Overview

This system is designed to create a framework for a linearly progressing story that is advanced when the player reaches certain milestones but still allows for dialogue to adapt to their actions. Using a hidden priority system, the system will feed the appropriate conversation to the player based on their most recent actions within the game.

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Goals

The goal is to create a sense of reactivity for the player. It should make them feel the game recognizes their actions, successes, and failures and react accordingly. It is also to instill a sense of progress and accomplishment towards the player as succeeding in the game is the most common way of progressing the main plot. On the other hand, it should dampen any sting of failure as new dialogue is unlocked even when the player dies.

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Terminology

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MasterDialogueSheet: File name of the entirety of the game’s dialogue

ConversationRef: Indicates the conversation (eg. The first conversation with the boss)

PartRef: Indicates the stage of the conversation (eg. first stage would be “hello! How are you” and the second stage would be “I am good”)

CharacterRef: Identifier for the character which the player-character is interacting with (this is a hidden component for the backend) 

Dialogue: The text that makes up the dialogue

PortraitRef: Indicates any art that accompanies the dialogue

PriorityDialogue: A Boolean indicating the priority of the dialogue (eg. a plot-heavy line of dialogue will have higher priority than a repeatable piece of dialogue)

Speaker: Indicates the character delivering the line of dialogue (eg. “Leif”)

AudioRef: References any audio files that accompany the line of dialogue

ScriptOnDialogueEnd: Indicates if a script is triggered after the dialogue is played (eg. Boss fight begins after dialogue)

Gains Priority When: A note to programmers which outlines why a dialogue has priority and when you would see it (eg. when the boss beats you, there will be dialogue referencing this)