Example: affection and multiple endings

This example builds an affection system in a project created from the Skeleton template:

• Choices increase the saved variable Affection.
• The right side of the dialogue box shows the current value of Affection.
• An extra branch plays when Affection is 20 or more.
• The story ends in one of three endings, according to Affection and Honest.
• The title page shows how many endings have been reached.

Before you start

Create a project from the Skeleton template, as described in Getting started. The Skeleton contains three scenes: The corridor, The clubroom and Last light. The menu in The clubroom writes the choice into the saved variable Honest; Last light shows a different line depending on Honest and ends with the ending Same time tomorrow.

The steps below declare the variable, change the three scenes in turn, and then change the Game UI Dialogue and the page Title.

1. Declare the variable

Open Variables in the right sidebar and click Add next to Saved variables. Name the new variable Affection, set its type to Number and leave the default at 0.

A saved variable belongs to the whole project, and every scene and blueprint can read and write it. Its value is written into the save, restored when the save is loaded, and reset to the default when a new game starts. The other scopes are described in Variables.

2. Change affection in choices

After you type /inc Affection 20 and press Enter, the row reads inc Affection 20. Without a number, /inc adds 1; /dec decreases a value; /set Affection Affection + 20 has the same effect as /inc Affection 20.

3. Show affection on the dialogue box

The text is evaluated again each time the saved variable it reads is written. The value on the dialogue box updates when /inc runs, when a save is loaded and when a new game starts.

4. Branch on affection

In Last light, add a row after the condition on Honest and before Narra's line "Same time tomorrow. Don't be late.", type /if Affection >= 20 and press Enter. Under If, add:

• Narra: "Do you want to walk to the station together?"
• A menu. The option "Sure." contains Narra: "Okay." and /inc Affection 15; the option "Not today." contains Narra: "Maybe next time."

When Affection is below 20, the whole branch is skipped. This condition has no Else branch, so the story continues with the next row.

The condition of an /if is an expression, which supports comparisons and &&, || and !. The condition can also be switched to Variable in the properties panel, where the variable and the comparison are chosen from dropdowns.

5. Three endings

Delete the two lines of narration and the ending Same time tomorrow at the end of Last light. At the end of the scene, type /if Affection >= 35 && Honest and press Enter, then click Else if and Else on the condition row to add the other two branches:

/ending ends the story on that row and records which ending the player reached.

6. Return to the title page after an ending

Open Project → App, expand main under Build variants, and set Page shown when the story ends to Title. The story shows this page after it ends on an ending row. A single ending row can show a different page, set under Page shown afterwards in the properties panel.

7. Show the endings reached on the title page

The endings a player has reached are recorded outside the save. Loading a save, starting a new game and restarting the game do not clear the record.

Open the page Title, add a Text below the title rule and name it Endings. Switch its Text to Blueprint Value and open it.

Add Get Endings and set Story to Skeleton. Its Endings output carries an Ending list. Drag a wire from Endings and release it on empty canvas: the add-node menu opens on Fields, which lists what can be done with each field of an ending. Choose Filter by isReached. Studio adds Array Filter By Key with Key set to isReached and Value set to True, and connects Endings to its Array.

Add the other nodes and connect them as below:

Get Endings lists every ending row in the story. Each ending has the field isReached, which states whether the player has reached it. The first Get Endings keeps the endings that have been reached; the second counts all of them. A second wire from the same Endings output would replace the first, so each count has its own Get Endings. The fields of an ending and the other nodes that read them are listed under Structs.

The template is text written in the graph and does not change with the game's language. In a project with more than one language, supply the template with Translation Key Text.

Testing

• Press F5 to run the project in Dev Mode. Click Play from this row on a row to start from that row.
• The debug button at the bottom left of Dev Mode → Story → Variables lists the current values of the saved variables, which can be changed there. Set Affection to 40, turn on Honest, and play to the end to check the ending Festival together.
• The arrow next to the Dev Mode button → Reset player data → Dev Mode clears all saves and the endings record of Dev Mode. The title page returns to Endings reached 0 / 3.
• Click Open Scene Flow in the Story panel and choose Affection in the variable list. Each scene shows the range of Affection on arrival; Show branches shows how much each option adds and which branches end the story.
• When the threshold of a condition is higher than any route can reach, the Problems panel reports Condition no path can satisfy and gives the range of Affection at that point.

Related pages

• Persistent variables are not stored in saves and are kept across all saves and launches; see Persistent variables.
• Node reference: Variables nodes, Game nodes, Data nodes.