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Beta Update Available

The creation of our complete tutorial series, written with the help of Aggror, has had a really good effect because it gives us a specification saying "this is how to use Leadwerks". Instead of having different approaches and opinions scattered around, we can all discuss the user experience and be on the same page. This has led to improved user feedback, as we are able to more easily identify any small hangups or inefficiencies in the workflow. I'd especially like to thank the user Malachi fo

Josh

Josh

LED - LE pure 2d drawing library

Let's admit it, LE context drawing functions are essentially OK, but are very basic and very low-level. I wish something like LED library API would make a part of the official LE API one day.   Until then, here is LED: a lightweight (~350 lines of code) LUA 2d drawing library draft. It gives you out of the box entities - Text, Panel, Image and Animation - enriched with useful functions like SetPosition, SetScale, SetColor, Release and similar.   In order to use it grab Main.lua (for the exam

Lunarovich

Lunarovich

Small behavioral change

In the next beta update, the way entity fields work in the script properties will be a little different. Instead of dragging an object from the scene tree onto the field, you will type in the name of the object (or copy and paste the name from the object's name field). This is being done to make the behavior more intuitive. After working with both approaches, I find the new way much easier to use.     This does however mean that an object that is used in this manner must have a unique na

Josh

Josh

Vectronic: Demo Release!

Note: This is pretty much a copy and paste from this post here with a few tweaks. After 3 years of planning, modeling, texturing, and a lot of engine hopping, I was able to create a playable demo in the Leadwerks Engine for Windows and Linux (Debian/Ubuntu/Mint). You can download the demo from this page. A small demo was created not only to test the basic elements of the game in the new engine, but to also give back to those who have been supporting this project since I started talking a

reepblue

reepblue

What's Next

Here's what's next for Leadwerks Game Engine.   Game Launcher Leadwerks Game Launcher will be released in early preview mode when 50 games are reached. Right now we have 13. Filling the content up is a high priority, and the Summer Game Tournament will bring us closer to that goal.   I am mentioning this first because I want to emphasize that the number of games posted is my measure of how well I'm doing. Every action should be considered in terms of how it helps you guys publish more ga

Josh

Josh

Leadwerks Game Engine 3.5 Now Available

Leadwerks Game Engine 3.5 is now available on Steam. Along with version 3.5, we're rolling out a new tutorials to teach you everything you need to make games. A step-by-step series of lessons teaches how to use the editor, write Lua scripts, and create gameplay. No preexisting knowledge is required. Read the new material here.   A new project templates system has been added. This provides different game types you can choose from to create a basic playable game in a few seconds. We're lau

Admin

Admin

The great big beta update

The beta branch on Steam has received an update with some important changes. A new project template called "Tutorial Samples" has been added, which includes the files you need to complete the new tutorials found here. A new script, Main.lua, has been introduced to take over the main entry point of your program. As explained in detail here, this will have no effect on your existing projects. The screenshot publish feature is fixed. Flowgraph arguments no longer require the EnableLegac

Josh

Josh

Some backwards-compatible changes to the main script

The design of the App table in Lua was originally created to work with mobile, which has a more restricted program flow. The application calls App:Start() once to initialize it, and then will continually call App:Loop() until the function returns false. These two functions are found in the file "Scripts\App.lua".   Since we are focused on the PC now, it does not make sense to keep this structure. It also makes it more confusing to teach scripting. A conventional program layout with one mai

Josh

Josh

SteamUGC Upgrade Complete

A new update is now available on the beta branch. This completes our migration to the newer SteamUGC system for Workshop content. Downloads should be working reliably now, but please let me know if you experience any trouble.   Steam protocol calls are now supported on Linux. Most notably, the Steam interface will open the Workshop now, instead of it opening in a web page.   An extra color option for the perspective viewport has been added, as well as several new color schemes. Select th

Josh

Josh

Polishing games

Game polishing is one of the most important factors to grab someone's attention. It also makes the gameplay feel smoother and generally makes the game look more done. But how do we do it? Here are 5 ways to add polishing into your game: Lerping Lerping is a term to make transitions smoother. This is commonly used in animations, where you linearly interpolate one frame into another. Animations and transitions will stop looking 'choppy' and will actually blend into the smooth gameplay.  

f13rce

f13rce

Game Launcher and SteamUGC

I'm working to move our Workshop implementation over to the newer SteamUGC API. There were recently some things updated, and that is still being sorted out. I'm also finishing up the game player.   The first incarnation of Leadwerks Game Launcher was pretty utilitarian (and ugly):   I realized this was pretty drab for a product aimed at consumers, so I designed a more outlandish colorful interface that was purely web-based:   This one looks nice, but you can tell it will start to fee

Josh

Josh

The Happenings

The Steamworks SDK has been updated with some new functionality I need to transition Leadwerks Workshop to the SteamUGC system. This will result in unlimited file sizes, more reliable downloads, and other new features. However, the documentation isn't updated yet, so I am going to wait for that before moving forward, and focus on non-coding things this week. Once the Workshop edits are finished and tested, Leadwerks 3.5 will be released.   At the same time, Jorn and I are working on the new

Josh

Josh

Dead Anyway Dev Diary #2

Recently we made the choice to use Trello to map out our current workflow. We are using a loose implementation of Agile with a backlog of the tasks we need to complete. We have 2 week sprints in which we aim for a certain amount of task points in each sprint to complete.   We have found this system works quite well given the fact that we work on this part time for now and this also gives us good flexibility as to what jobs we feel we need to do in the sprint.   We invite you to browse the De

tjheldna

tjheldna

Beta Update Available

A new update is available on the beta branch. A few months ago, Valve introduced the SteamUGC API to Steamworks SDK. This replaces the original RemoteStorage API, and allows unlimited file sizes and a simpler command set. I also suspect the internals in the Steam client and servers are more reliable, because it is a second-iteration design. The beta build can download Workshop items published with the old legacy API, or with the new one. However, Workshop items published with the beta build

Josh

Josh

3.5 release candidate available

An update is available which is a release candidate for version 3.5. Version 3.5 adds carve and hollow CSG operations, an improved project template system, and customizable filters for scene objects. In this update I reverted the group selection behavior to the same way it works in 3.4, and decided to hold off on adding an extra grouping feature. I expect a lot of new users soon, so stability is my most important goal.   The summer games tournament is coming soon! We had a really great tur

Josh

Josh

Using Visual Studio Code with Leadwerks

Microsoft has released a cross-platform code editor called "Visual Studio Code". It's just a lightweight text editor like Notepad++. You can get it here for Windows, Linux, and Mac.   Although the editor is focused on web development it actually does support Lua syntax highlighting. If you are curious to try to use it with Leadwerks, add this text to your launch.json file: { "version": "0.1.0", // List of configurations. Add new configurations or edit existing ones. // ONLY "n

Josh

Josh

Game Launcher taking shape

Aesthetics are important in a consumer-facing product like this. Your games should have the best possible presentation to the end user. With that in mind, I've revised the Game Launcher interface to be more content-focused. The same interface will be available on our site, and launching a game works exactly the same either way.   The program log has been hidden away since it is a "developer" thing most users don't need to mess with. It can be brought up by pressing F10.  

Josh

Josh

My Introduction Entry (Part 1: History)

Hi,   I've been reading and posting here and there on the forums for quite some time now, and being that my current project is taking shape, I think it's time that I introduce myself, and in the next post, I'll share some goals of my project.   Quick Bio:   As a Kid, I've had an interest in game development with my hundreds of hours I put into RPGMaker 2000/XP. At that time, I was mostly inspired by The Legend of Zelda series and other top down games that could be made in the program.  

reepblue

reepblue

Goals, motivators and progression

Felt like writing another blog... So here we go!     Goals, motivators and progression are crucial in order to keep your player playing for a decent amount of time. Goals are usually represented with objectives or progression, engaging the player into the game and let them have a reason to keep playing.   Like I talked about in the previous blog post, progression matters a lot when it comes to engagement. It gives the player a sense of achievement which keeps the player motivated to

f13rce

f13rce

Which way? Thata way, no thata away! Waypoints.

As a side project I have been working on a Top Down Game Template so you can make games similiar to Shadowgrounds, Diablo etc.     I have been working with waypoint navigation as the video shows. In the video example I have put two crawlers in to the scene and gave them the same script. I give them a different waypoint controller target. This waypoint controller then takes care of its selected target. The waypoint controller has 4 pivots as targets placed around the map for the targe

josk

josk

What's in a quest?

"To give you an idea of the character interaction, this special feature will highlight a few parts of a minor subquest. [...] All of you who’ve played a role-playing game are familiar with the standard retrieve item-receive reward type of quest. There’s nothing wrong with those, and as a matter of fact, they are very useful for introducing a player into a universe. Unfortunately, typically those quests are implemented as “Hi how are you – if you get me this sword, I’ll give you 500 coins”, an

Slastraf

Slastraf

What's inside the screen?

Only rare 3D map and character moving (for now) Maybe I have started this blog too soon, but I want to share my ideas . (also I am a bit bored ) If you want to build something similar like this in your game, please do that .   Whats inside the Screen (items with "+" are currently not in the game):   The screen itself: The resolution can be changed in the options menu, There is a very smooth vintage and contrast shader to make it look better. Appearently it has a very good look now. htt

Slastraf

Slastraf

Coding improvements.

Inspired by the other blogs I thought I would write another one myself.   I have been working on Lockdown, a scifi old school dungeon crawl. As usual real life gets in the way but I have made some good progress lately. I hope to have a demo out soon.     As I have been adding to the game I have been improving my code skills so have gone back and tidied up some bits of code. I have also realised I could do with starting from scratch. I dont use the FPS template for movement and I know my c

josk

josk

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