January was a very heavy month for usability updates. One of the biggest responses I’ve been getting over and over is that the user interface is ugly… so that was a huge focus this month, aside from some of the roadmap items.
The big ticket item this month… is the introduction of a “Light” theme in RPG Architect, as has been requested by a few different users many times. I had decided to work on refactoring a few screens to make them more consistent and cleaner, so it made sense to rework the theme as well.
You’ll notice that a lot of the “rounded” borders that used to exist are completely missing now, in favor of a minimalist finish. I’ve been told it now has “clean lines” everywhere.
The design language for the entire engine got a pretty massive upgrade. There are still some growing pains (some of the colors for commands show less well on the “Light” theme, but we’ll get there in time), but we’re pretty close. If you notice above, I tried to switch out our “check boxes” when interacting with switches to actual switches. It makes it a lot more straight-forward, I think. In addition, the side menu for navigation in the database now supports shrinking/collapsing, to give you more screen real estate when you need it.
I also added in a “bounding box” visualization, with the ability to switch colors based on if they’re Entities, Doodads, or Vehicles. In the above sample, I didn’t bother to add the other two types of objects to the map, so you only really see the purple for Entities (and Heroes).
You can also see a visualization of the “movement” you create for an Entity now. This is especially helpful for when you’re trying to determine where things should go and how they’ll end up moving overall. Presently, you can only see the “steps” that have absolute direction. At some point, I may consider showing the other items, as possible, but some things will be impossible to determine, such as anything involving variables.
I also want to give an important update on 1.0 of RPG Architect.
My goal was originally to have 1.0 sometime this year, but it may get pushed back a bit. RPG Architect will continue progressing forward, but we only get to launch into 1.0 once. I want to make sure that it’s extremely polished and special for first-time users who are “waiting” for that moment. I shifted focus this month to handle some of the usability/flow issues that people have been making comments about for literal years. While I’m sure they are not anywhere near completely addressed, I hope that the adjustments have made things better for users — and many folks apparently are very happy with the changes so far. Do you have feedback? I’d love to read it!
My goal is to also build a “game” similar to the 2D JRPG Sample that ships with it (and maybe I’ll even throw it in as a 1.0 bonus) to “feel” any workflow problems (and then adjust them as needed). Up until now, I’ve been heavily reliant on our users (re: you or people you know!) to provide that feedback. When this has been done, as well as “everything on the roadmap,” we’ll be ready for 1.0 — and it’s going to be really special. To quote the old Miyamoto addage: “A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad.” I want us to have a spectacular 1.0 launch.
Realistically speaking, I think most of the features I have planned should be finished in the next three months or so (even with Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition coming out and me taking my first break in about two years to play a game [which was Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed]). After that, I’ll be putting together a game from scratch, with the resources we have, and making something. I’m open to suggestions for the game’s plot and details!
I was hoping to have some animation effects in for you, courtesy of Jo Seraph, but life caught up with him. All of the animations are done, but we’re still trying to determine the best resolution/frames to use. There are roughly 12 elemental animations that will be coming very soon that RPG Architect will carry an exclusive license for. I’m trying to invest the income from RPG Architect back into the community and engine itself, as much as possible. You can see one of the new “ice” animations in the video above, as well as an early look at the Adventure Battle System DLC that is in the works.
I’m going to hopefully get back into addressing non-user interface features in February, with a heavy focus on the battle system — I think we have somewhere in the neighborhood of 3-5 other features that have been requested, which should definitely be added along with “action key presses” for action sequences.
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!
