What’s a Discourse Task?
A Discourse task is an activity where the player has a conversation with a NPC. The player response can include choosing a response from given options, respond freely, or constructing an argument from pieces of knowledge and reasoning words.
How to Edit a Discourse Task
NPC (Non-Playable Character) Selection
If the NPC you want the conversation to be with already exists in the scene, click on the Select Target button in the left-side panel and then on the target in the scene. The target should have a green outline once successfully selected.
ID of the selected target will automatically show up in the left side panel. To remove the selection, click on the ID.
If the NPC does not exist yet, import and place it first before selecting it as a target. If you do that at the task level, it will only appear during this task then disappear later. If you want it there the entire quest, you’ll want to place the NPC at “Map Setup.”
Also note that you can select animals and other types of objects/characters, although they may not show up properly aligned in the game interface.
The Visual Discourse Editor
Entering the Edit Screen
As usual, click the edit screen to go into a fullscreen mode to edit.
Adding a Node
Click where you want to start the node, drag to where you’d like to place it (only meaningful visually for your organization), and it will automatically create a new node.
You’ll see there are four options for response type (i.e. what the player does):
None: nothing is needed from the player, and it moves to the next node automatically.
Branching: the player is given options of how to respond, which can then move into different nodes based on what they choose.
Free response: Players will input their own response. Player responses through a private quest link will be recorded to the database, but we don't have a dashboard to display them yet.
Argument: Players will construct answers by connecting previously gathered data, evidence or knowledge.
On the node, you can enter what you want the NPC to say, and then the response options for the player (if Branching was selected). To do so, simply click and type into the boxes. You can also press tab or enter with each player response to automatically move to the next field and enter another response.
Additionally, similarly to in Picture Click, you can add an image that will appear alongside the NPC dialogue. We tend to use these if we want to illustrate a story, add an explainer graphic, or help add clarity to upcoming instructions.
As you did originally, to make new nodes, you’ll simply drag out from the player options (or the only option with “none”) and release where you want to place the next node. You can link all or some of the options to the same node by dragging the line to connect to the dot at that node title instead of into a blank area.
Organizing the Connection Lines
If you click on a connection line, you should be able to change their shape by dragging on the dots.
If you double-click it, it will automatically zoom in to the connected node.
Ending Task, Quest Accept/Complete, etc.
You will also see a toggle button available to change the type of node from the regular node into additional functions.
These options are:
Discourse Node – as you saw above, to define an exchange between the NPC and the player.
Quit Discourse – an option to leave the conversation without completing the task. We have used this if you want an option where the player isn’t ready to progress yet, but you do not have to use this.
Complete Discourse - to complete the Discourse task and move to the next task.
Accept Quest - provides a quest acceptance screen which uses the quest name and description you set, with an Accept / Reject button. We generally use this at the end of an introduction dialogue to set up the quest, to make the acceptance feel more formal and provide a quest description.
Complete Quest - at the very end of the quest, provides a completion screen and a confetti effect to mark successful completion of the quest.