# renpy/renpy

The Ren'Py Visual Novel Engine

Repository: https://github.com/renpy/renpy
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/renpy
Homepage: http://www.renpy.org/
Language: Ren'Py
License Family: other
Topics: renpy, visual-novel, python, game-engine, visual-novel-engine
Last push: 2026-08-26T01:45:37+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 94/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 84, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5180, "days_push": 8, "days_rel": 110, "gap_med": 12, "n_releases_24m": 18}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 6766, forks 926 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:48.391801+00:00)

## What it is
Ren'Py is an open-source visual novel engine that lets creators build interactive stories using words, images, and sounds, combining an easy-to-learn script language with Python scripting for complex simulation games. It supports building for desktop, mobile, and web platforms and is free for commercial use.

## Use cases
- make a visual novel game
- create an interactive story with images and music
- build a life simulation game with dialogue choices
- write a dating sim with branching dialogue
- port my visual novel to android and ios
- publish an interactive fiction game in the browser
- learn game scripting without heavy programming

## When to choose
- you want to author visual novels or narrative games with a purpose-built script language
- you need to ship the same story game to windows, mac, linux, mobile, and web
- you want Python-level extensibility for complex game logic
- you need a free engine that permits commercial releases

## When to avoid
- you are building action, 3D, or physics-heavy games rather than narrative titles
- you need a general-purpose game engine with a node/scene editor like Godot or Unity
- your project is not story- or dialogue-driven

## Facets
- artifact type: framework
- maturity: active
- function: game-engine, gui, animation, templating, interpreter, programming-language
- domain: cross-platform, developer-tools, entertainment
- platform: windows, browser, python, cross-platform, wasm
- tags: visual-novel-engine, renpy, script-language, interactive-fiction, life-simulation-games, game-launcher, free-for-commercial-use, screen-language, live2d, 3d-stage, game-development, visual-novel, macos, linux, android, ios

## Member repositories
- renpy/renpy (main) score 94

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:48.391801+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:42:33.199871+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/renpy/renpy (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:48.391801+00:00, sha a584112c8726)
  - homepage: http://www.renpy.org/ (fetched 2026-08-29T08:38:37.822171+00:00, sha 71b750f23464)
  - site_page: http://www.renpy.org/doc/html/quickstart.html (fetched 2026-08-29T08:38:37.832991+00:00, sha 39808fb9b4fa)
  - site_page: https://www.renpy.org/doc/html (fetched 2026-08-29T08:38:37.831124+00:00, sha a2c3a9717c33)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.