CUTSCENE ENGINE MANUAL

Welcome to use Cutscene engine!

CONTENTS

GET STARTED

To get started take a look to the example rooms.

Go to the creation code of the control_cutscene objects (double-click the object -> creation code). There you can see examples of how to use it. You may want to try modifying that code, changing some scripts or arguments and then running the game.

Then you may want to know how to use the scripts. There are more than 30! So how to use them? In each script there is an explanation about what it does. There you can also see what arguments it needs.

SIMPLE STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE

  1. Add a control_cutscene object to the room
  2. Make sure there is a layer called "hud" in the room
  3. Double-click the control_cutscene object in the room
  4. Open the creation code
  5. Set these variables:
  1. Set the 2d array "scene_info" with all the scripts that constitute the cutscene
  2. Here is an example (more are in the example room): 
    cutscene_id = 0;
cutscene_player = example_player;
cutscene_mode = "collision";
persist = false;
scene_info = [
    [cutscene_play_sound,sound_alarm,1],
    [cutscene_wait,1],
    [cutscene_move_object,example_player,170,300,2],
    [cutscene_dialogue_style,noone,c_black,c_white,c_white,1,example_font,noone,true,example_continue1],
    [cutscene_dialogue,"What was that?"]
];

    In this example, the cutscene starts when example_player collides with control_cutscene. The cutscene plays a sound, waits for a second, moves an object and shows dialogue.

"INTERNAL" SCRIPTS

Ignore them. They take care of themselves.

DIALOGUE

Cutscene engine has lots of scripts to show text and dialogue. The script names start with "cutscene_dialogue_".

CHANGING DEFAULT SETTINGS OF DIALOGUE

If you don't want to call the script cutscene_dialogue_style, cutscene_dialogue_keys, cutscene_dialogue_sprite etc. everytime you add dialogue, you can change the default settings in the control_cutscene object. If you go to the create event of that object, you will find a "SETTINGS AREA" where you can change variables.

SMART LINE BREAK CONFIGURATION

Recently I added a new optional argument to cutscene_dialogue_style: smart line breaks. This prevents text from changing line in the middle of a word. However, this is still an experimental feature and doesn't work correctly on all projects. If you want to use this feature in your project but it doesn't work correctly, you can try this: Go to textbox_draw script. Change the variable called linebreak_addition to something else (for example: 0, -5 or -10). It's completely possible that this doesn't fix it and you will not be able to use this feature. However, I tried to use this feature in 4 different projects and in 3 of them changing this variable helped (on 1 project it didn't work at all).

USING DRAW GUI

Using Draw GUI to draw the dialogue hasn't been tested a lot yet, so I recommend using the normal Draw event. But if you want to use it, follow these instructions:

  1. Go to the textbox object.
  2. Change the Draw event to Draw GUI.
  3. Change the draw_gui variable there to true.

Things to note: Remember that using cutscene_dialogue_position is of course different when using Draw GUI. When using Draw GUI, your camera size and viewport size should be the same, otherwise clicking options with mouse will not work well.

USING CUTSCENE ENGINE WITH DIALOGUE ENGINE

I also have a Dialogue engine (https://marketplace.yoyogames.com/assets/6657/dialogue-engine-text-boxes). If you are using both engines together, you will notice that some objects and scripts have the same name. You can delete the duplicates.

CUSTOM SCRIPTS

You can make your own scripts too. When the thing the script is supposed to do is done, call cutscene_next(). See the other scripts for examples. You could use one of them as a template.

ABOUT UNFINISHED SCRIPTS

Some scripts might not work correctly yet, for example cutscene_skip. These will be fixed / updated in the future.

UPDATING THE ASSET

NOTE! If you update the asset from your asset library, if the control_cutscene object gets updated, Gamemaker will probably remove it from all rooms, and your cutscenes might get removed too. So if you for some reason want to update it, I recommend doing a backup first.

TUTORIALS

There are some simple tutorials (only one currently...) for this engine on my Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@pikku-a

CONTACT

If you need more help or want to suggest a feature. Discussion board on itch.io: https://pikku-a.itch.io/cutscene-engine-for-gamemaker-studio-2/community

You can find my email on my website.

OTHER

This engine will improve over time and more features will be added.

SHOWCASING YOUR GAMES

Have you made a game using this Cutscene engine? If so, you can email me a link to the game and I might showcase it on my website or in the marketplace.

BETA TEST VERSION

Since version 1.9.0 there is a beta test version available on itch.io. (https://pikku-a.itch.io/cutscene-engine-for-gamemaker-studio-2) You can use it if you want to try new features earlier or if you want to help in testing.