Private Messages (Rec Room Creator Tutorial 74)

Описание: This tutorial walks through the creation of an interactive in-room messaging system in Rec Room—one that allows players to press a button, select another player in the room, write a message, and have that message delivered directly to the recipient’s watch. The focus isn’t just on what to build, but how and why each part of the system works, making it a strong foundation for more advanced mechanics later on.
The system begins with a physical button placed in the room, which acts as the trigger for the entire process. Pressing this button initiates a sequence of logic chips designed to gather all active players currently in the room. Since player objects can’t be directly used where text is required, the tutorial explains how to convert player data into strings and store them inside a list. This list becomes essential—it dynamically represents everyone available to receive a message.
To populate the list, a loop iterates through every player using a “for each” structure. During this loop, each player’s display name is converted into a string and added to the list. Once the loop finishes, the system now has a clean, usable list of player names that can be fed directly into a multiple-choice prompt.
That prompt appears on the sender’s watch and asks them to choose who should receive the message. After a selection is made, a second prompt appears, allowing the sender to type a custom message. This layered prompt approach keeps the interaction intuitive and mirrors how real messaging systems work—first selecting a recipient, then writing the content.
To actually deliver the message, the tutorial introduces events. Events allow information to be broadcast across the room, making them ideal for sending messages between players. The message text, sender, and receiver are bundled into an event and sent out. However, since the event reaches everyone, an important filtering step is added: each player checks whether they are the intended recipient. Only the correct player proceeds, ensuring privacy and preventing unintended message delivery.
When the message reaches the right person, it appears as a watch prompt formatted to clearly show who sent it and what they said. The system even supports replies, allowing the recipient to respond directly using the same event logic—just with the sender and receiver roles reversed. This effectively creates a simple two-way messaging system inside the room.
Along the way, the tutorial highlights useful best practices, such as clearing lists before reuse, handling data type mismatches, and adding safety checks for failed prompts. It also notes potential moderation concerns, acknowledging that messaging systems can be abused if not carefully controlled.
By the end, the result is a fully functional, reusable messaging mechanic that can be adapted for a wide range of creative ideas—private notes, role-play communication, interactive storytelling, or even themed experiences like Valentine-style interactions. More importantly, the tutorial equips builders with a deeper understanding of player lists, prompts, events, and data conversion, empowering them to design more complex systems in future projects.