[HOWTO] How To Get Started with Visual Novel Starter Framework

[Tony Li]

This is a brief "from zero" guide to getting started with the Dialogue System's free Visual Novel Starter Framework:

1. Import the Dialogue System for Unity into a new project.

2. Do the Quick Start tutorial. It takes about 5 minutes. (Main Tutorials page)

3. Download and import the Visual Novel Starter Framework from the Dialogue System Extras page.

4. Add these 2 scenes to your build settings:

• Assets / Dialogue System Extras / Visual Novel Framework / Example / Example Start
• Assets / Dialogue System Extras / Visual Novel Framework / Example / Example Gameplay

Then play Example Start to get an idea of how it plays.

5. Then remove those scenes from build settings, and add these 3 scenes:

• Assets / Dialogue System Extras / Visual Novel Framework / Scenes / Start
• Assets / Dialogue System Extras / Visual Novel Framework / Scenes / Gameplay
• Assets / Dialogue System Extras / Visual Novel Framework / Scenes / Credits

Or, better yet, duplicate those scenes and add the duplicate versions to your build settings. Then play the Start scene to get an idea of what you're starting with.

6. Read Assets / Dialogue System Extras / Visual Novel Framework / Visual_Novel_Framework_Manual.pdf.

7. Duplicate the prefab "Visual Novel Dialogue UI". In the Start scene, assign your duplicate prefab to the Dialogue Manager GameObject's Display Settings > Dialogue UI field. You can customize this prefab to look the way you want.

[massivejack]

Hello!
Iv'e been trying to use the VN starter framework, did all the tutorials and can't get one point to work:

In the manual its states:

Code: Select all

Gameplay Scene
8. Open the Gameplay scene.
9. This scene contains a modified copy of the Dialogue Manager game object that lets you play
your game directly from this scene instead of going through the Start scene first. This is just a
convenience to be able to test your game more easily.
If you modify the master copy of the Dialogue Manager game object in the Start scene, click
the Apply button to apply the changes to the Unity prefab. The copy of the Dialogue Manager
in the Gameplay scene will inherit those changes

However opening and running the Gameplay scene results in a blank scene - no conversation is player and the entire UI is missing. What am I doing wrong?

Thank you!

[Tony Li]

Hi,

Sorry about that confusing text. I'll rewrite it to make it clearer. I'll also update the Gameplay scene to make it easier to test directly from the scene. Drop a copy of the Visual Novel Menu Canvas prefab into the Gameplay scene, and add a Dialogue System Trigger set to OnSaveDataApplied that starts your VN conversation. In the meantime, if you don't want to make those changes yourself, please play from the Start scene.

[Tony Li]

The Dialogue System Extras page now has an updated version 2.0.10 that fixes that issue.