February ended up being much more productive than I had thought. It’s funny looking at the list and then realizing that I accomplished more than I thought I would. That gets us closer and closer to 1.0.
This month had a HUGE focus on Action Sequence Elements for battles. I implemented multiple new elements to handle a variety of interactions and changes that you might want to use. In particular, there are five that I’ll cover and bullet-point. The idea is to try to enable “quick time” or “timed hit” battles.
- Switch – allows you to update a global switch.
- Variable – allows you to update a global variable.
- Virtual Key – allows you to check for press/hold/repeated tap of a virtual key.
- Conditional – allows you to do something based on conditions (like Entities, etc).
- Result Modifier – allows you to change results of an action sequence based on type and target.
Using the above, you could create a Virtual Key element to check for taps on a global variable. Allow the user to do this over 1 second. Using a Conditional element, you could then check if that variable was greater than 0, and if so, use a Result Modifier element inside to multiple the Target’s result by the global variable used in the Virtual Key element on the formula “hp”. This would allow you then to multiple the “damage” done to the Target BY the number of key taps. Obviously, a bit overpowered, but it opens room for a ton of possibilities, and this is just an example.
The next item falls under “usability,” since it doesn’t add much that we didn’t have before, but it makes the editor much easier to use. The “Switch Conditional” command allows you to put multiple items at a top-level, rather than having to nest If / Else over and over again. Effectively, the Switch Conditional is an If/Else If/Else If/*/Else conditional. It feels a lot like a mix between the Dialogue Options command and a traditional Conditional command.
Another requested item (for a while now) was “Calculated” Statistics. Simply put, you can now build derived statistics that are calculated in a formula. You cannot have Calculated statistics use other Calculated statistics in the Formula, as it would add some interesting complexity to figure out “which” has a dependency on which first for calculation. Eventually, it may be added, but this should solve a lot of folks’ use-cases for this now.
Sound effects are now capable of preventing overlap. You’ll see a “Prevent Simultaneous Plays” which will check to see if the exact same sound effect is being played. If it is (and the “Prevent…” flag set above), it’ll not bother to play at all. This is especially useful in… Action Sequences… because you may have a “fire” spell that targets multiple people and want the sound effect within the Animation — which could potentially make the sound play for EACH target, rather than just “once overall.”
Entities now have the opportunity to “Persist All Data” — in which case, they’ll retain their position after you leave a map, in addition to the Local Data. This will allow you to have a more “persistent world” feel, if you desire it. Please note that Entity Definitions will need this turned on as well, if you want to persist them beyond their initial positions.
I now have Global/Local Reference Switch/Variables conditions available to use as well. We already support these in Variable and Switch operations, but they weren’t Conditions. The idea is that these end up being “pointers” — so to say, a Global Variable Reference references Global Variable 5, which has a value of 7. When the condition is now evaluated, it will use Global Variable 7 (the value inside Global Variable 5) for the actual operational check. This was available in RPG Maker back a long time ago — not sure if it still is — but it’s extremely useful in passing around/managing data.
There is also a “Launch URL” command now, which allows you to open a webpage outside of the engine. Please be mindful that this is extremely limited/protective (and could also spam the player). Please use it in good trust. It is likely that this command will NOT eventually work for console platforms, as some do not support browsers (e.g. Nintendo).
One of our community members has a game out on Steam, which I wanted to give a shout-out to and highlight, since it’s the first RPG Architect game on Steam thusfar, to my knowledge. The game is a “blobber” or first-person dungeon crawler.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3500430/The_Depths_of_Duskraven_Manor
I want to address the elephant in the room, though.
The project uses some assets that are post-processed with AI to “finish” them. I normally have a hard stance against AI anything, but this is actually used tastefully — and as a tool. I think this is one of the first cases I actually, personally, agree with. I’m not an artist — and if I had the opportunity to take a concept I could draw poorly (I promise — more than stick-figures) and have it be turned into something I could use… why not? I’d still be writing the story, programming the game, creating maps, and all the rest. Everyone is entitled to their opinion on it — and I still reserve the right to change mine. That said, this is honestly a good game and the spirit of the creator really shines through.
A number of bug-fixes were done — there was a pretty significant one handled in first-person movement and rendering. You’ll note now that the world is viewed from 0 – 180 on the X axis (0 being the Zenith/Sky, and 179.9 being the floor). If you’re making a first person game, you’ll want to clamp on those angles for X rotation.
March is going to likely be a very slow month. I have a Krav Maga (Phase C) certification to finally become a full-fledged instructor (and if you’re not familiar with it, it’s a week-long grueling training session with up to three half-day tests). The best thing about this is how much you learn, grow, and become better for your students — it’s worth it, even if your body tells you that it’s not while you’re doing it. When I’m in the hospital Recovering after it, Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition comes out, which will be the first game I will be playing in what feels like a couple years (XC3: FR in 2023). Y’all know that I could write and talk about this franchise and MonolithSoft forever, so I’ll spare you the details.
I’m hoping that we’ll get some of the new animations that I’ve teased a little bit, next month.
That said, the remaining items on the Roadmap are generally pretty simple, minus the User Interface “updates” I want to do. Those could take a while, because they’re nuanced in selection and, ideally, would be easy to leverage more generically. The more generic it is, the better it will be for the engine. Do things right, such that you never have to really do them again.
As it stands, we are at 86% at the time of this writing. 10% of it can be done in a week. There are still a few other things that need to be done, but the 1.0 items that I want accomplished are basically almost ready. There are still some fixes I’d like to incorporate into the Physics (rewrite the Controllers for Actors one last time in bepu, and if it’s not up to where I want it, resume working on Jolt Physics), a few other little “small” features into the Battle system, and that’s really a wrap. The earliest the Roadmap for 1.0 will be done by is likely the end of April, but it may stretch until June… just in time for personal milestones. That said, 1.0 will not probably be released until much later — I’m guessing Q4 2025. The release could come a little sooner or later, based on how it feels during my testing/use of the engine as a product.
One more note — I’ve been working on pre-production of the “1.0” game and that has actually been pretty exciting. I’ve had a few game ideas in my mind for a number of years, and this is an opportunity to make a “smaller” version of that with some of those ideas, play with systems/gameplay elements, and see how they might “feel” or “look” in a smaller game before adapting it to a larger game. There’s a preliminary story and some characters drafted out in our Discord’s VIP section, just as a “side bonus” for those members. I’m happy to take feedback and ideas!
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!
