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How can I improve my dialog?

Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2020 11:37 pm
by SkepticalTiger
Right now I am trying to figure out how to stylize the dialog. See the example below. Any suggestions on if there is a better way to do this or is the alt better overall?

IE:

How I have it right now

Code: Select all

centered "General narration"
mc "I am now talking"
"I am now thinking
npc "I am also talking"
"mc here thinking what npc just said"
or:

Code: Select all

"General Narration"
mc ""I am now talking""
mc "I am now thinking"
npc ""I am also talking""
mc "I am still thinking"
npc "I now have a place to think too"
General narration I am still torn between having it centered on the screen or in the dialog box. The VN's I am basing this approach on are Lucy -the eternity she wished for- and DDLC. My visual novel is focused on travel so I will have very vibrant detailed backgrounds for the characters and players to take in.

I will still stylize the dialog box, change the shape, color, etc., but am trying to decide on the best way differentiate between what's being said, inner thoughts and general narration. I thought having the narration in the center of the screen helps the player focus on the BG than stare at the dialog box.

Re: How can I improve my dialog?

Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2020 5:14 pm
by Mutive
There's no single best way. I'd argue that consistency is probably more important than style. :)

For thoughts, you can always put them in italics. Or you can have things coming from say, "Narrator" vs. "MC thoughts" vs. "MC". But I generally don't care that much, as long as I know which one it is.

Re: How can I improve my dialog?

Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2020 9:47 pm
by MisterHarold
I'd say the first one if you only have one mc for your game.

Re: How can I improve my dialog?

Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2020 4:34 pm
by SkepticalTiger
So I ended up figuring out an alternative after talking to some other devs. I may finalize a different font style for inner monologues w/o double quotes and am using a placeholder font style atm for just that.

Saw on the Ren'Py documentation I can define prefix and subfixes per character so I ended up doing that and have a separate definition for characters who'll have inner monologues.