Avenight Devlog #3

A new version is here, time for a new devlog. Like before, most of the changes our under the hood. The reason this time is that I wanted to extract the game engine of my game into a separate package to be able to use it in different games as well. Technically, this process is finished, I've played around with a different type of game using the same engine. My goal is to publish it open source so that others can use it as well, but for that I need at least an example game and a bit of documentation.

During this separation of the code, I optimized a lot of stuff that I previously "saved for later". As consequence, it is recommended to create a new savegame or strange things will happen.

One other major change is that I decided to drop the smaller maps (i.e. screen size = map size) and use larger ones. The reason for this is the sliding map transition coupled with different screen sizes. When the map is smaller than the screen, it gets centered, but the sliding map transition looks really weird then. Maybe I will bring it back in the future, but only if I find a way to let the camera object emulate that behavior properly.

Version 0.5.0

This update had three major goals:

1. Allowing to define and load sprite animations in/from Tiled

The loader for Tiled tilesets looks for animations and extracts the definitions from the files. Before the update, this was mostly done for the tilemaps itself, but now (almost) every sprite has an own tileset object, which can be used to define animations and different graphical states. This makes it much easier to include new sprites without the need to write code.

2. Putting more objects into Tiled template files (and loading objects them from there)

Before, this was only available for the more static objects like chests, bushes etc. Now, almost all the objects I currently use in the game are based on Tiled templates. This makes it easier to create new maps and to actually see what is on the map in Tiled (instead of colored rectangles). 

3. Extending the map in the north west

The area in the north of the village has now a maze-like forest. Can you reach the house of the lone hunter? There are also a few new items. One of them makes your life easier in dark caves. In the forest, you will also find a new puzzle element which you might know from similar games.

Outlook

The goal for the next update is a two player split-screen mode. I've already built a prototype but I still have to integrate it into my game engine. With this, a redesign of the UI and the inventory will be necessary. I'm really excited how this will turn out but for now I hope you, fellow reader, will enjoy the current version.

Until next time.

stedu