How to Make a Simple Otome Game

Making a basic otome game is actually pretty easy! In this tutorial, we'll show you how.

Let's start with something very simple: an interactive (branching) story where a girl meets two boys and makes some choices. Depending on the choices the player makes, our protagonist will end up with boy A, boy B or alone.

Let's keep things simple since we're only doing this for practice. Later, you can apply what you learned in this tutorial to make a much more interesting game! But even the most simple otome game needs the following elements:

• programming
• graphics
• sound
• story

We'll cover them all step by step, so don't worry, even if you have zero experience in programming and making games! This tutorial might seem long but that's not because making a simple game in Ren'Py is complicated (it's not) - it's because we took extra care to explain every step in detail so nobody gets lost. And let's not forget you won't just learn a few features - you'll have a real, working otome game in the end!

Note: if you don't have the patience to read the whole thing and you trust your technical skills, there's a much shorter, no-hand-holding version here ( -coming soon- ).

Here's an overview of what we'll do:

1. Download and install Ren'Py. You can skip this step if you already have Ren'Py installed on your computer - but if this is the case, at least check whether you have the latest version!
2. The basics of Ren'Py. You don't need much programming knowledge to make a simple otome game. In this step, we'll only put some text on the screen.
3. Graphics.
4. Text and color.
5. Planning the story and the branching options.
6. Menus, variables and flags.
7. Putting it all together.
8. Exporting and distributing your game.

Let's begin!