The Dink Network

how.........how.........anyways ya i know im back did anyone miss me? watever.....so im only 13 and i need good directions for this so give me good directions and stuff im gonna need some serious help...

ughhhh...i dont know anything about creating games! NOTHING...ok? so i dont get all this stuff!: {sprite 0}....WHATEVER! so make sure i get alot of info about this it is really crazy and again I AM ONLY THIRTEEN!!

You could try some of the tutorials...

I started learning this stuff when I was 13 too, but I didn't freak out. This takes patience, son. ( )

Anyways, just check out the Development folder in the Dink Smallwood folder, it contains a few dmod and DinkC tutorials to begin with. Then download a few tutorials from this site, including TROS (The Rudiments Of Scripting) and another one I forgot the name of.

As DaVince said you should learn the basic scripting stuff from The Rudiments of Scripting.

You can also see tut1.txt in the development folder of the game

Ah right, the other good Tutorial D-Mod I wanted to mention is Dink goes boating.

Good luck.

I started this thing about 11 years old. Too bad the editor didn't work. I freaked out... Oh well, to see the whole story read my user ID so I don't need to exblah it all.

Too bad the editor didn't work
You had Dink v1.06 and you used Windows XP, right?

I'm getting an incredible sense of deja vu..

Well at last we have v1.08 which supports true colour. I used to pull my hair out when I downloaded some pics of some grass tiles which looked nice in 24-bit mode but turned out to look horrible in Dink.

Well, I HAD Dink v1.06 AND I used Windows XP.

In v1.06 you can play Dink(main game) but you can't use DinkEdit.
Earlier their was v1.07 which resolved the problems for DinkEdit in win xp. Now v1.08 too has been released.

ok....ill look at tutorials....

hmmmmm ok well 1 problem...i dont know how to start up the editor or whatever...

Why don't you download WinDinkEdit? It's better and easier to use.

I would say you should download SimonK's video tutorials, it explains a lot if you aren't used to the dink editor.

fine ill read the whole thing.................but i know ill never get it....

...kool.....i read it.....lets just "SAY" i know hot to make one...now how do i start???.........

If you haven't got a clue what to do, don't start a new DMOD. Just edit an existing DMOD. This way you can learn how to make your own new DMOD.

how do i edit an existing one?

Assuming you use DFArc 2 as FrontEnd (which you likely do if you have v1.08): Go to Edit menu, then Options and enable "Show developer buttons". Then select an existing D-Mod and click Edit. It now launches the editor application you've selected in the Options menu; which is DinkEdit.exe by default but you can change that to WinDinkEdit.exe to use WinDinkEdit. You can now edit the D-Mod in the editor.

That's the map of the D-Mod, the scripts can be found in the Story directory and you can edit them when they have a .c extension. When they have a .d extension, you can look around if the D-Mod author included a zipfile with the sourcefiles or in the Downloads.Development.Source section here on The Dink Network if the source has been released.

..........hmmmm where do i find the edit menu? in any dink game?.....wheres the edit menu?

Do you have Dink version 1.08? If so, there's a program called DFArc 2 which is the program you use to start any D-Mod by simply selecting it in a list. That's the program I'm talking about - if you have an older version of Dink (upgrade! ), the original DinkFrontEnd program has an Edit button too.

I think the Edit button is hidden by default in DFArc 2. You have to go into the Options menu and check the 'Enable developer buttons' checkbox to make it appear.

i have 1.08 now what do i do?

The 'Play Dink Smallwood' link in the start menu should launch DFArc 2.

Click Edit-Options.

Check the 'Show developer buttons' checkbox.

Now, at the main DFArc 2 screen, you should be able to select a D-Mod and click the 'Edit' button to open it in the editor.

it says: "access violation at address 0040371D in module dinkfrontend.exe read of address FFFFFFF7" then it brought up "dink smallwood frontend and it says dink options and disable sound and enable log file and at bottom it says "play" and "exit".........so now what?

Did you install Dink Smallwood 1.08? Don't click the link that says Dink Frontend (that's from 1.06 and is outdated).

ya i have 1.08....

i "packaged" dink smallwood 1.08... what does that mean?

Well use the file that says DFArc instead of the file that says DinkFrontEnd. That's what redink1 just said.

i just downloaded DFarc v1.5 by merlin...is that what im supposed to do?

You do not need DFArc v1.5...DFArc2 is what you need to use. It is included with Dink v1.08. It should be in the Dink Smallwood folder (where the game is).

i went to start then programs then dink smallwood and the options in it are: credits, play dink smallwood, readme, uninstall, visit RTsoft, visit the dink network, and whats new...well if you mean in that file there is nothing that says dfarc 2...but when i open my list of dmods i downloaded from dink network it says im IN dfarc 2......

In the start menu, play dink smallwood = DFArc 2.

ok im in dfarc2 now what?

WHOA! i clicked on a random dmod then went to browse selected dmod directory then i went to graphics and i saw all the things like enemies, landscape, and other things that were in that dmod...i still dont get how to make a dmod though...

im also looking at tiles and sound and its from the game! but...i still dont know how to make a dmod...

You really think we can explain that in detail in a single post? I mean you really need a lot of help, or atleast you make us feel like you need a lot of help. Which is fine, but posting sentences like i still dont know how to make a dmod... all the time doesn't really help and is just annoying.

If you haven't got a clue, do something. Make a backup of the DMOD you're working on (take a small one) and just change things and see what they do. (Maybe clicking on a sprite will do something? And what happens when I change certain lines in a script) It isn't like you can make a DMOD after taking a five minute course, it's a process of learning that might take a while.

I'll give you an example. I download a certain DMOD, let's say... Helpin' the Ol' Duck Farmer. I open the DMOD's folder, look into it's story folder and I see some scripts. I decide to open one of them, let's say tree1.c. Now I see some lines of code, I don't know what they mean, but I decide to play around with them, what would happen when I change the text in some places? Well I play the DMOD again and see what happens. That's the way to do it if you really haven't got a clue, it takes a while to learn.

If you still don't know how to open the map of a DMOD I would suggest you read through this thread again, it's mentioned in detail many times.
Just to sum it up:
1-Fire up DFArc.
2-click Edit
3-click Options
4-Select "show developer buttons"
5-Click Okay
6-select the DMOD you want to edit
7-Click the newly created 'edit' button

That's the most detailed I can describe it, if you can't understand that. Well probably you won't be able to make a DMOD anyway.

Thanks, metatarasal. this thread was really starting to irritate me. So, thanks for cutting it short

and thanks again for summing up; it almost makes me want to try my hand myself.

The question is: do we want him to be able to make a D-Mod?

hmmmm well if you help me make one i promise ill work hard on it...well ill try that thing now...

well...uhhhh...i opened the front end thing and the edit button was in gray. it wouldnt let me click on it....?

WOW i know how! i know how! but...im gonna have a problem with these scripts....

well...uhhhh...i opened the front end thing and the edit button was in gray. it wouldnt let me click on it....?

The chance of you making a D-Mod is.. I don't mean to be harsh though

aha i know about scripts to...except all of the ('")...

hmmmmmm wow well i did the stupid abc dmod and i got dink to say something else! so i think i can do it...

ok..now i want to know how you put your own pictures in a dmod...for example, in the 9 gems of life you play as dink but he looks diffrent so im wondering how you put your own stuff in dmods?

Try checking out Simple Graphics for information on how to make graphics for your DMOD. That's where you can start.

Once you have your graphic, you need to save it as something like XX-01. "XX" just being the name you give it, "-" (which isn't really needed) to separate it froom the number and a two digit number that will be your frame number. xx-01 for the first frame xx-02 for the second frame and so on and so forth...goes up to 50 frames per sequence. You named it. Now your next task is to open dink.ini in your DMODs directory and find a sequence number that isn't taken. I know from experience that 98 is unused, so lets remember that number. Now you need to add a line in dink.ini so it knows to load your graphic. So now we add this line:

load_sequence_now graphics\xx- 98

"load sequence_now" tells it to load this sequence, "graphics\" is where your new graphic is located, and "xx-" is the name of your file. Why not use the numbers? The game already knows to do that so that it loads all (up to 50) frames in that one line.

Now open your edit your DMOD, select a screen, press enter to modify tat one screen, press "tab" to get into sprite mode, and then "E" to load the sprites. Your graphic should be visible on the first page of thumbnails. If it is not, you screwed up. Backtrack if this happens. Doublecheck the names of the graphics, make sure you aren't skipping any numbers. Check the dink.ini file of your DMOD to make sure you did everything properly and if you still can't make it work, try to get a second oppinion.

Now your graphic should be in your DMOD, and you should be in the editor. Now you need to edit the hardbox. Go to the sequence that your graphic is on and open that. Now you should see all the frames of that sequence. Press "E" and a white screen with your graphic should come up. A cross should be in the middle of the screen. You can edit the position, but you may not need to. Press "tab" and a purple box should come up. Use the arrow keys to move it to where Dink shouln NOT be able to walk on/through. Notice that only two of the directions will expand the box. To expand in the other directions, press "tab" again. Fix this the way you think is 'proper' and hit "s". This saves your change to dink.ini in your DMOD. If you keep pushing it, you will get more lines added, so don't do that. You should hear a 'boing'. So you saved the hardbox changes. Now hit escape so you get back to the screen with all the frames. Get the one you just edited, and press enter. Now its on the screen. Move it where you want it on the screen and hit enter to drop it there. Then you want to make it hard. While having your object picked up, press "9" a box that says New Hardness will come up with a 1 in it (by default) delete the 1 and make it 0. Press enter to confirm ths and set it back down. You now have a new graphic in your DMOD. Run the DMOD and go to that screen and it should be there.

I think I made that clear enough.

i went to graphics and i changed the thing where when you put your mouse on start or cancel or continue...so now it says something else so i did it!.....now the last and most hardest thing i must learn about dmods...how do i make a script?

Step 1: Don't make scripts, just edit them.
Step 2: Make scripts out of copied pieces from other scripts
Step 3: Make your own scripts.

You sound like you should still be doing step 1. If you don't feel that way, create scripts by copying pieces from other scripts. I mean if you need this much help to get the editor going you really shouldn't expect to be able to create scripts in one week. (Unless you do 8 hours a day perhaps )

If you are making your own script from scratch, make sure you save it with a ".c" extention. Otherwise, it won't be used.

You can always copy scripts like main.c and start.c and edit them.
But you would rather prefer to create scripts from scratch like talking with a NPC or something like that.
For example you want to talk with a tree:
Paste the tree in the editor and name its script "tree"

Now go into the story folder of your Dmod and make new "tree.txt" file. Rename it to "tree.c". When windows asks you "Do you want to change its extension". Say yes.

Now edit the script in any program you want:

void talk();
{
freeze(1);
freeze(&current_sprite);
say_stop("What a beautiful tree!",1);
say_stop("`4Thank you human.",&current_sprite);
unfreeze(1);
unfreeze(&current_sprite);
}

void hit();
{
say("`4Ouch!",&current_sprite);
}

Now go into the story folder of your Dmod and make new "tree.txt" file. Rename it to "tree.c". When windows asks you "Do you want to change its extension". Say yes.

Bad idea. I'd recommend copy an existing .c file, like main.c, rename it to tree, delete it's contents and use that as a base. If you don't and you're a newbie, chances of getting into trouble are great. This thread confirms.

okey-dokey ill just delete edit 1 sounds much easier I bet your all happy now because i need no information! (i think...) wait...how do i edit the land? like where dink starts and throughout the whole game?

Using the editor, of course.

.......but......ok well do i use the tiles?

Yo...
I'm ELEVEN and I can Make Scripts, D-mods...But so far they failed as I don't try..
I might try and then do it.
Genesis123 ITS SO EASY!

lol, "Genesis".

Apparently, there are people who can create C++ applications when they're 13 AND be good at it. What the heck?

Nevermind that this thread is 2 years old. lol. So did genis ever publish a dmod?

Hay
I need help :$
How do you make it so you can play as a Diff sprite?
without dink there?
Thanks!

I just played a dmod called Cycles of Evil and Dink was not in it. You might check it out to see if you can spot the coding.

Thanks Man, I'll Check it out.

Ah.. The Coding is... Sort-a Uhm.. Wonky Wierd.

It's the 'compiled' version, and it indeed is wonky weird. You need to decompile it somehow, I think a decompiler is included in UnDink.

Ah... I'll have a look for a DeCompiler...
If you know where it is.. Then Please tell!
Thanks!

:Ah.. The Coding is... Sort-a Uhm.. Wonky Wierd.

LOL. Wonky weird. That's classic. I would like to nominate the previous phrase for the random quotes rotation. Cracks me up. No offense to anyone, I'm just laughing like crazy. It's at least as good as Seth saying to pretend everything worked alright. LOL.

Heh.. Thanks!
Have you found a DeCompiler for the Wonkey Wierd Text?