GML Easy way to do cutscenes in code?

[Noba]

So I'm struggling to come up with a way to do cutscenes using code. My main problem is timings and all that, I'm not sure how I'd do it with code and all that. Does anyone have any advice or know an easy way of doing it?

 

[obscene]

This is what timelines are for, check them out. Basically it works by running lines of code at specific times. It's about the same as using a controller object and setting up a bunch of alarms. I don't have much experience with it myself as my cutscenes are all "live" which is another way to do it. Just program a bunch of objects to work in a sequence. Thing moves this way, when it gets to this point it creates something else, that does something, etc. Many ways you could approach this depending on exactly what it is you want to happen.

 

[Noba]

This is what timelines are for, check them out. Basically it works by running lines of code at specific times. It's about the same as using a controller object and setting up a bunch of alarms. I don't have much experience with it myself as my cutscenes are all "live" which is another way to do it. Just program a bunch of objects to work in a sequence. Thing moves this way, when it gets to this point it creates something else, that does something, etc. Many ways you could approach this depending on exactly what it is you want to happen.

Alright cool, thanks!

What I want to do is pretty simple, I'm just trying to make a cutscene which just sets up the events of the game by showing the planet it's set on with just text showing up, but for some reason I can't get the alarms to work.

 

[obscene]

I wish there was a good tutorial out there for this type of thing but I don't think I've ever seen one. It can be challenging. I just did one that is sort of a flashback to a boss battle. I had to come up with a system that not only switched back to that room but set all the many parts of the boss back to the exact same state they were in when we left. Was a pain, all sorts of things were going wrong. Lots of trial and error and a big mess of sloppy code I hope I never have to go back and fix.

 

[Wraithious]

I've allways used the draw event for my cut scenes, basically I have a global pause variable, and a global cut scene variable, when both are true my game objects stop and then a cutscene object draws a series of backgrounds in the end step draw event, controlled by an incrementing variable in the step event to change the background being drawn, then after the last background is drawn for the specified time just set the 2 global variables back to 0 and the game resumes.

 

[David Berkompas]

Shaun Spalding, on his Patreon page, has mentioned his next video is going to be on cutscenes. Since I'm new here, for all I know the OP may be Shaun looking for resources.

If that's the case, never mind my rambling.


Dave