Branching Dialog System - Lets Get It Working

It seems like I have to really dig to get any info on this topic, so I guess its time to make my own post, hopefully helping someone else looking for the same thing.

I would like to have a simple dialog system in my game, and i really have tried several times to. So far the example by Laura_D is probably the closest to it, However anytime I try and tinker in it, it breaks down completely and stops working even just by changing the regular text to sprite text and nothing else.

The other example I see is the ZeldaDialogSystem. That one is way too complicated for what I am trying to achieve.

The issue is, That's it, no plugins or help of any kind, anytime I try and find solutions its the same two things. Maybe its just a lack of people using CS3, but I feel there should be some simple way to get branching dialog in a construct game. If anyone has more resources to put in this discussion that would be great.

Would it be feasible to make one tailored to how you want it to work? Just have to break it down into manageable steps.

A way to display text and a list of choices.

A way to select a choice

Then a change the text and choices.

All easily doable but I guess there’s some aspects you have a more complex behavior in mind. Also json, xml, or arrays are just ways to organize the dialogs. But you can do it in many other ways.

I put together a rough json-based dialogue system that uses chatmapper exports a while back. I gave up around the time it came to implement complex condition handling. I did manage to get basic logic down (check condition, hide/show option, etc.) but it quickly became clear that what I wanted was possible but would take a hell of a lot of work to get running.

I plan to use a more stripped down version to handle basic dialogue but sadly I think the Disco Elysium style deep dialogue system I dreamed up will have to wait. Ashley has made it pretty clear that a built-in dialogue system is way beyond scope and I think it would be one hell of an undertaking to rustle up a plug-in for this purpose. But like I say, not impossible. The moment someone does, they have my download.

Hello,

Maybe you could have a try with Twine...

construct.net/en/make-games/addons/1131/c3-twine

Great. I will look at Twine.

thanks lots

yours

winkr7

There are tutorials on using JSON to handle branching dialog:

construct.net/en/tutorials/json-branch-dialogue-example-3013

construct.net/en/tutorials/branching-dialogue-using-json-2395

There are tutorials on using JSON to handle branching dialog:

https://www.construct.net/en/tutorials/json-branch-dialogue-example-3013

https://www.construct.net/en/tutorials/branching-dialogue-using-json-2395

These are relatively outdated, given that the Flowchart system is probably the most viable route for this now. I've built a prototype dialogue system using it and it's powerful, just limited by how young its feature set is as of now.

It's very easy to create a simple dialogue system in C3, but as you add more complexity (conditions, tags, variables, etc.) it tends to fall apart. I got as far as the ability to change and read variables from a dictionary and enable basic conditions, but the whole thing felt extremely unstable and I wouldn't feel safe committing to an entire game built on it.

I agree with OP that a plug-in to handle those more complex features would be ideal - but it's also hard to know whether it would be a waste of time or not, since Ashley and the team have been very hush hush about the roadmap for Flowcharts and how much more they intend to develop it. I - like a lot of us atm - am just waiting on more info before I continue any branching dialogue heavy projects.