Screens and Screen Language

The things that a user sees when looking at a Ren'Py game can be divided into images and user interface. Images are displayed to the user using the scene, show, and hide statements, and are generally part of the story being told. Everything else the user sees is part of the user interface, which is customized using screens.

Screens can be displayed in four ways:

Implicitly, when script statements execute. For example, the say statement will cause the say screen to be displayed.
Automatically. For example, Ren'Py will display the main_menu screen when it starts running, or when the user returns to the main menu.
As an action, associated with a button, mouse button, or keyboard key. By default, the save screen is shown when the user right-clicks or presses escape. It's also possible to define an on-screen button that shows the save screen.
Explicitly, using statements that cause screens to be shown.

More than one screen can be shown at a time.

Screens have two main functions. The first is to display information to the user. Information can be displayed using text, bars, and images. Some of the information displayed in this manner is vital to gameplay. The say screen, for example, is used to display dialogue to the user, including the character's name and what she is saying.

The other thing a screen can do is to allow the user to interact with the game. Buttons and bars allow the user to invoke actions and adjust values. Ren'Py includes a pool of pre-defined actions, allowing the user to advance the game, control preferences, load and save games, and invoke many other actions. A game-maker can also write new actions in Python.

Screens are updated at the start of each interaction, and each time an interaction is restarted. Note that a with None statement does not cause an interaction to happen, and hence won't update a screen. A with Pause(0) will be enough to trigger one, if necessary.

A screen has a scope associated with it, giving values to some variables. There are different kinds of variables, in screens, which are resolved as shown in the following list:

First are local variables. These only exist in a screen that is being included in another with the use statement instead of being shown (or called) on its own. They are very similar with screen variables (see below), and created the same way, except that local variables can only be accessed by the used screen. Those are set using SetLocalVariable, among other actions, or by a python block or line in the used screen. Actions such as SetScreenVariable will not work on local variables.
- Local parameters are the parameters taken by the used screen. They live in the same scope as local variables, and follow the same behavior and constraints as screen parameters - see below.
If a name cannot be resolved among local variables - or if we are not in a screen being used by another - the name is searched for in screen variables. These are variables created with the in-screen Default or Python statements, in the top-level screen. Screen variables can be set through the SetScreenVariable action, among others, or by a python block or line in the top-level screen, or any used screen if no local variable has the same name.
- Screen parameters (that is, values defined and passed through the parentheses of the screen statement) live in the same scope as screen variables (that is, they can't have the same name), but they can't be set or edited through actions, since they will be reset to their original value at arbitrary times, including every time an action is executed. So, if their value were edited through the SetScreenVariable action (or any other action really), it would be reset immediately afterwards. This is also the case for variables defined in in-screen python blocks, since these blocks are executed at arbitrary times, as opposed to the in-screen default statement which executes only at the time the screen gets shown.
In last resort, a variable name is looked for in the general store, where all of Ren'Py's global variables are. Such variables can be set through the SetVariable action, among others.

Note

If you want an action to set a variable inside a screen, and you want that screen to be sometimes shown directly and sometimes used inside another, use SetLocalVariable. It will be far less efficient, but it will work in both cases.

Screens must not cause side effects that are visible from outside the screen. Ren'Py will run a screen multiple times, as it deems necessary. It runs a screen as part of the image prediction process, before the screen is first shown. As a result, if running a screen has side effects, those side effects may occur at unpredictable times.

Using Python generators in screens may cause unpredictable results. This traces back to an issue with the way the Python interpreter compiles Python source code that will be used in a screen context. Generators can be used in Python functions called from a screen, but not in the screen itself.

Screen Language

The screen language is a mostly-declarative way of displaying screens. It consists of a statement that declares a new screen, statements that add displayables to that screen, and control statements.

Here's an example of a screen:

screen say(who, what):
    window id "window":
        vbox:
            spacing 10

            text who id "who"
            text what id "what"

The first line of this is a screen statement, a Ren'Py language statement that's used to declare a screen. The name of the screen is say, so this is the screen that's used to display dialogue. It takes two parameters, who and what.

The screen contains a window, which has been given the id of "window". This window contains a vertical box, and the spacing inside that box is 10 pixels. It contains two text fields, one displaying the name of the speaker, and the displaying what is being spoken.

Screen Language Syntax

Most screen language statements share a common syntax. (Some of the control statements have other syntaxes.) A statement starts at the beginning of a line, with a keyword that introduces the statement.

If a statement takes parameters, they immediately follow the keyword. The parameters are space-separated simple expressions, unless otherwise noted.

The positional parameters are followed by a property list. A property consists of the property name, followed by the value of that property. Property values are simple expressions, unless otherwise noted. A property list is a space-separated list of these properties.

If a statement ends with a colon :, then it takes a block. Each line in a block may be one of two things:

A property list.
A screen language statement.

Screen Statement

The screen statement is a Ren'Py script language statement that is used to declare a new screen. It is parsed using the screen language common syntax.

It takes one parameter, the name of the screen. This is a name, not an expression. It takes the following properties:

modal: If True, the screen is modal. A modal screen prevents the user from interacting with displayables below it, except for the default keymap. This is evaluated once, when the game starts.

sensitive: An expression that determines whether the screen is sensitive or not. This expression is evaluated at least once per interaction.

tag: Parsed as a name, not an expression. This specifies a tag associated with this screen. Showing a screen replaces other screens with the same tag. This can be used to ensure that only one screen of a menu is shown at a time, in the same context.

zorder: This controls how close to the user a screen is displayed. The larger the number, the closer the screen is displayed to the user. It defaults to 0.

variant: If present, this should be a string or list of strings giving the variant of screen to be defined. See Screen Variants.

style_prefix: A string that's used to provide a prefix for the style for the children of this screen, as described below.

layer: A string giving the name of the layer the screen is shown on by default.

roll_forward

If true, roll forward will be enabled when the screen is used in a call screen statement. If false, roll forward is disabled, and if None or not given, the value of config.call_screen_roll_forward is used.

When roll forwarding from a call screen statement, return values and terminal jumps are preserved, but other side effects will not occur. This means that if the screen only contains Jump() and Return() actions, it's safe to enable roll_forward. Other actions may have side-effects that will not occur during the roll_forward.

screen hello_world():
     tag example
     zorder 1
     modal False

     text "Hello, World."

A screen can take a parameter list:

screen center_text(s, size=42):
     text s size size

If a screen has no parameters, it still should be given empty parentheses. If any other screen uses a screen with no parentheses, the difference in behavior are described in the section concerning the use statement. If no other screen use a given screen, not giving parentheses to that screen leads to pure inefficiency in the way Ren'py works internally, see the screen optimization section concerning parameters.

User Interface Statements

The user interface statements create displayables and add them either to the screen, or to an enclosing displayable. They allow the user to display information, allow the user to interact with the game, or allow the game to react to various events.

All user interface statements take the following common properties:

at

This can be a transform, or a list of transforms, or an anonymous transform (a transform that is defined directly in at)

transform hello_t:
    align (0.7, 0.5) alpha 0.0
    linear 0.5 alpha 1.0

screen hello_title():
    text "Hello." at hello_t
    text "Hello." at transform:
        align (0.2, 0.5) alpha 0.0
        linear 0.5 alpha 1.0

This transforms are used to wrap this displayable. The show, hide, replace, and replaced external events are delivered to a transform if and only if it is added directly to the screen.

For example, if a vbox is wrapped in a transform, and added directly to the screen, then events are delivered to that transform. But if a transform wraps a textbutton that is added to the vbox, this second transform is not given events.

It's possible for a single statement to have both an at property and an at transform. The property must come first, and is applied first.

screen title():
    add "title background":
        at sepia

    text "The Title of the Game":
        at sepia, truecenter
        at transform:
            alpha 0.0
            linear 0.5 alpha 1.0

default_focus

If given and true, the displayable is focused by default. When multiple displayables have this, the values are compared and the displayable with the greatest default focus becomes the default.

The default focus is only used when the last interaction was not a mouse click, mouse movement, or touch.

extra_alt

This is used to specify extra alt text for Self-Voicing. If defined, the extra alt text is spoken to the player when the '?' key is pressed, and self-voicing ie enabled.

The extra_alt is inherited by all children of the displayable, unless they have a more specific extra_alt set.

Extra alt text is intended to provide vision-impaired players with additional information about groups of displayables.

focus: Takes a string or integer, and gives a name to the displayable for focus purposes. Ren'Py looks for structural similarity between focus names when deciding with displayable to give focus to at the start of an interaction. If a box is given a focus name, and the third button in that box is focused at the end of an interaction, the third button of a box with the same will be highlighted at the start of the next interaction.

group_alt

This is used to specify a group prefix for Self-Voicing. When self-voicing is enabled, a group prefix is spoken the first time a displayable with the same group prefix is focused, but will not be spoken again until a displayable with a different group prefix is focused.

The group_alt is inherited by all children of the displayable, unless they have a more specific group_alt set.

id

An identifier for the user-interface statement. When a screen is shown, property values can be supplied for the displayables with a given identifier. Some screens will require that a displayable with a given identifier is created.

When a displayable is created with an id, the id is stored as a string ion a attribute named id on the Displayable object.

prefer_screen_to_id: If true, when a property is provided by both the screen and a displayble identifier, the screen property is used. If false, the default, the displayable property is used. (This can be used to decide if the screen overrides properties set by a Character.)

style: A string giving the name of the style applied to this displayable. The style gives default values for style properties.

style_prefix

Provides a prefix to the style of this displayable and all of its children, unless those children have a more specific style or style prefix set.

The style name is created by concatenating a style prefix, underscore, and a style suffix. The style suffix is either specified using style_suffix, or determined by the displayable.

For example, if a vbox has a style prefix of "pref", the vbox will be given the style "pref_vbox". Unless a more specific style or style prefix is set, a button inside the vbox will have the style "pref_button".

Styles accessed in this way are automatically created, if the style does not exist. Setting a prefix of None removes the prefix from this displayable and its children.

style_group: An alias for style_prefix, used in older versions of Ren'Py.

style_suffix

Specifies the suffix that is combined with the style_prefix to generate a style name. If this is "small_button" and the style prefix is "pref", the style "pref_small_button" is used.

If no style prefix is in use, this is used directly as the name of the style. A style suffix applies to a single displayable only, not a displayable and all children.

tooltip

Assigns a tooltip to this displayable. When the displayable gains focus, the value of this property will be made available from the GetTooltip() function. See the Tooltips section for more details.

Objects passed to tooltip must support equality. If equality is not supported, an infinite loop may occur.

arguments: A tuple or list containing additional positional arguments that are given to the displayable.

properties: A dictionary containing additional properties given to the displayable.

Many user interface statements take classes of style properties, or transform properties. These properties can have a style prefix associated with them, that determines when they apply. For example, if text is given the hover_size property, it sets the text size when the text is hovered.

User interface statements take an as clause, which takes a variable name, without any quotes. The displayable that the statement creates is assigned to the variable. (An example can be found in the drag and drop documentation.)

Bar

Creates a horizontally-oriented bar that can be used to view or adjust data. It takes the following properties:

value: The current value of the bar. This can be either a bar value object, or a number.

range: The maximum value of the bar. This is required if value is a number.

adjustment: A ui.adjustment() object that this bar adjusts.

changed: If given, this should be a Python function. The function is called with the value of the adjustment when the adjustment is changed.

hovered: An action to run when the bar gains focus.

unhovered: An action to run when the bar loses focus.

released: An action to run when the bar button is released. This will be invoked even if the bar has not changed its value.

One of value or adjustment must be given. In addition, this function takes:

This does not take children.

screen volume_controls():
    frame:
        has vbox

        bar value Preference("sound volume") released Play("sound", "audio/sample_sound.ogg")
        bar value Preference("music volume")
        bar value Preference("voice volume")

Button

Creates an area of the screen that can be activated to run an action. A button takes no parameters, and the following properties.

action: The action to run when the button is activated. A button is activated when it is clicked, or when the player selects it and hits enter on the keyboard. This also controls if the button is sensitive if sensitive is not provided or None, and if the button is selected if selected is not provided or None.

alternate: An action that is run if the button is activated in an alternate manner. Alternate activation occurs when the player right-clicks on the button on a mouse-based platform, or when the player long presses the button on a touch-based platform.

hovered: An action to run when the button gains focus.

unhovered: An action to run when the button loses focus.

selected: An expression that determines whether the button is selected or not. This expression is evaluated at least once per interaction. If not provided or None, the action will be used to determine selectedness.

sensitive: An expression that determines whether the button is sensitive or not. This expression is evaluated at least once per interaction. If not provided or None, the action will be used to determine sensitivity.

keysym: A string giving a keysym describing a keyboard key that, when pressed, invokes the action of this button.

alternate_keysym: A string giving a keysym describing a keyboard key that, when pressed, invokes the alternate action of this button.

It also takes:

It takes one child. If zero, two, or more children are supplied, they are implicitly added to a fixed, which is added to the button.

Dismiss

The dismiss statement creates the highly specialized dismiss displayable, which gains focus when no other displayable has focus, and runs an action when it's activated. In this regard, it works very similarly to the behavior of the say statement.

This is rarely used, and mostly to allow a modal frame to be dismissed when the player clicks outside it, as might be the case with a popup window.

This takes the following properties:

action: The action performed when the dismiss is activated. This property is required.

keysym: A string giving a keysym describing a key that, when pressed, invokes the action of this dismiss. This replaces the default "dismiss" keysym.

modal: By default, the dismiss is modal, preventing events from being processed by displayables "behind" it.

It also takes:

Common Properties
The hover_sound and activate_sound style properties.

Here's an example of dismiss being used:

screen dismiss_test():

    dismiss action Return()

    frame:
        modal True

        align (.5, .3)
        padding (20, 20)

        has vbox

        text "This is a very important message.":
            xalign 0.5
            textalign 0.5

        # Dismiss can be confusing on its own, so we'll add a button as well.
        textbutton "Dismiss":
            xalign 0.5
            action Return()

See also how dismiss is used in conjunction with nearrect.

Fixed

This creates an area to which children can be added. By default, the fixed expands to fill the available area, but the xmaximum and ymaximum properties can change this.

The children are laid out according to their position style properties. They can overlap if not positioned properly.

The fixed statement takes no parameters, and the following groups of properties:

This takes any number of children, which are added to the fixed.

It's often unnecessary to explicitly create a fixed displayable. Each screen is contained within a fixed displayable, and many screen language statements automatically create a fixed displayable if they have two or more children.

screen ask_are_you_sure:
    fixed:
         text "Are you sure?" xalign 0.5 yalign 0.3
         textbutton "Yes" xalign 0.33 yalign 0.5 action Return(True)
         textbutton "No" xalign 0.66 yalign 0.5 action Return(False)

Frame

A frame is a window that contains a background that is intended for displaying user-interface elements like buttons, bars, and text. It takes the following groups of properties:

It takes one child. If zero, two, or more children are supplied, then a fixed is created to contain them.

screen test_frame():
    frame:
        xpadding 10
        ypadding 10
        xalign 0.5
        yalign 0.5

        vbox:
            text "Display"
            null height 10
            textbutton "Fullscreen" action Preference("display", "fullscreen")
            textbutton "Window" action Preference("display", "window")

Grid

This displays its children in a grid. Each child is given an area of the same size, the size of the largest child.

It takes two parameters. The first is the number of columns in the grid, and the second is the number of rows in the grid. If the grid is not full, the remaining cells are filled with the null displayable.

Grid takes one property:

transpose: If False (the default), rows are filled before columns. If True, then columns are filled before rows.

It also takes:

This must be given (columns * rows) children. Giving it a different number of children is an error.

screen grid_test:
     grid 2 3:
         text "Top-Left"
         text "Top-Right"

         text "Center-Left"
         text "Center-Right"

         text "Bottom-Left"
         text "Bottom-Right"

Hbox

This displays its children side by side, in an invisible horizontal box. It takes no parameters, and the following groups of properties:

UI displayable children are added to the box.

screen hbox_text():
    hbox:
         text "Left"
         text "Right"

Imagebutton

Creates a button consisting of images, that change state when the user hovers over them. This takes no parameters, and the following properties:

auto

Used to automatically define the images used by this button. This should be a string that contains %s in it. If it is, and one of the image properties is omitted, %s is replaced with the name of that property, and the value is used as the default for that property.

For example, if auto is "button_%s.png", and idle is omitted, then idle defaults to "button_idle.png". Similarly, if auto is "button %s", the button idle image is used.

The behavior of auto can be customized by changing config.imagemap_auto_function.

insensitive: The image used when the button is insensitive.

idle: The image used when the button is not focused.

hover: The image used when the button is focused.

selected_idle: The image used when the button is selected and idle.

selected_hover: The image used when the button is selected and hovered.

action: The action to run when the button is activated. This also controls if the button is sensitive if sensitive is not provided or None, and if the button is selected if selected is not provided or None.

alternate: An action that is run if the button is activated in an alternate manner. Alternate activation occurs when the player right-clicks on the button on a mouse-based platform, or when the player long presses the button on a touch-based platform.

hovered: An action to run when the button gains focus.

unhovered: An action to run when the button loses focus.

selected: An expression that determines whether the button is selected or not. This expression is evaluated at least once per interaction. If not provided or None, the action will be used to determine selectedness.

sensitive: An expression that determines whether the button is sensitive or not. This expression is evaluated at least once per interaction. If not provided or None, the action will be used to determine sensitivity.

keysym: A string giving a keysym describing a keyboard key that, when pressed, invokes the action of this button.

alternate_keysym: A string giving a keysym describing a keyboard key that, when pressed, invokes the alternate action of this button.

It also takes:

This takes no children.

screen gui_game_menu():
     vbox xalign 1.0 yalign 1.0:
          imagebutton auto "save_%s.png" action ShowMenu('save')
          imagebutton auto "prefs_%s.png" action ShowMenu('preferences')
          imagebutton auto "skip_%s.png" action Skip()
          imagebutton auto "afm_%s.png" action Preference("auto-forward mode", "toggle")

Input

Creates a text input area, which allows the user to enter text. When the user presses return, the text will be returned by the interaction. (When the screen is invoked through call screen, the result will be placed in the _return variable.)

Due to limitations in supporting libraries, on Android and the web platform the input displayable is limited to alphabetic characters.

The input statement takes no parameters, and the following properties:

value

An input value object that this input uses. InputValue objects determine where the default value is taken from, what happens when the text is changed, what happens when enter is pressed, and if the text is editable by default.

This should not be given at the same time as default and changed.

default: The default text in this input.

length: The maximum length of the text in this input.

pixel_width: The maximum pixel width of the input. If typing a character would cause the input to exceed this width, the keypress is ignored.

allow: A string containing characters that are allowed to be typed into this input. (By default, allow all characters.)

exclude: A string containing characters that are disallowed from being typed into this input. (By default, "{}".)

copypaste: If True, it becomes possible to copy and paste into this input. (By default, disabled.)

prefix: An immutable string to prepend to what the user has typed.

suffix: An immutable string to append to what the user has typed.

changed: A Python function that is called with what the user has typed, when the string changes.

mask: If given, a string that replaces each displayable character in the text. This can be used to mask out a password.

caret_blink: If not False, the blinking period of the default caret. Overrides config.input_caret_blink.

multiline: If true, it becomes possible to move caret on the next line using keyboard (Shift+Enter by default, can be changed by modifying config.keymap['input_next_line']).

action

If not None, an action that is run when enter is pressed and the input is active. This overrides the default action of returning the input value.

Generally, this is is used with a value that stores the input into a variable, so the action can access it.

It also takes:

This does not take any children.

screen input_screen():
    window:
        has vbox

        text "Enter your name."
        input default "Joseph P. Blow, ESQ."

Key

This creates a keybinding that runs an action when a key is pressed, or one of the keys in a given list. Key is used in a loose sense here, as it also allows joystick and mouse events.

Key takes one positional parameter, a string giving the key to bind. See the Customizing the Keymap section for a description of available keysyms. It takes two properties:

action: This gives an action that is run when the key is pressed. This property is mandatory.

capture: If true, the default, the event will capture, and will not be processed by other displayables. If false and the action does not end the interaction, the event will be processed by other displayables.

It takes no children.

screen keymap_screen():
    key "game_menu" action ShowMenu('save')
    key "p" action ShowMenu('preferences')
    key ["s", "w"] action Screenshot()

Label

Creates a window in the label style, and then places text inside that window. Together, this combination is used to label things inside a frame.

It takes one positional argument, the text of the label. It takes the property:

text_style: The name of the style to use for the button text. If not supplied, and the style property is a string, then "_text" is appended to that string to give the default text style.

text_-: Other properties prefixed with text have this prefix stripped, and are then passed to the text displayable.

It also takes:

It does not take children.

screen display_preference():
    frame:
        has vbox

        label "Display"
        textbutton "Fullscreen" action Preference("display", "fullscreen")
        textbutton "Window" action Preference("display", "window")

Mousearea

A mouse area is an area of the screen that can react to the mouse entering or leaving it. Unlike a button, a mouse area does not take focus, so it's possible to have a mouse area with buttons inside it. The mousearea statement takes no parameters, and the following properties:

hovered: An action to run when the mouse enters the mouse area.

unhovered: An action to run when the mouse leaves the mouse area.

focus_mask: The focus_mask style property, which may be a Displayable or None. If a displayable, the mousearea will only be hovered if the mouse is over an opaque portion of the displayable. (The displayable is not shown to the user.)

It also takes:

It does not take children.

Usually, a mousearea statement is given the area style property, which controls the size and position of the mouse area. Without some way of controlling its size, the mouse area would take up the entire screen, a less useful behavior.

Note

Since Ren'Py games can be played using the keyboard and joystick, it often makes sense to duplicate mousearea functionality by some other means.

screen button_overlay():
    mousearea:
        area (0, 0, 1.0, 100)
        hovered Show("buttons", transition=dissolve)
        unhovered Hide("buttons", transition=dissolve)

screen buttons():
    hbox:
        textbutton "Save" action ShowMenu("save")
        textbutton "Prefs" action ShowMenu("preferences")
        textbutton "Skip" action Skip()
        textbutton "Auto" action Preference("auto-forward", "toggle")

label start:
    show screen button_overlay

Nearrect

The nearrect statement takes a single child, and lays that child out at a location near a rectangle. Usually, this is a rectangle focus captured using the CaptureFocus() action. This can be used for tooltips and dropdown or pulldown menus.

Nearrect takes the following properties:

rect: If given, this should be an (x, y, w, h) rectangle that the child is positioned relative to, as described below.

focus

If given, this should be a string. This string is passed to the equivalent of GetFocusRect() to find the rectangle. If a focus rectangle with that name is found, the child is rendered.

Passing "tooltip" to this uses the location of the last displayable that was focused while displaying a tooltip.

prefer_top: If given, positioning the child above the focus rect is preferred.

It also takes:

Nearrect differs from the other layouts in that it positions its child near the given rectangle, rather than inside it. The child is first rendered with the full width available, and the maximum of the height above and height below the rectangle. The y position is then computed as followed.

If the child will fit above the rectangle and prefer_top is given, the child is positioned directly above the rectangle.
Otherwise, if the child can fit below the rectangle, it's positioned directly below the rectangle.
Otherwise, the child is positioned directly above the rectangle.

The x positioning is computed using the normal rules, using the xpos and xanchor properties of the child, and properties that set them, such as xalign. The pos properties are relative to the x coordinate of the rectangle, and in the case of a floating point number, the width.

At the end of positioning, the xoffset and yoffset properties are applied as normal.

If the child of the nearrect is a transform, the transform is given show and hide events. However, the position will change instantly. Nearrect works best on the top of a screen, with transforms and positioning applied to its child, rather the nearrect.

One use of nearrect is for dropdown menus:

default difficulty = "Easy"

screen select_difficulty():

    # This frame can be a very complex layout, if required.
    frame:
        align (.5, .3)
        padding (20, 20)

        has vbox

        # This is the button that is clicked to enable the dropdown
        textbutton "Difficulty: [difficulty]":

            # This action captures the focus rectangle, and in doing so,
            # displays the dropdown.
            action CaptureFocus("diff_drop")

        textbutton "Done":
            action Return()

    # All sorts of other screen elements could be here, but the nearrect needs
    # to be at the top level, and the last thing shown, apart from its child.

    # Only if the focus has been captured, display the dropdown.
    # You could also use showif instead of basic if
    if GetFocusRect("diff_drop"):

        # If the player clicks outside the frame, dismiss the dropdown.
        # The ClearFocus action dismisses this dropdown.
        dismiss action ClearFocus("diff_drop")

        # This positions the displayable near (usually under) the button above.
        nearrect:
            focus "diff_drop"

            # Finally, this frame contains the choices in the dropdown, with
            # each using ClearFocus to dismiss the dropdown.
            frame:
                modal True

                has vbox

                textbutton "Easy" action [ SetVariable("difficulty", "Easy"), ClearFocus("diff_drop") ]
                textbutton "Medium" action [ SetVariable("difficulty", "Medium"), ClearFocus("diff_drop") ]
                textbutton "Hard" action [ SetVariable("difficulty", "Hard"), ClearFocus("diff_drop") ]
                textbutton "Nightmare" action [ SetVariable("difficulty", "Nightmare"), ClearFocus("diff_drop") ]

Dropdowns may benefit from improved styling, which isn't done here.

Null

The null statement inserts an empty area on the screen. This can be used to space things out. The null statement takes no parameters, and the following properties:

width: The width of the empty area, in pixels.

height: The height of the empty area, in pixels.

It also takes:

It does not take children.

screen text_box():
    vbox:
         text "The title."
         null height 20
         text "This body text."

Side

This positions displayables in the corners or center of a grid. It takes a single parameter, string containing a space-separated list of places to place its children. Each component of this list should be one of:

'c', 't', 'b', 'l', 'r', 'tl', 'tr', 'bl', 'br'

'c' means center, 't' top, 'tl' top left, 'br' bottom right, and so on.

A side takes the following properties:

spacing: The spacing between the rows and columns of the grid.

A side takes the following property groups:

When being rendered, this first sizes the corners, then the sides, then the center. The corners and sides are rendered with an available area of 0, so it may be necessary to supply them a minimum size (using xminimum or yminimum) to ensure they render at all. The order of placing children is controlled from top to bottom when adding them (i.e. also in the order of substrings in the argument), the latter will be the highest. This is may be disabled by config.keep_side_render_order.

Children correspond to entries in the places list, so this must have the same number of children as there are entries in the places list.

screen side_test():
     side "c tl br":
          text "Center"
          text "Top-Left"
          text "Bottom-Right"

Text

The text statement displays text. It takes a single parameter, the text to display. It also takes the following groups of properties:

It does not take children.

screen hello_world():
    text "Hello, World." size 40

Textbutton

Creates a button containing a text label. The button takes a single parameter, the text to include as part of the button. It takes the following properties:

action: The action to run when the button is activated. This also controls if the button is sensitive if sensitive is not provided or None, and if the button is selected if selected is not provided or None.

alternate: An action that is run if the button is activated in an alternate manner. Alternate activation occurs when the player right-clicks on the button on a mouse-based platform, or when the player long presses the button on a touch-based platform.

hovered: An action to run when the button gains focus.

unhovered: An action to run when the button loses focus.

selected: An expression that determines whether the button is selected or not. This expression is evaluated at least once per interaction. If not provided or None, the action will be used to determine selectedness.

sensitive: An expression that determines whether the button is sensitive or not. This expression is evaluated at least once per interaction. If not provided or None, the action will be used to determine sensitivity.

keysym: A string giving a keysym describing a keyboard key that, when pressed, invokes the action of this button.

alternate_keysym: A string giving a keysym describing a keyboard key that, when pressed, invokes the alternate action of this button.

text_style: The name of the style to use for the button text. If not supplied, and the style property is a string, then "_text" is appended to that string to give the default text style.

text_-: Other properties prefixed with text have this prefix stripped, and are then passed to the text displayable.

It also takes:

It does not take children.

screen textbutton_screen():
    vbox:
        textbutton "Wine" action Jump("wine")
        textbutton "Women" action Jump("women")
        textbutton "Song" action Jump("song")

Timer

This creates a timer that runs an action when time runs out. It takes one positional parameter, giving the timeout time, in seconds. It takes the properties:

action: This gives an action that is run when the timer expires. This property is mandatory.

repeat: If True, the timer repeats after it times out.

modal: If True, the timer will not fire if it is blocked by a modal screen. If false or not given, the timer will fire even if it is blocked by a modal screen.

Timer takes no children.

screen timer_test():
    vbox:
         textbutton "Yes." action Jump("yes")
         textbutton "No." action Jump("no")

    timer 3.0 action Jump("too_slow")

Transform

Applies a transform to its child. This takes no parameters, and the following property groups:

This should take a single child.

Vbar

The vertically oriented equivalent of bar. Properties are the same as bar.

screen volume_controls():
     frame:
         has hbox

         vbar value Preference("sound volume")
         vbar value Preference("music volume")
         vbar value Preference("voice volume")

Vbox

This displays its children one above the other, in an invisible vertical box. It takes no parameters, and the following groups of properties:

UI displayable children are added to the box.

screen vbox_test():
    vbox:
         text "Top."
         text "Bottom."

Viewport

A viewport is area of the screen that can be scrolled by dragging, with the mouse wheel, or with scrollbars. It can be used to display part of something that is bigger than the screen. It takes the following properties:

child_size: The size that is offered to the child for rendering. An (xsize, ysize) tuple. This can usually be omitted, when the child can compute it's own size. If either component is None, the child's size is used.

mousewheel

This should be one of:

False: To ignore the mousewheel. (The default.)
True: To scroll vertically.
"horizontal": To scroll horizontally.
"change": To scroll the viewport vertically, only if doing so would cause the viewport to move. If not, the mousewheel event is passed to the rest of the interface. (For example, if change is given, placing key "viewport_wheeldown" action Return() before the viewport will cause the screen to return if the viewport scrolls past the bottom.)
"horizontal-change": Combines horizontal scrolling with change mode.

draggable: If True, dragging the mouse will scroll the viewport. This can also be a variant, in which case the viewport will be draggable if the variant is in place. (For example, draggable "touch".)

edgescroll

Controlls scrolling when the mouse reaches the edge of the viewport. If not None, this should be a two- or three-element tuple:

The first element in the tuple is the distance from the edge of the viewport that edgescrolling begins to take effect, in pixels.
The second element is the maximum scrolling rate, in pixels per second.
If present, the third element is a function that adjusts the scrolling speed, based on how close to the pointer is to an edge. The function should take a number between -1.0 and 1.0, and return a number in the same range. The default function returns its input, and implements proportional scrolling. A function that returned -1.0 or 1.0 based on the sign of its input would implement constant-speed scrolling.

xadjustment: The ui.adjustment() used for the x-axis of the viewport. When omitted, a new adjustment is created.

yadjustment: The ui.adjustment() used for the y-axis of the viewport. When omitted, a new adjustment is created.

xinitial: The initial horizontal offset of the viewport. This may be an integer giving the number of pixels, or a float giving a fraction of the possible offset.

yinitial: The initial vertical offset of the viewport. This may be an integer giving the number of pixels, or a float giving a fraction of the possible offset.

scrollbars

If not None, scrollbars are added along with this viewport. This works by creating a side layout, and placing the created viewport in the center of the side. If scrollbars is "horizontal", a horizontal scrollbar is placed beneath the viewport. If scrollbars is "vertical", a vertical scrollbar is placed to the right of the viewport. If scrollbars is "both", both horizontal and vertical scrollbars are created.

When scrollbars is not None, the viewport takes prefixed properties:

Properties beginning with viewport_ are passed to the viewport.
Properties beginning with side_ are passed to the side.
Properties beginning with scrollbar_ are passed to the horizontal scrollbar, if it exists.
Properties beginning with vscrollbar_ are passed to the vertical scrollbar, if it exists.

Unprefixed properties are also accepted. Position Style Properties are passed to the side, while other unprefixed properties are supplied to the viewport.

arrowkeys: If true, the viewport can be scrolled with the left, right, up, and down arrow keys. This takes precedence over the usual function of these keys, which is changing focus. However, the arrow keys will change focus when the viewport reaches its limits.

pagekeys: If true, the viewport can be scrolled up and down by the pageup and pagedown keys. This disables the usual functionality of these keys, which is to cause rollback and rollforward.

In addition, it takes the following groups of style properties:

It takes one child. If zero, two, or more children are supplied, then a fixed is created to contain them.

To make a viewport scrollable, it's often best to assign an id to it, and then use XScrollValue() and YScrollValue() with that id.

screen viewport_example():
    side "c b r":
         area (100, 100, 600, 400)

         viewport id "vp":
             draggable True

             add "washington.jpg"

         bar value XScrollValue("vp")
         vbar value YScrollValue("vp")

Vpgrid

A vpgrid (viewport grid) combines a viewport and grid into a single displayable. The vpgrid takes multiple children (like a grid) and is optimized so that only the children being displayed within the viewport are rendered.

A vpgrid assumes that all children are the same size, the size being taken from the dimensions of the first child. If a vpgrid appears to be rendering incorrectly, please ensure that all children are of the same size.

A vpgrid must be given at least one of the cols and rows properties. If one is omitted or None, the other is automatically determined from the size, spacing, and number of children. If a row or column would be underfull, null displayable are used to fill the remaining space.

Vpgrids take the following properties:

cols: The number of columns in the grid.

rows: The number of rows in the grid.

transpose: If true, columns are filled before rows. The default of this depends on the cols and rows properties. If cols is given, columns are filled before rows, otherwise rows are filled before columns.

In addition, a vpgrid takes all properties a viewport can, and the following groups of style properties:

When the scrollbar property is given, prefixed properties are passed to the vpgrid in the same way as they are with viewports. (Properties prefixed with viewport_ are passed to the vpgrid itself.)

screen vpgrid_test():

    vpgrid:

        cols 2
        spacing 5
        draggable True
        mousewheel True

        scrollbars "vertical"

        # Since we have scrollbars, this positions the side, rather than
        # the vpgrid.
        xalign 0.5

        for i in range(1, 101):

            textbutton "Button [i]":
                xysize (200, 50)
                action Return(i)

Window

A window is a window that contains a background that is intended for displaying in-game dialogue. It takes the following groups of properties:

It takes one child. If zero, two, or more children are supplied, then a fixed is created to contain them.

screen say(who, what):
    window id "window"
        vbox:
            spacing 10

            text who id "who"
            text what id "what"

Imagemap Statements

A convenient way of creating a screen, especially for those who think visually, is to create an imagemap. When creating an imagemap, the imagemap statement is used to specify up to six images. The hotspot and hotbar images are used to carve rectangular areas out of the image, and apply actions and values to those areas.

Here's an example of a preferences screen that uses imagemaps.

screen preferences():

    tag menu
    use navigation

    imagemap:
        auto "gui_set/gui_prefs_%s.png"

        hotspot (740, 232, 75, 73) action Preference("display", "fullscreen") alt _("Display Fullscreen")
        hotspot (832, 232, 75, 73) action Preference("display", "window") alt _("Display Window")
        hotspot (1074, 232, 75, 73) action Preference("transitions", "all") alt _("Transitions All")
        hotspot (1166, 232, 75, 73) action  Preference("transitions", "none") alt _("Transitions None")

        hotbar (736, 415, 161, 20) value Preference("music volume") alt _("Music Volume")
        hotbar (1070, 415, 161, 20) value Preference("sound volume") alt _("Sound Volume")
        hotbar (667, 535, 161, 20) value Preference("voice volume") alt _("Voice Volume")
        hotbar (1001, 535, 161, 20) value Preference("text speed") alt _("Text Speed")

Imagemap

The imagemap statement is used to specify an imagemap. It takes no parameters, and the following properties:

auto

Used to automatically define the images used by this imagemap. This should be a string that contains %s in it. If it is, and one of the image properties is omitted, %s is replaced with the name of that property, and the value is used as the default for that property.

For example, if auto is "imagemap_%s.png", and idle is omitted, then idle defaults to "imagemap_idle.png". If auto is "imagemap %s", the imagemap idle image is used.

The behavior of auto can be customized by changing config.imagemap_auto_function.

ground: The image used for portions of the imagemap that are not part of a hotspot or hotbar.

insensitive: The image used when a hotspot or hotbar is insensitive.

idle: The image used when a hotspot is not selected and not focused, and for the empty portion of unfocused hotbars.

hover: The image used when a hotspot is not selected and focused, and for the empty portion of focused hotbars.

selected_idle: The image used when a hotspot is selected and not focused, and for the full portion of unfocused hotbars.

selected_hover: The image used when a hotspot is selected and focused, and for the full portion of focused hotbars.

alpha: If true, the default, a hotspot only gains focus when the mouse is in an area of the hover image that is opaque. If false, the hotspot gains focus whenever the mouse is within its rectangular boundary.

cache: If true, the default, hotspot data is cached in to improve performance at the cost of some additional disk space.

It takes the following groups of properties:

An imagemap creates a fixed, allowing any child to be added to it (not just hotspots and hotbars).

Hotspot

A hotspot is a button consisting of a portion of the imagemap that contains it. It takes a single parameter, a (x, y, width, height) tuple giving the area of the imagemap that makes up the button. It also takes the following properties:

action: The action to run when the button is activated. This also controls if the button is sensitive, and if the button is selected.

alternate: An action that is run if the hotspot is activated in an alternate manner. Alternate activation occurs when the player right-clicks on the hotspot on a mouse-based platform, or when the player long presses the hotspot on a touch-based platform.

hovered: An action to run when the button gains focus.

unhovered: An action to run when the button loses focus.

selected: An expression that determines whether the button is selected or not. This expression is evaluated at least once per interaction. If not provided or None, the action will be used to determine selectedness.

sensitive: An expression that determines whether the button is sensitive or not. This expression is evaluated at least once per interaction. If not provided or None, the action will be used to determine sensitivity.

keysym: A string giving a keysym describing a keyboard key that, when pressed, invokes the action of this button.

alternate_keysym: A string giving a keysym describing a keyboard key that, when pressed, invokes the alternate action of this button.

It also takes:

A hotspot creates a fixed, allowing children to be added to it. The fixed has an area that is the same size as the hotspot, meaning that the children will be positioned relative to the hotspot.

Hotspots should be given the alt style property to allow Ren'Py's self-voicing feature to work.

Hotbar

A hotbar is a bar that consists of a portion of the imagemap that contains it. It takes a single parameter, a (x, y, width, height) tuple giving the area of the imagemap that makes up the button. It also takes the following properties:

value: The current value of the bar. This can be either a bar value object, or a number.

range: The maximum value of the bar. This is required if value is a number.

adjustment: A ui.adjustment() object that this bar adjusts.

One of value or adjustment must be given. In addition, this function takes:

This does not take children.

Hotbars should be given the alt style property to allow Ren'Py's self-voicing feature to work.

Add Statement

The add statement is a bit special, as it adds an already-exising displayble to the screen. As a result, it doesn't take the properties common to the user interface statements.

Add

Adds an image or other displayable to the screen. This optionally takes transform properties. If at least one transform property is given, a Transform is created to wrap the image, and the properties are given to the transform.

If the displayable is None, nothing is added to the screen.

This does not take any children.

screen add_test():
    add "logo.png" xalign 1.0 yalign 0.0

Advanced Displayables

In addition to the commonly-used statements, the screen language has statements that correspond to advanced displayables. The mapping from displayable to statement is simple. Positional parameters of the displayables become positional parameters of the statement. Keyword arguments and the relevant style properties become screen language properties.

The advanced displayable statements are:

Areapicker

Intended for use in development tools, this lets the user select a rectangular area on the screen. It takes the following properties:

cols: If not None, the defaut, this divides the screen up into a grid with this many columns.

rows: If not None, the defaut, this divides the screen up into a grid with this many rows.

position: If not None, the default, this is a function called with the x and y coordinates of the location the user first clicked, rounded to the grid.

changed: This is called with the rectangle, an (x, y, width, height) tuple, whenever the user changes the selected area.

finished: This is called with the rectangle, an (x, y, width, height) tuple, when the user finishes selecting an area.

persist: If true, the child will be shown in the selected area when the selection is complete. If false, the default, the child will be hidden once the selection is complete.

It takes the following group of properties:

Common Properties

An areapicker takes one child. The child is displayed on the screen in the selected area.

Drag

Creates a Drag that can be dragged around the screen. With the exception of d, which is supplied by the screen language, this takes all properties defined in that class.

It also takes the following properties:

Common Properties
The hover_sound and activate_sound style properties
The focus_mask style_property.

A drag takes one child, or the child style property can be used to supply the child and its focused variants.

Draggroup

Creates a DragGroup. This takes the same properties as DragGroup, and also takes the following properties:

Common Properties

A drag group may have zero or more drags as its children. It may also have non-drags as children, in which case it functions like fixed.

Has Statement

The has statement allows you to specify a container to use, instead of fixed, for statements that take only one child. The has statement may only be used inside a statement that takes one child. The keyword has is followed (on the same line) by another statement, which must be a statement that creates a container displayable, one that takes more than one child.

The has statement changes the way in which the block that contains it is parsed. Child displayables created in that block are added to the container, rather than the parent displayable. Keyword arguments to the parent displayable are not allowed after the has statement. Multiple has statements can be used in the same block.

The has statement can be supplied as a child of the following statements:

button
frame
window

The has statement can be given the following statements as a container.

fixed
grid
hbox
side
vbox

screen volume_controls():
     frame:
         has vbox

         bar value Preference("sound volume")
         bar value Preference("music volume")
         bar value Preference("voice volume")

Control Statements

The screen language includes control statements for conditional execution, iteration, including other screens, executing actions when events occur, and executing arbitrary Python.

Default

The default statement sets the default value of a variable, if it is not passed as an argument to the screen, or inherited from a screen that calls us using the use statement.

screen scheduler():
    default club = None
    vbox:
         text "What would you like to do?"
         textbutton "Art Club" action SetScreenVariable("club", "art")
         textbutton "Writing Club" action SetScreenVariable("club", "writing")

         if club:
             textbutton "Select" action Return(club)

For

The for statement is similar to the Python for statement, except that it does not support the else clause (it does, however, support the continue and break statements). It supports assignment to (optionally nested) tuple patterns, as well as variables.

$ numerals = [ 'I', 'II', 'III', 'IV', 'V' ]

screen five_buttons():
    vbox:
        for i, numeral in enumerate(numerals):
            textbutton numeral action Return(i + 1)

The for statement takes an index clause:

screen five_buttons():
    vbox:
        for i, numeral index numeral in enumerate(numerals):
            textbutton numeral action Return(i + 1)

If given, the index clause should consist of an expression that returns a hashable and comparable value that is unique for each row in the list. Ren'Py uses this value to make sure that transforms and other state wind up associated with the correct iteration. If you're seeing weird behavior when elements are added to or removed from a list you're iterating over, you might want to use an index clause.

If

The screen language if statement is the same as the Python/Ren'Py if statement. It supports the if, elif, and else clauses.

screen skipping_indicator():
    if renpy.is_skipping():
         text "Skipping."
    else:
         text "Not Skipping."

On

The on statement allows the screen to execute an action when an event occurs. It takes one parameter, a string giving the name of an event. This should be one of:

"show"
"hide"
"replace"
"replaced"

It then takes an action property, giving an action to run if the event occurs.

screen preferences():
    frame:
        has hbox

        text "Display"
        textbutton "Fullscreen" action Preferences("display", "fullscreen")
        textbutton "Window" action Preferences("display", "window")

    on "show" action Show("navigation")
    on "hide" action Hide("navigation")

Use

The use statement allows a screen to include another. The use statement takes the name of the screen to use. This can optionally be followed by an argument list, in parenthesis.

If the used screen has no parentheses, it has read and write access to the scope of the current screen, updated with any keyword arguments passed via the use statement. Otherwise, its scope is initialized to the result of assigning the arguments to those parameters.

screen file_slot(slot):
    button:
        action FileAction(slot)

        has hbox

        add FileScreenshot(slot)
        vbox:
            text FileTime(slot, empty="Empty Slot.")
            text FileSaveName(slot)


 screen save():
     grid 2 5:
         for i in range(1, 11):
              use file_slot(i)

The use statement may take one property, id, which must be placed after the parameter list if present. This screen is only useful when two screens with the same tag use the same screen. In this case, when one screen replaces the other, the state of the used screen is transfered from old to new.

transform t1():
    xpos 150
    linear 1.0 xpos 0

screen common():
    text "Test" at t1

screen s1():
    tag s
    use common id "common"
    text "s1" ypos 100

screen s2():
    tag s
    use common id "common"
    text "s2" ypos 100

label start:
    show screen s1
    pause
    show screen s2
    pause
    return

Instead of the name of the screen, the keyword expression can be given, followed by an expression giving the name of the screen to use. If parameters are required, the pass keyword must be given to separate them from the expression.

screen ed(num):
    text "Ed"
    text "Captain"

screen kelly(num):
    text "Kelly"
    text "First Officer"

screen bortus(num):
    text "Bortus"
    text "Second Officer"

screen crew():
    hbox:
        for i, member in enumerate(party):
            vbox:
                use expression member.screen pass (i + 1)

Use and Transclude

A use statement may also take a block containing screen language statements. When a block is given, the screen that is used may contain the transclude statement. The transclude statement is replaced with the statements contained within the use statement's block.

This makes it possible to define reusable layouts using screens. For example, the screen:

screen movable_frame(pos):
    drag:
        pos pos

        frame:
            background Frame("movable_frame.png", 10, 10)
            top_padding 20

            transclude

is meant to be a reusable component that wraps other components. Here's an example of how it can be used:

screen test:
    use movable_frame((0, 0)):
        text "You can drag me."

    use movable_frame((0, 100)):
        vbox:
            text "You can drag me too."
            textbutton "Got it!" action Return(True)

The use and transclude constructs form the basis of creator-defined screen language statements.

Python

The screen language also includes single-line and multiple-line Python statements, which can execute Python. The Python runs in the scope of the screen.

Python must not cause side effects that are visible from outside the screen. Ren'Py will run a screen multiple times, as it deems necessary. It runs a screen as part of the image prediction process, before the screen is first shown. As a result, if a screen has side effects, those side effects may occur at unpredictable times.

screen python_screen:
    python:
        test_name = "Test %d" % test_number

    text test_name

    $ test_label = "test_%d" % test_label

    textbutton "Run Test" action Jump(test_label)

Showif Statement

The showif statement takes a condition. It shows its children when the condition is true, and hides the children when the condition is false. When showif's children have transforms, it will supply them with ATL events to manage the show and hide process, so that Ren'Py can animate the show and hide process.

The showif statement wraps its children in a displayable that manages the show and hide process.

Multiple showif statements can be grouped together into a single showif/elif/else construct, similiar to an if statement. Unlike the if statement, showif executes all of its blocks, including Python, even if the condition is false. This is because the showif statement needs to create the children that it is hiding.

Showif delivers three events to its children:

appear: Is delivered if the condition is true when the screen is first shown, to instantly show the child.
show: Is delivered when the condition changes from false to true.
hide: Is delivered when the condition changes from true to false.

For these purposes, the condition of an elif clause is always false if any prior condition is true, while the condition of an else clause is only true when all prior conditions are false.

For example:

transform cd_transform:
    # This is run before appear, show, or hide.
    xalign 0.5 yalign 0.5 alpha 0.0

    on appear:
        alpha 1.0
    on show:
        zoom .75
        linear .25 zoom 1.0 alpha 1.0
    on hide:
        linear .25 zoom 1.25 alpha 0.0

screen countdown():
    default n = 3

    vbox:
        textbutton "3" action SetScreenVariable("n", 3)
        textbutton "2" action SetScreenVariable("n", 2)
        textbutton "1" action SetScreenVariable("n", 1)
        textbutton "0" action SetScreenVariable("n", 0)

    showif n == 3:
        text "Three" size 100 at cd_transform
    elif n == 2:
        text "Two" size 100 at cd_transform
    elif n == 1:
        text "One" size 100 at cd_transform
    else:
        text "Liftoff!" size 100 at cd_transform

label start:
    call screen countdown

Screen Statements

In addition to the screen statement, there are three Ren'Py script language statements that involve screens.

Show Screen

The show screen statement causes a screen to be shown. It takes an screen name, a series of optional clauses, and optional Python arguments which are passed to the screen. renpy.show_screen() and renpy.call_screen() take additional specific keywords.

The show screen statement takes the following clauses, some of them similar to the clauses of the Show Statement:

as

The as clause takes a name. If not specified, it defaults to the tag associated with the screen (see the Screen Statement). If that's not specified, it defaults to the name of the screen.

onlayer

The layer to show the screen on.

zorder

The zorder to show the screen on. If not specified, defaults to the zorder associated with the screen. If that's not specified, it is 0 by default.

expression

If the expression keyword is given, the expression following it will be evaluated as the screen name. To pass arguments to the screen with the expression keyword, separate the expression and arguments with the pass keyword:

$ screen_name = "my_screen"
show screen expression screen_name
# Or if you need to pass some arguments
show screen expression screen_name pass ("Foo", message="Bar")

with

This is interpreted in the same way that the with clause of a show statement is:

show screen clock_screen with dissolve

nopredict

The nopredict keyword doesn't take a value. It prevents screen prediction from occurring. During screen prediction, arguments to the screen are evaluated. Please ensure that evaluating the screen arguments does not cause unexpected side-effects to occur.

Warning

If evaluating the arguments to a screen causes side-effects to occur, your game may behave in unexpected ways.

Screens shown in this way are displayed until they are explicitly hidden. This allows them to be used for overlay purposes.

show screen overlay_screen
show screen clock_screen(hour=11, minute=30)

if rare_case:
    show rare_screen nopredict

Hide Screen

The hide screen statement is used to hide a screen that is currently being shown. It takes a screen tag. It first tries to find a screen with the given tag on the given layer (see the onlayer clause). If none is found, it looks for a screen with that name on the layer, regardless of the tag the screen is shown as. If none is found, nothing happens:

show screen A
show screen B as A # B replaces A (which hides it)
hide screen A # hides B, tagged as A

show screen A as B
show screen B as C

hide screen B
# hides the A screen, shown as B
# the B screen, shown as C, stays shown

hide screen B
# hides the B screen

It also takes the onlayer clause, which defaults to the screens layer.

The with clause is interpreted the same way the with clause of a Show Statement is.

Similar to the show screen statement, hide screen also takes the expression keyword, allowing to use an arbitrary expression as the screen name.

hide screen rare_screen
hide screen clock_screen with dissolve
hide screen overlay_screen
$ screen_name = "some_screen"
hide screen expression screen_name

Call Screen

The call screen statement shows a screen, and then hides it again at the end of the current interaction. If the screen returns a value, then the value is placed in the global _return variable.

This can be used to display an imagemap. The imagemap can place a value into the _return variable using the Return() action, or can jump to a label using the Jump() action.

The call screen statement takes various optional clauses, most of them similar to those of the Show Screen:

as: The as clause takes a name. If not specified, it defaults to the tag associated with the screen (see the Screen Statement). If that's not specified, it defaults to the name of the screen.
onlayer: The layer to show the screen on.
zorder: The zorder to show the screen on. If not specified, defaults to the zorder associated with the screen. If that's not specified, it is 0 by default.
nopredict: This keyword prevents screen prediction from occurring. During screen prediction, arguments to the screen are evaluated. Please ensure that evaluating the screen arguments does not cause unexpected side-effects to occur.

Warning

If evaluating the arguments to a screen causes side-effects to occur, your game may behave in unexpected ways.
expression: Similar to the show screen statement, call screen also takes the expression keyword, allowing to use an arbitrary expression as the screen name. This also comes with the pass keyword, allowing arguments to be passed to the screen.
with: In a call screen statement, the with clause causes a transition to occur when the screen is shown.

Since calling a screen is an interaction, and interactions trigger an implicit with None, using a with statement after the call screen instruction won't make the screen disappear using the transition, as the screen will already will be gone. To disable the implicit with None transition, pass the _with_none=False special keyword argument to the screen, as in the example below.

Other ways of triggering transitions also work, such as the [ With(dissolve), Return() ] action list.

call screen my_imagemap

call screen my_screen(side_effect_function()) nopredict

# Shows the screen with dissolve
call screen my_other_screen with dissolve
# The screens instantly hides with None, then the pixellate transition executes
with pixellate

# Shows the screen with dissolve and hides it with pixellate.
call screen my_other_screen(_with_none=False) with dissolve
with pixellate

$ screen_name = "my_screen"
call screen expression screen_name pass (foo="bar")

Screen Variants

Ren'Py runs both on traditional mouse-oriented devices such as Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs, and newer touch-oriented devices such as Android-based smartphones and tablets. Screen variants allow a game to supply multiple versions of a screen, and use the version that best matches the hardware it is running on.

Ren'Py chooses a screen variant to use by searching variants in the order they are listed in config.variants. The first variant that exists is used.

If the RENPY_VARIANT environment variable is present, config.variants is initialized by splitting the value of the variable on whitespace, and then appending None. Setting RENPY_VARIANT to a value such as "medium tablet touch" or "small phone touch" allows screens intended for Android devices to be tested on a PC.

If the environment variable is not present, a list of variants is built up automatically, by going through the following list in order and choosing the entries that apply to the current platform.

"steam_deck": True if running on a Steam Deck or equivalent hardware.
"steam_big_picture": True if running in Steam Big Picture mode.
"large": A screen large enough that relatively small text can be comfortably read, and buttons can be easily clicked. This is used for computer screens.
"medium": A screen where smallish text can be read, but buttons may need to grow in size so they can be comfortably pressed. This is used for tablets.
"small": A screen where text must be expanded in order to be read. This is used for phones and televisions. (A television might be physically large, but it's often far away, making it hard to read.)
"tablet": Defined on touchscreen based devices where the screen has a diagonal size of 6 inches or more. (In general, "medium" should be used instead of "tablet".)
"phone": Defined on touchscreen-based devices where the diagonal size of the screen is less than 6 inches. On such a small device, it's important to make buttons large enough a user can easily choose them. (In general, "small" should be used instead of "phone".)
"touch": Defined on touchscreen-based devices.
"tv": Defined on television-based devices.
"firetv": Defined on the Amazon Fire TV console. ("tv" and "small" are also defined.)
"chromeos": Defined when running as an Android app on a Chromebook.
"android": Defined on all Android devices.
"ios": Defined on iOS devices, like the iPad (where "tablet" and "medium" are also defined) and the iPhone (where "phone" and "small" are also defined).
"mobile": Defined on mobile platforms, such as Android, iOS and mobile web browsers.
"pc": Defined on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. A PC is expected to have a mouse and keyboard present, to allow buttons to be hovered, and to allow precise pointing.
"web": Defined when running inside a web browser.
None: Always defined.

An example of defining a screen variant is:

# A variant hello_world screen, used on small touch-based
# devices.
screen hello_world():
     tag example
     zorder 1
     modal False
     variant "small"

     text "Hello, World." size 30

Screens and Screen Language

Screen Language

Screen Language Syntax

Screen Statement

User Interface Statements

Bar

Button

Dismiss

Fixed

Frame

Grid

Hbox

Imagebutton

Input

Key

Label

Mousearea

Nearrect

Null

Side

Text

Textbutton

Timer

Transform

Vbar

Vbox

Viewport

Vpgrid

Window

Imagemap Statements

Imagemap

Hotspot

Hotbar

Add Statement

Add

Advanced Displayables

Areapicker

Drag

Draggroup

Has Statement

Control Statements

Default

For

If

On

Use

Use and Transclude

Python

Showif Statement

Screen Statements

Show Screen

Hide Screen

Call Screen

Screen Variants

See also