FolioTier 1
pause
Pacing event - hide the textbox and wait for a click (or auto-advance after N seconds).
Pause clears the textbox and holds the scene, giving a beat of silence before the next line lands. Reach for it after a visual change - a sprite entering, a shake settling, a fade completing - so the player registers what just happened instead of it getting steamrolled by the next line of dialogue.
With no argument it waits for a click, handing pacing control to the player. Passing a number takes that control away and auto-advances, which suits moments where you want a fixed beat regardless of how fast the player is clicking, like a dramatic pause before a reveal.
pause(0) is not the same as omitting the pause entirely - it still hides the textbox for a frame and forces a screen update, which is useful right after a sprite or scene change to make sure the visual settles before the next say line draws its box. Chaining several bare pauses in a row without any intervening text or visual change just reads as a stuck game, so give each one something to wait for.
Parameters
| Parameter | Kind | Required | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| seconds | number | no | - | Optional seconds, written as a call - `pause(1.5)`. With no argument, the player waits for a click to advance. With a number (integer or decimal), the player auto-advances after that many seconds; `pause(0)` advances immediately. Mirrors Ren'Py's `pause` / `$ renpy.pause(N)`. |
Canonical example
sprite show rezehandjob7
pause
music stop with fade(1)
say "Reze": "That caught me off guard."show rezehandjob7
window hide
$ renpy.pause()
window show
stop music fadeout 1
r "That caught me off guard."pause is a pacing event. The player hides the dialogue textbox and
waits - either for a click (bare pause) or for a timer to elapse
(pause(1.5)). Use it when the previous step changed the visible
scene (a new sprite, a backdrop swap, a stinger SFX) and you want
the player to look before the next dialogue line covers it back up.
Notes
The textbox auto-hides whenever the current step isn't a say or
narrate line - pause exists so you can sit on that "no textbox,
nothing happening" state deliberately rather than skipping past it.
Authors used to reach for the Ren'Py triplet
window hide; $ renpy.pause(); window show to get this. The importer
collapses both window lines (Folio handles textbox visibility
implicitly) and lifts the $ renpy.pause() (or bare pause /
pause N / $ renpy.pause(N)) to this verb in one step.
For atmosphere shots without dialogue, prefer pause over narrate ""
- a narrate with empty text still renders the textbox briefly.