How to make the Perfect Dialogue System

[@cfdj43]

Fun fact: the branching tree and skipping methods are mathematically equivalent, there's even some formulas for ensuring no collisions when skipping

Do you have any references for that? I would love to read more on the subject, but I'm not sure how to look up that comparison.

[@ultimaxkom8728]

Elaboration (even if short) or citation (it's a fun "fact" after all) would be great.

[@MSCardinal]

Very cool! The only thing I don't like is the words skipping into the next line(while being typed) when there's no longer enough space

[@apoxfox]

Thanks! And I totally agree, I think I’ll need to find some kind of workaround for that. Maybe I need to define each lines length or something like that 🤔

[@JediMB]

​@@apoxfox I don't know how things are handled by the engine you're working in, but if I were making something from scratch my instincts say I'd want a function that automatically calculates where line breaks need to be, based on character and container widths, and inserts them before the text is rendered to the screen.

[@PureAsbestos]

@@apoxfox I mentioned this in a comment w/ a link to a good article about it, but I think KZbin didn't like my link. The title of the article is "Word-wrapping dialogue" and it's on the blog of a dev called "eevee". Should be able to find it from that. Hope it helps :)

[@liamlatz1259]

@@apoxfox Instead of adding each character of the string to the textbox (which is how I am assuming you are doing it) which causes the lines to be calculated with each new character, you can set the textbox to the whole string and then hide the characters by setting the MaxVisibleCharacters variable to 0. Then all you have to do is increment this variable by one to show a new character. This way the text already knows when a new line is because the text is already all there.

[@Greatsword585]

I had a thought when watching that preview: you could pause the talking animation whenever a pause (for example, "..." and "!!!" as single text boxes) comes up in dialogue. In that vein, custom sprites for special cutscenes are also something that'd help push the polish up I think.

[@apoxfox]

@@Greatsword585 I actually went in and implemented the animation pauses today! Appreciate the feedback, can you explain what you mean by custom sprites for special cutscenes?

[@sassygallop6791]

Loving that background music. Talula's updated design also looks great.

[@BloodAssassin]

Woah, that art is amazing!

[@ThePowerRanger]

Informative, thnx for making these.

[@bexplosion]

I would use Ink or Yarn-spinner plugin. Both well supported and documented, and you can test the script outside the game-engine. All that makes it easier to collaborate with team-members that only want to focus on the script.

[@syweb2]

What are these plugins for?

[@natanmaia3575]

The portraits look really cool! I was trying to articulate why I found them a bit uncanny (especially the white hair girl) and I have a clue: the esclera is full white. I see a lot of people shade them for a more natural look.

[@rmdcompositions]

Awesome Devlog! 😎

[@ZezGames]

Master Game designer Apox Fox back at it again

[@Sk4lli]

I made a dialog system a while back in Godot with also branching paths, but since I wanted a lot of dialogs, branches depending on previous choices or game state, I went with a database and wrote a whole node based dialog editor in the end to have a better overview and make changing dialogs easier. On reason is, lists get complicated after a while and inserting a line and finding all the other points that connect to it are difficult. I also added some logic to only make choices availabe (hidden or greyed out) depending on conditions. Conditions include all things in the game, including inventory items etc. Each dialog line can also have a reward that saves the previous state, so rolling back dialog is always possible while adding inventory items, changing game state etc in a non-destructive manner. Finally rewards could also call random functions to play animations or do anything in the game. Maybe some of these ideas can be useful.

[@apoxfox]

Super helpful! I think my game is gonna end up being pretty open ended with lots of decisions so this might be the way to go. Thanks for sharing!

[@Sk4lli]

@@apoxfox My pleasure! I love your art style and the example dialog, by the way. It's really great!

[@billmore6486]

Good job on dialog system. Only complaint I have for character expression you should change the eyes too. I'm used to Ace attorney, dangaronpa type games and they really expressive sprites!

[@apoxfox]

Very helpful feedback, thank you!

[@mrgreenboy644]

Ooh, this'll be helpful! I have one or two game ideas that could make use of dialogue programming/design

[@apoxfox]

I hope it helps you get some ideas flowing! :)

[@JediMB]

The most important part of any dialogue system is that two or more girls can hold hands. 👩🏻‍🤝‍👩🏼

[@hecate6834]

I have had a post it for making a dialogue system for quite a while on my monitor smile, I might steal some ideas from here ;)

[@Arithryka]

not super relevant to the video topic, but I've been thinking for a while that for the game I want to make, I would want to make in an art style similar to stardew valley but a bit higher resolution, and your art style is a perfect example of what I have in mind!

[@mingaparraguez]

Great video! Just wondering, what platform do you use for your moodboards and general planning? I've been using Notion for planning and Figma for moodboards, but I'm looking for something where I can have both...

[@apoxfox]

@@mingaparraguez it’s called Milanote! The free trial is definitely worth a try

[@SadTown99]

Hey man, this looks awesome. I’m curious if there was any specific reasons you went with Unity rather than RPG Maker for this project?… If there are any pros/cons of using one over the other in your opinion I’d like to hear it.😎

[@apoxfox]

Hey! So both engines are definitely a viable option for making an RPG, but here’s my reasoning for choosing Unity. RPG maker is easy to use if you want to make simple RPG mechanics, but the more complex your game becomes the harder it is to use. Unity can be a bit more difficult to use as a beginner since you have to create every system yourself, but in the long run it’s actually easier to make more complicated systems in Unity than it is in RPG Maker. I’ll give you an example, a big part of my turn based combat system is playing through short platformer mini games. In Unity, it might be harder to set up the whole turn based system when RPG maker has a system ready for you to use, but making a platformer game in Unity is way easier to manage than it is in RPG Maker. At the end of the day I think, with enough hard work, you can make pretty much anything with either game engine. So the choice is yours, make something complicated with Unity or make something simple with RPG maker (definitely nothing wrong with simple)

[@SadTown99]

I really appreciate the detailed insight dude! Everything you said makes complete sense... It seems to me the choice of engine is really just as simple as what style game+features you're going for... Thanks for helping out, & I'm looking forward to seeing more of JuneBug !! :D

[@_xtel]

Oh, hello there.

[@apoxfox]

@@_xtel another late night impulsive devlog 😂

[@RideeeGo]

I do not have the DialogueLines 2:12

[@icephoenix174]

Im dreading getting to the art so maybe some text boxes would be a good break xD it also sucks the project im passionate about right now is a fan game so ill never see a penny even if i get it working.

[@apoxfox]

Passion > money always 😄

[@fr_tian]

kinda reminds me n my brother of the J2ME games

[@635574]

I dont care about face animated sprites anymore, IMO only Phoenix Wright does it best because you see the poses and the dialogue under them, but thats a high bar if you want to still see something in the game world at the same time.

[@Dagan474]

Guys idk if i can make my game I give up

[@boomgoesthedynamite69]

DAM!!