Adventure Creator original thread

[tlaero]

In the "Text" box at the top, you can do multiple lines by sticking a <br> anywhere you want a line break. If you try to make it too many lines, it gets cumbersome, and if you want to do more than 5 you might have to check the image size calculations to make sure the images still fit.

That said, I tend to do one page per dialog back and forth. It's easy enough to create pages that I don't find making them to be very difficult.

Tlaero

[fleet]

In the "Text" box at the top, you can do multiple lines by sticking a <br> anywhere you want a line break. If you try to make it too many lines, it gets cumbersome, and if you want to do more than 5 you might have to check the image size calculations to make sure the images still fit.

That said, I tend to do one page per dialog back and forth. It's easy enough to create pages that I don't find making them to be very difficult.

Tlaero

@Tlaero
<br> worked! Thank you!
Are there similar <> codes I can use to left align the dialog, and use italic text?

[tlaero]

It's HTML, so any HTML codes will work. Although, if you want to get really fancy, you may find that the tool is getting in your way more than it's helping. For italics, you wrap the word or words in <i> and </i>. For bold it's <b> and </b>. HTML isn't particularly good at aligning text, though.

Tlaero

[Squeeky]

It's HTML, so any HTML codes will work. Although, if you want to get really fancy, you may find that the tool is getting in your way more than it's helping. For italics, you wrap the word or words in <i> and </i>. For bold it's <b> and </b>. HTML isn't particularly good at aligning text, though.

Tlaero

I have downloaded your tool but never gotten to explore it

That said (and that explains the naivety of the following), is the attribute [align="center/left/right"] available, for that matter are attributes available?

Let me stop a moment. Have I seen bordered dialogues with <a href> links? If so fleet could apply them to his <td>'s if the tool allows for the task he seeks?

[fleet]

It's HTML, so any HTML codes will work. Although, if you want to get really fancy, you may find that the tool is getting in your way more than it's helping. For italics, you wrap the word or words in <i> and </i>. For bold it's <b> and </b>. HTML isn't particularly good at aligning text, though.

Tlaero

Thanks. I'll use the <i> and </i> codes, and check out other HTML codes.

Very respectfully,
fleet

[tlaero]

Also note that the tool is just creating HTML pages. You can always open the page it creates in an HTML viewer and look at it there. Just beware making substantial changes in that editor. If you get out of what the tool considers normal, you're liable to lose your changes if you load the page back into the tool and save it again.

Tlaero

[fleet]

Also note that the tool is just creating HTML pages. You can always open the page it creates in an HTML viewer and look at it there. Just beware making substantial changes in that editor. If you get out of what the tool considers normal, you're liable to lose your changes if you load the page back into the tool and save it again.

Tlaero

I've noticed that sometimes when I use adventure creator to edit a previously created page the hit target area will vanish.
<P ALIGN=Left> make text left aligned.

Very respectfully,
fleet

[tlaero]

I've never had a hit target disappear. I suspect one of the following is true (I've done all of these things).

1) You didn't save the page after adding the target. I used to do this all the time. I've added a bunch of "Do you want to save before moving to the next page" warnings, but maybe you found a path I missed.

2) You typed the text for the hit target, but the target wasn't selected, so the target didn't get the text. You then hit save, go to another page, and come back to find that the target is there, but it's empty. I do this a fair amount, but the solutions would remove a feature I use, so I haven't implemented them. The trick here is to look at the hit target and make sure that what you typed is there. If it's not, right click on the target and say "Update All." To make sure what you're typing goes to the target, left click on it first, THEN type. I often forget to do this, though. That's why I added "Update All."

If neither of those are what's happening with you, can you give me the exact steps you're doing? If there's a problem with the tool, I'll fix it.

Tlaero

[fleet]

I've never had a hit target disappear. I suspect one of the following is true (I've done all of these things).

1) You didn't save the page after adding the target. I used to do this all the time. I've added a bunch of "Do you want to save before moving to the next page" warnings, but maybe you found a path I missed.

2) You typed the text for the hit target, but the target wasn't selected, so the target didn't get the text. You then hit save, go to another page, and come back to find that the target is there, but it's empty. I do this a fair amount, but the solutions would remove a feature I use, so I haven't implemented them. The trick here is to look at the hit target and make sure that what you typed is there. If it's not, right click on the target and say "Update All." To make sure what you're typing goes to the target, left click on it first, THEN type. I often forget to do this, though. That's why I added "Update All."

If neither of those are what's happening with you, can you give me the exact steps you're doing? If there's a problem with the tool, I'll fix it.

Tlaero

Okay, I was wrong. The hit target area isn't disappearing when I edit an existing html file, it does seem to move off center. I suspect it has something to do with my changing the image size settings in the _style.css and _style2.css files.
Most of the images in my game are 1266 by 880 (none are larger), the smallest is 598 by 465.
What image size settings should I use in the css files?
Most of the picture html files have three lines of text on them, one has five.
Very respectfully,
fleet

[tlaero]

You're correct. The hit targets have absolute coordinates. It's not that they moved, it's that the picture moved when you changed its size. It's important to get the image sizes configured before you start laying out hit targets on them.

For the small size, I've found that 500 vertical pixels is ideal. Here's the math to convert from what you have to that small size. Or you can skip to the next paragraph where I give the answer. Your image is 1266x880 and you want to find <something> x 500 that keeps the aspect ratio the same. The easiest way to find <something> is to first divide 880 by 500, which gives you 1.76. Now divide 1266 by that. 1266 divided by 1.76 is 719.

So, the sizes you should put in _style.css are 719 width and 500 height.

The natural size is pretty good for the larger size, so I'd just go into _style2.css and put 1266 width and 880 height.

Now, the _game.js should keep the gameLargeScreenWidth and Height the same (1280 and 900).

However, you need to set the gameScaleFactor to 1.76 (it's currently 1.25). That's the value we got when we divided 880 by 500. This factor is very important, because it is what scales the hit targets when you use the larger size.

So, to recap:

_style.css
719 width
500 height

_style2.css
1266 width
880 height

_game.js
var gameLargeScreenWidth = 1280;
var gameLargeScreenHeight = 900;
var gameScaleFactor = 1.76;


As for your 598x465 files, I highly suggest you open those in an image editor and rescale/crop them to be 1266x880. Doing so now will save you a lot of headache in the future. They're not the same aspect ratio, so you're going to need to scale it and then crop off either the sides or the top and bottom, depending on which you prefer. If you don't want to do that, I can explain how to add other sizes to the tool, but you really are better off doing it once up front.

Tlaero

[fleet]

@Tlaero,
Thanks. I reset the parameters in the 3 files per your suggestion. It looks like I need to create new hit targets on some of the html files. :
Very respectfully,
fleet

EDIT: Weird! I reset the hit targets, and the game seems to runs okay, but when I open the html files in Adventure Creator it 'appears' that the hit targets have moved.

[tlaero]

Sorry, Fleet. I'm not following what you're saying. You open a file in AdventureCreator, move the hit target, save it, reopen it, and the target is in a different place?

Tlaero

[fleet]

Sorry, Fleet. I'm not following what you're saying. You open a file in AdventureCreator, move the hit target, save it, reopen it, and the target is in a different place?

Tlaero

Yes, that is exactly what I'm saying, when I reopen the html file in AdventureCreator the hit target moved. HOWEVER, when I play the game I can click on the place where the hit target is supposed to be, and it works fine.
I'm not sure WTF is happening, but as long as the game works, I'm not going to worry about it.

Very respectfully,
fleet

[ILSWriter]

Ok, I've worked through the two tutorials with no problem. What now? Where do I learn about the memory variables?

[tlaero]

Hey ILSWriter,

I'll do some more tutorials this weekend. Tell me what you'd like to know the most and I'll tailor them to what you're looking for. Here are some thoughts, let me know if one of them is more interesting to you than the other, or if there's something else you'd rather me do instead:

1) Inventory. You walk into a room and there's a key there. You click on the key and it goes away. Now when you walk into the room, there's no key. And, when you have the key, you can now open a locked door.

2) Character feelings. You say nice things to someone and they get happy. You say mean things and they get angry. They'll only open the door if their "happy" amount is enough greater than their "angry" amount.

Tlaero