Events and Actions

This article explains what actions and events are, where they run, and how to add them in the editor.

Common Mechanics

Talk to an NPC with dialogue and choices.
Read a note on a table many times.
Pick up an item that disappears after use.
Unlock a room after finding an item.

Actions

An action is basically one thing the game can do. You can read actions like a list of steps that the game will perform.

Actions will run one after another in order. This matters because sometimes an action can depend on a previous one, such as running Spawn NPC before Move NPC.

You can reorder the actions by drag and drop.

Events

An event is a list of actions. There are local events (the ones specific to one event trigger), map events (specific to one map), and global events. Map and global events are reusable.

Player Interactions

To run actions or play an event when the player interacts or touches something, use event triggers. See Event Triggers for more details.

Map Start, Enter, and Leave

The map start, enter and leave events are related to what actions play when the player goes between maps (with “Change map” action).

Map start:

Runs the action When the map first loads. This happens when the player first goes into the map.
Useful for basically setting everything up in the map.

Map enter:

This plays every time the player enters the map.
It plays after Map start if its the first time loading.
Useful for setting the background music every time you enter, or ensuring player always enters to a specific spot with “set player position” or even just playing a dialogue saying the map name when you enter the map

Map leave:

This plays every time the player leaves the map, going into another map.
It runs on the map the player is in, right before it changes the map
Useful just for playing some actions every time before committing the player to leave the map. Maybe a dialogue, maybe remove a bunch of NPCs to reset it for a puzzle.

Common Actions

Show Dialogue: Shows dialogue text to the player.
Show Choices: Shows choices and runs the selected event.
Add Event: Adds an event trigger to the map.
Transfer Player: Moves the player to another map or position.
Spawn NPC: Places an NPC into the map.
Move NPC/Player: Moves an NPC or the player.
Set NPC/Player Direction: Changes which direction a character faces.
Move Camera: Moves the camera to a position or target.
Set Background Music: Changes the music currently playing.
Play Sound: Plays a sound effect.
Set Variable: Updates a switch, number, or text variable.