using the Ren'Py launcher.

!> Tip: You can use Back in the game screen to view the dialogue before or Skip to go ahead until some decision point is reached. Try these in order to view the different outcomes of your decision.

Positioning images

Continuing with our discussion about inserting images to our visual novel, positioning images in Ren'Py is as straight forward as using the at preposition, e.g:

show lita at left

Ren'Py has a pre-defined set of positions: left, right, center (default), and truecenter (centered horizontally and vertically). You can also define your own custom position using the Position() class. We'll revisit how to use this class later in Scene 4.

Transitions

Instead of simply popping in a scene or character image, transitions can be used to aide your storytelling. Like positions, this can simply be introduced using with:

scene bg street with fade

Transitions can be combined with positions:

show lita at left
with moveinright

which is the same as

show lita at left with moveinright

Like positions, Ren'Py has predefined transitions such as fade, dissolve, and pixellate. Likewise, you can define your own transitions using the different transition classes. You can learn more about the different pre-defined transitions and transition classes here.

Jump statement

The jump statement indicates that a particular label statement should be run next:

#...
    menu:
        "Play":
            # ... 
            jump game
        "Store":
			# ...
            jump store
label game:
    "Player chooses play"
label store:
    pass

You can think of the label name as pointers and the jump names as directives to run codes in these pointers next.

If you haven't decided what to put inside the next label block yet, you can prepare a label statement beforehand and just usepass, just like a regular Python pass statement:

label store:
    pass

Otherwise, the game will terminate in an error when it couldn't find the the next labelled block.

Let's fill out label game and label store in Scenes 3 and 4.

Flags and If-else statements

In our game, it is important to remember the choices of the player since some of these choices can determine what happens later on.

Ren'Py supports the use of flags. Just like characters, these can be set using the define statement before the label block.

define flag = False
label game:
    $ flag = True
label home:
    "Home"

Later on in the game, these flags can be used in an if-else statement.

label evaluate:
    if flag:
        "You played a game."
    else:
        "You went home."

Notice that you don't have to define an if-else statement inside a python block and that instead of writing the variable as $ flag in the if statement, you just use the name of the variable without $. If you need this variable outside the if-else or even elif statements, you'll need to precede it as $ flag.

In our code above for Scene 2, the variables gamef and storef are first set to False and then switched to True when the game ran the respective label blocks ... which, in turn, depended on the choice of the player under the menu block:

define gamef = False
define storef = False

# ...

label street:

# ...

    menu:
        "Lola, mamaya na. I'll play with my friends first.":
            n "Ay naku, apo. Bahala ka."
            jump game
        "Sorry Lita and Boy, I promised my Lola I'll help her today.":
            jump store
            
label store:
    $ storef = True
    pass

and in batobato.rpy

label game:
    $ gamef = True
    pass

This is how the game remembers that a particular choice has been made. It doesn't really matter if you change the value of the flag inside the menu block or inside the label block, so long as this aides the readability of your code i.e. if you write all other flags in your code in the same manner.

We'll use this values later on in the label ending block, in Scene 7 (the last scene):

label ending:
    #...
    	if gamef:
        #...
        elif storef:
		# ..

In the next part, we'll learn how to use other Python equivalent statements in Ren'Py by making a mini-game bato-bato pik (rock, paper, scissors).