Hi All,
Yes, with this note: The Dialogue System’s modular design lets you use any GUI system. Drop in any script that implements the interface IDialogueUI, and the Dialogue System will work fine with it.
Out of the box, it currently provides Unity GUI and NGUI implementations. I’ll see if I can get an implementation for Daikon Forge GUI into the next version. If you’re in a hurry, you can implement IDialogueUI yourself for Daikon. All source code is included, so you could look at the other implementations to see how they were done.
It depends on your needs. The most robust solution would be to use both, which is very easy to do, but may be overkill. I’ve done complete projects with just the Dialogue System’s save/load feature.
The Dialogue System doesn’t automatically save to the web, nor does it encrypt, which are features of Easy Save 2. Here’s how it works:
The Dialogue System includes a complete Lua environment. All dialogue information (quest status, what dialogue nodes have already been spoken, etc.) is stored in this environment. You have direct access to this environment, which gives you powerful control over dialogue activity, such as the ability to set complex conditions on dialogue nodes or dynamically change text.
You can add “persistent data” components to your game objects that automatically save and load other data such as character position, whether the object is active or inactive, etc. These components read and write this data into the Lua environment. The Dialogue System also includes a template to easily create your own custom persistent data components.
To save a game, the Dialogue System serializes the Lua environment data into a string. It can read/write this automatically to PlayerPrefs, or you can do whatever else you want with it (write it to a file, tell Easy Save 2 to save it, etc.)
Yes, as RayWolf put very well, Urban Brain Studios’ Chat Mapper is a separate license. But we have a promotion set up. Customers of the Dialogue System get a 10% discount code on Chat Mapper. Just PM or email us your invoice number and I’ll send you the discount code and the private customer download page where you can download pre-release versions before they’re available on the Asset Store.
You can also use the built-in editor that comes with the Dialogue System.
I chose to focus first on Chat Mapper over other products such as articy:draft because it’s been around longer and, for dialogue, it’s more robust with a better data structure. It lets you make very complex conversations, and the Dialogue System translates all of that into Unity. It’s also available at a better price point for indie developers than similar products.
[Edit: Forgot to respond about localization.]
Good timing! I just finished implementing localization. It’ll be in the next version submitted to the Asset Store.
Chat Mapper also inherently supports localization.
Yes! I’m finishing up the articy:draft importer and a Twine importer, both of which should make it into the version after next.
(Twine, which is free, isn’t nearly as expressive or full-featured, but it can get the job done.)
