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[IndigoFenix]

I finally got a hold of a collection of 32x32 NPC sprites, and boy there were a lot of them!  I added a new feature that allows you to store multiple similar sprites in a single sheet and use a frame offset to switch between them (basically the same animation frames are used, but the frame index is offset by a certain number).  This way you can make the graphics of a sprite an optional world builder parameter or even change it in-game without resorting to creating multiple copies of the same sprite or using transformations.  I exported this NPC sprite in a package, you can choose the graphics of each individual NPC by changing the Frame Offset parameter.

I haven't seen much lag in the forest, but my new computer is pretty good.  I guess I can tone it down a bit.

The boss (and indeed the whole forest) is kind of a placeholder, it's just a spot to show off the monsters that I'm making.  I'm putting together an "Adventure Pack" with a large number of assets all packed together, which will be nice for world builders to make use of.

Trying to think of a name for this town (populated near-exclusively by monsters) is killing me. Any suggestions?

Hmm... What about "Monstrocity"?  Haha.
Or perhaps "Lusuria", a play on "Lucaria" (festival of the sacred grove) and "Lusus" (freaks).

[Kamani]

Cool! I’ll have to take a look later.

Huh, odd. For me it gets as bad as the original laser ray did once there get to be a bunch on screen.

Makes sense. I figured the boss was, since they don’t really seem to fit any of the boss fighting advice you’ve given. That, and they are just kind of lackluster.

I like Lusuria. I’ll go with that. Thanks.

[Imic]

I've had issues placing gates, meaning that I can't play get anything ai've made, so I'd like to ask how to properly set up a starting location. The rest seems to be working, but I won't know till then, or I'd have published something by now.

[IndigoFenix]

Your room looks nice, but it won't work the way you expect!

Objects will never interact with objects outside of their layer (unless you write a script for it).  Think of a layer as basically a separate "play area".  Most rooms only need one real layer for tiles, sprites, and gates.  Maybe a background layer and a foreground for stuff that is supposed to appear in front of the player (like the tops of houses) but that's it.

You can create multiple tilesets with the same image to combine tilesets with transparencies and the like.  Using sprites for solid objects that don't move is almost always not worth the trouble.

In your case, the "Ground" layer is probably the one you want to keep.  You can make a separate tileset using the same graphic as Tileset3 to add the cliffs, window and door.  (Place the tileset "on top" in the list to make it appear on top).  That's also where you want to put your gates.

For complex tilemaps, the best option is usually to make the graphic tilesets non-interactive, and add an invisible tilemap to handle the collisions.  That way you only need to have one tile designated as solid.

I'm wondering how to make this more clear.  Maybe I'll make some in-game tutorial areas where characters explain the topography and how the world works.

[Imic]

Takes notes
I still don't know how to actually make a starting location, though. As in,  how to place the location for the player to spawn in.

[IndigoFenix]

That's what the gates do.  You can click on "test gate" once you have placed one.  (Also, note that you can select multiple tiles for both gates and tilemaps by holding shift).

EDIT: I noticed that I removed the tutorial button by accident.  It's back now.

I added a new feature, an error catcher that automatically closes a room in the case of an infinite loop.  (Actually, it will trigger if 1 second passes between one frame and the next.  It is virtually impossible to write a process that can reliably identify an infinite loop, but FPS dropping below 1 generally means that something is wrong anyway).  That handles the problem of trolls putting game-crashing sprites into their world; rather than freezing the whole site it just boots you out of their world.  If you are the world's builder, it gives you an error message to help identify the source of the problem and opens the world builder.

EDIT2: Also added some more sound effect options, like playing a sound on the default player interaction and also when using or landing a default melee attack.

[Kamani]

So do most people in the worlds speak the same language because the ancients spoke it and spread it around (like doors in the south)? This would make sense, and it might be helpful to know, so...

[IndigoFenix]

So do most people in the worlds speak the same language because the ancients spoke it and spread it around (like doors in the south)? This would make sense, and it might be helpful to know, so...

That makes sense.

I think I'm going to change the rules for blank tiles, instead of making the blank tile in a tilemap have independent properties, layers will simply have a "default" tile property and the blank tile will simply be to delete tiles.  This should make things less confusing for new players (having the entire room suddenly change to a pit because you imported a tilemap is kind of weird).  It will change the Treasure Dungeon a bit when it goes up, but I think that's the only one (aside from my rooms) that uses the "basic" tilemap (which has the blank tiles as a pit).

I guess it's about time to try fixing up the platforming sections again.  Sigh... this is by far the most frustrating part of making this entire game.

[Kamani]

That is my excuse for that then.

I should take Treasure Dungeon offline anyway. It isn’t very interesting, just a first project when I was new(er, since I am still new. Just... less new, I guess?).

Edit: Loading from the World Editor, I got the message (sitting at the top of the editor), saying: Warning: Saving will overwrite your draft! Load from World Editor instead. (I guess I saved as a draft?), but since I loaded from the World Editor, this is rather odd.

[IndigoFenix]

Well, if nothing appears out of place don't worry about it.  It's supposed to show that message if you load the world builder from the non-draft version while there is a draft version available in the system.  I'll check out why it appears.

[Kamani]

I’ll do a bit of checking, then continue normally. I don’t remember where I left off, so I’ll want to make sure it isn’t actually loading wrong, but if nobody else noticed anything, then it is probably just a message thing.

Edit: College finals are done (well, technically, they were done Friday, but it was the weekend after finals and I was still pretty busy. Still am, but not to the extent that I will have no free time to use this at all anymore)! Also, I think I decided on what most of the dungeons in this project will be (there will be 10 in total, grouped with three per tier in three tiers, and than the final dungeon), so now I can actually start working on this.

Edit: Message doesn't seem to have anything messed up, so it all looks fine.

Edit: I think I should choose new names for Elen and Alend. Those names are basically copied, and even though the characters have absolutely nothing to do with the characters whose names they borrowed, that still feels off.

Edit: Hmm... occurs to me that one of the characters coming up 4 or 5 dungeons from now will have an appearance that I won't be able to find good art for anywhere. Ugh. No real clue what to do about that.

[IndigoFenix]

That's quite a plan you've got.  Well, don't rush yourself.  A small number of well-crafted worlds is better than a large number of mediocre ones, in the long run.

Does the character you're making require animation, or are they just a static sprite?  Drawing a single sprite is a lot easier than a full-motion one.

I think the message issue may be caused by making a draft copy before you make a public one.  I'll fix it up in the next update.

I'm making some progress with the sidescrolling areas.  The system is a bit weird with regard to what it considers "legal" transitions, but it will be possible to make sidescrolling areas that transition into top-down ones, provided you don't mix the tile types too much.

[Kamani]

Yeah, this isn’t going to be done any time soon, and I am not going to rush it. If I made it badly, I might as well not make it at all.

Animated, sadly. Plus, since I can’t draw really at all, not sure how I’ll handle that. I guess I’ll just see what happens. It’ll probably be months till I reach that point anyways, so not a huge worry. Just something I need to plan in the long run.

Good. That message is just a bit... unnerving.

Cool. Don’t know how much I’ll use of that, but it is cool. Actually, that might work out for me in the planned desert dungeon, and that might be next up or second to next up.

Edit: So what is the default text size? Would be helpful to know.

Edit: Any suggestions for new Elend/Alend names? I'm still utterly terrible at names, and these two are pretty important. Admittedly, I guess nobody knows enough about them to think of anything that relevant. Ugh, I guess I'll just keep working at it.

[IndigoFenix]

Made a quick update to fix a loading issue.  The platforming is semi-complete, you should be able to play platforming sections all right as long as there are no enemies.  Targeting's still wonky.

Default text size is 16, although it looks a bit different on different browsers.  Going to have to fix that.  Though in the end it'll be an .exe anyway.

I can come up with names at random, but usually I like to pick names that reference something about the character in question.  My first thoughts were Hydragyre (an archaic name for mercury, i.e. quicksilver) and Frans (reference to Kafka, though as I recall now the character in the Metamorphosis was actually named Gregory).  (Plus a human with a fantastic name and a monster with a mundane name seemed to fit the concept as I understand it).

[Kamani]

Okay. Good.

Good. Now I know what to set it to when I want people to whisper (12 or 14, probably).

I do like the Kafka reference (The Metamorphosis was always too gloomy for me, what with the dying at the end and all, but I think the concept is pretty neat). I think I will use that one. Hydrargyre might work (possibly shortened to Gyre for daily use since Hydrargyre is long, and hydra is a word?), so I’ll use it. Now I can actually write dialogue again, since I think I have all the important characters who are going to be showing up in this world (or that will be mentioned) done, and I can put a bit less work into minor characters. Thank you for both names.

Edit: Hmm... what to call the item that holds all other items (and is used to go to the hub area of the project)...? Ugh, I really don't like names.