Lemma Soft Forums

Hey everybody!

This post isn't about Ren'Py, but since everybody here is a fan of IF and visual novels (I hope), I was hoping to get your feedback anyway.

I've been working on a new IF engine and authoring system for a little while now, and before I get any further into it I wanted to get a few opinions from more experienced game creators around the community. Although I love visual novels and IF, I'm pretty new to the scene, so some help from folks like you would be greatly appreciated.

Although it's still in beta, my system is fully usable at this point. You can find it here: http://projectpd.blogspot.com/ (my dev blog). I've also got a short sample game on there as well, if you want to see it in action. I hope using everything is pretty straightforward, but if you run into any problems don't hesitate to ask me.

Here's the basics:
- Web based builder and game engine (player), written in Adobe Flex (run via Flash).
- Local game files and save games.
- All GUI (although I plan to introduce a scripting system at some point).
- Character and environment graphics.
- A deep conversation system (it works a lot like Neverwinter Nights).

This is a hobby project for me that I've been working on in my spare time by myself, so it's a very small-scale operation. But if somebody uses it and thinks it's cool, or even feels like giving me some feedback, then it's served it's purpose

Are there keyboard short cuts? When I am writing/coding I don't like having to switch from keyboard to mouse. I really like things that can import plain text because then I can write wherever I am and import it later.

Susan

_________________
In order to understand recursion, one must first understand recursion. (Anonymous)

Just the basics so far (copying, pasting, select all, etc.).

What kind of keyboard shortcuts would you like to see? I'm definitely going to add a save hotkey, but are there any others that would make it easier? Cycling windows, or things like that maybe?

I'm very open to adding any other new features, even big ones. I've got the basics together, but I'd really like to hear what other people would like see in an editor that I haven't even considered. You mentioned being able to work externally, then import text. What would be the smoothest possible experience for that process?

This sounds like it's going to be an interesting project. I'm not so keen on it being web based though since my internet is wonky and will refresh all of the pages I have open whenever one page stops working (which happens a lot for some reason!). Since games are played by 'uploading' them will we be able to script offline in the future, or are both the gui scripting going to be online only?

Actually, you don't need to be online at all, since the builder and player are self-contained Flash applications. You can download the .swf files and run them offline just as easily! Just right-click the link to the player or builder (Player and Builder) and do a "save-as", then open the .swf with the browser of your choice.

I do have some far-off plans for a deeper web integration (like a cloud-based save/load system and game hosting), but for now everything works just as well offline as online. I also would like to create an Air application (Adobe's system for making true desktop apps from online Flex ones) at some point for a real offline system. Do you think that should be a high priority?

Ahh, I didn't even realize you could do that! Thanks!

Also I think it would be nice to have an Air application for it since it would be more appealing to be able to play the game on your desktop, but I don't know if you have to make it a high priority. Getting features implemented and polished should be top priority (I'm sure it is!) but I guess you could just make sure that while you're adding new things you're making sure it won't be too tricky to convert into an Air application.
(I have no idea if it is hard or not since I've never used the program.)

Basic:
Have tab key go to the next sensible step
example title -> body -> submit

More advanced:
Anything that is a button has a keyboard short cut.
Anything that is a menu item is a short cut.
Example: ctrl+insert for new Area

Text:
I don't know how you are storing your data. If it is XML, then we are laughing!

Twee (The format used by twine) is the most basic I've come across:


But it is designed to be all text.

Susan

_________________
In order to understand recursion, one must first understand recursion. (Anonymous)

There is limited tabbing (it's all default behavior), but it would definitely be nice for it to be uniform. I'll add to it to my to-do list.

Other hotkeys are doable, but since everything runs in the browser it makes it a little trickier to do standard ones like ctrl+s. I'll look into how to make it work with Flex.

Data is actually stored in serialized actionscript objects, since that produced the fastest saving and loading out of the different formats I tried. However, that doesn't stop me from writing custom exporters or importers for other data formats. I don't know if my game model is 100% compatible with Twee/Twine, but I could probably do a 1:1 conversion in smaller chunks, if that's something that would be valuable.

I wouldn't try to make it compatible. Even coming up with a basic syntax that is compatible with your system. It is just nice to be able to do the bulk of your writing in a text editor.

I'll keep an eye on your project.

Susan

_________________
In order to understand recursion, one must first understand recursion. (Anonymous)