Essential features for EVEN: a new visual novel engine

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Obscura
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Re: Essential features for EVEN: a new visual novel engine

#46 Post by Obscura »

There are lots of ways to do speech bubbles, some much easier than others. There could be just plain text on top of the character (no bubble), there could be text on top of a bubble with rounded corners and an arrow, and their could be speech bubbles in the traditional comic sense, where the speech is inside a circle with an arrow pointing to the character. There's also the matter of whether the shape of the bubble expands to encompass the text when there's too much text, or if the text shrinks to fit within the bubble.

Could you give me an idea (or screenshot) what exactly kind of speech bubble you're going for?
Certainly! Thank you for asking! At its simplest, it would just be something that would be the same size no matter what's said or who on the screen says it. Basically the tail of the bubble would switch to whatever position the character occupied, to indicate who was speaking.

http://imgur.com/GVlJwQo

Side images (this is how I show the MC, in my case) would also be up toward the top, with a speech bubble coming from the side image box.

http://imgur.com/EobTfYx
No matter what though, you'll be happy to know that one of the easiest things for EVEN to do is position text where you want it. When designing the engine, I realized there would often be a need to animate text in certain parts of the screen, and so you are given absolute freedom in:
Where the text is placed.
How many individual texts you want (all of them have their own content and animated separately)
How fast/slow the text is animated
Stuttering the animation (as in "Must... (pause) Speak... (pause) Faster... (pause)")
How the animating text eases itself (for example: Speak REALLY FAST.... then suddenly words start to apppeeeeear muuuucchhh slooooooowweeerrr)
How the text moves, zooms, rotates, fades, tints, etc... You can even get the text to automatically follow wherever a character moves.

And yes, there will be iOS compatibility (though not initially, simply because I don't have the tools right now, but a little bit after general release).

Please give me more info on how you want to use speech bubble and I'll see what's possible, or if I should build in more use cases.
This sounds fantastic. Thank you for your work!
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Re: Essential features for EVEN: a new visual novel engine

#47 Post by 2dt »

Obscura wrote:
There are lots of ways to do speech bubbles, some much easier than others. There could be just plain text on top of the character (no bubble), there could be text on top of a bubble with rounded corners and an arrow, and their could be speech bubbles in the traditional comic sense, where the speech is inside a circle with an arrow pointing to the character. There's also the matter of whether the shape of the bubble expands to encompass the text when there's too much text, or if the text shrinks to fit within the bubble.

Could you give me an idea (or screenshot) what exactly kind of speech bubble you're going for?
Certainly! Thank you for asking! At its simplest, it would just be something that would be the same size no matter what's said or who on the screen says it. Basically the tail of the bubble would switch to whatever position the character occupied, to indicate who was speaking.

http://imgur.com/GVlJwQo

Side images (this is how I show the MC, in my case) would also be up toward the top, with a speech bubble coming from the side image box.

http://imgur.com/EobTfYx
No matter what though, you'll be happy to know that one of the easiest things for EVEN to do is position text where you want it. When designing the engine, I realized there would often be a need to animate text in certain parts of the screen, and so you are given absolute freedom in:
Where the text is placed.
How many individual texts you want (all of them have their own content and animated separately)
How fast/slow the text is animated
Stuttering the animation (as in "Must... (pause) Speak... (pause) Faster... (pause)")
How the animating text eases itself (for example: Speak REALLY FAST.... then suddenly words start to apppeeeeear muuuucchhh slooooooowweeerrr)
How the text moves, zooms, rotates, fades, tints, etc... You can even get the text to automatically follow wherever a character moves.

And yes, there will be iOS compatibility (though not initially, simply because I don't have the tools right now, but a little bit after general release).

Please give me more info on how you want to use speech bubble and I'll see what's possible, or if I should build in more use cases.
This sounds fantastic. Thank you for your work!
Thanks for your response. Those are very easy to do. It would just be a matter of making individual cloud sprites for each tail direction, and changing them per dialogue depending on where you want them pointing. Same with the portraits.

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Re: Essential features for EVEN: a new visual novel engine

#48 Post by Taleweaver »

This topic now has a new home at our Other VN Engines forum!
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Re: Essential features for EVEN: a new visual novel engine

#49 Post by nerdy »

Can You make a visual novel/RPG with it?
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Re: Essential features for EVEN: a new visual novel engine

#50 Post by 2dt »

nerdy wrote:Can You make a visual novel/RPG with it?
Yes. That's kinda the point ;)

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Re: Essential features for EVEN: a new visual novel engine

#51 Post by DaFool »

How's the engine going? Any update on this?

Construct2 integration is really crucial, as that will take care of essentially every other type of gameplay.

I can't wait to make a Victorian-Era beat-em-up with paragraph-long diatribes in NVL spoken with Shakespearean dialect.

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Re: Essential features for EVEN: a new visual novel engine

#52 Post by 2dt »

DaFool wrote:How's the engine going? Any update on this?

Construct2 integration is really crucial, as that will take care of essentially every other type of gameplay.

I can't wait to make a Victorian-Era beat-em-up with paragraph-long diatribes in NVL spoken with Shakespearean dialect.
It's going fantastic. A lot slower than expected, for that I apologize (then again, name me any ambitious project that doesn't run into delays), but its functionality has expanded exponentially since I first started this thread a few months ago. A lot of the underlying system has changed as well, so consider the first post fairly outdated. It's honestly ridiculous the amount of crazy things EVEN will be able to do. If it isn't already obvious I'm very proud of what I've made, and I'm very excited to share with you guys when I have everything ready.

I'm working with two artists and putting together a small demo that will be released in the next few weeks.

Bear in mind Construct2/other game integration isn't a high priority at the moment, as there are still a lot more basic things that have to be done first, but it is on the roadmap, as well as a GUI editor, for anyone who was interested.

Thanks for your continued interest.

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Re: Essential features for EVEN: a new visual novel engine

#53 Post by MayPeX »

I'm deeply interested in the development of this, once I sort myself out I'd like to debut myself with your engine.

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Re: Essential features for EVEN: a new visual novel engine

#54 Post by Vatina »

Sounds very nice so far. Count me in as one who is really interested in the possible Construct2 integration, that would just be awesome to have.

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Re: Essential features for EVEN: a new visual novel engine

#55 Post by yo28 »

I am thinking about VNs for a project and HTML5 output would be essential. Here are some thoughts, keeping in mind that you have thought about it 100000 times more than I have.

HTML5 content that runs anywhere lends itself to wide / viral distribution. EXEs are inherently much more controlled / limited. This is a good choice for authors to have available to them.

A VN should be able to run in HTML5 just fine.

Consider 'mobile first' HTML code.

Speed is really not an issue. Mobile device memory might be on a large page with a lot of div tags.

Java would undermine the whole idea - glad you plan to stay away from it.

A GUI is a huge project in itself, will divide your effort, and waste a lot of time if the underlying system is not stable yet.

Existing game file formats are well constructed, and already have good GUI editors. Then run a converter on that game file to produce the HTML5...

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Re: Essential features for EVEN: a new visual novel engine

#56 Post by Shiroisalva5 »

Seems like a very interesting project. Since I am a webdesigner I do have some knowledge and could already think of how something might be coded/ styled.
Might be an engine which i can learn faster how to create VNs :)

Many other members already listed some features so, I don't have any key feature that comes on to my mind.

Watching this, can't wait to try it out :9
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Re: Essential features for EVEN: a new visual novel engine

#57 Post by 2dt »

yo28 wrote:I am thinking about VNs for a project and HTML5 output would be essential. Here are some thoughts, keeping in mind that you have thought about it 100000 times more than I have.HTML5 content that runs anywhere lends itself to wide / viral distribution. EXEs are inherently much more controlled / limited. This is a good choice for authors to have available to them.A VN should be able to run in HTML5 just fine.Consider 'mobile first' HTML code.Speed is really not an issue. Mobile device memory might be on a large page with a lot of div tags.Java would undermine the whole idea - glad you plan to stay away from it.A GUI is a huge project in itself, will divide your effort, and waste a lot of time if the underlying system is not stable yet.Existing game file formats are well constructed, and already have good GUI editors. Then run a converter on that game file to produce the HTML5...
Thanks for your input. Most of it doesn't apply to EVEN though. EVEN is not really an HTML5 engine. It is purely a WebGL canvas and JavaScript. It doesn't use div tags nor is it built on any HTML structures other than 'canvas'. Think of it not as a webpage so much as a 2D game engine tailored to VNs. As such, unlike HTML5 engines, high performance is CRITICAL to EVEN and is thoroughly much more customizable.
Shiroisalva5 wrote:Seems like a very interesting project. Since I am a webdesigner I do have some knowledge and could already think of how something might be coded/ styled.Might be an engine which i can learn faster how to create VNs Many other members already listed some features so, I don't have any key feature that comes on to my mind.Watching this, can't wait to try it out :9
Thanks for your interest. Bear in mind EVEN is completely different structurally from a typical website, so most web design knowledge (HTML, CSS, etc...) doesn't apply. JavaScript knowledge would be very useful though.

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Re: Essential features for EVEN: a new visual novel engine

#58 Post by Shiroisalva5 »

Thanks for your interest. Bear in mind EVEN is completely different structurally from a typical website, so most web design knowledge (HTML, CSS, etc...) doesn't apply. JavaScript knowledge would be very useful though.
Hmm ah well I might do have some hard time then xD
AnywayI guess i'll have to wait and see how the engine works and how the project can be constructed. Never be afraid of what you don't know yet, maybe it will not be too difficult to learn.....

I was thinking, would it then resemble a sort of an engine wrapped as an app, once a project has been created/exported?
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Re: Essential features for EVEN: a new visual novel engine

#59 Post by 2dt »

Shiroisalva5 wrote:I was thinking, would it then resemble a sort of an engine wrapped as an app, once a project has been created/exported?
Pretty much. When exported, it's basically just EVEN, the assets (images, sounds, etc...), and a few configuration and script files. The structure is very straight forward, and you won't have to do anything crazy like modify the engine to achieve custom functionality.

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Re: Essential features for EVEN: a new visual novel engine

#60 Post by Shiroisalva5 »

Pretty much. When exported, it's basically just EVEN, the assets (images, sounds, etc...), and a few configuration and script files. The structure is very straight forward, and you won't have to do anything crazy like modify the engine to achieve custom functionality.
Getting more and more interested. :9

If you need some small assets or someone that should test some stuff for you, count me in :)
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