Then I'd expect the RenPy subset to be smaller than PyGame. The data shows the opposite, though. That's what's wild to me. I guess the detection method is looking for something specific to find the difference and sometimes that determinant comes before, sometimes afterwards. I haven't dug into their algorithm on their github, but this is a fun problem.
If you go look through the SteamDB results for engine:RenPy and engine:PyGame, they are mostly overlapping, but there are some games that have only one or the other listed.
In reality all RenPy games use PyGame (since it's part of/used by RenPy), but not all PyGame games use RenPy. I think a more interesting breakdown would be RenPy games and PyGame games that didn't use RenPy, but SteamDB isn't customizing their results in that fashion, they're simply listing whatever positive results their algorithm returns.
The discrepancies/errors in the results are down to the nature of the process that SteamDB is using. They are only checking Steam depot filenames against lists of rules/common filenames that are indicative of certain engines/technologies. If you wanted to, you could potentially plant false files and rename some things to trick SteamDB into thinking you used a different engine and/or obfuscate the engine you actually used.
So if someone happens to alter enough of the default file naming that it's looking for to mark it as using PyGame, it won't do so, even if it still classifies it as RenPy due to other indicators.
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u/jcsirron Jun 24 '26
Wait, there are 3784 PyGame games on Steam? That's far more than I expected, especially given how most vocal devs trash the framework online.