Story Telling Game Design Tool

I just purchased Articy Draft SE from Steam. I have gotten a lot of functionality I want in my game under my belt and found myself at a stand still for organizing the actual game. I used the trial of this software and thought it was great. I have a older software that I have been using to write a fiction novel. Articy will be to fold for me because it can replace my existing book/play writing software and help me outline and develop my game.

I will check in to this thread periodically and let yall know how I am feeling about this tool as I progress.

 

I've been using articy:draft 2 for a while now and I'm happy to report that it's helped me out a lot. I was a little worried, given the price, and I had to debate it a good bit before I actually pulled the trigger but I'm happy that I did. It really is a fantastic piece of software and I know that it's going to pay for itself many times over in the way it's streamlined everything for me. I think I actually sleep better at night knowing how well everything is organized now. That probably sounds ridiculous but I mean it.

Anyway, I just thought I'd chime in here and offer my two cents in case anyone out there is on the fence about picking it up. Again, it isn't cheap (although the Steam version is extremely affordable) but, for me at least, it was money well spent.

 

i got arcy draft SE for $ 50

 

It's going now for half price! both the Single user and Commercial License versions are on Steam with 50% reduction. Am now seriously considering getting this. (ends 22nd July)

 

Hi,
I just stumbled upon this thread, while I was looking for an example AD XML for my importer. Maybe somebody can help me out here? Please PM me.
I do not want to interruption the discussion, but I provide a tool for unity which is possible interesting to look at in comparison.
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/179039-DUNILOG-dialog-engine

 

now SE version has a Version 2 DLC out

 

There is a steam sale on articy:draft right now: 70€.

BTW, Tested the trial version yesterday.
My opinion:
Nice tool, but overkill in 95% of games. Considering that
- you need to spend money that could buy you 2-3 nice assets in the store (in the case of articy 1, single-use, steam sale - otherwise triple that figure).
- there's a learning curve (not too steep, but enough to get a grip on the 2-3 tools you bought instead from the asset store) and
- spending time to figure out how to import the data from articy into your game (not too challenging, but in the end it will take a day or two to write a wrapper, an importer, write test scenes and test extensively in order to prevent unpleasant surprises.

In the remaining 5% of the cases (heavily story and/or dialogue based), the tool might make sense.
Still, I suggest you first build the game framework with the first scenes hardcoded or loaded from a simple file, before you go on and draft your entire game in articy only to find out in the end that its far too much for you to ever code it all and/or produce all the art.

If you are still standing, get the tool.

 

Nevigo publishes their XML Schemas. When you export to XML, the URL for the schema is in the file. You can run it through Microsoft's XSD tool to generate a C# class, and then use XmlSerializer .Deserialize to read it.

Here are a couple tips I learned while writing the articy:draft importer for the Dialogue System:

• Different versions of articy:draft have different schemas. Make sure you have the right schema. (Internally, the Dialogue System importer reads each schema type and converts it to a version-independent intermediate format before saving it in the Dialogue System format.)
• You may want to get the articy:draft 2 DLC. Version 1 is missing a lot of useful features such as variables.
• articy:draft only does a whole-project export to XML. You may want to include a way to selectively import elements.

Also, +1 for Ertai7's suggestion to iron out your workflow before actually writing. You don't want to waste your effort in case it doesn't work for your project.

If the price is a turn-off, consider Chat Mapper instead. While articy:draft is great as a project design tool, I personally prefer Chat Mapper for writing dialogue, since it provides validation and a conversation simulator for rapid iteration.

 

Tony, thank you for making Dialogue System and doing Articy and CM integrations and so many integrations in general.

Your support for Articy is what led me to it after seeing them at GDC I was aware of them but thought I would just have to copy paste endlessly to and from Word doc GDDs.

I'm learning how to use your Dialogue System converter right now and I am excited. I'm curious what you think of their recent 2.4 featureset which adds a simulator mode like you were saying you like in Chat Mapper.

Do you have any thoughts on the best workflow for using Articy with Dialogue System now for a dialogue and puzzle heavy FPS? I am also considering Adventure Creator which I already own as I hear you have many people using all three in combination but not sure how much it would add that I can't do with just Dialogue System.

 

Hi - Thanks for using the Dialogue System! If possible, use articy 2.4. It's much improved since the 1.x and earlier 2.x versions. The simulator ("presentation mode") is really useful to iterate and test your conversations before bringing them into Unity.

You'll get the best use out of articy by learning about custom fields. In fact, I recommend using the example articy file that comes with the Dialogue System because it already includes useful custom fields such as for quest states and change sequences.

Several developers use Adventure Creator with articy and the Dialogue System. It's a great combination because AC provides a comprehensive framework for menus, items, and puzzle interaction, which fills out the features that are outside the Dialogue System's scope.

If you have any other questions about using articy and the Dialogue System, just let me know!

 

Check out https://www.syncsketch.com/! There is a free version and it is much much more affordable.