The "Game File"
The gamefile.txt file is organized into scenes. Each scene starts with a
name in square brackets such as [Scene 1] or
[Cry Out Loud]. There are two
special scene names that help the Kamishibai viewer get things started.
These are [Title] and [Setup].
At the top of the new gamefile.txt file, you
should see the following [Title] scene:
[Title]
@Name = Title Of Work
@date = Date And Year
@version = v1.0
@author = Author Name
@artist = Artist Names
@company = Company Or Name
@copyright = Copyright (C) 2009 by Name
@contact = Contact Information
The items on the left of the equals sign ('=')
are the properties of this
scene. They represent what this scene can show or do. The stuff on the
right side of the equals sign is what will be displayed or used. For the
Title scene, this information is displayed when your story is first loaded
(i.e., a title screen). The @Name,
@author, and @artist
are required, the
rest are optional. However, I strongly encourage you to use all the fields
so you get proper credit for writing your story! The
@Name property is what
will be displayed in the New Game dialog. It is also displayed on the title
screen. Go ahead and change the various properties here to suit your liking.
For now, enter Kamishibai Tutorial as the name. You can change the
information in the other fields as you wish, but for now
keep the text you enter fairly short until you get a feel for how
much can be displayed. I will show you how to do that in just a moment.
The next scene is the [Setup] scene.
This looks like the following in your new gamefile.txt file:
[Setup]
@musicdir = music
@sounddir = sounds
@imagedir = images
@FirstScene = Scene 1
This scene tells the Kamishibai viewer where to find the images, sounds, and music
files. Each of the first three items specify the name of folders in your story folder
where music, sound, and images are stored, respectively. This setup scene also indicates
which is the first scene of your story. For now,
just leave these things alone. (Note: if you don't specify a scene name in
@FirstScene, the first scene that isn't a
[Title] or [Setup] scene will be
used as the first scene of the story.)
The next scene that appears in your gamefile.txt file is currently labeled
[Scene 1]. You can name this scene anything you
want just so long as the @FirstScene property of the
[Setup] scene has the same name. Here is a basic
scene:
[Scene 1]
@image = scene1.png
@music = scene1.mid
@description = Once upon a time, in a land far, far away...
@option1 = Continue
@link1 = Scene 2
This scene will display an image called scene1.png, start playing some music
called scene1.mid, and display the text given in the
@description property.
The @option1 property displays a label with the
text Continue that the user
can click on to move to the next scene. The @link1
property tells Kamishibai what scene to go to
when the user clicks on the option. There can be up to 4 options. Every
option must have a link and every link must have an option.
Here is a second scene to go with the first scene:
[Scene 2]
@image = scene2.png
@sound = scene2.wav
@description = A dragon was eating a peasant.
@option1 = Continue
@link2 = Scene 3
@option2 = Back
@link2 = Scene 1
In this scene, we have a new image, scene2.png, and a sound effect called
scene2.wav. This sound will be played only once and then stop. There is an
option to play the sound more than once but more on that later.
You will notice that there is no @music property
specified. Kamishibai will continue to play the same music from the previous scene.
This is also true if you specified a @music property with the
same music file that is currently playing; Kamishibai just keeps playing the current
music. However, if the specified music file is different, then Kamishibai will start
playing the new music file.
If you wanted to stop the music, specify the music name STOP;
for example, @music = STOP.
In this second scene, you will notice there are now two options, one for
going forward, and one for going back. It is generally a polite thing to
offer the user the ability to go back and reread something. The option and link pairs are
always numbered from 1 to 4 (i.e. @option1, @option2, @option3, and
@option4). Each of these correspond to a specific slot on the Kamishibai
display, with @option1 being at the top slot and @option4 being at the
bottom. This means that if you specify only @option4/@link4, the text will
be displayed in the bottom link slot. This gives you more room for the
description. Many stories take advantage of this to provide greater detail
in each scene.
Okay, now, lets create a third scene that will finish this simple story.
[Scene 3]
@anim = scene3a.png, scene3b.png, scene3c.png
@animspeed = slow
@animloop = 0
@music = scene3.mid
@sound = scene3.wav
@soundloop = 3
@description = A knight came along and hacked and hacked and hacked at the
dragon until the dragon was dead.\n\nThe end.
@option1 = Beginning
@link1 = Scene 1
@option2 = Back
@link2 = Scene 2
This scene displays an animation sequence of scene3a.png, scene3b.png, and
scene3c.png, starts the music file scene3.mid (after stopping any previously
playing music) and plays the sound file, scene3.wav, three times before
stopping. You can specify any positive value you want here or you can specify
the special label FOREVER to loop the sound forever (when you leave the
scene, the sound is stopped).
The animation is accomplished by simply displaying each image in the list of
images given in the @anim property. These are displayed at slow speed (about
1 frame a second) and will be played only once, stopping on the last frame
(the @animloop ="0" says repeat this animation 0 times).
Another special feature to note is the "\n\n" in the description.
Each \n
stands for a carriage return or new line and will move the following text to the
beginning of a new line. You can even use these carriage returns in the
[Title] section to good affect. This is how you can
separate lines of text for easier reading such as in writing dialog. For example,
@description = Joe: "Nice day, Bob."\nBob: "yep."\nJoe: "Snow tomorrow,
Bob."\nBob: "yep."
comes out looking like this:
Joe: "Nice day, Bob."
Bob: "yep."
Joe: "Snow tomorrow, Bob."
Bob: "yep."
Okay, we have completed the gamefile.txt file. Save this file. We now need
to create six images, two sound effects, and two music files.
The Images
To create the images, fire up your favorite paint program and start drawing-- But
wait! You need to know the size of the canvas to work with! The size is always
200 pixels wide and 112 pixels high, no more. Also, the image must
be stored as either a PNG (Portable Networks Graphics) or a Windows Bitmap (.BMP) file.
PNG files are the preferred format because they are a lot smaller than BMP files.
You can save the image in 16 color, 256 color, or 16 million colors. Just be aware
that there are still some people who have their Windows configured for 256 colors and 16 million colors
tends to reduce to pretty crappy images in that mode.
Create six images, each 200 pixels wide by 112 pixels high and save them in the
Images folder of your story folder under the names scene1.png,
scene2.png, and scene3a.png, scene3b.png, and
scene3c.png.
If you are impatient to get on with this tutorial, just copy six image
files from the image folder in the
Takozushi story to your image folder
and rename them
scene1.png,
scene2.png, and
scene3a.png,
scene3b.png, and
scene3c.png. I would suggest the
following
Takozushi files:
Takuzushi
File | rename to | Tutorial
File |
| 8.png | ==> | Scene1.png |
| 14.png | ==> | Scene2.png |
| 35.png | ==> | Scene3a.png |
| 36.png | ==> | Scene3b.png |
| 37.png | ==> | Scene3c.png |
The Sounds
We need two sound files. Sounds are always Windows Wave (.WAV) files. These
can be 8 bit or 16 bit, mono or stereo. Just be aware that if the user's
hardware cannot handle a particular format, they won't hear the sound! Most
people nowadays have 16-bit sound cards. However, 8 bit sounds often sound
okay and are half the size of 16-bit sounds. Keep this in mind as you create
your epic work.
If you have a sound editor, you can create two sounds and name them
scene1.wav and
scene3.wav. However, if you want to do what almost everyone
else does, copy them from another story! Although it is generally better to
create your own sounds, sometimes you don't have the means to do so. For
now, lets take two sounds from Takozushi. Copy the following
Takozushi sounds
to the sounds folder and rename them appropriately:
Takuzushi
File | rename to | Tutorial
File |
| war.wav | ==> | Scene1.wav |
| machete.wav | ==> | Scene2.wav |
The Music
Finally, we need some music. If you are a musician or know one who can
create midi files, just write some music. For those of us who can't write
music or can't produce midi files, it's time to borrow again. From
Takozushi:
Takuzushi
File | rename to | Tutorial
File |
| Chronojanus.mid | ==> | Scene1.mid |
| FinalBoss.mid | ==> | Scene3.mid |
Finished!
You have just created a story! Load up Kamishibai and check your new story
out! Click on New Game, select the title of your story. Kamishibai will
display the title screen with all the information you entered. Note how the
text is laid out for each property. This will give you a feel for how much
text you can actually enter. Click on the Begin Play button and you're off!
Click through each scene and see how each element is displayed and heard.
When you are done, quit Kamishibai to turn off the music (or view another
story).
That's all there is to creating a story. The scenedef.txt file,
included in the Kamishibai installation, describes
each property (also called keywords) so if you have any further questions,
try there first. Also, see if there are other stories that do what you are
trying to do and see how they did it by examining their gamefile.txt.
Good Luck!
