[RELEASED] Text Engine - For Rendering Systems of Text

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Hi, folks! Have you ever seen games with a text system in the bottom left or right of a game that does something like this?

I needed a way to get multiple systems of text like this that were directly tied to player interactions in the game rendered on the screen. Not being able to find something that I could just import and drop into any project, I decided to roll my own.

In this WIP post, I’m introducing my new asset Text Engine, and I’d love your ideas for how I can make this very helpful for as many devs as possible.

The 5 Ws
Who? My name is Jesse and I’m a bestselling author who also pretends to be an indie game developer.

What? This is Text Engine, the foundation of an asset package that will give you plug-and-play text rendering systems like HUD feedback text and interaction hints.

Where/When? I’ll be publishing this to the Unity asset store in the coming week.

Why?

The kinds of games I like to write involve a lot of written word (HUD text, tooltips, dialogue, map hints, interaction clues, etc), so I started looking for assets that could help me do what I wanted to do without a lot of overhead. My current project, Waystation Echo, involves a lot of interacting with the environment and props–and all this interaction has specific text feedback parameters.

There are a lot of assets on the market that solve GUI and text rendering problems for many different types of games, but none that specifically address what I was trying to do. I wanted something that was easy to setup, easy to configure, and easy to use and extend–and gave me the text systems that I want.

My game at the time needed two ways to talk to the player: first, I needed a Feedback system that allowed me to send unique lines of text to the player based on what they were doing–like, “You can’t do that,” and, “You sword bursts into flames! +3 damage!”; second, I needed an on-screen Tooltip just below the reticle to give interaction hints–like, “Press [E] to open the airlock.”

Demos and Examples

UPDATE: Check out how I quickly integrate Text Engine into the Unity Shooter Tutorial:

]MEDIA=youtube]qDd0Nvf80uM[/MEDIA]

I have put together a pre-release demo just for this post that 1) shows Text Engine being used in my current game, 2) shows how to set it up in a new project, and 3) shows how to interact with it using a manager object and a getter function. This video has an associated tutorial that is a lot faster to get through.

Video:

Tutorial for setting up and adding lines to a Feedback Controller (which gives a fairly quick and easy overview of the Feedback Controller system):

https://lawsonry.com/2017/12/24/introduction-to-text-engine-for-unity-feedback-controllers/

Here are some graphics I put together to help illustrate its use:
Please note that some of these examples are using the OLD v1.0 system, and have been amazingly improved for an even faster and more efficient experience!)


And:

And finally:

And that’s it!

Thank you so much for your time and I look forward to talking with you in the replies. :slight_smile:

-Jesse

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Hi, everyone! I just created another video showcasing how easy it is to hook up the Feedback Controller to your existing Unity Event-driven system:

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Looks interesting, that’s exactly what I need. :wink: Did you already send it to the asset store?

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I did! Thanks for your interest. I submitted version 1.0 and I am already wrapping up 1.1 improvements, which will incorporate the following:

  • Feedback Controller system type. You can select whether you want a system that scrolls vertically positive or negative (i.e., lines can start at the top of the screen and scroll down, like for quest feedback or other kinds of things).
  • Tooltip Controller. Given a trigger event, show static text on the screen at a specific location (like when you hover over a door handle in a game and it says “Press [E] to open.”
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Sounds great, looking forward to the release. :wink:

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1.1 is adding Feedback Controller types. Here’s an example of what the setup looks like:

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Hi everyone! I created a new video to highlight how to integrate the Feedback Controller in your game. For this video, I’m using Unity’s Third Person Survival Shooter Template as an example.

I’ve also posted some 1.1 updates to my blog that go into more detail if you’d rather not watch a video.

Have a good one!

-Jesse

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Great news, everyone! Unity has rejected my package. (haha) But seriously, I just need to update the metadata and and readme with a disclaimer at the top that says Text Engine requires TextMesh Pro.

Why is this good news? Because that means we’re rolling out to the asset store at v1.1, baby! Woohoo!

I’ll update this thread again once the asset store link is live, and then conclude this thread with a link to the release thread in the other forum.

Cheers!
-Jesse

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Well folks, today is the day. The awesomely hard-working folks at Unity have approved Text Engine, and we’ve rolled out with v1.1!

Here’s a link to Text Engine in the asset store:

I’m going to create an announcement in the Asset Store forum, then update this post with the link. From then on, all updates will be posted in that thread.

Cheers!

-Jesse

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Now, with TextMeshPro being deprecated by Unity (and unavailable further for downloads) - would this system still work with default unity 2017 versions, and can you perhaps include TextMeshPro in the asset download if it would not, thanks ?