Hello and welcome to Lesson 18 of the articy:draft First Steps tutorial series.
Review:
In the previous lesson we learned how we can use the “Conflict Search” to find issues within our project.
This Lesson:
With this Lesson we have arrived at the end of the First Steps series. We will take another look at the Presentation Mode to see how we can edit variable values to simulate specific situations. Then we will conclude with some advice on how you can continue your articy:draft journey.
We use variables in our project to store various game states. If we want to simulate only parts of the project or maybe include things for which values have not been set yet, we have the option to edit the initial variable values for the presentation.
Go to the “Final confrontation” dialogue node in the tutorial folder and submerge into it.
You remember that at the very beginning we have a reaction point in which we check for the “name revealed” variable. A change to the variable value can only happen in the first dialogue, so if we just do a simulation of the second dialogue, naturally this variable will always have its default starting value.
Another thing we might want to test in this “final confrontation” dialogue is the option at the choice point that is only available if the player has the Stake item with them.
Currently there is no way implemented in the project to get the item, so this option would never be a valid one for the player to choose in the simulation. How can we change that?
Change variable state for presentation mode:
1. Start a simulation from the first dialogue fragment.
2. Now click on the journey entry in the Navigator or the “Settings” button in the tool bar.
3. Go to the “Initial variable values” tab.
4. Here we see a list of all variables. I will change the values for the “name revealed” and the “stake” variables to true.
👉It is important to know that changing values here only affects the current simulation, you do not change the variable values permanently.
5. Now we can go back to the simulation by clicking the “Play” icon in the tool bar.
6. Go through the simulation in “Player mode”
We will see that thanks to our value change the reaction point follows the branch with Dracula knowing and using Mina’s name.
When we arrive at the choice point the option tied to the item is available now too.
Being able to edit variable values allows for widely varied testing scenarios when running simulations of your project.
If you are looking for any kind of information regarding articy:draft, the Support page on articy.com should be your starting point. Downloads, FAQ, and means to contact the support team – everything can be found here.
If you want to review any information or dive deeper into a topic, visit the Help Center for an extensive documentation.
Now that you have taken your first steps in articy and are able find your way around the software, you might want to take a look at our more advanced demo projects. If you installed the entire package back when starting this series, you can open the other projects right from the project list.
If not, you can download them from our website for articy:draft 3 and articy:draft X.
If you are a Unity or Unreal user, the Maniac Manfred project might be worth a closer look. In addition to the Maniac Manfred demo project, you can also download the engine projects for articy 3 Unity, articy X Unity, articy 3 Unreal, and articy X Unreal to see in detail how articy data gets integrated.
If you are interested to see a selection of games made with articy, visit our Showcase page. Our customers range from indie to big studios, who use articy:draft for a wide variety of games spanning all platforms and some of them were kind enough to share cool articy tips that helped them in their workflow.
For interviews with interesting people in and around the games industry visit our YouTube channel.
You have done your first steps, now it is time for the next part of your journey with your very own project.
All the best and see you around!
Useful Links:
Support Page
Help Center
Download articy:draft 3 demo projects
Download articy:draft X demo projects
articy 3 Maniac Manfred Unity project
articy X Maniac Manfred Unity project
articy 3 Maniac Manfred Unreal project
articy X Maniac Manfred Unreal project
Showcase page
YouTube
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