Chapter 4. I'm a Scripter, Not a Coder

Scripting gives you the ability to code your game's major functionality without having to recompile the C++ game code. Some of the scriptable game components are Artificial Intelligence (AI), User Interface (UI), game events, save and load game functionality, and many others. Scripting also provides the vehicle for designers without deep technical knowledge or code training. It also gives the designers the ability to change a huge variety of gameplay functions quickly and easily, to facilitate balancing and tweaking. They sometimes do that so much that the game looks completely different, like a brand new game; and they did all that without touching or having the ability to touch the game engine source code.

This chapter will spend a good deal of time exploring the use of Flow Graph scripting. The Flow Graph is easily one of the most powerful tools within the CryENGINE Sandbox as it allows you to visually script triggers and events versus having to write...