An RPG Text Box?

[TheNoahGuy1]

Eh, how do I make a box of text that opens up when an on-screen character is talking, similar to what one would see in an RPG?

[jjsecord]

Have a counter, and do:
When user collides with: Interactor : Set Counter to 1

If counter equals 1 : Make text box reapear. | Change animation to Text 1

When I do text, I make them active animations because then I get to control how the lines wrap.

Text 1 is over and user presses spacebar : Set Counter to 0

If Counter equals 0 : Make text box invisible

[Del_Duio]

What I usually do is have an active which is the 'box', an active which is the picture of whoever's doing the talking, and a string which will hold the text. I also have an off-screen counter to keep track of which paragraph of text is to be displayed.

First you'll need to set stuff up: Make direction 0 the picture for NPC #1, direction 1 the picture for NPC #2, and so on. Then start filling the string object's paragraphs up with what each of those NPCs are going to say. Ex. The elder NPC might say "Quickly, inside! We need your help!!".

Let's say you have 5 different NPCs on the screen, and the alt value "A" for each is their identifying number for what they're going to say and alt value "B" which is the direction to use for the NPC picture. Lastly, give the NPCs all the same qualifier.

Then when you (for example) press UP while overlapping that qualifier you would set the NPC picture's direction to qualifier alt val "B" and set the string object's paragraph to qualifier alt val "A" and make the NPC picture, box, and string object all visible.

That's the gist of it. Of course you'd probably also want to make it so that while your text pop up box is visible your event groups for moving around and etc are deactivated.

EDIT: Like this in these screenshots I mean. They're a little different but it's the same principle.