Notice

These pages are out of date! The most recent version of the documentation can be found here: https://mysterious-messenger.readthedocs.io/en/stable/

This page is retained so that it can still be linked to.

Adding a New Character to Chatrooms

First, go to character_definitions.rpy. Under the heading Chatroom Characters near the top of the file, you will see several characters already defined.

For the purposes of this tutorial, these examples will show how to add a character named Bob to the program.

You need to give Bob a ChatCharacter object so he can speak in chatrooms. A definition for Bob may look like the following:

default b = ChatCharacter(
    name="Bob",
    file_id="b",
    prof_pic="Profile Pics/Bob/bob1.png",
    participant_pic="Profile Pics/b_chat.png",
    heart_color="#f995f1",
    cover_pic="Cover Photos/bob_cover.png",
    status="Bob's Status",
    bubble_color="#ffddfc",
    glow_color="#d856cd",
    homepage_pic="Profile Pics/main_profile_bob.png",
    phone_char=b_phone,
    vn_char=b_vn)

Though this looks long, this will ensure all the variables for Bob are set up properly at the start of the game.

Field	Description	Example
name	The name of the character as it appears in the chatroom	"Bob"
file_id	This is used for many things. For example, the program will look for Bob's speech bubbles under "game/images/Bubble/b-Bubble.png" and for phone calls from Bob with the suffix "_incoming_b". This is usually just a string of the name of the variable.	"b"
prof_pic	Profile picture for the character. 110x110px	"Profile Pics/Bob/bob1.png"
participant_pic	The image that shows on the timeline screen to show Bob was present in a chatroom.	"Profile Pics/b_chat.png"
heart_color	The colour of the heart icon that appears when awarding the player a heart point with Bob.	"#f995f1"
cover_pic	Bob's cover photo on his profile screen	"Cover Photos/bob_cover.png"
status	Bob's status update	"I ate a sandwich today."
bubble_color	Optional; if this is not defined you must have an image in game/images/Bubble/ called b-Bubble.png. If this argument is given a colour, it will instead dynamically colour a speech bubble to be that colour.	"#ffddfc"
glow_color	Same as above. If not given, there should be an image in game/images/Bubble called b-Glow.png.	"#d856cd"
homepage_pic	The picture to display on the home screen which the player clicks on to view Bob's profile. This should generally be a headshot of Bob with a transparent background.	"Profile Pics/main_profile_bob.png"
phone_char	The Character object you defined for Bob for phone calls. See Adding a New Character to Phone Calls	b_phone
vn_char	The Character object you defined for Bob for VN sections. See Adding a New Character to VNs	b_vn

Those are the main variables you should set when defining a new character. There are a few additional parameters you can declare if you want:

Field	Description	Example
voicemail	The label to jump to for this character's voicemail	"voicemail_1"
right_msgr	Indicates this character should appear on the right side of the messenger (usually False for everyone but the MC)	False
emote_list	A list of all the character's emojis. Currently unused.	False

Including New Characters on the Home Screen

Below all the ChatCharacter definitions, there are two lists. The first is:

default character_list = [ju, z, s, y, ja, v, m, r, ri]

If you want Bob to show up on the home screen with a clickable profile, or to show up as a contact in the Contact book, you must add him to this list, e.g.

default character_list = [ju, z, s, y, ja, v, m, r, ri, b]

Showing a Heart Point Tally

The second list below the ChatCharacter definitions is

default heart_point_chars = [ c for c in character_list if not c.right_msgr ]

This list contains all the characters in character_list unless they have the property right_msgr, which generally means it's True for everyone except the MC. Characters in this list will appear on the Profile screen with an indicator of how many points the player has with them.

If you want an icon to appear letting the player know how many heart points they have with Bob, you need to define an image called greet b since b is Bob's file_id. These images are stored in game/images/Menu Screens/Main Menu and defined in variables_editable.rpy under the heading GREETING IMAGES.

If you don't want Bob to appear in the Profile screen, replace this variable with a list of the characters whose heart points you want to display e.g.

default heart_point_chars = [ju, z, s, y, ja]

When all is said and done, you should be able to write dialogue for Bob like any other character in a chatroom, e.g.

b "How's it going?"