Welcome to June, a somewhat proper return-to-form. Let’s get started.
One of the long-standing items on the roadmap for 1.0 has finally gotten knocked out — User Interface Element Effects. Want to change an image? Want to modify color? Slowly change to another location? Make the user interface bounce around? You can do all of that now.
You’ll notice that there is an “Effects” area in many spots of the User Interface editor. This allows you to setup all of that.
This month also introduced Easing Functions (which were needed for the Effects). I added them to Transitions, so you can leverage them in more than just User Interface Effects. At some point, I might extend it to things where we move the Camera, Modify a Picture/Video, and so forth. Most of the “asynchronous” commands will likely eventually get it, if it makes sense.
Aside from the big ticket items, there were numerous bug fixes. Tile Tags had some “weird” issues with them (due to sampling in the physics engine), so I improved that to provide a more consistent experience. Entities got support for Tags this month, so you’ll see that in the “Local Data” section. In addition, you can also specify a Blend Mode for your Map Layers. This works in 3D (poorly — you probably should not do this), but it’ll shine big-time for anyone working on 2D projects.
Progress is still being made on the “new” documentation site, but it’s going to slow down a bit. We have a few community members working on it and syncing up to provide a consistent “voice” and presentation-style. This takes time — and there is a lot to document! When it’s done, I plan to release it as a “manual” PDF that will ship with RPG Architect.
I had a little less done this month, due to addressing bugs and feature requests — and because I’m technically writing this one day before our last baby (as was hinted in last month’s update) is scheduled. I will be indisposed while my wife and I gather our bearings with our new family dynamic. July is likely to be a little slow for updates, but I should be able to (hopefully?) make some updates while the kids are taking naps. I’m putting everything on hold, generally, while I try to help my wife recover from a very hard pregnancy.
For July — there are a number of smaller features that will likely make it in next month, particularly tied to tactical combat (Tags on Entities was one of those). I need to finally make good on the other “battle” requests that I keep writing about, but those are easy and can be done in shorter sprints (which is why I pushed the Effects up sooner — it has been very involved and broken things — but the updates to fix it were quick since I have the time right now).
I figure it might be fun to also play with and broadcast some numbers — we have over 12,000 net wish lists on Steam now and almost 2,500 users. As of this writing, it’s just a few shy. We’re doing pretty well on the return side for “engine” software (under 16%, when the category is generally ~20%). Not quite where I had hoped, since Steam and taxes takes a little over 50% of what users pay, but it’s not terrible. Definitely still a passion project more than a full-time gig. That said, I’m having a lot of fun and I hope you are too!
That’s a wrap for June!
As always:
Thank you so much for your support so far. I’m looking forward to building this community further and giving you the engine you may not have known you always wanted!
