Awesome

textboxy (legacy version)

Features

• A global config script to adjust the engine without having to dig into the code at all
• Control codes for changing text properties like color, speed, font, pauses, as well as position and size of the message box
• Automatic line breaks based on a maximum width and special characters like whitespace and commas
• Easy linking between message boxes and "speaker" instances, automatically updating the message box position
• Basic options for text sound
• Basic callbacks
• Profiles for keeping track of your instances properties (sound, speed etc.)
• Easily create your own skins or use one of the defaults:

Some more features I'd like to add are

• Support for different fonts in one message box
• Showing icons in text
• Loading from .csv files
• Answer options

Explanation

At its core, textboxy utilizes an action queue. You queue up different actions like showing strings, changing the position or speed and then execute them all in order.
The strings themselves can be modified using control codes to adjust color, pauses and other effects.

A really basic queue would look like this:

tbyAddAction(TbyAction.SetPosition, 100, 100);
tbyAddAction(TbyAction.ShowString, "Hello world!");
tbyStart();

This would show a message box with the words "Hello world" at position 100, 100 (top-left corner of the message box).
You can see all available actions below.

Usage

Actions

Control Codes

You can customize the identifiers in the tbyConfig() script.

Callbacks

These scripts get called every time the action is executed.
They are useful for a number of things, e.g. setting a pause state during dialogue.

Examples

String literals

Game Maker Studio 2 supports string literals with @"string".
Using these, you can define line breaks without having to type \n.

//Both of these produce the same output
tby(id, "Hello\nWorld!");

tby(id,
@"Hello
World!");

Basic dialogue

Assuming the instances player and oldMan.

var oldManSpeed = 6;
var playerSpeed = tbyWaitAfterEachChar; //this is the default speed defined in tbyConfig()

tby(player, playerSpeed,
@"Hello,[.] old man.[..]
Do you know where I can find the [c/red]hidden treasure[r]?");
tby(oldMan, oldManSpeed,
@"[j]Oooohhhhh[r],[.] it is the [c/red]hidden treasure[r]
you seek?[.] Good luck finding it,[.]
nobody knows where it is[.].[.].[.].");
tby(player, playerSpeed,
@"You have to know something!")
tbyPause(room_speed/2); //Half a second
tby("Please?") //speaker and speed carry over
tby(oldMan, oldManSpeed,
@"[j]OoooooOooohhh[r],[.] I am telling you,[.] no o-[...][^]")
tby(player, playerSpeed,
@"I get it,[.] you are no help either.");

tbyStart();

Profiles

Continuing from the example above, again with the instances player and oldMan.

// It would make sense to have these as objects variables and addressing them
// from the instances, e.g. player.profile or something
var playerProfile = tbyProfileCreate(player, sndPlayer, tbyWaitAfterEachChar);
var oldManProfile = tbyProfileCreate(oldMan, sndOldMan, 6);

tbyProfile(playerProfile);
tby(
@"Hello,[.] old man.[..]
Do you know where I can find the [c/red]hidden treasure[r]?");

tbyProfile(oldManProfile);
tby(
@"[j]Oooohhhhh[r],[.] it is the [c/red]hidden treasure[r]
you seek?[.] Good luck finding it,[.]
nobody knows where it is[.].[.].[.].");

tbyProfile(playerProfile);
tby(
@"You have to know something!");
tbyPause(room_speed/2); //Half a second
tby("Please?"); //speaker and speed carry over

tbyProfile(oldManProfile);
tby("[j]OoooooOooohhh[r],[.] I am telling you,[.] no o-[...][^]"):
tbyProfile(playerProfile);
tby("I get it,[.] you are no help either.");

tbyStart();

Resetting the queue

// CREATE_EVENT
tby("This is an ongoing dialogue...");
tby("Still talking, man");
tby("You can take your time with advancing this, you know");
tbyStart();
alarm[0] = 60;

// ALARM_0
tbyReset();
tby(
@"After 60 steps, this box will now appear immediately,
even if something else was showing before!");
tbyStart();

Credits

Code snippets used:

• _spread from gdash by twisterghost