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[IndigoFenix]

Custom animations are in.

PTW, it's certainly a good idea. I've got an idea for something similar (player-created worlds with their own set of rules), but it's in a very different genre.

That's cool.  What genre are you looking at?

[Pavellius]

How do I import tilesets? And how can I access the default tilesets?

[Reelya]

Custom animations are in.

PTW, it's certainly a good idea. I've got an idea for something similar (player-created worlds with their own set of rules), but it's in a very different genre.

That's cool.  What genre are you looking at?

Browser game where you play as a citizen of a nation. Basically rather than hand-coding all the rules, I was thinking to make a system where people create a "world" with it's own rules (e.g. what resources exists, what buildings make/process each resource, details on how politics works etc, possible fantasy theme, level of tech, and tech tree upgrades allowed), then people can choose to be residents of one world or the other. That way it offloads a big chunk of the game dev effort off to players, and I'd just maintain the low-level engine and some design tools.

The characters themselves might not be directly transferrable between worlds, as the rules may be completely different, so there's going to be a "character points" system. Players will be able to "emigrate" to another world, and their expended CPs get reset so they can buy skills relevant to the new world, or they could "retire" a character, which puts them in a "vault" and that process frees up CPs to spend on other characters. To get a character back from the vault, you'd need to spend the CP cost, or reset their skills. So basically CPs is like XP, except it's a per-account meta-XP for buying character upgrades that you accumulate. Also, I'm thinking that the worlds themselves might need some CPs to develop, so as to stop players just spamming worlds, but these CPs can be raised by any player, so the developer of a new world/ruleset can in fact do a "crowdfunding" excercise to get CP donations to make his dream world, and the dev team could boost CPs to promising worlds which aren't getting attention now and then.

Haha, it would be even cooler if I could make all this work in a single world, but player-defined rules could prove to be a challenge for that ...

[IndigoFenix]

How do I import tilesets? And how can I access the default tilesets?

Right now the only way to import tilesets is through linking to a url; put the image url in the box under the tileset.  There will be default tilesets and a proper uploader later.

-snip-

That's a cool concept, especially the CP idea.  Sounds like these worlds are much more simulated.  How would you explain the nature of the player though?

BW leans heavily on the game side of the game/simulation spectrum; the world builder can modify almost everything down to NPC routines and cutscenes so limiting the worldbuilding options with  a point system is conceptually difficult.  I could put in more simulation aspects as default options (cities, populations, etc) but this might cause it to stray from the main focus of the game, which is exploration and storytelling.

[Sponge]

Did you ever look into the graphics?

[IndigoFenix]

Yes, the graphics work now.  You will probably need to open the graphic editor to fix them, but just setting an animation convention should be enough.

Custom animations are functioning, though only _stand and _walk do anything, for now.  Playing animations will be added to the function list soon.

You can now set the initial direction of individual sprites; after adding them you click again in the direction you want them to face.

Idle movement works properly now, you can do a whole bunch of things with it.  Walking without turning lets them pace between walls, with turning lets them wander randomly, and they will try to remain within the boundaries of their home radius at all times, setting home radius to -1 lets them walk around the map freely.  Note that radii for all sprite behavior is measured in pixels, not tiles.

Idle turning now uses a timer like other idle behaviors, it seems more consistent that way.

Also the bug where sometimes you can't enter a room for no reason is fixed.

[IndigoFenix]

I'm adding new functionality to functions.  Certain events in the function menu work as "commands" that are executed over a period of time, like "walk to a point"; these events override the normal behavior of sprites and cause the script to automatically wait until they are complete before progressing to the next event, although you can tell them not to wait by clicking the "Continue immediately" option.  Relative positions and orientations for walking (for instance, "walk forward 32 pixels") are planned but not active yet.

There is no pathfinding yet; I'm not really sure how advanced I want the pathfinding to be.  I'll probably start with a very simple algorithm (like pac-man ghosts), which should at least suffice for not getting stuck on tiny walls.

Next on the list will probably be dialogue.  I could go with the standard, "display text box and press a button to advance" style dialogue, but maybe making a more dynamic-feeling dialogue system could be fun, where people might talk in the background and you can eavesdrop on them without actually introducing yourself.  Are there any games that do something like that in a way that feels natural?

[Sponge]

I could go with the standard, "display text box and press a button to advance" style dialogue, but maybe making a more dynamic-feeling dialogue system could be fun, where people might talk in the background and you can eavesdrop on them without actually introducing yourself.  Are there any games that do something like that in a way that feels natural?

Well, a lot of games do dynamic dialogue systems well. I know a lot of people like Mass Effect's, though I've never played the game. Bethesda games are nice too (I would prefer them to the wheel, as they provide more space for text). Don't know about the eavesdropping, probably just have smaller text boxes pop up in the direction of the person (Or people) that you overhear.
 

I'm adding new functionality to functions.  Certain events in the function menu work as "commands" that are executed over a period of time, like "walk to a point"; these events override the normal behavior of sprites and cause the script to automatically wait until they are complete before progressing to the next event, although you can tell them not to wait by clicking the "Continue immediately" option.  Relative positions and orientations for walking (for instance, "walk forward 32 pixels") are planned but not active yet.

This seems like it could be fun when you implement the fighting systems. Seems like with some work you could make enemies and such have more extravagant attacks.

[MoonyTheHuman]

IndigoFenix: I'm talking a lot of interest in this , is there possibly a way I could help with the programming? What language is the server in?

[IndigoFenix]

IndigoFenix: I'm talking a lot of interest in this , is there possibly a way I could help with the programming? What language is the server in?

I don't really see how two people could work on one code, at least one as interconnected as this.  Maybe if I split up some of the spaghettier parts into multiple files, but it still might be more trouble than it's worth.

The server is PHP.

This seems like it could be fun when you implement the fighting systems. Seems like with some work you could make enemies and such have more extravagant attacks.

I'm planning on splitting up combat behaviors into 3 categories.  First, the default aggro/chase/collide/retreat system we have now, although this will have more complex behaviors later with things like retreating, flocking, and threat assessment.  Second, custom techniques which will be associated with custom animations and utilize certain stock behaviors: strikes, grapples, tackles, and spawning objects as bullets, beneficial abilities like buffs and heals can also go here; the AI will use these automatically as appropriate.  Third, more elaborate attack patterns that utilize functions; these will mainly be used for bosses and the like.

The main focus of the function system, especially as it pertains to motion, is for building cutscenes; everything is executed in sequence by default so you can simply script out what you want to happen without having to worry about getting the timing right.

There may also be a yield/capture system in place where enemies bring you to a location if you surrender to them, or if they simply bring you anyway if they defeat you.  Truth is, I haven't quite worked out what the default behavior will be when you die; right now it just resets the room but there should probably be save points or something.  I'm also not sure what will happen if you fall in a pit, should that count as instant death, pop you back out with a bit of HP loss, or something else...?

[Reelya]

How about client-side scripting or similar. You have a PHP backend, but what's the client coded in?

[IndigoFenix]

How about client-side scripting or similar. You have a PHP backend, but what's the client coded in?

The client is Javascript.  It isn't obfuscated or anything so you can look at the client code easily enough.

[Reelya]

Maybe split the JavaScript into layers, then allow world devs to make code-based addons for their own worlds? You may need extra checking on anything sent back to the server then, but you should be doing that anyway.

e.g. devs could specifiy what actual JavaScript code is attached to a specific object in their world.

[IndigoFenix]

Maybe split the JavaScript into layers, then allow world devs to make code-based addons for their own worlds? You may need extra checking on anything sent back to the server then, but you should be doing that anyway.

e.g. devs could specifiy what actual JavaScript code is attached to a specific object in their world.

Mnm.  While technically possible, writing executable Javascript that will automatically be executed by other players' computers is opening up a whole new can of worms.  I'm spending a good amount of effort limiting the amount of griefing it is possible for world builders to do (for example, the game will not crash as a result of poorly-coded functions; you will be able to open the pause menu during an infinite loop, which will allow you to exit that world).  There will also be certain limits on the ability of a world's code to modify items a player obtains from other worlds, which will prevent things like stealing all of their money.  If world builders are able to mess with the game's code directly, there's no way to control things like that.

Don't worry though - the function system will be extremely flexible.  When you can access almost every variable in every object in a world, there isn't a whole lot you can't do.  One of the development goals is that it should be possible to make a passable imitation of certain classic arcade games (Tetris, Pac-Man, Asteroids, Galaga, Breakout) whose behavior is not part of the game already through the function system alone.

I might include an event that will allow you to make calls to an external API and store the response in a variable for whatever purpose you want.  This will make it possible to write your own functions without messing with other players' script directly.  For example, you could put an NPC in your world that connects to a chatbot service and uses the chatbot's responses for its dialogue.

[MoonyTheHuman]

IndigoFenix: I'm talking a lot of interest in this , is there possibly a way I could help with the programming? What language is the server in?

I don't really see how two people could work on one code, at least one as interconnected as this.  Maybe if I split up some of the spaghettier parts into multiple files, but it still might be more trouble than it's worth.

The server is PHP.

This seems like it could be fun when you implement the fighting systems. Seems like with some work you could make enemies and such have more extravagant attacks.

I'm planning on splitting up combat behaviors into 3 categories.  First, the default aggro/chase/collide/retreat system we have now, although this will have more complex behaviors later with things like retreating, flocking, and threat assessment.  Second, custom techniques which will be associated with custom animations and utilize certain stock behaviors: strikes, grapples, tackles, and spawning objects as bullets, beneficial abilities like buffs and heals can also go here; the AI will use these automatically as appropriate.  Third, more elaborate attack patterns that utilize functions; these will mainly be used for bosses and the like.

The main focus of the function system, especially as it pertains to motion, is for building cutscenes; everything is executed in sequence by default so you can simply script out what you want to happen without having to worry about getting the timing right.

There may also be a yield/capture system in place where enemies bring you to a location if you surrender to them, or if they simply bring you anyway if they defeat you.  Truth is, I haven't quite worked out what the default behavior will be when you die; right now it just resets the room but there should probably be save points or something.  I'm also not sure what will happen if you fall in a pit, should that count as instant death, pop you back out with a bit of HP loss, or something else...?

Damn, PHP? wouldnt something like Node.js be faster? plus you could do some extreme multithreading fairly easily with node :p