Scripting in RPG Playground

My RPG creation software will allow you to create an entire online role playing game, but as you probably know, it is still in early development. Currently you can let characters say something, but this is of course not enough. You want the player to have entire conversations with characters, and to have cut-scenes that reveal a part of the story.

My first thought on allowing you to create this extra functionality is by using ‘screenplays’. These screenplays would allow you to define conversations and animations in an easy, straight forward way. Screenplays are created entirely by using a point-and-click GUI. You basically can’t do anything wrong.

But programming such a screenplay system takes a lot of time for me. And unfortunately, I’m currently not working full-time on RPG Playground. I have a full-time job, and a family with 3 small kids. So as you can imagine my time is very limited. Therefore, I’m going for the second option, which is allowing you to create text based scripts. It was already part of my plan that RPG Playground would include scripting at some point. But I consider this more of an advanced feature. So previously I thought that scripting wouldn’t be added in the near future. But that has changed.

I’m currently shifting scripting to one of the next features to implement, and the easy to use screenplays will be pushed back to a (much) later release.

Both systems have their advantages and disadvantages. Let me list them here just for clarity:

GUI Screenplay scripting advantages:

• Easy to use for a beginner
• Visually clear by using images and fancy GUI widgets
• Intuitive creation of conversations and cut-scenes

but:

• Takes a lot of time for me to implement
• Limited functionality

Let’s compare this to the text based scripting. As scripting language, I’m going to use LUA. It’s a simple scripting language, and has a proven track record because many games already use it.

LUA Scripting advantages:

• Very powerful
• I can enable new functionality fast
• Doesn’t require as much programming on my side

Disadvantages:

• Not easy for beginners
• Visually not as great because all is in text

So because it takes a lot of work off my shoulders, and is very powerful for you to add functionality to your game, I’m going for LUA scripting. The downside is that it’s a bit harder to get into. But I will create a document that makes it easy for beginners on how to script certain things like conversations and cut-scenes.

So how with this actually look like? Well, let me give you some examples. First a simple conversation in LUA script:

character.talk.say("hi")
response = hero.talk.respond({"hi, how are you?",
                              "sorry, no time for chitchat"})
if response == 1 then
    character.talk.say("fine, thanks!")
elseif response == 2 then
    character.talk.say("Alright, bye!")
end

A more complex script for a conversation with cut-scene would look like this:

character.talk.say("The end of the world is near!")
camera.effect.shake(5)
weather.effect.lightning()
response = hero.talk.respond(
    {"How do you know this is the end of the world?",
     "This is not the end, it's just an earthquake"})
if response == 1 then
    character.walk.go_to(3, 4)
    character.talk.say(
        "Take a look in this book, the prophecy is clear")
    if hero.inventory.has('prophecy book') then
        hero.talk.say("I already have that book")
    else
        hero.talk.say("Let me see!")
    end
elseif response == 2 then
    character.talk.say("Unbeliever!")
    character.walk.go_to(0, -6)
    door1_house.latch.open()
    character.walk.go_to(0, -1)
end

I hope these examples don’t scare you too much. I will definitely write a document with easy examples that you can copy/paste into your own scripts.

Currently I’m working hard to get this scripting thing in the next release. In the mean time, continue making your own RPG!