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74 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
74 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
Anselme
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=======
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The overengineered dialog scripting system in pure Lua.
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Whatever is on the master branch should work fine. **Documentation and language are still WIP and will change. I am using this in a project and modify it as my needs change.** Breaking changes are documented in commit messages.
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Purpose
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-------
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Once upon a time, I wanted to do a game with a branching story. I could store the current state in a bunch of variables and just write everything like the rest of my game's code. But no, that would be *too simple*. I briefly looked at [ink](https://github.com/inkle/ink), which looked nice but lacked some features I felt like I needed. Mainly, I wanted something more language independant and less linear. Also, I wasn't a fan of the syntax. And I'm a weirdo who make their game in Lua *and* likes making their own scripting languages (by the way, if you like Lua but not my weird idiosyncratic language, there's actually some other options ([Erogodic](https://github.com/oniietzschan/erogodic) looks nice)).
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So, here we go. Let's make a new scripting language.
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Anselme ended up with some features that are actually quite useful compared to the alternatives:
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* allows for concurently running scripts (a conversation bores you? why not start another at the same time!)
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* allows for script interuption with gracious fallback (so you can *finally* make that NPC shut up mid-sentence)
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* a mostly consistent and easy to read syntax based around lines and whitespace
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* easily extensible (at least from Lua ;))
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And most stuff you'd expect from such a language:
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* easy text writing, can integrate expressions into text, can assign tags to (part of) lines
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* choices that lead to differents paths
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* variables, functions, arbitrary expressions (not Lua, it's its own thing)
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* can pause the interpreter when needed
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* can save and restore state
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And things that are halfway there but *should* be there eventually (i.e., TODO):
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* language independant; scripts should (hopefully) be easily localizable into any language (it's possible, but doesn't provide any batteries for this right now).
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Defaults variables use emoji and then it's expected to alias them; works but not the most satisfying solution.
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* a good documentation (need to work on consistent naming of Anselme concepts, a step by step tutorial)
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Things that Anselme is not:
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* a game engine. It's very specific to dialogs and text, so unless you make a text game you will need to do a lot of other stuff.
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* a language based on Lua. It's imperative and arrays start at 1 but there's not much else in common.
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* a high-performance language. No, really, I didn't even try to make anything fast, so don't use Anselme to compute primes.
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Example
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-------
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Sometimes we need some simplicity:
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```
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HELLO SIR, HOW ARE YOU TODAY
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> why are you yelling
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I LIKE TO
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> Well that's stupid.
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I DO NOT LIKE YOU SIR.
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> I AM FINE AND YOU
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I AM FINE THANK YOU
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LOVELY WEATHER WE'RE HAVING, AREN'T WE?
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> Sure is!
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YEAH. YEAH.
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> I've seen better.
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NOT NICE.
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WELL, GOOD BYE.
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```
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Othertimes we don't:
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TODO: stupidly complex script
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Reference
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------------------
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See [LANGUAGE.md](LANGUAGE.md) for a reference of the language.
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See [anselme.md](anselme.md) for the Lua API's documentation.
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