Busy Busy

So work has attacked again, which hasn't left me a lot of time to work on Project PD.  Still, I'm kicking around in my head what I want to do for the next major feature, as well as working on a game or two.

I'm considering a dive into writing a scripting language, but I'm worried that it's going to be a tough project to tackle.  We shall see!  I'm considering wrapping some major changes in a version 2 (or 1, since I'm technically still in version 0), including a player redesign and builder changes to go with it.

Labels

I've added a new feature to the Builder: labels.

This is something I've been meaning to add for a while.  I've quickly realized that I need more ways of organizing stuff in the Builder, otherwise larger games are going to get completely unmanageable.  Especially Flags and Interactions, which are global and tend to multiply pretty quickly.

So I essentially copied Gmail and added labels.  You can now add a label to Flags and Interactions, and view each label individually.  This lets you categorize things easier.

I plan on adding more things like this (as well as improving the label system) as I go.  Feel free to send in any usability improvements you think of, as well.

Another addition is a log, which shows up at the bottom right of the Builder screen.  This is pretty basic so far (all it does is show saving and loading details), but I'll also be expanding it in the future, I think.  You can also type in it, although the text isn't saved in your game, so it will disappear when you close the app.  Speaking of which, I've been considering a dedicated notes component, but I'm not sure if it would be useful.  If anyone thinks it's important enough to add, let me know.

Minor Player Update

Updated the player to 0.1.1.  Couple minor fixes.

There is one change I'd like to talk about for second, though.  I've changed the way character portraits are displayed in Interactions.  Here's how it works now:

When you load a new Interaction node, if the new node's speaker name is different than the current node, the speaker graphic display (on the left) is replaced with the new node's speaker graphic, and the old speaker graphic is moved to the listener's display (on the right).

If the speaker name is the same, both graphic display's stay the same.

In other news, I've been messing around with a new game idea that's a little more along the lines of the classic visual novel.  Hopefully I'll have something to show for it soon!  I also am thinking of some ways to improve usability of the builder, like organizing stuff into folders or a label system, which would really help with larger games.

In Which I Rebel Against the System

I was supposed to be doing some real work at the office today, but it got cancelled, so I had a productive day adding some cool stuff here instead.  Fight the power.

First of all, I added background image support for areas.  You can add background images in the area editor, and they'll show up when you play the game.  As an example, I updated the first adventure of Hatman (hatman1.pd) with a crappy background for the Hatman's Office area:

I'll update the guide soon to explain the new feature in a little more detail, but it's pretty straightforward.  Images should be 700x345 to display correctly (or else they'll stretch).  If you don't add an image, the background will just be blank.  I'm thinking about adding solid color (or even gradient) backgrounds, but for now it's images only.

Second, I added a little visual element I've been meaning to do for a while: text feeding.  Now, in area descriptions and interactions, the text comes in over time instead of all at once.  I think it adds some visual flair to the application, and draws the eye to the descriptions rather than immediately to the buttons down below.  I plan on having an options screen to control the speed of the text feed, but for now it's just one speed (which is pretty fast).  You can also click the description to make the text load instantly.

Both the Builder and Player are now at v0.1.0, since I figured it was a large enough feature update to bump the secondary version up.  Tertiary versions are primarily going to be bugfixes and small stuff, while secondary updates will be new features and/or larger changes.

Silly Flex

Just updated both Builder and Player to 0.0.3.

There was a really annoying bug in the previous versions which was causing a lot of the lists to get messed up and display incorrectly when scrolling.  Apparently this is because Flex reuses list item renderers when one leaves the screen and another enters.  If you're interested in hearing about how I fixed it you can email me, otherwise, let's just say a koala was eating all my codez.

nom nom nom

Anyway this issue was also causing problems in the Player's interaction history, which should be fixed now, along with the various Builder fixes.  Hooray!

Edit: small bugfix to the Builder.

Engine Update

I've made a small update to both the Player and the Builder to add engine version checking.  This doesn't mean much yet, but it was the first on my to-do list to make further development easier.  Now the engine version that was used to make the game is saved in the .pd file, and when you try to open the game in the Builder or Player it will run a check to make sure the game and the engine are of compatible versions.

Right now all games are going to be compatible, but in the future if I make a fundamental change to the structure of the game files, I'll update the version and any development will have to use the new version to be compatible with new features.

I'll always link to the newest versions on the sidebar, but I'll be keeping the old versions here.

Hatman and the Photographed Fiance

Just wrapped up the first chapter of my demo game. You can download it here. You can use the PPD Player to play it, or the PPD Builder to see how it's put together. It's a pretty simple game, and I'm sure there's some bugs, but it should help give an idea of the type of things you can do with Project PD.

Oh, and I also added a Bugs and Plans page to keep track of what I'm doing.