Hello There,
In this article, I will talk a little about the new game that we are currently working on within the Game Of Engines toolkit entitled: TreeFarm.
1. LUA Updates
I have spent the past couple of days adding in some stability checks for the GUI system in GoE. As mentioned earlier, you can now add textures to your GUI objects to make them look sweet. In addition to this; we have also added a few new lua functions to help with GUI and Game Development in the engine:
- Sleep() - This function makes the entire engine freeze for as long as you want.
- EngineWidth() - This gives you the current CameraWidth so you can accurately create your GUI.
- EngineHeight() - This gives you the current CameraHeight so you can accurately create your GUI.
- EngineSetup() - This allows you to manipulate the camera from within your game; perhaps you can make some nice cutscenes with this.
As you may be able to see in the screenshot below, I am making good use of the new EngineWidth() and EngineHeight functions to perfect GUI placement:
2. New Game
I would like to announce a new game that I have been working on, called "TreeFarm". In this game, you can create the farm of your dreams and look after your animals whilst also dealing with the local economy to pay for the land.
TreeFarm is created in LUA using GoE and it boasts a great GUI system that can be fully textures meaning the users can add their own texture-packs. If they so chose.
This game was made using very little of the Level Editor because of it's "build-it-yourself" nature. I never thought I would see the day, but I have built a level-editor INSIDE the level-editor xD.
Here is a picture of the toolkit and the game's small and limited map:
3. Tilesheet Hacking
While making TreeFarm, I often find that I don't want to create a sprite sheet for just two items. So, I have implemented a new lua function that allows Sprites to use textures from your Tilesheets!
This will help developers who need a fast way to prototype their games without having to complete an entire Sprite Sheet.
4. Videos
I am going to begin posting small videos of the toolkit and engine on this page. It is hard to get an idea of how the engine runs just from reading these logs so I am going to find a good screen capturer and begin making videos to display the awesomeness of GoE.
5. Examples
I am hoping that once TreeFarm has been completed, I can package it as the example game for GoE. Users will be able to look through it's source code which has all been commented line-by-line so you can immerse yourself in the code. Most of the code is compatible with any games you will make so by simply copy-and-pasting the code into your own game and altering the parameters slightly; you will be able to release prototypes super fast and effectively. Here is a small section of the GUI code used in the game at the moment:
6. One Day
One of the most fun games to create using GoE was most certainly One Day - It's RPG fighting system was really fun to make and gave great results. In addition to this, it was the best use of the GUI system that I have; Hell, it even had a battle log. Here is a quick snapshot as to where I left it off:
7. Thanks For Reading
Once again, Thank you all for reading this rather boring Dev Log. I hope you enjoyed reading about the latest updates and I would like to thank all the new fans. I will do my best to make the next Dev Log more fun and full of wacky antics such as the engine crashes xD.
Thanks,
Matt
