Appreciate the responses. I'll do my best to answer the questions and points you've raised. But first, I have a question of my own in regards to this:
1st thing: I encountered a bug which causes the game to crash if the player opens, then closes, an empty text log. So this only happens when the player tries to open the text log on line 0 of the first text block of a game, and it's easily prevented by disabling the log command until after line 1, but it still feels like an oversight.
There's no skip or fast-forward features, which are common to most other dedicated visual novel engines. I personally can live just fine without it, but it's a nice quality-of-life feature many VN players have come to expect.
What version are you using? The empty log crash was fixed a long time ago, and there most definitely is a skip function. It's called edgevn_goto and allows you to jump directly to any point of your visual novel that you please (even going backwards, although it's not perfect). And if you wanted a fast-forward function, all you'd have to do is run edgevn_continue in a normal input event (not 'pressed' or 'released') so it's repeated every frame.
It sounds to me like you may be running a very out-of-date build if you're encountering these kinds of things.
It seems that when I set a font, it is set for an entire text block object. I would like to switch between fonts right in the middle of a text line. I would also like to give different characters/speakers different fonts for name text. Perhaps both could be accomplished by adding a font-changing tag to the existing markup tags. This would allow me to have characters speak with different fonts, or to give certain words bigger or smaller fonts to simulate yelling or whispering.
This is now possible as of version 1.8.0. Fonts are set per-line and the edgevn_draw_text font is merely an override. Whereas before setting the font to -1 would default to 12pt Arial, -1 in edgevn_draw_text reverts to the font set in edgevn_create_text. And with the new 'break' option that enables stringing multiple instances of edgevn_create_text together, you can indeed achieve variable fonts in a single paragraph, although proper alignment can't be guaranteed if the difference in font size is too dramatic.
I would also like a markup tag for changing the typing speed of particular sections/words of text and inserting pauses. Many games will have characters talking slowly or blurting out things and this would be represented by alterations in the typing speed of the words, and I would like to use the same effect.
Duly noted, I will definitely consider this. I have considered it before, but it's not as simple an addition as it sounds for a number of technical and logistical reasons. But now that the rest of the engine is more mature, it wouldn't hurt to revisit the idea.
I can't seem to find instructions for adding a manual line-break other than a warning that using the game-maker-standard # isn't recommended. What is the recommended way to add a manual line-break?
Again, sounds to me like you're running on an out-of-date build. You can use # for linebreaking now.
I will give props for the clickable link feature that triggers custom events, though. I haven't seen that feature in any of the other VN assets I'm comparing this to, and it can be a very cool feature with some creativity.
Thank you!
This is GameMaker, can I add mini-games and the like to the story? For example, I want a JRPG battle game mixed in, or a real-time maze, or perhaps a shopping/inventory game? Also can the outcome of those mini-games impact which branch you take?
Absolutely! Drawing backgrounds is totally optional. Use your own game content as the background if you like. Same goes for game results impacting visual novel sequences. Vice-versa would work as well--choosing a dialog option in Edge VN could launch you into different games depending on your choice.
Edge VN's text block system is meant to be thought of like a flowchart--think of each node on your flowchart as a separate text object. The events that lead from one to the next can be anything at all, and there's no reason your text objects can't run additional code besides Edge VN as well.
In fact, this is really the key feature that Edge VN offers that other visual novel engines don't: it's GameMaker. And believe it or not, GameMaker is not very friendly to visual novels at all. Achieving good performance with features even remotely equivalent to standalone VN engines is a feat that's taken me far longer and more research than I ever imagined it would. But the payoff is that with GameMaker as the backend you aren't limited to just visual novels. You could even put Edge VN on top of D3D functions, or draw it
in D3D (I've tried it myself--the possibilities are intriguing). That's something Ren'py and Tyranobuilder just don't offer. Plus with GameMaker there's a lot of potential for polish. Ren'py and Tyranobuilder visual novels can be spotted from a mile away even in the best of hands. But GameMaker makes it possible to perform lots of smooth animations and transitions. It just
feels better and looks more professional.
But enough of me sounding like a used car salesman. I hope I've been able to answer your questions, and if you have more feel free to respond back and/or check out the documentation online at
docs.thinkboxly.com (newly launched!)
