A Beginner's Guide to Scripting and Cinematography

[Alex Walz]

A Beginner's Guide to Scripting and Cinematography

Now that we have discussed Scenario Design in the first part of this tutorial, we are ready to go beyond looks and bring our scenario to life using the Lua scripting language! But first, let's take a look at what Lua is:

“Lua is a powerful, fast, lightweight, embeddable scripting language.

Lua combines simple procedural syntax with powerful data description constructs based on associative arrays and extensible semantics. Lua is dynamically typed, runs by interpreting bytecode for a register-based virtual machine, and has automatic memory management with incremental garbage collection, making it ideal for configuration, scripting, and rapid prototyping.” - http://www.lua.org/

Lua is the language of choice for many video games, Dawn of Fantasy included. While it may seem daunting at first, it’s an easy language to learn and extremely powerful. However, we can only hope to touch on the basics in this guide, but those wishing to delve deeper are encouraged to check out the references section at the end.

With the introduction of the Scenario Design Editor to the Dawn of Fantasy Beta later today, fans will have the opportunity to be among the first to get their hands on such a powerful tool! And with our new guides on Level Design and Scripting, now's the perfect opportunity to see if you have what it takes to design for Dawn of Fantasy.

Written with the participation of Dawn of Fantasy's Lead Scenario Scripter Brian Shingles and Lead Gameplay Scripter Andy Joslin, this 14-page scripting guide takes new scripters through setting camera markers and scripting their first cinematic, as well as setting up basic triggers and being able to understand and modify more complex triggers.

Download the Guide and Get Started Now!

Disclaimer: This guide should be read after the Guide to Level Design, and assumes a basic knowledge of scripting languages, whether it be Lua or not.

[Andy Joslin]

Addendum: To make sure the minimap is hidden when your cinematic starts, put this in your cinematic trigger (right before your CurMap:BeginCinematic())

InterfaceSignal("QuickHideGUI")