staring-at-the-sun

DIRECTOR

an in progress DSL for narrative games in the Turbo engine

attention

this library is in hyper omega pre alpha, definitely use at your own risk

INTEGRATION

current steps for integration:

1. create a scripts folder at the root of the project directory

2. within the scripts folder, create a script.director file, within which the story will be written

3. bring in the director folder as a subfolder under the src folder of the project

4. add mod director; to the top of lib.rs

5. add static SCRIPT_PATH: &str = std::include_str!("../scripts/script.director"); to the top of lib.rs

6. insure that your turbo init struct is called GameState and includes the following properties:

   • speaking_char: u8
   • lines: Vec<string>
   • current_line: usize
   • wait_timer: u16

7. add an impl on the GameState struct that initializes the properties as such:

   • speaking_char: 0
   • lines: SCRIPT_PATH.split("\n").map(|line| line.to_string()).collect()
   • current_line: 0
   • wait_timer: 0

8. ensure that within the turbo::go! macro is the director::assess_current_line(&mut state);

9. should now be ready to rock and roll!

DSL SYNTAX

<< [name] is the name of a passage

>> [name] is a send to the passage of corresponding name

• sends can live on their own, or in conjunction with a choice

]> [choice] denotes a choice, director can handle up to 4 choices

• choice texts that follow ]> are written out to text box

• a set of choices choice must be followed by a set of sends on the next line, in the order that corresponds to the order of choices

  • e.g. line one: ]> choice one ]> choice two

  • e.g. line two: ]> first send ]> second send

• choices can be crossed out by prepending a ~ in front of the text of the choice

  • e.g. ]> ~text to be crossed out

• choices that are displayed, but not actually available to the player, or are otherwise not intended to be selectable must send to the NULL send

  • e.g. ]> ~this choice shouldn't be clickable ]> this choice should be

  • e.g. >> NULL >> choice two send

    • n.b. white space in between choices and/or sends are ignored, so feel free to space them out to be more legible

[char]: [text] lines are statements

• currently, assumption is two characters, NOAH or MYLAN

  • to change character names at present, need to change the match statement in print_current_line.rs

• char determines portrait display

• text is written out to text boxes

! [cmd] / [arg] are command lines that execute more complicated actions

• currently implemented:

  • WAIT / [TIME IN SECONDS] - pause dialogue for a number of seconds, for pacing purposes

-- end denotes end of passage

• once the script game hits an -- end block, the game ends

• so all passages must send somewhere, or end the game

# starts a comment

• keep in mind: the dsl is read at game runtime, so comments are not compiled out

• this means that comments can, at present, affect execution time, so use them intentionally

blank lines are ignored

• keep in mind: the dsl is read at game runtime, so blank lines are not compiled out