Since my last development update, I've made a few improvements/changes relating to dialogue boxes. Firstly, I adjusted the default appearance of the dialogue boxes to be a bit more simplistic. The default style is now more rounded and vibrant compared to the original. Of course, with the new dialogue box image editor you are free to change the style to best suit your game!



As you may have noticed in the screenshot above, I also made a change to show the speaker's name within the main dialogue box instead of within its own. I'll eventually provide some more customization around this aspect, but for now I believe this is the cleanest approach and works well as the default. To go along with this change, I also added an option to modify the color used for a character's name. In the Voxel Editor, when editing a character you can now select a "Name Color" to use when that character is speaking during a dialogue.



Another new feature that I have added this past week is language selection. If you imported translations for multiple languages into your game, there will now be a "Language" setting shown on the in-game options screen. As demonstrated in the video below, this setting will allow you to switch between the translations that are available. Similar to the other settings, this will be saved in the user's settings file.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAxAp4vNho4
I have also started maintaining a spreadsheet of built-in text for which there will need to be translations. These values will be combined with your own imported translations, so you will have the option of overriding these built-in text values or providing values for additional languages that do not happen to be supported yet. There's still a lot of work to do around localization (in particular for the editor itself), but I think I have completed some good groundwork up to this point.



Lastly, another cool feature I have been working on is the addition of positional sound support! Previously, all sound effects would be played at the same volume regardless of where the player was currently located. I made some changes to this so that now any sound effects that are attached to model animations (for example, a door opening) are now played spatially from the location of that entity. The video below is a good example of this feature in action. As I approach the slimes, their jumping sounds begin to get louder. I am still tweaking some distance parameters, but I think this will open up some interesting options for your game!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWi3tCDKgNY
Thanks so much for reading and for the continued support! :)

Since my last development update, I've made a few improvements/changes relating to dialogue boxes. Firstly, I adjusted the default appearance of the dialogue boxes to be a bit more simplistic. The default style is now more rounded and vibrant compared to the original. Of course, with the new dialogue box image editor you are free to change the style to best suit your game!



As you may have noticed in the screenshot above, I also made a change to show the speaker's name within the main dialogue box instead of within its own. I'll eventually provide some more customization around this aspect, but for now I believe this is the cleanest approach and works well as the default. To go along with this change, I also added an option to modify the color used for a character's name. In the Voxel Editor, when editing a character you can now select a "Name Color" to use when that character is speaking during a dialogue.



Another new feature that I have added this past week is language selection. If you imported translations for multiple languages into your game, there will now be a "Language" setting shown on the in-game options screen. As demonstrated in the video below, this setting will allow you to switch between the translations that are available. Similar to the other settings, this will be saved in the user's settings file.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAxAp4vNho4
I have also started maintaining a spreadsheet of built-in text for which there will need to be translations. These values will be combined with your own imported translations, so you will have the option of overriding these built-in text values or providing values for additional languages that do not happen to be supported yet. There's still a lot of work to do around localization (in particular for the editor itself), but I think I have completed some good groundwork up to this point.



Lastly, another cool feature I have been working on is the addition of positional sound support! Previously, all sound effects would be played at the same volume regardless of where the player was currently located. I made some changes to this so that now any sound effects that are attached to model animations (for example, a door opening) are now played spatially from the location of that entity. The video below is a good example of this feature in action. As I approach the slimes, their jumping sounds begin to get louder. I am still tweaking some distance parameters, but I think this will open up some interesting options for your game!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWi3tCDKgNY
Thanks so much for reading and for the continued support! :)

One of the primary areas I have been focusing on recently is around customization of the dialogue box appearance. I've been adding some new options and features to the UI Theme Editor that allow you to design unique dialogue box styles that best suit your game. It's still a work in progress, but check out a few of the many styles that you can create with the available options!



Using the new file dropping functionality, you can drop a TrueType font file into the application which can then be selected from the Properties panel while editing your theme. Previously, in regards to the dialogue box itself, you could only change the colors of the box. With the new image editor, you can now draw a custom image for the box as desired (including transparency).



Some of the currently available customization options include font, font size, and font color, window width, and vertical line spacing. As shown below, these tweaks can make a big difference in the overall appearance of the dialogue box.





I decided it would be beneficial to put some effort into features like this earlier on. I'd like to enable people to create more unique styles and to not be stuck with one default dialogue box style. My goal is to include a lot of flexibility and customization like this, while still providing built-in options for those who aren't interested in modifying aspects like the UI.

Here's a great example showing how simple it will be to change the dialogue box appearance to something quite different from the default style!



One other small update worth mentioning is the addition of a new scripting function, "Move Character". This function will move an NPC to a specific target tile as shown in the GIF below. This works similarly to the existing "Move Player" function, and should be useful for cutscenes where you would need NPCs, for example, to move to a different room or over to a particular object.



And lastly, just for fun, a voxel Sonic the Hedgehog that I created recently. :)

Thanks so much for reading and for the support!

One of the primary areas I have been focusing on recently is around customization of the dialogue box appearance. I've been adding some new options and features to the UI Theme Editor that allow you to design unique dialogue box styles that best suit your game. It's still a work in progress, but check out a few of the many styles that you can create with the available options!



Using the new file dropping functionality, you can drop a TrueType font file into the application which can then be selected from the Properties panel while editing your theme. Previously, in regards to the dialogue box itself, you could only change the colors of the box. With the new image editor, you can now draw a custom image for the box as desired (including transparency).



Some of the currently available customization options include font, font size, and font color, window width, and vertical line spacing. As shown below, these tweaks can make a big difference in the overall appearance of the dialogue box.





I decided it would be beneficial to put some effort into features like this earlier on. I'd like to enable people to create more unique styles and to not be stuck with one default dialogue box style. My goal is to include a lot of flexibility and customization like this, while still providing built-in options for those who aren't interested in modifying aspects like the UI.

Here's a great example showing how simple it will be to change the dialogue box appearance to something quite different from the default style!



One other small update worth mentioning is the addition of a new scripting function, "Move Character". This function will move an NPC to a specific target tile as shown in the GIF below. This works similarly to the existing "Move Player" function, and should be useful for cutscenes where you would need NPCs, for example, to move to a different room or over to a particular object.



And lastly, just for fun, a voxel Sonic the Hedgehog that I created recently. :)

Thanks so much for reading and for the support!

Hi everyone! I thought it would be a good time to provide another development update since it's been close to two weeks and I have some new features and improvements to share. This includes item tooltips, menu updates, and some various editor enhancements.

One of the new features that I am most excited about is the implementation of item tooltips! There will finally be a use for item names and descriptions that have been specified in the Item Editor. When hovering over an item in your inventory or in a container, a tooltip is now displayed with the item's name and its description if available.



One type of customization was added to the Main Menu, in particular the hover color for the menu items. Within the UI Editor for the Main Menu, a color picker located in the Properties panel will let you select the color to which the menu items will change when hovered over.



I also implemented some very basic Save Game functionality. You can save your game from the Pause Menu, then continue your last save from the Main Menu the next time the game is started. Currently only the player's location and inventory are saved so there's a lot more work to be done around this. It's a start, though!



Another new feature that I have been working on recently is the ability to drag and drop external resources into the application from your system's file manager/explorer. The currently supported file types are images (.png, .jpg/jpeg), fonts (.ttf), sounds (.wav), and music (.ogg). The functionality is equivalent to using the "Import Resources" tool located on the main toolbar.



As detailed in the previous development update, you can now save camera positions in the Map Editor for various purposes. You can now also use these camera positions with the "Move Camera" functions. When editing one of these functions in the Script Editor, there will be radio buttons to select between "Coordinate" and "Camera Position". By selecting the latter, a field will become available to enter the name of the camera position. Camera positions should make camera scripting less tedious, especially when you need fine-tuned positions for cut-scenes.



About a week or so ago, I took some time to bring the Example Game up to date to better demonstrate the currently capabilities of the engine. I thought it would be a cool idea to also provide a First-Person version of the example game so it can be experienced in different camera modes.

Check out the RPG in a Box Example Game at Itch.io: https://zeromatrix.itch.io/rpginabox-examplegame

If you have already installed it via the Itch desktop application and you want to try out the First-Person version, you can simply uninstall it then install it again and it should prompt you for which version to install.



And lastly (although not really related to development), I thought it would be cool to share a neat tool that I came across called IsoVoxel. It converts .vox files into isometric pixel art! It can be download from GitHub here: https://github.com/tommyettinger/IsoVoxel. Just for fun, I used some of my RPG in a Box example assets to try it out and it works surprisingly well!



That's all I have this time around. Thanks for reading! :)

Hi everyone! I thought it would be a good time to provide another development update since it's been close to two weeks and I have some new features and improvements to share. This includes item tooltips, menu updates, and some various editor enhancements.

One of the new features that I am most excited about is the implementation of item tooltips! There will finally be a use for item names and descriptions that have been specified in the Item Editor. When hovering over an item in your inventory or in a container, a tooltip is now displayed with the item's name and its description if available.



One type of customization was added to the Main Menu, in particular the hover color for the menu items. Within the UI Editor for the Main Menu, a color picker located in the Properties panel will let you select the color to which the menu items will change when hovered over.



I also implemented some very basic Save Game functionality. You can save your game from the Pause Menu, then continue your last save from the Main Menu the next time the game is started. Currently only the player's location and inventory are saved so there's a lot more work to be done around this. It's a start, though!



Another new feature that I have been working on recently is the ability to drag and drop external resources into the application from your system's file manager/explorer. The currently supported file types are images (.png, .jpg/jpeg), fonts (.ttf), sounds (.wav), and music (.ogg). The functionality is equivalent to using the "Import Resources" tool located on the main toolbar.



As detailed in the previous development update, you can now save camera positions in the Map Editor for various purposes. You can now also use these camera positions with the "Move Camera" functions. When editing one of these functions in the Script Editor, there will be radio buttons to select between "Coordinate" and "Camera Position". By selecting the latter, a field will become available to enter the name of the camera position. Camera positions should make camera scripting less tedious, especially when you need fine-tuned positions for cut-scenes.



About a week or so ago, I took some time to bring the Example Game up to date to better demonstrate the currently capabilities of the engine. I thought it would be a cool idea to also provide a First-Person version of the example game so it can be experienced in different camera modes.

Check out the RPG in a Box Example Game at Itch.io: https://zeromatrix.itch.io/rpginabox-examplegame

If you have already installed it via the Itch desktop application and you want to try out the First-Person version, you can simply uninstall it then install it again and it should prompt you for which version to install.



And lastly (although not really related to development), I thought it would be cool to share a neat tool that I came across called IsoVoxel. It converts .vox files into isometric pixel art! It can be download from GitHub here: https://github.com/tommyettinger/IsoVoxel. Just for fun, I used some of my RPG in a Box example assets to try it out and it works surprisingly well!



That's all I have this time around. Thanks for reading! :)

One of the main new features that I have been focusing on lately is the Main Menu functionality. As seen below, it's very similar to the Pause Menu at this point, except with your game title being displayed at the top in a larger font.

Also, as with the Pause Menu, the Main Menu can be enabled/disabled from the Game Configuration dialog. When disabled, your game will launch the startup script right away instead of first displaying the Main Menu (as it had previously behaved). When enabled, clicking the "Start" button on the menu will launch the startup script.



To accompany the new Main Menu functionality, there is a new "Main Menu" tab within the UI Editor. This editor will give you a static preview of the menu's appearance. The Properties panel to the left provides options for designating the menu's background. Currently you can select between a solid color background or a 3D view of one of your maps. When using a map as a background, you can choose from a saved camera position. Camera positions are discussed a bit later on in this post. In a future release, you will also have the option of using an image for the menu background.





In regards to the Pause Menu, I've added a "Back" button with an arrow that animates while hovering over the button. It's surprising how much of a difference something like a small animated arrow can make! My plan is to try to add more "juice" like this to everything as it definitely can make the experience much more interesting. :)



The "Free Camera" mode is a feature that I recently added to the Map Editor and can be toggled on and off from the toolbar. When enabled, the camera can be flown around the map freely as shown in the GIF below. This should make editing your maps easier as it will allow you to move closer in to work on harder to reach locations.



Another Map Editor feature that relates to the free camera mode is the ability to save camera positions. These camera positions will have multiple uses, such as for your Main Menu background, scripting camera movements, or even simply as bookmarked/favorite positions for quickly navigating to different areas of a map while editing in the Map Editor. These saved positions will appear grouped together on the Properties panel under "Camera Positions".



Lastly, for anyone interested, I've updated the main website for RPG in a Box to include my Twitter feed in the sidebar. This will give better visibility into my activity since these larger cumulative updates are less frequent. And of course, you can always follow me on Twitter for frequent updates! I typically try to post at least a few times each week with screenshots or GIFs of what I am currently working on.

Thanks for reading!

One of the main new features that I have been focusing on lately is the Main Menu functionality. As seen below, it's very similar to the Pause Menu at this point, except with your game title being displayed at the top in a larger font.

Also, as with the Pause Menu, the Main Menu can be enabled/disabled from the Game Configuration dialog. When disabled, your game will launch the startup script right away instead of first displaying the Main Menu (as it had previously behaved). When enabled, clicking the "Start" button on the menu will launch the startup script.



To accompany the new Main Menu functionality, there is a new "Main Menu" tab within the UI Editor. This editor will give you a static preview of the menu's appearance. The Properties panel to the left provides options for designating the menu's background. Currently you can select between a solid color background or a 3D view of one of your maps. When using a map as a background, you can choose from a saved camera position. Camera positions are discussed a bit later on in this post. In a future release, you will also have the option of using an image for the menu background.





In regards to the Pause Menu, I've added a "Back" button with an arrow that animates while hovering over the button. It's surprising how much of a difference something like a small animated arrow can make! My plan is to try to add more "juice" like this to everything as it definitely can make the experience much more interesting. :)



The "Free Camera" mode is a feature that I recently added to the Map Editor and can be toggled on and off from the toolbar. When enabled, the camera can be flown around the map freely as shown in the GIF below. This should make editing your maps easier as it will allow you to move closer in to work on harder to reach locations.



Another Map Editor feature that relates to the free camera mode is the ability to save camera positions. These camera positions will have multiple uses, such as for your Main Menu background, scripting camera movements, or even simply as bookmarked/favorite positions for quickly navigating to different areas of a map while editing in the Map Editor. These saved positions will appear grouped together on the Properties panel under "Camera Positions".



Lastly, for anyone interested, I've updated the main website for RPG in a Box to include my Twitter feed in the sidebar. This will give better visibility into my activity since these larger cumulative updates are less frequent. And of course, you can always follow me on Twitter for frequent updates! I typically try to post at least a few times each week with screenshots or GIFs of what I am currently working on.

Thanks for reading!

First of all, I would like to thank everyone for their support in getting RPG in a Box greenlit on Steam! All of the encouragement and kind words I have received about this project so far are very much appreciated.

At this point, I am planning for Early Access to begin sometime during Q3 of this year. If you'd like to follow my progress, I would recommend checking out my Twitter account where I typically post screenshots a few times each week to show what I am currently working on.

https://twitter.com/rpginabox

Going forward I will also be posting cumulative updates here at least a few times each month. For anyone interested, my previous posts are currently available to view on my main website and IndieDB page.

Thanks again! I really look forward to working together with the community and seeing everyone's creations! ːrbiggrinː

First of all, I would like to thank everyone for their support in getting RPG in a Box greenlit on Steam! All of the encouragement and kind words I have received about this project so far are very much appreciated.

At this point, I am planning for Early Access to begin sometime during Q3 of this year. If you'd like to follow my progress, I would recommend checking out my Twitter account where I typically post screenshots a few times each week to show what I am currently working on.

https://twitter.com/rpginabox

Going forward I will also be posting cumulative updates here at least a few times each month. For anyone interested, my previous posts are currently available to view on my main website and IndieDB page.

Thanks again! I really look forward to working together with the community and seeing everyone's creations! :rbiggrin: