[SOLVED] Visual Novel Style Dialogues?

[danmi]

I've been doing some research, but I couldn't find tutorials on doing visual novel style dialogues. So I want my game to have a portrait that changes expressions, and the character's lines being displayed next to them, in a box.

Is it possible to make something like that? I also want to know if it is possible to make dialogues only proceed when clicked (and not just moving on after time passes).

Thanks!

[Crimson Wizard]

Hello. If you just search for "Visual Novel" on this forums, you will find a number threads on this topic.

When doing forum Search, expand "Choose a board in which to search or search all" and tick only "AGS Support" section - that will narrow the search.

Here are few more relevant of them (ranging from old to newer), but there may be more elsewhere:

https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/beginners-technical-questions/i-want-to-make-visual-novel-style-conversations/
https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/beginners-technical-questions/dialog-like-visual-novels/
https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/beginners-technical-questions/implementing-character-busts-during-dialogue/


Indeed, having a dedicated tutorial would be good, but I do not know if such exists.

Overall you need to learn these things:
1. Displaying characters can be done using either GUI or Overlays. GUI with Button on them may be the easiest if you want to have animations. If you don't need animations and only static pictures that can change sometimes, then Overlays would work too.
2. Display text can be done on a GUI with a label.
3. You will need to write custom speech functions that set label text and change portraits, and use them instead of standard Character.Say.
(again, there is a lot of discussions about that on forums, if you search for e.g. "custom speech")

[danmi]

Thank you so much! I was searching for dialogues and was really lost. I will look into it. Really appreciate it!

[Crimson Wizard]

I forgot to mention earlier; if you need not an instantly appearing text, but a typewriter effect, the script snippets may also be found around the forum if searching for "typewriter",
and also there are several modules that support this kind of effect, as well as maybe other effects for text:

Old Typewriter module, the simplest of them all, but has a limited functionality:
https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/modules-plugins-tools/module-typewriter-text-v1-2-customizable-typewriter-style-text/
TypedText module:
https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/modules-plugins-tools/module-typedtext-0-7-0/
Fancy module, supports typewriter effect as an option iirc:
https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/modules-plugins-tools/module-fancy-0-1-0/

[danmi]

Thanks much! The typewriter effect is something I need. I will look into it after I get the VN style figured out.

Also, would you mind me asking questions on the VN style? I got something to work using the last link you've given me, but now I am getting these weird transparency thing over my buttons. It is also happening on my portrait, which is made using a button. How could I fix this?

[Crimson Wizard]

I got something to work using the last link you've given me, but now I am getting these weird transparency thing over my buttons. It is also happening on my portrait, which is made using a button. How could I fix this?

General Settings -> Visuals -> When player interface is disabled, GUI should -> Display normally

[danmi]

It works great! Also got the VN dialogue style to work great. Thank you so much! You're the best!