In this tutorial, we are going to build on our knowledge of zones and add in the text message function. By the end of this tutorial we will have a text message appear when the player presses the fire button in a certain zone.
The first thing we need to do is draw a zone around where you want the text message to appear.
Remember tutorial 3, select Define Zones from the Skeleton Disk menu option and draw a square around the part of the screen you want the player to interact with to obtain a message.
In this example, I want the player to get a message if they press the fire button when infront of the TV. I have therefore drawn zone 2 around the TV. I have to keep Zone 1 for the door from tutorial 3.
The first thing we need to do is draw a zone around where you want the text message to appear.
Remember tutorial 3, select Define Zones from the Skeleton Disk menu option and draw a square around the part of the screen you want the player to interact with to obtain a message.
In this example, I want the player to get a message if they press the fire button when infront of the TV. I have therefore drawn zone 2 around the TV. I have to keep Zone 1 for the door from tutorial 3.
Having created the Zone, we now need to go to create the message. To do this we return to the Skeleton disk main menu screen and select Messages.
Once you select messages, you have the option to view existing messages or create new ones / amend existing ones.
As this is a new game we are going to edit message number 1. To select different messages press the left mouse button on Mess No to increase the message number and use your right mouse button on Mess No to decrease the message.
As this is a new game we are going to edit message number 1. To select different messages press the left mouse button on Mess No to increase the message number and use your right mouse button on Mess No to decrease the message.
In this example we are going to create the Message "No time for watching TV". To do this we make sure the Mess No is showing 001 and we then select Edit Mess.
This brings up a keyboard which you use your mouse pointer to activate. This should be quite straight forward to use. Type your message and then select Exit.
This will take you back to the Main Message option - from here you can select View Mess and this will show you how your message will look in the game.
Right mouse button will exit the preview.
Extra notes on message writing -
Selecting new line once will show this character #
If you are writing a long message you may want to use select new line twice ## This will create a new box giving you more characters to display your message.
This will take you back to the Main Message option - from here you can select View Mess and this will show you how your message will look in the game.
Right mouse button will exit the preview.
Extra notes on message writing -
Selecting new line once will show this character #
If you are writing a long message you may want to use select new line twice ## This will create a new box giving you more characters to display your message.
No its time to go back to the Game Setup screen we used in tutorial three.
In this example, we adding a message in location 8 - so I need to change the location to 8.
Then I need to scroll down to the relevant part which relates to zone 2 and change the flag setting to 1 for if the fire button is pressed.
In this example, we adding a message in location 8 - so I need to change the location to 8.
Then I need to scroll down to the relevant part which relates to zone 2 and change the flag setting to 1 for if the fire button is pressed.
Scrolling down further, I get to the Then Show Message (0=No message is shown) = 0 and I change the 0 to the number of the message I want to be shown - in this case message number 1.
Now its time to Exit out of the Game Setup screen.
From the main Skeleton Disk menu you need to select Save Data.
Now select Test from the main skeleton disk menu and hopefully you should get the text message as you want in your game.
From the main Skeleton Disk menu you need to select Save Data.
Now select Test from the main skeleton disk menu and hopefully you should get the text message as you want in your game.
That ends the tutorial on messages. Next tutorial may be either adding enemies or using objects.
