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Introducing the Yack Pack

Name:	Alex Stone
Date Posted:	May 24, 2007
Rating:	4.8 out of 5
Public:	YES
Comments:	YES
RSS Feed:	or Subscribe with .
Profile Page:	View profile page for Alex Stone

Blog post

Now available in the GG store!

I wanted to update everyone on the status of the new dialogue addon for TGE. I've changed the working title to Yack Pack to avoid confusion with the RPGDialog resource provided by Nelson Gonsalves.

Key Features

* 3-D sound and synchronized animation - NPCs look and sound like they are really talking to you.
* Multi-player enabled - Players can listen in on conversations.
* No new language to learn - All dialogue is written in TorqueScript.
* Multi-actor scripts - Scripts can utilize an unlimited number of actors for interesting conversations among multiple NPCs and the player.
* Multiple perspectives - View the action from a variety vantage points.
* Intuitive interface - Fast forward or activate dialogue branches with ease.
* Server-side actions - The player's dialogue choices can influence the rest of the game. Assign quests, exchange items, or influence the world through dialogue.

Scripting

You don't need to learn a new language to write dialogue for Yack Pack. Dialogue scripts are composed of ScriptObject constructors, similar to a UI or mission file.

    new ScriptObject(Stanley_Sunshine_Hello)
    {
        audioProfile = Stanley_Sunshine_Hello_Audio;
        caption = "<just:center>Greetings traveler.";
        duration = 2.361;
        verbalize = true;
        autoAdvance = true;
        actor = 1;
        postDelay = 1000;
        promptActor = 0;
    };
...

What You'll Get

* Script files - about 600 lines of extensible code
* Example conversations
* Interface art
* TGE integration directions
* Documentation

NOTE: Some of the customizations I made to the engine will also be released seperately as a resource.

Release Date

We have signed the contract with GarageGames and are setting up the product pages. Release Date is TBA.

Eye Candy (New!)

Watch the new trailer: XVid (13 MB) If you use Safari, right-click and choose Download Linked File.

Target identification.

Cinematic viewpoint.

FIrstperson viewpoint.

The main menu.

Recent Blog Posts

List:	05/24/07 - Introducing the Yack Pack 03/22/07 - RPGDialogue Redux

Submit your own resources!

Mathieu (May 24, 2007 at 23:01 GMT)

This seems like an excellent addon to Torque!

Kory James (May 24, 2007 at 23:53 GMT)

Looks great you got my purchase

Tom Eastman (Eastbeast314) (May 25, 2007 at 00:07 GMT)

For a second I was hopeful you were going to release a yak pack... :)

This looks much better though.

Leroy Frederick (May 25, 2007 at 09:15 GMT) Resource Rating: 4

Looks very useful indeed, I look forward to the release :)

Nick Zafiris (May 25, 2007 at 11:00 GMT)

Looks very good! Really looking forward to it.

Tom Perry (May 25, 2007 at 11:02 GMT)

Really cool, looking forward to it :)

Christian S (May 25, 2007 at 11:13 GMT)

Interesting stuff. Im really looking forward to this.

Keep up the spirit!

PS: I thought the RPG Dialog was created by Nelson A. K. Gonsalves, improved/tweaked by Ari Rule and some of the folks over at Dreamgames. Dident know it was a RealmWars thing too.

Kory James (May 25, 2007 at 11:39 GMT)

The video reminds me of mass effect site to video
http://www.gametrailers.com/player.php?id=13728&type=mov&pl=game

I was wondering if this will work for TGEA and if you can add the view where it will go back and forth between your character and the person your talking to?

Thanks great work

Leslie Young (May 25, 2007 at 14:29 GMT)

Sounds really good, will be looking out for the release.

Craig Fortune (May 25, 2007 at 14:49 GMT)

Great stuff, I'm genuinally looking forward to getting my grubby mits on this :D

Alex Stone (May 25, 2007 at 15:41 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

I totally miscredited RPGDialog...fixed!

Tom \"epicglottis\" MacGregor (May 25, 2007 at 18:22 GMT)

Looks awesome! I've had a dialog system like this on the TODO list forever! Now, when you mention multiple actor scripts, I think scripted sequence. Thus, I would hope this pack will support custom animation plays per ScriptObject. ie:

  new ScriptObject(Stanley_Sunshine_Hello)
    {
        audioProfile = Stanley_Sunshine_Hello_Audio;
        caption = "<just:center>Greetings traveler.";
        playThread = "OrcWaveAnimation"; // just an example
        duration = 2.361;
 ...

While it looks fine in first person, I would imagine actors entire bodies bobing around would look a little silly in cinematic modes. Another two features I would like to see (that are likely out of the scope of your project) a couple of simple orc-ready conversation animations that would randomly play during conversation. My second wish would be a simple text-to-speech for dev purposes. Again, these are both cream on the top ideas, and I would gladly purchase the system as is. Thanks and good luck!

Mark (May 26, 2007 at 08:48 GMT)

I love the strange bobbing animations, lmao. This pack does look awsome however, I desperately needed something like this.

Jay Crossler (May 27, 2007 at 01:45 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

Any chance we could purchase early and get the full version later? I could really use this now!

Alex Stone (Jun 08, 2007 at 14:51 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

I'd like to address some of the comments so far:

1. Talking animation: The reason we have the run animation on the Orc is because the source file is for a very old version of max and it doesn't have any of the necessary bones to do facial animation. Even if we could add animations to the Orc, we couldn't sell it with Yack Pack due to various IP issues with GG. We feel that there are many talented artists that will jump on facial animation and sell a pack once there is a use for it.

2. Cameras: We have come along way with the viewpoints, but we are debating what to release in v1.0 because some of the fancy camera work requires alot of engine hacking and will be time-consuming for users to merge. We may just release that part as a Resource or wait until v2.0.

3. TGEA: The vast majority of the code is in script so it should work, but some of the engine tweaks are probably TGE specific. I don't own a TGEA license yet, but I will explore a TGEA version in the near future.

4. Early releases, beta testing: Unfortunately, since this is a code pack, there are a variety of legal issues we would have to deal with to release a beta. We don't have the facilities right now to support a private beta, or to write up a whole suite of legal documents to protect ourselves from various lawsuits, etc. I know some of you are on deadlines, and we are working with GG to make a release happen ASAP, but the dates are still fuzzy at this point. This is our first release, so we don't entirely know what GG is going to require or how long the process will take.

Mark Dynna (Jun 19, 2007 at 16:39 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

Excellent stuff! I'm totally buying this as soon as its available.

I'm going to be implementing it into TGEA, and I'd be willing to share the "porting" procedure with you once I get it done. Maybe I could get a Beta release of it? (Ha ha, I read... JK)

Jay Crossler (Jun 30, 2007 at 19:43 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

Hey hey, any news? I'm shipping a product in 10 days, and I'd like to swap my ugly chat system out for this one...

Alex Stone (Jul 02, 2007 at 15:36 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

The code is ready to go. We are just waiting for GG to get back to us on the contracts. We will release as soon as we can get through GG's workflow. If you want to speed up the process, you may want to shoot them an email. It's been kind of slow going.

Jay Crossler (Jul 02, 2007 at 22:39 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

Excellent! Good to know, I'll send them an email...

Kory James (Aug 25, 2007 at 08:34 GMT)

I was wondering if this pack is still coming out?

thanks
PS do you still need people to email GG

Alex Stone (Aug 25, 2007 at 14:21 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

Yes! In fact, we just received the contract last week. I don't know how long it takes to get from contract to release, but my guess is somewhere in the two to three week range?

Jay Crossler (Aug 25, 2007 at 21:08 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

I used the Beta, and I loved it! Alex, let me know if I'm violating the NDA here, but I thought it was well worth it. With about 10 hours of work ripping out my old ugly chat system and adding Yack pack, I shaved over 80 hours from my development time... enough time to actually finish programming early and ... <gasp> test with users before deploying. :)

I quickly realized it was flexible enough to not only be used for chats and quests, but also as a quizzing system, a store merchant interface, and for my robot upgrade menus.

Very much worth it!

Alex Stone (Aug 25, 2007 at 23:45 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

Everyone,

I will be coming out with some new videos and an updated blog post in the next few days, hopefully with an exact release date and updated pricing. I've also taken some time to add a few additional features (they're a surprise, so you will have to wait until my next post).

Kerry Lyon (Oct 23, 2007 at 13:39 GMT)

Hi,

I've really been looking forward to this. Any updates on it's progress / release date?

Thanks.

Alex Stone (Oct 23, 2007 at 14:19 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

Edited on Oct 23, 2007 15:29 GMT

Alex Stone (Oct 23, 2007 at 15:27 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

Look for it this week! It may be available as early as today depending on how quickly Garage Games posts the product page. Thanks for your interest!

Kerry Lyon (Oct 24, 2007 at 00:03 GMT)

Great! I'll keep checking the product page.

Alex Stone (Oct 30, 2007 at 21:40 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

Yack Pack is now available! Buy at will! We'll use the money to build additional tools surrounding the core technology for our users.

Jay Crossler (Oct 31, 2007 at 01:37 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

Woohoo! I just bought the final version.

Congrats on going live, and thanks for letting me try out the beta!

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