UTAGE Unity Text Adventure Game Engine [RELEASED]

http://u3d.as/content/madness-labo/utage-unity-text-adventure-game-engine/6US

Utage is a tool to create visula novel. Made in Japan.
You can edit a scenario using Excel!



Japanese Web player demo
Japanese Site

English Web player demo
English Document

Features
You can edit a scenario using Excel!
Optimized file manager
Supports download content
Work with Unity Basic
Full open source C#
2D drawing-based SpriteRenderer
Supports simple UI

Text adventure Features
Text display (color change, variable display tab)
Character display and facial expression change
Background, event CG, sprite display, and fade out.
Voice, BGM, ambient audio, SE playback and fade out
Choices, dialog branches, scenario jump
Tween animation
Embed parameter (Int, Bool, Float, String) formulas
SendMessage function

 

Really interested in this asset but firstly I would like to know if you are planning to update Utage and integrate the new uGUI of unity 4.6. If that is the case, when do you plan to release that update?
Thank you!

 

It is currently in preparation. Trial version is there already.
Is still only Web page in Japanese.

　http://madnesslabo.net/utage/?page_id=881

 

That was a fast reply! Thank you very much goodtime, keep up the good work and give us more English documentation!

 

I'm having difficulty with the 'param' feature. I'm setting a param in one scene and then attempting to retrieve it in another. The scene all happens within the same scenario xls file. If I just jump scenes, the params are maintained. The moment I do a LoadLevel, however, the param values revert to their initial states (as specified by the scenario XLS file). Is there any way to maintain params across scenarios?

Edit: Found a way! I made a handler that writes each param to the PlayerPrefs, along with an index of params and loads them again when the scene loads. This allows for doing that, but is a bit hacky.

 

Please use "Don't Destroy on Load" component. It's attached to 'Adv Engine' and 'Manageres'.
If necessary, please Add also to other objects.
This is very simple script.
refer http://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Object.DontDestroyOnLoad.html

 

Hello,

I am considering purchasing your engine, but I have some questions.

Which platforms are supported? (e.g. Windows, Android, XBox, etc.)

Also, how well does it "plug in" to other game systems? If I have a game that has a text adventure element, but is then interrupted by a different game mechanic (e.g. text adventure chapter 1, then Mario-style platform-er, then text adventure chapter 2...). Can I turn Utage on/off at runtime? Can I read/write Utage params from my own script?

Also, under which license is Utage distributed? After I purchase it, am I free to use it in commercially sold products?

Thank you!

 

Thank your purchase.

>Which platforms are supported? (e.g. Windows, Android, XBox, etc.)
I tested Android,iPhone,WindowsPC,MaxOsX,WebPlaeyer. Others are not tested, but may work.
I have confirmed that there is a problem to build Windows Store App. It will be fixed later.
Not yet support Keyboad or Joystick Contoler.

>Can I turn Utage on/off at runtime?
Yes. Please use Method of JumpScenario and IsEndScenario.
Sample code...

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2. using System.Collections;
3. using Utage;
4. public class TalkArea : MonoBehaviour {
5.     public AdvEngine engine;
6.     public string scenarioLabel;
7.     void OnCollisionEnter()
8.     {
9.         StartCoroutine( CoTalk() );
10.     }
11.     IEnumerator CoTalk()
12.     {
13.         engine.JumpScenario( scenarioLabel );
14.         while(!engine.IsEndScenario)
15.         {
16.             yield return 0;
17.         }
18.     }
19. }
20.  

Detail document. But this is Japanese.
http://madnesslabo.net/utage/?page_id=402

> Can I read/write Utage params from my own script?
Sample Code

Code (CSharp):

1.         public AdvEngine engine;
2.         void Hoge()
3.         {
4.             engine.Param.GetParameter(“flag1");
5.            engine.Param.TrySetParameter(“flag1”,true);
6.        }

>Also, under which license is Utage distributed?
It is the same with the other license of AssetStore.
http://unity3d.com/legal/as_terms


> After I purchase it, am I free to use it in commercially sold products?
No problem. Use it.

 

Thank you very much for your prompt reply! =D

 

Hi. I tried running Utage on Android but I'm getting "LoadResource Error"s. The strange thing is in logcat the errors have the last slash reversed into a backslash so instead of:

Game/Texture/Character/Character.png

it says:

Game/Texture/Character\Character.png

Could this be the problem? What would cause something like this?

 

I tried to examine this error, but did not know the cause.

This slash is programmed like this.

Assets\Utage\Scripts\ADV\DataManager\SettingData\AdvBootSetting.cs

Code (CSharp):

1.  
2.         public void BootInit( string resorceDir )
3.         {
4.             characterDirInfo = new DefaultDirInfo { defaultDir = @"Texture/Character", defaultExt = ".png" };
5.  
6. ［...]
7.  
8.             InitDefaultDirInfo(resorceDir, characterDirInfo);
9. ［...]
10.         }
11.         void InitDefaultDirInfo(string root, DefaultDirInfo info)
12.         {
13.             info.defaultDir = root + "/" + info.defaultDir + "/";
14.         }

If you were rewritten source code, may occur an error.

 

Thank you for the prompt response. Figured out what's wrong. Because I am keeping my character images in separate folders inside the characters folder I was calling them out as "CharacterName\CharacterName.png" instead of "CharacterName/CharacterName.png". I changed to "CharacterName/CharacterName.png" and everything is working fine now. Thanks for looking into it!

 

I was also able to understand.
Thank you for your report.

 

Hi, just bought this asset, it looks really good, and it supports Live2D now which is really cool. I just started a new project following the tutorial, however, the start screen is in Japanese. Is there a language setting you can change it to English? Thanks.

 

Hey, YyFiRe, I've been using Utage for a bit, and I had the same problem when I started.

Use the Language Manager at Utage/Template/ScriptableObject/LanguageManager.asset, and uncheck "Ignore Localize Ui Text" (false), then save the project. Don't change any other settings.

Let me know if this doesn't work for you.

Also, (in case you haven't already found it), here is the English documentation (scroll to the bottom of the page)
http://web.archive.org/web/20141208151000/http://madnesslabo.net/utage/?page_id=33
and the English example file
www.madnesslabo.com/UtageDemo/En/Sample%20English.xls

 

Hi cowlinator, thank you! It works.

 

Need a Quick answer here. I want to create an RPG game that has Visual Novel like conversation.
but as I see the example (the excel) it looks like I have to set everything in the excel.
Indeed this is convenient to make the VN element, but can I achieve this with UTAGE?

1. Suddenly creates the Conversation GUI via script, without having to edit the XLS? Like
- Talking to an NPC (and having different conversation everytime I talk. until reaching certain point)
- Using "your name" or "your skill" or "quest item name and amount" in the conversation
2. Using NGUI

 

'UTAGE' is using 'Unity GUI System' to gui.
Customize is possible, but not easy.
Sorry

 

Hi johanesnw.

For "having a different conversation every time", you can lay out all the conversations one character will speak as sets of dialogs in the .xls, label them, and then you can start any of them in code (at random, or by any other order).

For using "your name" or "your skill" in the dialog, yes, you can do that. Example:
advEngine.Param.TrySetParameter(“skillName”, "gopher herding");
Then, in the .xls, you embed "<param=skillname>" in the text.

For NGUI, that would be rather difficult.

 

Hi!

Adapts to different screen resolutions?

 

Yes.　
Please check this page for details.
If you change the language to English pages, it will be old information,
Please read the Japanese page using Google translation etc.

http://madnesslabo.net/utage/?page_id=392

 

Note that in the documentation at http://madnesslabo.net/utage/?page_id=392 , that "Nallow" means "Narrow".

 

Thank you for your report.
I mistyped my spelling.
It is "Narrow".

 

I downloaded a game which use your UTAGE engine, but there’s a big problem, the animations are stuck, they don’t move. My pc is well more powerful than the game requirements so the game developer told me to contact the UTAGE developer. Other people have this problem too, do you know what the cause may be?

 

Thank you.
I have reported the same problem from the developer and I am investigating.
I guess it is a problem caused by the language setting of the PC.
May I ask you for a solution?
What is the language setting of the PC where the bug occurs?
For languages that use a comma as a decimal point instead of a period, this bug may occur.
This is a known bug and will resolve if the developer brings my package to the latest version.
This is a bug caused by the change in the C # version of Unity, which is probably due to Unity changing the specification without warning.

 

Hello everyone!

I've started poking around with UTAGE for a group I'm a part of to use for our visual novel project. The reason I picked it up was because we are wanting to use Live2D for our game. I've done the tutorial on the site, as well as poking around the other capabilities and want to try the Live2D extension. However, the link is broken on the website to get the Live2D scripts. Is there any other place I can find it? My team is really interested in using this engine since it simplifies A LOT of the coding and writing from a writer's perspective.

Thanks!

 

Perhaps you are looking at an old page.
The latest is here. Only in Japanese.
Please use the Google translation function for English.
http://madnesslabo.net/utage/?page_id=9621

 

That's what was happening! Thank you! ^^

 

Hello!
About the workflow, I only knows the basic of excel, do I have to tpye all the content correctly by hand? I am afraid there is a big probability that I spell something(command, arg,,,) wrong, and it seems difficult to find out

 

An error message will be issued for errors such as command names.

 

It's kind of unsure without a select&assign approach in the editor, but still a great engine.
By the way, is it easy to build a popup bubble dialogue system like Falcom's Kiseki series?

 

I do not know the features needed for that system.
It is possible to call it as a dialog, not a novel game.
But you will need to write a control program for your project.

 

My thought is to treat MessageWindow like characters. Then in the Text edit of excel, use args to control the position and size of the MessageWindow. Maybe also a bool to switch popup mode or visual novel mode.

 

It is impossible if you can not write a program.
The expansion method is prepared. Read the official site documentation. It is Japanese, so use Google Translate etc.
http://madnesslabo.net/utage/

 

I have read documentation yesterday. I think I could do the job the with UI-kei command now and some program arrangement, but seems complicated. So, consider it a feature request if it is not bother
By the way, can I write my own custom command? If I can, how and what should I pay attention to in case not crush the engine

 

How to customize
http://madnesslabo.net/utage/?page_id=4780

Costom　Command
http://madnesslabo.net/utage/?page_id=3195

 

Hello！I have another question

Can I start 2 dialogue at the same time? For example. A and B talking scenarioX in messageWindow1, C and D talking scenarioY in messageWindow2. Both of them can be auto or manual. Player can control each of them by clicking the corresponding messageWindow. Or use mouse click to control messageWindow1 and a keyboard button to control messageWindow2.

 

Can not do that.

 

Emm...Is it able to pause a scenario by event, then resume it? Like in the document, a game event called a dialogue, then I set up an other event that happen at a random moment to pause the scenario at a random line. If this is still impossible, can I stop an unfinished dialogue by event?

 

I think I found the way to pause, just call engine.ScenarioPlayer.Pause() in code instead of using command in excel. But what if I want to start another dialogue scenarioY after the pause, and resume scenarioX after scenarioY ends? If this is not able to be done for the engine now, I hope to know what data is needed to build a reatore feature myself, like store the data in a proper place, and resume whichever scenario I want by restore the data

 

That is impossible.

 

Em...I thought it works like the saveload system, except it does not need a file, but an gameobject. After all this is not a must feature, I'll dig it a little more later on

 

Hi！How can I show pattern faceIcon only without standing picture？

In the Character command, if I set pattern arg2 to <Off>, the faceIcon will become the default pattern.
I tried to set up another character pattern in Character sheet that has no standing picture, but the faceIcon doesn't show either.
It works when I set the character position far away from the camera so we won't see it, but is there a proper way to do the job?

 

I'm sorry. There is no smart way.
Prepare a transparent texture and display as a picture of the character as a dummy.
The UTAGE save system works because it can not handle things without objects.

 

FYI, there might be a memory bloat issue with UTAGE?

 

I don't think there will be any significant issues.
In general, unnecessary files are automatically unloaded.

However, unloading assets in novel games can be a complex process. Novel games often require frequent loading and unloading of assets, so even assets that have become unused are cached to some extent in preparation for the next load. As a result, seemingly unnecessary assets may remain in memory.

With Utage's FileManager, you have the ability to adjust the number of on-memory assets using the 'Range Of Files On Memory' feature.
Additionally, you can fine-tune the frequency of calling 'Resources.UnloadUnusedAssets' through FileManager.UnloadType. If it is set to 'None,' UTAGE will not automatically call 'Resources.UnloadUnusedAssets.' In such cases, please perform this at your discretion.
https://madnesslabo.net/utage/?page_id=464


If you encounter any issues, please feel free to reach out to our support forum for assistance.
https://groups.google.com/g/utageuser

 

Oh, I'm not using UTAGE, I just thought I'd surface the potential issue. I've let the person in the other thread with this issue know though.