Version intended for distribution on the AGS Forums only until the final release.
RON Movies is used to make Machinimas based on the Reality-on-the-Norm universe. You can select from a list of actors, place them on the screen, and make your own movies using a very simple scripting language. You can also download user-created movies and just watch them.
RON Movies is freeware. If you gave any money away for it, please return it immediately and contact your local authorities. The creators of RON Movies are not responsible for your lost money, however.
You can download other people’s movies from the RON Movies thread at the Adventure Game Studio Forums.
Just place the movie file in the same directory as RON Movies and load the game. The launch screen will come up and you can play the movie. If you receive a script error, which pops up in a red box when it loads or plays the movie, you should contact the author of the movie.
The other thing you can do with RON Movies is make your own movies. There are two important things you need to know about: How to find the names of locations, actors and hotspots, and how to write a movie script. The best way to write your own movies is to have RON Movies open as a window (not full screen, that is) with the reference section and your favorite text editor right next to it.
Post your movies in the RON Movies thread at the Adventure Game Studio Forums.
The reference section in RON Movies is meant to use along an a text editor to create the script. With it you can select location, place actors on the screen, and get information about hotspots and room coordinates.
Once you place the actors on the screen, you can click and drag the actor around the place. You can make the actor walk by clicking anywhere else on the screen while the actor is selected, or you can make the actor turn with right click. The actor will turn to the position of the mouse cursor.
Hotspots are marked by a big red arrow around the screen. Some rooms do not have any hotspots, and RON movies will inform you the room doesn’t.
Scripts can be written with your favorite text editor. Windows usually comes with Notepad, and you can save your movie files are txt files. You can use the reference section to find the available rooms, actors, hotspots, and room coordinates.
Every script consists of a series of scenes tied together. All scenes must begin with a Location, followed by the optional positioning of the actors on the screen, followed by a Fade in, and ending with a Fade out. For example, the most simple scene you can do is:
Location “black screen”. Fade in. Narrator: “Hello World!”. Fade out.
You can also write comments by starting the comment with the octothorpe (#) symbol.
#Davy goes to the zoo Davy: “I’m going to the zoo!”. # And so he went to the zoo.
Keywords in RON Movies are not case-sensitive, meaning that you can choose the style that you want. For example, you can write the keyword Location as LOCATION, location, Location, or even LoCaTiOn. The spacing between the keywords does not matter as much either, and you can write a statement split into different lines. In other words, it’s a very flexible language.
Location changes the room. The list of rooms available can be found in the reference section.
Location “Mika’s Apartment”.
You must Fade in an out of a location. The screen just fades in and out of black.
Location "Mika's Apartment". Fade in. Fade out.
You can give a pause by using Wait. You can set it to minutes or seconds.
Wait 5 seconds. Wait 5 minutes.
You can play a Sound file in your movie. Sound files must be named “sound<number>.extension” and can be a wav, mp3, ogg, or voc file. Make sure to give a unique number to your sound file.
Sound 5959. #will play sound5959.ogg or .mp3 or .wav... etc.
You can also play Music. Similar to Sound, Music files must be named “music<number>.extension” and can be a mid, mod, mp3, wav, ogg, xm, it, and s3m file. Make sure to give a unique number to your sound file.
Music 4103. #will play music4103.mp3.
Currently there are three musical themes included with the game:
Actors are different from the normal script commands. They contain a subset of commands that can be executed sequentially. Basically, you are directing the actors to do what you would like them to do.
The general usage is Actor: action, action, action..., action. For example, let’s say that you want the actor Davy to face Elandra and say goodbye to her. There are several ways you can accomplish this:
Davy: Face Elandra. Davy: Say “Goodbye!”.
Or
Davy: Face “Elandra”, Say “Goodbye!”.
Position places the actor in a certain spot. It can be commonly used to set up the actors before Fading in or before they walk into the room.
Davy: Position 320, 240.
Face can be used to face a position (x,y), a actor (Davy, Elandra) or a hotspot (“Door”, “Window”).
Davy: Face 320, 0. Elandra: Face Davy.
Walk can be used to move a actor near a hotspot or to specific coordinates. You can use the reference to find the hotspot name or a specific coordinate that you like.
Walk 320, 0. Walk to Davy. Walk to "Hotspot".
Actors can also Say things enclosed by double quotes.
Davy: Say “My name is Davy Jones!”.
Say is also an optional word you can use, but can also save some typing by just writing a line in quotes.
Davy: “My name is Davy Jones!”. # implies that Davy will say the text inside the quotes.
RON Movies will always be under development. The following features are planned for future releases, some of them before the final version 1.0:
If you have any more suggestions, feel free to post them at the RON Movies thread in the AGS Forums Games In Production thread.