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[IndigoFenix]

Another small update:

I added composite operations for graphical objects, colors and flashes.  You can pretty much ignore them for the most part, but they can potentially make some nice special effects if you know what you're doing.  You can find a guide to what they mean here.

[IndigoFenix]

Update!

You can now save a private draft of your world without overwriting the published version.  This will make it easier to make edits without messing up visitors.  Note that when using the "Explore" option, you will be exploring the public version - the World Editor will open the private draft instead.

I've cleaned up some duplicate credits, and added a search option for assigning credits to media files, making it easier when uploading multiple files by the same artist.  When assigning a website to an artist, use their main "personal" website or the place they generally put their work.  I've also added a field to the media file itself to link to the original source page.

I'm also planning to add a system to packages that automatically accumulates editors of an object, if that object was copied from a different user's package.  The automatic credit reel is close to being ready - the plan is to automatically sort all contributors under their main contribution or contributions (sprite graphics, background graphics, tile graphics, sound, music, object programming, and world design).  It will make your world look like a proper game with a whole team of contributors

I've organized the event list better, and added a few new options - setting the camera to follow a sprite (you can make an invisible "camera control" sprite if you like) and also a "Shift" option which is basically a teleport but also moves variables related to that sprite - its origin point, jump destinations, and damage text.  It won't be used much, but with some clever scripting you can use it to create the illusion of infinitely-scrolling areas.

As an example, I created a new world, the Cursed Forest.  It's basically an endless monster hunt where you can only escape by collecting 256 sparks and defeating a boss (rather difficult, I'd suggest getting some healing potions at the Protea shop first, but if you survive it's a great place for grinding sparks).  I'll probably use it to showcase more monsters and other random objects as I make them.

I've also added a new package with a Chest and Mimic sprite.  Chests can contain a user-selected number of sparks, and if you place objects on top of them in the world editor they will "store" those objects inside them to be released when the player opens the chest.  (In reality, they transform all objects on the same tile as themselves into an invisible "contained object" sprite when created, then change them back when you open the chest.)  Oh, and also you can choose to make them Mimics that attack the player when opened.

I'm going to make a method of selecting an individual sprite's inventory (right now it only works on classes) which will be nice for both chests and shopkeepers.

[Kamani]

Cool! I’ll have to try that all out once I get less busy.

[IndigoFenix]

Automatic credit for packaged objects is now implemented.  When you create a package-able object (classes, tilesets, and items) your ID is stored in that object's data.  If someone else claims or copies the object into their world and makes edits to it, your ID is retained in the copy and theirs is added to it.  Every time an object is copied and edited by someone new, their ID is added to the "credits list" of that object; in this way anyone who contributes to building an object will appear in the credits of worlds that use that object, and multiple builders can make "collaborative" objects this way, by copying and editing objects.

Unfortunately this will not automatically apply to objects copied before this system was implemented, so you will need to "claim" existing packaged objects as your own by editing them.  Just adding and deleting a letter to the object's name will be enough for the game to consider it "edited" and add your ID to the list of contributors.

The backend of the credits system is pretty much finished; now all I need to do is make a system for ordering and displaying them.

Also I fixed an obscure but possibly serious logic error that was probably the cause of the rare "room deleted for no reason" bug.

[Kamani]

Oh, I better claim my objects when I get the time. Admittedly, I don’t think I have made anything too special, so I suppose it isn’t a huge issue.

Oh, thinking about it, the tiles were pretty special. Although hoptiles won’t receive that... Well, whatever. They weren’t too difficult to make in the long run. Most important thing about them is probably how they taught me to use each loops and the rest of what I learned in making them.

[Imic]

I'm doing too much work right now, but I intend to do somthing soon.

[IndigoFenix]

Made some minor bugfixes and general UI improvement.  Tags now work for images and sounds.

I've found out how to build BW into a stand-alone .exe file, and I'm putting together a plan for how I want to monetize it.  Are any games out there with a system for paying content creators?

First I'm going to have to make at least one world that is good enough to sell as a game in its own right.

Of course, anyone who makes decent content in the meantime will get it for free.

[Imic]

Put an outline around the game screen, and put advert on said outline.
I know not all people like ads... At all... But it's a possible idea, ans the best i can come up with on the spot.

Over the next year, once summer comes around, I hope to possibly work on a project in this, since I'm going to have metric tons of free time over the year.

[IndigoFenix]

I thought of ads, but I'd rather do something a bit more creative, and relevant to the philosophy of the game (and my own economic philosophy, which is basically "money is a symbol for one's degree of effort and talent being used to benefit others").

My original idea was to publish the game for free, and have a premium version which is almost the same except that it would include an API event allowing world builders to communicate with programs running on their own sites.  This would allow them to do things like reward players in their world for visiting their site, purchasing items on their site, or pretty much anything.  It would even allow them to make multiplayer areas.  The problem is that they would have to be a programmer to make use of the feature.

Another possibility is to publish the game for a small price (5-10$) and funnel a percentage of total revenue back toward content creators.  That would be the ideal system (people pay to enjoy an endlessly growing game, and get paid for helping to facilitate said endless growth), the issue with that is working out the logistics of such a system and the likelihood of it being exploited.  It's hard to make an automatic system to judge the artistic quality of a world.

Publishing it for a small price regardless could also attract more players early on by offering free copies.  People don't pay attention to a permanently free game, but they might show interest in a limited-time offer.  But I want to have an actual game before I start asking people for money.  Every time I sit down to build a proper world I just wind up adding more features to the world builder...

I can just cheat and make a roguelike world.  Programming is my specialty, so a roguelike would be the easiest way to make a full-length game.

At any rate, I'm making some little touch-ups, general quality-of-life updates like making buttons look nicer, fixing up some little issues with clicking on stuff, the polish that makes it look more professional.  Polish is also one of my weak points, I suppose.  Oh, I also fixed up sprite color composite operations for easy and nice-looking palette swaps.  I made the default colorization option "hue" which basically colorizes the sprite while looking natural.

[Kamani]

Well, if it does end up costing money, I’d be happy to pay 10$ for it. Honestly, I’d be fine paying 10$ now, since I know it will keep expanding.

Also, I am going to be back to work in 6 days, once I am (finally) done with finals week. Bright side: worst final is tomorrow, so once it is done, it’ll be downhill from there. Also, I think I have the concepts for 3 of the other dungeons in this project, so I’m feeling cheery about that.

[Imic]

I'm mostly doing worldbuilding, since I haven't actually sat down in front of my computer for a long time. I'm too busy.

[Imic]

Is it possible to make a smaller tile selection? Most tilesets are a specific size, but is it possible to go smaller than the surrently used version?

[IndigoFenix]

Tilesets must be 32x32 - being able to change their size would make it much more difficult to create objects that could be used in any world.  There might be an option later to expand or shrink the graphics page itself, but right now tileset graphics must be 32x32 as well.

[Imic]

Rightio.

[Kamani]

Fought the boss in the forest (getting there is pretty easy, just ignore the enemies and grab the chests), two notes.
A. Game gets laggy after a while (so many trees on screen at once).
B. The boss has a lot of life, and, since it basically just summons hoards upon hoards of minions, it is exceptionally deadly.

Edit: Note the third:
C. Run around in circles when you fight the boss around the map, since it gets rid of enemies.

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