itch.io

If you have a resource you want to add, notice a link is broken, or anything else, please let me know so I can go and edit the first post. Happy jamming!

Hello jammers! I'm likely not able to participate in the jam but I did promise a wealth of resources from my bookmarks and collections, so I'm sharing them here so they don't get lost in the Fluxer chat. I will do my best to only share engines & tools that I know are/were stable enough to make stuff that's mostly bug-free out of the box, but there will be a few whimsical/tiny engines that are definitely still in active development that I'll toss in here because I like the cut of their jib.

Disclaimer 1: If you're looking at this thread and thinking, "Wow, this looks oddly familiar in the way its formatted, is this a plagiarism?" then hi it's literally me, the same guy updating a years-old thread of things I found on the ground/internet.

Disclaimer 2: Especially when it comes to the engines & tools, I make no guarantee that the programs on this list are actively maintained or still function on modern OSes. Do your research as per usual, etc. etc.

VN Engines & Frameworks

• Ren'Py (Free, Open Source, Dedicated VN Engine) [Win, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, HTML5]
• Light.vn (Free, Open Source, Dedicated VN Engine) [Win,  iOS, Android, HTML5]
• Godot + Dialogic 2 (Free, Open Source, General Engine) [Win, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, HTML5, Consoles Possible*]
• Videotome, Videotome ADV, Super Videotome, Videotome Heartbreak (Free) [HTML5]
• Narrat (Free, Dedicated Narrative RPG Engine) [Windows,  iOS, Android, HTML5]
• SEEVN 2 (Free, Dedicated VN Engine) [Win, Mac, Linux]
• NVList (Free, Dedicated VN Engine) [Win, Mac, Linux, Android]
• VNMaker (Paid, Dedicated VN Engine) [Win, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, HTML5]
• TyranoBuilder (Paid, Dedicated VN Engine) [Win, Mac, HTML5, Android, iOS]
• GameMaker + VNgen (Free, General Engine) [Win, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, HTML5, Consoles Possible*]
• Unity + Naninovel OR Utage OR Fungus (Free/Paid, General Engine) [Win, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, HTML5, Consoles Possible*]
• Unreal Engine + Visual Novel Framework (Free/Paid, General Engine) [Win, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, HTML5, Consoles Possible*]

* Indicates that support for these platforms may involve more work 

Other Engines

• Twine 2 (Free) can make Interactive Fiction games. I highly recommend The Twine Grimoire series by Grim Baccaris!
• Bapalon (Free) makes "SOUP-like rooms" where players explore a 3D space, sort of like a museum gallery
• plano (Free) is a flatgame engine where players explore a 2D space
• wareware (Free) is a block-based 3D game engine for lo-fi games
• Whimtale (Free with Paid Tiers) is a series of small game engines with a fantasy console for making interactive stories where you can navigate the worlds you create and talk with stuff. Very bitsy-like.
• bitsy (Free), the classic lo-fi game engine for building rooms with interactable objects and characters
• windowpane (Free) is a tool for linking up different HTML5 games together for "strange sequential art"
• RPG Paper Maker (Free, Paid License for Commercial Games) makes 2.5D RPGs
• EasyRPG (Free) is "a community project to create a free, open source, role playing game creation tool, compatible with RPG Maker 2000/2003 games."

Art Programs

• FireAlpaca (Free, Drawing) [Win, Mac]
• Krita (Free, Drawing) [Win, Mac, Linux]
• MediBang Paint Pro (Free, Drawing) [Win, Mac, iOS, Android]
• Paint Tool SAI (Paid, Drawing) [Win]
• Photopea (Free with Ads) [HTML5]
• Corel Painter (Free, Drawing) [Win, Mac]
• Inkscape (Free, Vector Graphics)  [Win, Mac, Linux]
• Clip Studio Paint (Paid, Drawing) [Win, Mac]
• GIMP (Free, Drawing, Graphic Design) [Win, Mac, Linux]
• Sweet Home 3D (Free, 3D Interior Design) [Win,Mac, Linux]
• SketchUp (Free/Paid, 3D Interior/Exterior Design [Web, Win, Mac]

Audio Programs

• Audacity (Free, Audio Recorder and Editor) [Win, Mac, Linux]
• Bosca Ceoil (Free, Music Composition) [Win, Mac, Linux]
• Image to Music (Free, Music Toy) [Win]
• LabChirp (Free, SFX Generator)  [Win, Linux]
• GarageBand (Free, Music Composition) [Mac]
• LMMS (Free, Music Composition) [Win, Mac, Linux]
• MuseScore (Free, Music Composition [Win]

Writing Programs

• Ellipsus (Free) [Web-based]
• FocusWriter (Free) [Win, Mac, Linux]
• LibreOffice (Free)  [Win, Mac, Linux]
• Manuskript (Free)  [Win, Mac, Linux]
• Screeniver (Paid) [Win, Mac]
• The Guide (Free, Information Organizer) [Win]

Code Editors

• jEdit (Free) [Win, Mac, Linux]
• Sublime Text (Paid, unlimited Free Trial) [Win, Mac, Linux]
• Visual Studio Code (Free) [Win, Mac, Linux]

Fonts (Please check individual licenses!)

• GoogleFonts (Commercial Use OK)
• Google Noto (Commercial Use OK)
• FontSquirrel (Commercial Use OK)
• itch.io fonts (Check individual licenses)
• FontMeme (Commercial Use OK for fonts in this category)
• 1001Fonts (Commercial Use OK for fonts in this category)

Pre-Made Assets & Misc

• Natasha Luna's "Visual Novel Assets, Tutorials, and Tools" Collection (Various)
• deaddeaddeath's Photo Gallery "Hurt Nullified Catgirls For Fun!" (Photos)
• Fisher's Resources (for Ren'Py, mostly) (another Resource list)
• SONNISS GDC Packs (Free, SFX)
• Mannequin (Paid, Character Generator) [Win, Mac, Linux]
• Red's Art Assets (Free, Character Sprites, Items)
• Konett's Art Assets (Free/Paid, Character Sprites, Backgrounds, Items)
• Deji's Art Assets (Free/paid, Character Sprites)
• mugenjohncel's 3D BGs (Free, Backgrounds)
• LSF Resource Catalogue (Various)

Last Updated: April 12, 2026

I tested on those settings too, hmm... if you use a lot of userscripts like TamperMonkey, I wonder if that might affect it. In either case, I'll investigate this issue when I have time.

That's odd, Videotome is usually pretty lightweight as far as browser engines go. What OS and browser are you using?

I've been trying to think of an adequate response to this since I first saw this, and I think all I can say is

1) I'm sorry you've gone through this too

2) Thank you for letting me and others know we're not alone and not making these experiences up

Get you a man who is more upset that you thought he was cis than he is at your potential to murder him 🥰

Absolute cinema.

10/10, edutainment at its finest.

Very emotionally charged dialogue! I have got to watch the movie because I'm sure it hits that much harder if you know the characters, but I liked this quite a bit even without being familiar with the source material.

I played through the obvious bad end on PC (very impressed that you managed to get a native Linux build working pretty well!) and recently finished the game proper with the latest version 0.912 on Android. While the Android build is a bit rough around the edges (doesn't automatically switch to landscape mode), I appreciate the fact that it's an option to begin with and thoroughly enjoyed my time.

The story itself goes from 0 to 100 very quickly (in the best way possible), and the fact that Riker starts off as the weakest character who has the potential to become so absurdly OP if you play your cards right is honestly incredible game design. I adore the character art of Riker and Isaac, plus the banter is hilarious. This game was clearly made with a lot of love and whimsy against the Horrors™️

Pollo 👍

For those not in the DevTalk server, this was the answer that Arimia (owner of Crystal Game Works) gave.

This was super cool to play, though the text size makes it a little hard to read. I really loved the personalities on board!

Howdy there! I checked the rules and didn't see any rules mentioning NSFW, whether allowed or not for this year, and wanted to check in before I pitched a concept to some folks. It'd be really convenient to be able to submit something to TransHet Jam at the same time as Trans Joy!

https://itch.io/jam/the-transhet-jam

I had to stop stare out of the window when I got to the end. Quietly devastating.

me but frog

Sorry if the game's a little tough! I wrote an endings guide here that explains which choices might lead to what, so see if it helps!

https://tofurocks.itch.io/it-sucks-to-be-us/devlog/1101452/endings-guide-faqs

Hey there, I found Whimtale through your posts in DevTalk! I'm very enamored with the engine and wanted to know if asset imports to the Ultra edition might be possible to add to the engine down the road (ie. importing tilesets and sprites created outside of the engine). I have a huge collection of 48px tiles I purchased a few years ago and sometimes I just wanna make a simple exploration game instead of wrestling with all of RPGMaker lol

I tried to be vague, but that's Clodsire! Clodsire is inspired by some species of Japanese salamanders who can get very large and have a round face, they're strangely adorable.

I was finally able to fit the game on my monitors! I love how witty the descriptions and dialogue are, and the fact that none of the options are locked by body type is very nice. Overall incredible vibes, 10/10 would fall into a vat of concrete again.

Gah I'm so sorry I didn't respond earlier, I think itch.io ate my essay 😭😭 Not gonna type it up again but I really appreciate you taking your time with this one, and I'm glad the better endings were satisfying.

Gender really is a fuck, isn't it?

I also recently hit the big 3-0 myself and man... maybe we're not that old but my bones sure feel brittle these days ૮ ◞ ﻌ ◟ ა Back pain begone

Thank you for playing, and I'm glad you have a supportive group of friends who appreciate and cherish you. I was worried that I hadn't nailed the nuance well but I hope these kinds of experiences and conversations can be shared a little more often.

Hi Bez, thanks for playing! I hadn't considered submitting to ECTOCOMP because I feel like the "horror" as it were wouldn't really fit the typical definition of the genre, but maybe if I do another game I'll ask if it counts.

As for the endings, I just now published a minor update and guide here:

https://tofurocks.itch.io/it-sucks-to-be-us/devlog/1101452/endings-guide-faqs

Much appreciated ♡ Thank you for maintaining the collection!

Don't quote me on this, but if the site of injection has significant scar tissue, I believe it'll be harder for the needle to go through. I would definitely ask your doctor or nurse about this as they might know better.

Hi there, thanks for your feedback. Most of the team is taking a well-deserved break before diving back into heavy bugfixing, and we're aware of performance issues, script-flow bugs that can cause character scenarios to break, and the voice volume issues. We hope to address these with our next update.

If you have the time, would you be able to share the OS and specs of the device that you were playing on? I plan to implement a toggle that allows players to turn off the video animations and would like to gather information for a recommended minimum system requirements. Thank you again for playing!

Hey there, thanks for using the template! The Content Warnings screen will be located in extras.rpy towards the top of the file.

Hey Valmoxium, by repeating once do you mean it's reading the alternate text two times in total? I notice this behavior happens occasionally if I hover over a quickmenu button and the Self-Voicing will tell me what that button is, then it will start reading the dialogue again from the top. You seem to be doing everything correctly as far as I can tell from your code.

I'm unfortunately largely out of commission atm due as I'm recovering from my wisdom tooth extraction, but I pulled up the documentation on Self-Voicing as well as an indepth guide about it below. I hope that it provides some solution, and if if not I can ask around to see if anyone more familiar with Self-Voicing knows what's happening.

Official Documentation: https://www.renpy.org/doc/html/self_voicing.html

Additional Resource: https://orangecarnation.neocities.org/guides/renpy_tts

Very beautiful and pensive. The SFX really elevates this.

Hi DCS! Amado is a trans masc nonbinary man but the game does not depict a romantic relationship. He does lean homoromantic though, so not sure if it fits in any of the Trans Man in X Situations collections you curate. Thanks for asking!

Strong GOTY 2025 contender here, folks.

I've only managed to get two of the endings (World Devoured and Demon Summoning) but I absolutely love the dialogue and little secrets everyone has. I think we all deserve Big Snake in our lives.

Hi there, I'm the writer for Angel's route and I'm so happy you connected with xem! This truly makes me feel fulfilled as a game developer and writer. Making sure that Angel came across authentically was one of my key priorities while writing so I made sure to consult with folks with similar/adjacent lived experiences, and I'm glad it was worth it to let you feel seen.

Thank you so much for playing ♡

Good mystery and intrigue with brilliant banter, and absolutely gut-wrenching at the end. Love this.

Depending on if you've already customized your project or note, you can begin programming your GUI by using this as a base. I may recommend the other template I maintain as well if you want more features set up:
https://tofurocks.itch.io/renpy-gui-template

Otherwise, follow the instructions on this thread for just the code you want to use:

https://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=48322

Hi there, what's the issue you're encountering? 

Hello elduator,

 PRINCESS INTERNET CAFé and I discussed this last year and this was the ruling we determined:

Thanks for your patience, we've discussed it and have come to this verdict.

For an "icon" in settings where a electronic device is used to communicate via text, the following is allowed as GUI for the visual portion:

- Individual letters, words, and characters (such as in languages like Chinese or Japanese) in any language, stylized within engine

- Standardized Emoji Sets

There is a creative workaround I used in my own entry, HRT Simulator 2023, however. The icons below the "video" portion are actually cropped squares from the background. This is what the Ren'Py code looks like:

image icon_chair = Crop((350, 400, 100, 100), "sprites/background.png")
image icon_cowboy = Crop((570, 280, 100, 100), "small:sprites/background.png")
image icon_tsun = Crop((200, 200, 100, 100), "sprites/background.png")
image icon_frog = Crop((1670, 790, 100, 100), "sprites/background.png")
screen member_list():
    text "Members — 4" align (0.225,0.65)
    vbox:
        align (0.025,0.95)
        spacing 100
        
        hbox:
            spacing 50
            hbox:
                spacing 20
                add "icon_chair"
                text "72CollectiveChairs" yoffset 30
            hbox: 
                spacing 20
                add "icon_cowboy"
                text "CowboysKissing69" yoffset 30
        
        hbox:
            spacing 50
            hbox:
                spacing 20
                add "icon_tsun"
                text "IcedCoff33Tsunami" yoffset 30
            hbox:
                spacing 20
                add "icon_frog"
                text "UrFavoriteFr0g" yoffset 30

Hope this provides some inspiration!

From what I understand of the rule, it's to prevent someone from making objects move in the background?

That's the correct reason, yup.

Weltschmerz had some very light point and click elements in it and was made in Ren'Py, and those screens are assembled using Imagebuttons:

transform explore_size:
    zoom 0.78
    xoffset -1941
    yoffset -110
transform explore_zeke:
    xoffset -950
    yoffset -100
    zoom 0.78
transform train_effect:
    parallel:
        linear 0.7 xoffset 2
        linear 0.7 xoffset -2
        repeat
    parallel:
        linear 0.7 yoffset 2
        linear 0.7 yoffset -2
        repeat
screen explore_1():    
    imagebutton idle "mg" action Call("anywhere_1") at explore_size, train_effect
    imagebutton idle "fg" action Call("anywhere_1") at explore_size, train_effect
    imagebutton idle "door_p" action Call("door_check_1") focus_mask True at explore_size, train_effect
    imagebutton idle "zeke side" action Jump("proceed_1") focus_mask True at explore_zeke, train_effect


screen explore_2():
    imagebutton idle "mg" action Call("anywhere_2") at explore_size, train_effect
    imagebutton idle "fg" action Call("anywhere_2") at explore_size, train_effect
    imagebutton idle "door_p" action Call("door_check_2") focus_mask True at explore_size, train_effect
    imagebutton idle "zeke side" action Jump("proceed_2") focus_mask True at explore_zeke, train_effect

If you're using a different engine, then you can use whichever method is easiest for you. Good luck!

Hi Snarxgamer, thanks for your feedback! We just wanted to get back to you and confirm that NSFW content will not be a part of Blood & Play, either in the main story or as DLC, as several members of the team are not able to work on such games. We apologize for the late reply and inconvenience, but hope you will enjoy the game nonetheless.