Hello, I have a few questions regarding the usage of SFML and Lua. I want to create a visual novel, using SFML but im confused with the loop of it. First off, I know there are programs like Novelty, etc that can do it for me but since im only making one novel, I wanna code it by hand. My questions regarding this:

• How would I go about programming the loop for this? Would a bunch of nested switch statements work or is there a neater or simpler way?
• My plan was to have 3 variables; story_spot, image_spot, text_spot. These are just made up names by the way just wanted to use it as an example. As the user picks choices, it would update each to a different integer number which would then change the text, image, etc. I guess this goes along with my first question but is this how I should be looking at it?
• I have heard people using Lua for game programming, is it something I should be using for this, if so what parts exactly? Im still not completely clear on the entire concept and usage of Lua but from what I have heard its mainly used for NPC functions and dialogue. If it is used for situations like that, should I be looking into using it for my dialogue. My plan in terms of dialogue was to have different files for different parts of the story and when "text_spot" would switch, so would the .txt file that the program was reading from.

Any help would be appreciated.

You may wish to go with something a little more dynamic than having a fixed number of slots of things on screen. Often desired features are showing multiple portraits if more than one person is speaking with you, which would require a little bit more flexibility than having one background slot, one text slot, and one "story" slot, whatever that may be. I'm using multiple portraits as an example, but making your capabilities fixed from the start before the story is likely finished is going to restrict you, one way or another.

Lua can also be useful for more than dialogue and such things, but also controlling things like transitions, moving images indicating portraits, panning viewpoints on a large static background, visual effects (like being sleepy), and other things. There are a whole range of things that you can use to immerse the player into the story, it just requires thinking outside the box.

By the way, I wish you luck on your project. I am a big fan of visual novels, so I am glad to hear someone taking interest in making one as a personal project.