1. Video Game Script Writing

NOTE: The following description and illustrations are for the Script Editor application included in Mac OSX 10.5. Earlier versions will have a different design. The Script Editor application icon. After starting up, the Script Editor application displays a multi-paned window known as a script window. Whether you’re using a Mac or an iOS device, it’s never been easier to make it in the movies. Just choose your clips, then add titles, music, and effects. IMovie even supports 4K video for stunning cinema-quality films.

The easiest way to get started with AppleScript is to use some scripts that others have written already. Scripts are small files that contain a list of commands that tells your Mac what functions to perform and when.

Fortunately, Apple is kind enough to provide you with several completed scripts with your installation of Yosemite. You can find a large cache of scripts in the scripts folder, found in the Library folder, under Scripts.

Video Game Script Writing

Many scripts (but not all) end with the extension .scpt.

Before you get started running scripts, however, you should know a few things.

Identifying scripts in the field

Each script you encounter is in one of these three formats:

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• Script application: Some AppleScripts act much like an application. To use one, simply double-click it in Finder, and off it goes to perform whatever tasks it was meant to do. Depending on an internal setting of the script, it might quit when it’s finished doing its thing. Scripts are typically identified by the icon that you see in the figure.

• Compiled script: You might also encounter AppleScripts that won’t run without the aid of another application. Apple calls these compiled scripts. Although they can’t execute on their own, they do have the capabilities of a script built in. They just require a host application to use them.

• Text file: The third category of AppleScript you might encounter is a script stored in a text file. This kind of script also needs a host application before it can do anything. The main difference between a text file script and a compiled script is that you can read a text file script in any application that can open a text file.

The Script Editor application

Compiled scripts and text file scripts require some sort of host application before they can perform any action. Luckily, Yosemite provides you with just such a host: Script Editor, which comes with OS X and can execute any AppleScript with ease. With Script Editor, you can also do much more, including these things:

• View or modify an AppleScript

• Create an AppleScript

• Check an AppleScript for errors

• Save scripts in one of the three possible formats

To launch Script Editor, click the Launchpad icon (which bears a rocket icon) on the Dock, click the Utilities/Other folder, and then click the Script Editor icon. From the familiar Open dialog, click New Document; the Script Editor application displays an empty, script-editing window.

Executing a script

With Script Editor running, you can run any AppleScript you can find. To get you started, Apple conveniently provides a handful of useful scripts. Navigate to the Scripts folder, which is located in the Library folder.

Scripts are divided into folders based on functionality, such as fonts, mail, and navigation. For example, open the Font Book folder, where you’ll find a script named Delete Empty Collections.scpt.

Double-click the script to open it. Because it’s a compiled script and not an application script, Script Editor automatically loads the script and comes to the foreground. This particular script opens the Font Book application and checks for empty font collections. If it finds any, the script displays a prompt asking for confirmation and deletes the empty collection if you click the OK button.

To see the script in action, click the Run button or press Command+R.

Describing AppleScript to a Mac beginner is a bit like three blind men describing an elephant. One man might describe it as the Mac’s built-in automation tool. Another might describe it as an interesting but often-overlooked piece of enabling technology. The third might liken it to a cassette recorder, recording and playing back your actions at the keyboard. A fourth (if there were a fourth in the story) would assure you that it looked like computer code written in a high-level language.

They would all be correct. AppleScript, a built-in Mac automation tool, is a little-known (at least until recently) enabling technology that works like a cassette recorder for programs that support AppleScript recording. And scripts do look like computer programs. (Could that be because they are computer programs? Hmm… .)

If you’re the kind of person who likes to automate as many things as possible, you might just love AppleScript because it’s a simple programming language you can use to create programs that give instructions to your Mac and the applications running on your Mac. For example, you can create an AppleScript that launches Mail, checks for new messages, and then quits Mail. The script could even transfer your mail to a folder of your choice. Then there’s Automator, which includes a whole lot of preprogrammed actions that make a task like the one just described even easier.

AppleScript is a time-and-effort enhancer. If you just spend the time and effort it takes to understand it, using AppleScript can save you oodles of time and effort down the road. Therein lies the rub. This stuff is far from simple; entire books have been written on the subject. Still, it’s worth finding out about if you’d like to script repetitive actions for future use. To get you started, here are a few quick tips:

• Script Editor (in the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder) is the application you use to view and edit AppleScripts. Although more information on Script Editor is beyond the discussion here, it’s a lot of fun. And the cool thing is that you can create many AppleScripts without knowing a thing about programming. Just record a series of actions you want to repeat and use Script Editor to save what you recorded as a script. If you save your script as an application (by choosing Format → Application in the Save sheet), you can run that script by double-clicking its icon.
• You can put frequently used AppleScripts in the Dock or on your Desktop for easy access.
• Many AppleScripts are designed for use in the toolbar of Finder windows, where you can drag and drop items onto them quickly and easily.
• Scripts can enhance your use of many apps including iTunes, iPhoto, and the Finder, to name a few.
• Apple provides a script menu extra that you can install on your menu bar in the Script Editor’s Preferences window, along with a number of free scripts to automate common tasks (in the Scripts folder in the root-level Library, or choose Open Example Scripts Folder from the Script Editor’s Help menu).
• If the concept of scripting intrigues you, explore the examples in the Scripts folder (in the root-level Library or choose Open Example Scripts from the Script Editor’s Help menu). Rummage through this folder and when you find a script that looks interesting, double-click it to launch the Script Editor program, where you can examine it more closely.