#Vvvvvv scripting how to

Usage of the exploit looks like the following. This is the second exploit discovered, found by FIQ in 2012. It's likely possible to use a text command on the last line with the right number of lines to eat automatically generated internal commands and prevent an unwanted text box from showing up, but this would not have much practical use as the newer methods are superior and work in more versions including 2.0. Lines 5-8 can be used for internal scripting commands, along with one text box having 1-3 lines, using solely the text command (no other of the usual text box construction commands). Lines 2 and 4 cannot be blank, so they're conventionally filled with # characters. Line 3 contols the position, say(5) for a centered text box, reply(5) for a text box above the player. Line 1 controls the sound, say(6) for a terminal sound, reply(6) for a player squeak. Nowadays, most of the work normally needed to use these exploits can be automated by the internal scripting modes in Ved, but this article will detail exactly how and why they work. The former produces cutscene bars while the latter does not, but the latter requires two scripts while the former does not. There are two main ways to use internal commands: the say(-1) exploit and the load script exploit. Internal scripting is a superset of simplified scripting in functionality. These commands are the actual direct commands in the game engine itself, and all simplified scripts are translated to internal commands under the hood. The internal scripting exploit is an exploit within VVVVVV's scripting engine that allows for internal scripting commands to be used, thus giving the user more control than with regular simplified scripting. For a list of internal commands, see List of internal commands.

#Vvvvvv scripting how to

For a more practical explanation how to use internal scripting in your level, see Guide:Internal scripting. I most likely won’t make another, as I really should be focusing on my own projects, but it was a fun design exercise and I have a whole new appreciation for VVVVVV’s abstract aesthetic.This article is a technical explanation about how and why the internal scripting exploits work under the hood. I wrote a brief program in C++ to generate all these scripts, then copy-pasted them into the level. VVVVVV’s level files are human readable XML. There are six terminal flags, and most of the scripts are responsible for handling the 64 possible combinations of those flags whenever you use a bit terminal or the smartlock terminal.

There are over a hundred scripts for the terminals in Halo. The editor and custom level system support limited boolean flags, so I set out to abuse this as much as possible with a straightforward “set the binary string to the right number” challenge. With VVVVVV being a game of action, I wanted to put in a genuine puzzle. It seemed like a neat observational puzzle and break in the pattern 😀Īs for the Halo puzzle, well, that’s the interesting part. After designing “Intersection”, I found there was no easy way to make it impossible for you to jump from the floor 3 part to the floor 4 part – so I integrated that into the level design, forcing you to notice it and do it before you could reach floor 4 at all. I just wanted to have the floors overlapping a bit. The vertical section (“This Is Not The Up You’re Looking For”) is based on the similar section in VVVVVV. Structurally, I wanted something very physical/spatial where you’d never get lost that’s what led to the central tower, with a definite progression upwards as you make your way through the level. There’re a few spoilers for the level in the rest of this post.īesides the checkpoints, Terry mentioned in a tutorial that you could use trinkets to disable gravity lines, so I decided to build the level around that. But it was more important to me that this was different from VVVVVV – I figure a version of the level with adequate checkpointing would be less interesting. I believe poor checkpointing like this is bad design, as you’ll know if you’ve played Beacon. With any luck, this forces you to approach the challenges differently – more cautiously. Well, strictly speaking, the link’s over here, in the discussion thread on the VVVVVV forum.įirst up, the lack of checkpoints was to force me to make an interesting, balanced level without them, which in turn would by necessity be substantially different from VVVVVV itself (and the great majority of other people’s levels).