エロｇｏｄｉｃ

Erogodic is a library for scripting branching interactive narrative in Lua. It aims to be suitable for any sort of game which needs some amount of dialogue or narration, including games which are comprised entirely out of dialog, like visual novels.

Erogodic aims to provide the "back-end" of a dialog system. You will need to implement your own message boxes, portraits, user-interaction, etc. For maximum flexibility, erogodic allows you to attach any amount of arbitrary data to each "message node".

Erogodic's scripts are written as pure Lua coroutines; this has a couple major benefits. Firstly, it should be extremely easy to trigger any of your game's functionalities depending on which dialogue options are chosen. Secondly, your scripts themselves can be highly dynamic: messages, choices, and more can be modified in real time in accordance to the status of your game world.

Demo

If you're a LÖVE user, then check out main.lua. It's a simple demonstration of how you can use Erogodic. This demo makes use of Talkies in order to provide a message box. You could use Talkies yourself, or you could write your own messsage box.

Simple Example

local Ero = require 'erogodic'()

local script = Ero(function()
  msg "Hello minasan. Which of these frozen desserts is your favourite?"
  option "Soft Serve"
  option "Shaved Ice"
  menu "Choose one:"
  if selection "Soft Serve" then
    msg "Too cold!!"
  elseif selection "Shaved Ice" then
    msg "Just right."
  end
  msg "Thanks for stopping by!"
end)

script:next()
-- Returns: {msg = "Hello minasan. Which of these frozen desserts is your favourite?"}
script:next()
-- Returns: {msg = "Choose one:",
--           options = {"Soft Serve", "Shaved Ice"}}
script:select("Shaved Ice")
-- Returns: {msg = "Just right."}
script:next()
-- Returns: {msg = "Thanks for stopping by!"}
script:next()
-- Returns: nil

Attributes Example

Attributes are arbitrary properties which will be returned alongside msg. They can be set to any Lua value. Attributes might be suitable for messagebox titles, character portraits, text effects, or anything else you can imagine. You just gotta keep believing and never give up on your dreams!

local portraitChiito = {path = "chiito.png", width = 200, height = 400}
local portraitYuuri  = {path = "yuuri.png",  width = 195, height = 430}
local script = Ero(function()
  name "Chiito"
  portrait(portraitChiito)
  msg "What are you doing?"
  name "Yuuri"
  portrait(portraitYuuri)
  msg "I'm taking it."
  msg "This is war."
end)
  :defineAttributes({
    'name',
    'portrait',
  })

script:next()
-- {msg = "What are you doing?",
--  name = "Chiito",
--  portrait = {path = "chiito.png", width = 200, height = 400}}
script:next()
-- {msg = "I'm taking it.",
--  name = "Yuuri",
--  portrait = {path = "yuuri.png",  width = 195, height = 430}}
script:next()
-- {msg = "This is war.",
--  name = "Yuuri",
--  portrait = {path = "yuuri.png",  width = 195, height = 430}}

Macro example

Macros can be used to create a reusable script template. This can really cut down on repetition and make your scripts more terse and readable.

local portraitChiito = {path = "chiito.png", width = 200, height = 400}
local portraitYuuri  = {path = "yuuri.png",  width = 195, height = 430}
local script = Ero(function()
  chii "What are you doing?"
  yuu "I'm taking it."
  yuu "This is war."
end)
  :defineAttributes({
    'name',
    'portrait',
  })
  :addMacro('chii', function(text)
    name "Chiito"
    portrait(portraitChiito)
    msg(text)
  end)
  :addMacro('yuu', function(text)
    name "Yuuri"
    portrait(portraitYuuri)
    msg(text)
  end)

Advanced Example

local script = Ero(function()
  name "Shopkeeper"
  if not game:isFlagSet('DAUGHTER_RESCUED') then -- This is an example, your code goes here.
    msg "Please rescue my beloved tomboyish daughter!"
    return
  end
  msg "Thank you for rescuing my beloved tomboyish daughter!"
  option "Delicious Baklava"
  option "Loyal Hamster"
  menu "Select your reward"
  if selection "Delicious Baklava" then
    giveItem("Baklava")
  elseif selection "Loyal Hamster" then
    giveItem("Hamster")
  end
  msg "Farewell!"
end)
  :defineAttributes({
    'name',
  })
  :addMacro('giveItem', function(item)
    local lastName = get('name')
    name ""
    msg("You got the " .. item .. "!")
    name(lastName)
    player:giveItem(item, 1) -- This is an example, your code goes here.
  end)

script:next()
-- {msg = "Thank you for rescuing my beloved tomboyish daughter!",
--  name = "Shopkeeper"}
script:next()
-- {msg = "Select your reward",
--  options = {"Delicious Baklava", "Loyal Hamster"},
--  name = "Shopkeeper"}
script:select("Delicious Baklava")
-- {msg = You got the Baklava!",
--  name = ""}
script:next()
-- {msg = "Farewell!",
--  name = "Shopkeeper"}

Tips and Tricks

To eliminate duplication in your scripts, you can take advantage of the fact that option returns the value that was passed into it:

local breadsticks  = option "Conjure Lesser Breadsticks"
local seaCreatures = option "Converse With Sea Creatures"
menu "Which powerful spell should I teach you?"
if selection(breadsticks) then
  msg "A fine choice."
elseif selection(seaCreatures) then
  msg "Interested in the dark arts, are we?"
end

┐(￣ヘ￣;)┌

In ergodic literature, nontrivial effort is required to allow the reader to traverse the text. If ergodic literature is to make sense as a concept, there must also be nonergodic literature, where the effort to traverse the text is trivial, with no extranoematic responsibilities placed on the reader except (for example) eye movement and the periodic or arbitrary turning of pages.