Feature Mechanic: Skit System

Now that I have enough resources to pull this off, I'm happy to announce that I am able to implement a working skit system into the game. It's a staple for pretty much every Tales game, and has appeared in many JRPGs in some shape or form, and it felt like something I can pull off.

The Basics

How it works is simple. In areas where a skit can be played, an event will play that will assign a variable a number that, if it matches what is in the common event containing the list of skits, then it will do what the command prompts do and display a flashing button prompt. When pressed, the map event will be turned on and it will call another common event that then plays out the skit.

This makes use of the MOG Picture Effects plugin, which has a skit command that allows pictures to use multiple frames for talking and blinking. I repurposed the method so that one of the frames has a closed mouth instead of a character blinking, on account of them not actually blinking while talking. They will only blink when not talking, but because of what I'm doing, that would be difficult.

Method - Coding

Below is a sample of the common event that's called when playing out the skit.

The dialogue that appears on screen is actually part of the Gab Window plugin, which displays everything at once and can remain on screen for a designated period of time. And because it can be replaced with another, I don't need to worry about a time limit. What I do need to worry about is how long to run the invisible message boxes that only have the \|\^ codes, since they extend how long the lip-flaps play out. For this test, I first displayed a single picture. This is followed by a common event that changes that picture to a similar one but of a different frame, which helps simulate blinking. When more than one character is present, I hope to trigger common events that cause a character portrait to animate slightly so they aren't just staring blankly the whole time.

I also implemented pauses by reusing the skit command. It won't be perfect, but I do hope to try and have the lip-flaps match the dialogue. These can always be adjusted over time, since story revisions will be done and all.

As far as skipping the Skits go, I utilize a similar method to skipping the title screen animation. After a short time passes, you can press Enter to immediately end the skit. The event, which I'll have to replicate on all maps with skit events, basically has an Autorun event on loop until Enter is pressed, to which it will flip switches to shut off the events playing out. This took me a while to get right since if a skit plays out entirely, it will actually lock you in place until you hit Enter. I had to make additional switches so that it would ensure that the loop and the event shut off. That, and make sure that if you did skip or let the skit play out, you can play another one since they either didn't play, or (in the event that there was no skit queued up), there was a brief pause before it returned to normal. If possible, I hope to iron this out a bit, but as is it works without noticeable issue.

Method - Skit Portrait Design

Thanks to the amazing work by Chu, I was able to commission a few different poses and facial expressions that I can mix and match to create whatever portrait I need. It's all under a single file with different layers, that I can toggle even when using GIMP.

In the toggle lists, I can change eyes, the mouth, and even the tail. I can then save each individual frame as its own picture file, that I then modify to fit the necessary specifications for the game engine. This includes the picture file needed for the lip-flaps.

There's also individual picture files for when they need to blink, that is done through normal commands, and if I need to hard-code lip-flaps I'm sure to add those individually as well. With so many combinations, I'll have plenty to work with and hopefully be able to come up with some fun/insightful skits to add to the overall experience. Whether they exist to further explore characters, the world, or just to have downtime, there will be something to see.

Wrap-Up

Naturally, there's going to be a lot done with this like adjusting image sizes, changing the presentation to allow more characters on-screen, etc; and it's something I can attempt to do in my spare time while doing other things for the game. I'll also try and see about compressing the size for these in case they take up too much space, so long as the quality is still present. Otherwise, I hope you look forward to seeing more of this system overtime!

Art References

- Skit Art by Chu (https://x.com/sdamned , https://bsky.app/profile/raizap.com )