Hello,
I am writing a Javascript dialog script which is seen in a lot of typical Role Playing Games.
At the moment I got an array with text strings which you can skip trough. I got at the point where you can make a decision and based on the input a different string will show.
However I don't think this is the right way to do it. These are the requirements for the script:
- Support for multiple dialog scripts
- multiple characters
- user decision input ("Do you like me?" -yes -no)
This is my code at the moment:
// Intro script
var script_intro = [];
script_intro[0] = 'Hello how are you?';
script_intro[1] = 'So I heard..';
script_intro[2] = 'This is a cool game!';
script_intro[3] = [];
script_intro[3][0] = 'Do you like me?';
script_intro[3][1] = [];
script_intro[3][1][0] = 'Jah';
script_intro[3][1][1] = 4;
script_intro[3][2] = [];
script_intro[3][2][0] = 'Nah';
script_intro[3][2][1] = 5;
// Intro script: variation I
var script_intro_1 = [];
script_intro_1[0] = 'I love you too!';
// Intro script: variation II
var script_intro_2 = [];
script_intro_2[0] = 'Damn you...';
function initDialog()
{
// This is where the text will be shown
var dialog = document.getElementById('dialog');
var content = document.getElementById('content');
var nextButton = document.getElementById('nextButton');
var optionButton_1 = document.getElementById('optionButton_1');
var optionButton_2 = document.getElementById('optionButton_2');
// How fast the characters will appear after each other (milliseconds)
var scrollSpeed = 50;
}
// Scroll text per line, character
function scrollText(script, line)
{
var char = 0;
// If this line contains a question that requires user input
if(typeof(script[line]) == 'object')
{
var textScroller = setInterval(
function()
{
// Add the string char for char
content.innerHTML += script[line][0][char];
char ++;
if(char >= script[line][0].length)
{
clearInterval(textScroller);
// Show options
options(script, line);
}
}, scrollSpeed);
}
else
{
var textScroller = setInterval(
function()
{
content.innerHTML += script[line][char];
char++;
if(char >= script[line].length)
{
clearInterval(textScroller);
// Show next line
next(script, line);
};
}, scrollSpeed);
}
}
function next(script, line)
{
line = line + 1;
// Last line has been shown
if(script[line] == undefined)
{
//alert('End of dialog');
}
else
{
nextButton.style.visibility = 'visible';
nextButton.onclick = function()
{
nextButton.style.visibility = 'hidden';
content.innerHTML = '';
scrollText(script, line);
}
}
}
function options(script, line)
{
optionButton_1.innerHTML = script[line][1][0];
optionButton_2.innerHTML = script[line][2][0];
optionButton_1.style.visibility = 'visible';
optionButton_2.style.visibility = 'visible';
optionButton_1.onclick = function()
{
optionButton_1.style.visibility = 'hidden';
optionButton_2.style.visibility = 'hidden';
content.innerHTML = '';
scrollText('script_intro_1', 0);
}
optionButton_2.onclick = function()
{
optionButton_1.style.visibility = 'hidden';
optionButton_2.style.visibility = 'hidden';
content.innerHTML = '';
scrollText('script_intro_2', 0);
}
}
html
<body onload="scrollText(script_intro, 0)">
<h1>rpg</h1>
<a id="reset" href="#">Reset</a>
<div id="device">
<div id="dialog">
<strong>NPC:</strong>
<div id="content"></div>
<a id="nextButton" href="#">Next</a>
<a id="optionButton_1" href="#"></a>
<a id="optionButton_2" href="#"></a>
</div>
</div>
</body>
I could really use some feedback. What is the best way to write such script with the requirements above? Is using JSON or XML a better option than an Array for the dialog scripts? I especially need some hints on how to implement multiple choices in the script.
Thank you!