Text display in VN's

[DreamBig Games]

Hey everyone.

I've started working on VN, and I would like to ask you a question.
How do you prefer your text to be displayed, all at once ( as most RenPy games do, or with a typewriter effect ( 1-2 letters at a time, over a few seconds period).

Thanks for any input you might have.

Examples :

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LE: How about, the default option is typewriter effect, but if you click in the text area the text is displayed instantly?

 

[Fantabaldu]

Hey everyone.

I've started working on VN, and I would like to ask you a question.
How do you prefer your text to be displayed, all at once ( as most RenPy games do, or with a typewriter effect ( 1-2 letters at a time, over a few seconds period).

Thanks for any input you might have.

Examples :

You must be registered to see the links

Most of RenPy game have both options available and people , in every case , can chose what they like more ; for my taste , i prefer to see the text all at once

 

[u z i]

i always adjust the text speed to max(in Ren'Py). so yeah i pefer instant text.

 

[DreamBig Games]

Most of RenPy game have both options available and people , in every case , can chose what they like more ; for my taste , i prefer to see the text all at once

Hmm, I was not aware that was an option. Most of the games I have played displayed the text all at once.

 

[Fantabaldu]

Hmm, I was not aware that was an option. Most of the games I have played displayed the text all at once.

I used wrong words ;Just some games have the double options for the text not most of them ; i know because when i find the typewriter effect ( that i don't like at all ) i immediately change to see text all at once...

 

[vir_cotto]

At once but that's not the issue. The more important thing should be the possibility to choose different font sizes. I saw that in maybe 2 or 3 games. In most cases that's not important but, for some unknown reason, some devs decide to use micro-fonts or bad choice of background and font colour.

 

[anne O'nymous]

How do you prefer your text to be displayed, all at once ( as most RenPy games do, or with a typewriter effect ( 1-2 letters at a time, over a few seconds period).

I prefer as all Ren'py games do: configuring this myself from the "options" menu.

The more important thing should be the possibility to choose different font sizes.

If we can also choose between two/three fonts it would be even better. Some authors choose a fancy font, without caring a single second if it will be easily readable or not.
For old folks like me, who end being both near and far sighted (and personally I have astigmatism on top of that), it's something just impossible to read the dialogs ; yet my English skills offer me the possibility to decipher the text, which isn't a possibility everybody have.

 

[DreamBig Games]

I prefer as all Ren'py games do: configuring this myself from the "options" menu.

Most detailed and argumented answer ever... ).
I'm not doing this in RenPy, hence why I am asking.

 

[anne O'nymous]

I'm not doing this in RenPy, hence why I am asking.

Then, simply make the text display part like this [pseudo code]:

FOR letter in all letters of dialog line DO
   DISPLAY letter
   WAIT  optionsValue microseconds

And let the player define the value for [optionsValue], it's not this difficult and it will please everyone.

The delay for the dialog display depend of so many things, and the same player can want a long one in "this game", while still preferring a show one in "that game".

 

[DreamBig Games]

Then, simply make the text display part like this [pseudo code]:

FOR letter in all letters of dialog line DO
   DISPLAY letter
   WAIT  optionsValue microseconds

And let the player define the value for [optionsValue], it's not this difficult and it will please everyone.

The delay for the dialog display depend of so many things, and the same player can want a long one in "this game", while still preferring a show one in "that game".

My idea is to make the text show one letter at a time by default, a click will display the full text, another click will move the story forward.
I think this way, people who would like to see the whole text at once, just need an extra click. People who would like to see it 1letter at a time can just wait, and people who want to something in between can wait for as long as they want and then click when they get bored of waiting.

 

[DreamBig Games]

At once but that's not the issue. The more important thing should be the possibility to choose different font sizes. I saw that in maybe 2 or 3 games. In most cases that's not important but, for some unknown reason, some devs decide to use micro-fonts or bad choice of background and font colour.

That can be a problem, regarding the page layout. For example, in my project, the text area is predefined, and it can take up to 1100 characters ( spaces included). Now, let's say that is looking good at size 12, but if you were to change that size to 16, then those 1100 characters would require a lot more space, meaning they would be out of the text area ( not show at all, or show over the background image).
I will think about it, and maybe I can find a solution that would give you that option ( maybe resizing the text area according to the text size).
Thanks, I've never thought of that.

 

[anne O'nymous]

I think this way, people who would like to see the whole text at once, just need an extra click.

Can't talk for the other, but I never goes further than two dialog lines with games like this. This extra click is even more annoying than a text that's displayed too slowly.

 

[Fantabaldu]

The suggestions made by vir_cotto and anne O'nymous about different possible choices for the font text , it's really a good option and a really good thing for a player ; there are not i so much games whit this kind of choice , the only one where i find playing ,it was for example in Melody ; i post here the preferences screen of the game , so you can see in which way it's shown

 

[DreamBig Games]

The suggestions made by vir_cotto and anne O'nymous about different possible choices for the font text , it's really a good option and a really good thing for a player ; there are not i so much games whit this kind of choice , the only one where i find playing ,it was for example in Melody ; i post here the preferences screen of the game , so you can see in which way it's shown
View attachment 341584

Thanks a lot. I think I have found a way to give a font style option, but to be fair, I am not planning to use any custom, fancy fonts. A simple Roboto was my go-to font.
As for the font size, I haven't really found a solution, as increasing the font would expand the text area, or if I leave the font area independent of the text size, increasing the text size would push text over the background image.
For those of you who might have poor eyesight, what would be the best text size? Maybe I can use that as the max text size and design the text area around that.

Bellow is an example of this:

 

[vir_cotto]

That font size in Melody is OK.