Organic Text Engine

An easy and customizable text engine for GameMaker

Install

The text engine comes as a package for GameMaker. Simply create a project, click on the Tools menu, and click Import Local Package. Select the OrganicTextEngine.yymps file you downloaded. The package includes an object named obj_textengine and a script named text_engine_print.

Usage

Making Text

Let's try out the text engine.

First, you'll need to import a font. Right click the Fonts folder in the asset manager > Create > Font. Choose any font from your computer. Next, create a room (make sure it is the first room that opens when you start the game). Finally, open the room editor for the room you created, and click Creation Code, and type this: (replace NAME_OF_FONT with the asset name of the font you created)

text_engine_print("TEST!", 50, 50, 2, NAME_OF_FONT, c_white, 0, "\n", [], false, 0);

Explanation

"TEST!" - The text to write

50, 50 - The starting X and Y position of the text

2 - Text type speed (Number of frames to wait between letters; lower is faster)

NAME_OF_FONT - The font for the text

c_white - The color of the text

0 - The style of the text (Go to Text Effects)

"\n" - The character to use as a newline

[] - The sounds to play when typing the text (Picked at random from the array)

false - Advanced text mode (Go to Control Codes)

0 - Extra data (Go to Text Effects)

Syntax

text_engine_print(text, x, y, speed, font, color, style, newlinechar, sounds, advancedtext, extradata);

Text Effects

You can change the style parameter to create some fancy text! You can use the extradata parameter to further customize the effect.

Style number	Name	Extra data
0	Normal	N/A
1	Shaky	Shake amount
2	Wavy vertical	Wave speed
3	Wavy horizontal	Wave speed

Control Codes

If the advancedtext parameter is true, you can use control codes to change the style of your text mid-string. Control codes are enclosed inside square brackets.

Text	Description	Parameter
style	Change style	Style number
color	Change text color	Any GameMaker color asset (without the c_)
extra	Change extra data	Any number

You are able to write multiple control codes in one pair of square brackets, like so: [color red, style 1]

Example

text_engine_print("So long and [color red]thanks [color white, style 1]for all [style 2, extra 10, color aqua]the fish.",50,50,2,fnt_arial,2,infinity,c_white,0,"\n",[],true,2);

The code above would look like this:

In the string, [color red] turns the color to red, [color white, style 1] changes the color to white and the style to 1 (shaky), and [style 2, extra 10, color aqua] changes the style to 2 (wavy vertical), the extra data (wave speed) to 10, and the color to aqua.

Credits

Created by Chase Peck

Organic Games LLC