Vorge - 2D HTML5/JS Engine & Editing Suite

[Mammoth]

Hey everyone, I recently (within the past couple of weeks), started on a new project of mine. Most HTML5 game engines are fine and all, but they lack the editing tools that make it accessible to non-programmers. I used to love how simple RPG Maker was, and how simple it was for it to become a leisurely hobby -- not a lot of technical expertise required.

Anyways, The project I recently started is to create an HTML5 game engine that has all of those tools that we know and love from RM. It's not very far yet, but the progress is definitely noticeable.

I really want you guys to throw out suggestions and feature requests. I'm early enough to start compiling a list without throwing me off balance. I have plenty of ideas floating around, but I think it will take a community to help me narrow it down, and start down the right paths.

Anyways, here's a recent screenshot of the editor (the map editor, it's the first thing you'll see upon loading up Vorge, just like in RPG Maker):

So far, it has 4 layers, and then the event layer. That's 1 more tile layer than RPG Maker XP! The maps save out to JSON, and it looks beautiful. I'll post a pastebin to a JSON map later. It's pretty cool, lol.

Anyways, feedback me, please!

 

[Xilef]

So you plan on making a full game engine with Javascript and HTML5?

Any information other than map editor stuff?

 

[Mammoth]

So you plan on making a full game engine with Javascript and HTML5?

Yup, that's the plan, & so far-so good!

There's no other information on it yet, but as I said, I have plenty of plans. This thread isn't so much of an announcement as it is sort of gaining ideas and feedback from a community. I want to make sure that the feature-set is good, and full enough to actually attract a user base.

 

[Stardust]

I don't have much feedback at the moment, but I wanted to say that this is really awesome if you get it to a fully functional state! :D I'd be interested to see how it can handle events since that's probably the most important part of the game makers. The fourth layer for mapping is very awesome!

 

[Ellie]

Good luck with this. I think my main suggestion is to let us edit *everything* as far as possible, as rpg maker has too many silly background limitations that confine what we're able to make with it.

 

[Mammoth]

Good luck with this. I think my main suggestion is to let us edit *everything* as far as possible, as rpg maker has too many silly background limitations that confine what we're able to make with it.

You mean like the grid/tile size and all of that? The grid size is already adjustable to whatever number you'd want
Let me know what other limitations you don't like, and I'll make sure to add them to my list of things not to do, lol.

Anyways, here's more progress! I've been working on the eventing system, although it's still not very far:
https://hostr.co/file/301rmvxSryTj/vorg ... enshot.png

Don't be intimidated by the code editor! Although you will be allowed to type code directly in, it will be like in RM, where a popup will contain button options, and it will generate the code for you, then place it in the editor.

Some other things I've done: made click+drag tile painting work, worked a bit more on the JSON output, and started autotiles:

That's right, autotiles--whoo! Except it's difficult... lol. I've had to pause autotiles for now, and revisit it later. The logic for them is long, and complicated, and I'm a bit stuck on it right now, but it's still a planned feature (using the XP layout, not VX).

Also, I'll just throw this out there; this is the early-dev blog for Vorge: http://vorge.nickdugger.com/

 

[Stardust]

Anyways, here's more progress! I've been working on the eventing system, although it's still not very far:
https://hostr.co/file/301rmvxSryTj/vorg ... enshot.png

Don't be intimidated by the code editor! Although you will be allowed to type code directly in, it will be like in RM, where a popup will contain button options, and it will generate the code for you, then place it in the editor.

I actually really like how this looks! It's a more direct view of the code, but I find that easier to read. Maybe that's just me, though.

 

[Ellie]

Being able to edit the actual code of events there and then is great, feels more like you're making a game rather than editing one.

 

[Mammoth]

Here's a quick 5 minute "vlog" I created for Vorge. It basically just touches base on what everyone already knows, but now you actually get to see it in action! http://www.screenr.com/wu7N

 

[Stardust]

That video was awesome! :D It's also amazing how I never have a clue what people sound like until I watch a video of theirs. It was nice seeing it in action and I can't even begin to tell you how much I <3 the F.O.V. option! I look forward to seeing where this goes because it has a ton of potential and you seem very capable of making it happen and you seem enthusiastic about it, which is probably the most important aspect.

 

[Mammoth]

There was some more progress, until I decided that I needed to essentially rewrite it. A lot of the code is recyclable, but I still had a mistaken understanding of Node.js (which is the back-end for the editing suit), so I'm taking a little while to understand how to get it behaving how I want it to with AJAX requests, then I can finally save files. I basically got to a point where I needed to start figuring out how to save maps, events, etc, and I had apparently set up/structured my Node.js project wrong.

So, that's where I'm at. Not a very big setback, it will just take me a couple of days to get back on track.

 

[Mammoth]

Alright, time for another screencast! http://www.screenr.com/xnHN

I am finally back on track, and this time saving files all works, beautifully! The interface colours and icons are all temporary, though, so don't worry that it looks ugly.

 

[coyotecraft]

Animated tiles?
I've tried making a fire autotile in the past for rpg maker. But it never looked right because you can't control the frame rate.

 

[Mammoth]

Yeah, I plan on having animated tiles, and autotiles (though, the logic for autotiles is confusing right now, lol).

Anyways, here's an updated screeny! Now, the eventing system actually does generate code for you, though I've only done 2 options so far: dialogue (text), and choices. All-in-all, it's gone better than expected so far.


https://hostr.co/file/rOmHHY4385io/vorg ... enshot.png

I'm planning on doing another screencast on Tuesday, but this time on Youtube, since the screenr 5 minute limit is becoming a problem.

 

[Mammoth]

New video, showing off the new interface, and now you get to see the editor actually generating the code!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5D2-uF1JRn8

 

[Ellie]

Autotiles are confusing in general. I think maybe a better solution might be to allow people to switch between tile sizes, so they can draw just the corner of a tile, etc, but that might get even more complicated. They're probably not too necessary, outside of animated tiles.

 

[Mammoth]

Well, I understand how to grab parts of the autotiles, so no issue there. The complicated part is detecting if a neighbouring tile is also an autotile, then redrawing them appropriately. Lots of If/else, just to check a simple thing.