Annnd.... It's out! The Jam version is finally rushed out. I wanted to have something done early enough to make up for any itch.io outages or any other shenanigans.

Came to be

The idea for this tool came from a user who started a discussion with me. Asking for guidance because that user was using GuiManipulate for inspection purposes, which is not what it was designed for. I had already used Ren'Py's own Inspector and it has many rough edges which I wish it didn't. 

I decided to take at shot at it.... And so GuiInspect was born. While I was still self-brainstorming it, I got to learn there was an asset Jam incoming. So, instead of delaying this idea, I decided to give it priority in order to showcase in the asset jam. I've seen so many great VN stories in other Jams, wishing I could also be part of one.... Lo and behold! Here it is! One I can participate in!

In retrospective, the ability to inspect the current state of the UI and seeing what I'm inspecting in real time is, actually, more useful than I thought. It took me to make this tool for this Jam to figure that out.

Thank you, and you and you

I have to thank Ren'Py for its inspector. It's due to its APIs that were made for inspection that allowed me to make this inspector tool. Those APIs simplified my work by a huge fold. I'd be completely unable to do this tool on time without them. So, thank you Tom Rothamel for that.

Also, I'm glad Ren'Py supports extensions. They've been there since Ren'Py version 6.[something] but, somehow, they now have been embraced as a general way to extend Ren'Py, at least, for development purposes. That made it extremely easy to make a package that can be installed with a simple copy & paste & done process.

GuiManipulate isn't dead or abandoned

By the way, if you are worried about GuiManipulate, I'm not done with that one. I've just been busy. But I prioritized this one to make use of the opportunity. Actually, while developing GuiInspect I got some ideas on what I can do to improve on its foundation and shortcomings to make it run better. So, follow it, if you want to be warned when an update arrives.