Hello again everyone, it's time for another bi-weekly development update! In this update, I have some progress to share on both the upgrade to Godot 3.0 (primarily around the new Voxel Editor) and some small, new features that were added to the current version.

To start out, I've made some great progress on the implementation of the core drawing tools in the upgraded Voxel Editor! It's pretty exciting since there will be several new features available rather than just being a straight port of the existing editor.

One of the new features is the "box mode" option for the Attach, Paint, and Erase tools, as shown in the GIF below. This mode will make it a lot easier and quicker to add or remove a large area of voxels at once. These tools also support the "voxel mode" method used by the currently released version of the Voxel Editor for placing or removing one voxel at a time.



Two other handy features that complement each other are the Move and Selection tools. The current editor includes the ability to move the entire model at once, but with the brand new Selection tool you'll be able to move only the desired voxels as shown below.



In addition to the implementation of these drawing tools, I've also taken care of their corresponding logic for the Undo/Redo system as well the "frame management" tools for things like inserting a new frame, duplicating a frame, and shifting frames left or right. The first iteration of the new Voxel Editor is getting relatively close now!

I'm happy to say that RPG in a Box now comes bundled with a sample music library containing 40+ chiptune songs by Josh Penn-Pierson! There's a good variety of songs, so if you need some music for your game you can easily import them from the new "Music Library" feature. The music is licensed under the CC BY 4.0 license, so please be sure to give credit to Josh if you use any of the songs in your game. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46BnKJAj9ec

Before I cover some of the other development-related updates, I wanted to briefly mention that I finished up another tutorial! This one walks through the basics of creating a walk animation and idle animation for your characters. You can find the tutorial on the documentation wiki here: http://www.rpginabox.com/docs/doku.php?id=anim_char_tutorial

I spent a little bit of time working on a "fog of war" feature that can be enabled in your game's configuration. At this time it's considered experimental until I can polish it some and allow it to be customized in various ways. To accompany this feature, there is also a new "Blocks Line of Sight" property for objects and characters that will affect which areas can be seen when fog of war is enabled (for example, a closed door should block the player's line of sight, but not a small chair).



I updated the "Dungeon in my Pocket" game (which can be can be downloaded for free here) to include fog of war if you are interested in trying it out. I think this feature could be useful for certain styles of games and can add a fun element of discovery/exploration to them.



One last feature, which I just added earlier today, is the ability to configure a delay for item tooltips and entity tooltips. Previously, the tooltips would instantly show when the mouse cursor was hovered over an item or an entity with a tooltip. In the example below, the entity tooltips are set to 0.5 seconds and the item tooltips are set to 0.75 seconds.



I also recently updated my collage displaying some of the games/demos/tests made with RPG in a Box, which you can see below. You can view the original image on my Cartrdge page here. I've also included details on the page about each game shown.

If you're interested in finding out more about RPG in a Box or would like to give the demo version a try, check out my Itch.io page here: https://zeromatrix.itch.io/rpginabox

Thanks again for reading and for all of the support and encouragement! :)

Hello again everyone, it's time for another bi-weekly development update! In this update, I have some progress to share on both the upgrade to Godot 3.0 (primarily around the new Voxel Editor) and some small, new features that were added to the current version.

To start out, I've made some great progress on the implementation of the core drawing tools in the upgraded Voxel Editor! It's pretty exciting since there will be several new features available rather than just being a straight port of the existing editor.

One of the new features is the "box mode" option for the Attach, Paint, and Erase tools, as shown in the GIF below. This mode will make it a lot easier and quicker to add or remove a large area of voxels at once. These tools also support the "voxel mode" method used by the currently released version of the Voxel Editor for placing or removing one voxel at a time.



Two other handy features that complement each other are the Move and Selection tools. The current editor includes the ability to move the entire model at once, but with the brand new Selection tool you'll be able to move only the desired voxels as shown below.



In addition to the implementation of these drawing tools, I've also taken care of their corresponding logic for the Undo/Redo system as well the "frame management" tools for things like inserting a new frame, duplicating a frame, and shifting frames left or right. The first iteration of the new Voxel Editor is getting relatively close now!

I'm happy to say that RPG in a Box now comes bundled with a sample music library containing 40+ chiptune songs by Josh Penn-Pierson! There's a good variety of songs, so if you need some music for your game you can easily import them from the new "Music Library" feature. The music is licensed under the CC BY 4.0 license, so please be sure to give credit to Josh if you use any of the songs in your game. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46BnKJAj9ec

Before I cover some of the other development-related updates, I wanted to briefly mention that I finished up another tutorial! This one walks through the basics of creating a walk animation and idle animation for your characters. You can find the tutorial on the documentation wiki here: http://www.rpginabox.com/docs/doku.php?id=anim_char_tutorial

I spent a little bit of time working on a "fog of war" feature that can be enabled in your game's configuration. At this time it's considered experimental until I can polish it some and allow it to be customized in various ways. To accompany this feature, there is also a new "Blocks Line of Sight" property for objects and characters that will affect which areas can be seen when fog of war is enabled (for example, a closed door should block the player's line of sight, but not a small chair).



I updated the "Dungeon in my Pocket" game (which can be can be downloaded for free here) to include fog of war if you are interested in trying it out. I think this feature could be useful for certain styles of games and can add a fun element of discovery/exploration to them.



One last feature, which I just added earlier today, is the ability to configure a delay for item tooltips and entity tooltips. Previously, the tooltips would instantly show when the mouse cursor was hovered over an item or an entity with a tooltip. In the example below, the entity tooltips are set to 0.5 seconds and the item tooltips are set to 0.75 seconds.



I also recently updated my collage displaying some of the games/demos/tests made with RPG in a Box, which you can see below. You can view the original image on my Cartrdge page here. I've also included details on the page about each game shown.

If you're interested in finding out more about RPG in a Box or would like to give the demo version a try, check out my Itch.io page here: https://zeromatrix.itch.io/rpginabox

Thanks again for reading and for all of the support and encouragement! :)

Hello everyone! This latest development update for RPG in a Box covers some of the progress that I've made on the new Voxel Editor (as part of the Godot 3.0 upgrade) and information about a new tutorial that I recently completed and made available.

Before I cover the progress I've made on the upgrade to Godot 3.0, I wanted to mention a brand new tutorial that I recently posted on my wiki. It walks through the process of creating doors for your game and designing scripts that will allow the player to interact with the doors. You can find the tutorial here: http://www.rpginabox.com/docs/doku.php?id=door_scripting_tutorial. I covered a couple of different approaches and tried to include a lot of detail since I think it's a great way to learn about the scripting language in RPG in a Box. The concepts in general will be useful in other scenarios as well!



Now that I am caught up on all of the reference documentation, I am planning to start working on more tutorials and hopefully get a new one out every couple of weeks. That time-frame should allow me to pace myself and chip away at one a little bit each day. :)

I made a lot of progress recently on the new selection tool, in particular nailing down the logic for calculating exactly which voxel is under the mouse cursor, and even which face (front, back, etc.). This will be (and has been) quite helpful for not just the selection tool, but also for the additional drawing and erasing tools/modes that I am planning on adding to the new & improved Voxel Editor.



Currently, the selection tool can be used to select blocks of voxels by clicking and dragging, similar to MagicaVoxel's box select. Holding the Shift key will add to the selection, and holding Shift + Alt will subtract from the selection.



I also started re-implementing my undo/redo system. At this time, I've got it working for the selection tool so you can undo or redo selection actions using either the Voxel Editor's toolbar buttons or the Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y shortcut keys.



In the currently released version of RPG in a Box, the only method of placing voxels is to draw one voxel at a time by clicking and dragging. This is what I initially implemented into the new editor as shown below, which was fairly straightforward using some logic I had already written for the selection tool mentioned above.



I want the new Voxel Editor to provide a larger set of tools for more easily/quickly building models, so I've been working on a drawing mode for placing large blocks of voxels at once, also similar to MagicaVoxel's box mode for attaching voxels. As it's probably become apparent by now, I am taking inspirations from MagicaVoxel since I think it's a great tool. :) While the new version will continue to have support for importing from MagicaVoxel .VOX files when desired, I am hoping I can improve the editor enough that it will be a lot more fun (and less tedious) to use!



It's exciting getting to see this begin coming together for the Godot 3.0 version, especially with the new tools and features that will be available! It will still be at least a few months before this version is to the point where it can be released, but I am looking forward to getting it out there and then moving on to other aspects. As eager as I am to start focusing on features like combat, I think this effort will be worth it and will be better to get completed first so I can have a more polished and clean base to build upon.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read this update and for the interest! I can't say enough how much I appreciate the support as I pursue this passion of mine. If you're interested in trying out the current version of RPG in a Box, check out the demo version available for free on my Itch page here: https://zeromatrix.itch.io/rpginabox - game projects are limited to a single small map and will display a splash screen, but other than that it includes all of the features normally available!

Thanks again, and I hope everyone has a great week! :)

Hello everyone! This latest development update for RPG in a Box covers some of the progress that I've made on the new Voxel Editor (as part of the Godot 3.0 upgrade) and information about a new tutorial that I recently completed and made available.

Before I cover the progress I've made on the upgrade to Godot 3.0, I wanted to mention a brand new tutorial that I recently posted on my wiki. It walks through the process of creating doors for your game and designing scripts that will allow the player to interact with the doors. You can find the tutorial here: http://www.rpginabox.com/docs/doku.php?id=door_scripting_tutorial. I covered a couple of different approaches and tried to include a lot of detail since I think it's a great way to learn about the scripting language in RPG in a Box. The concepts in general will be useful in other scenarios as well!



Now that I am caught up on all of the reference documentation, I am planning to start working on more tutorials and hopefully get a new one out every couple of weeks. That time-frame should allow me to pace myself and chip away at one a little bit each day. :)

I made a lot of progress recently on the new selection tool, in particular nailing down the logic for calculating exactly which voxel is under the mouse cursor, and even which face (front, back, etc.). This will be (and has been) quite helpful for not just the selection tool, but also for the additional drawing and erasing tools/modes that I am planning on adding to the new & improved Voxel Editor.



Currently, the selection tool can be used to select blocks of voxels by clicking and dragging, similar to MagicaVoxel's box select. Holding the Shift key will add to the selection, and holding Shift + Alt will subtract from the selection.



I also started re-implementing my undo/redo system. At this time, I've got it working for the selection tool so you can undo or redo selection actions using either the Voxel Editor's toolbar buttons or the Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y shortcut keys.



In the currently released version of RPG in a Box, the only method of placing voxels is to draw one voxel at a time by clicking and dragging. This is what I initially implemented into the new editor as shown below, which was fairly straightforward using some logic I had already written for the selection tool mentioned above.



I want the new Voxel Editor to provide a larger set of tools for more easily/quickly building models, so I've been working on a drawing mode for placing large blocks of voxels at once, also similar to MagicaVoxel's box mode for attaching voxels. As it's probably become apparent by now, I am taking inspirations from MagicaVoxel since I think it's a great tool. :) While the new version will continue to have support for importing from MagicaVoxel .VOX files when desired, I am hoping I can improve the editor enough that it will be a lot more fun (and less tedious) to use!



It's exciting getting to see this begin coming together for the Godot 3.0 version, especially with the new tools and features that will be available! It will still be at least a few months before this version is to the point where it can be released, but I am looking forward to getting it out there and then moving on to other aspects. As eager as I am to start focusing on features like combat, I think this effort will be worth it and will be better to get completed first so I can have a more polished and clean base to build upon.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read this update and for the interest! I can't say enough how much I appreciate the support as I pursue this passion of mine. If you're interested in trying out the current version of RPG in a Box, check out the demo version available for free on my Itch page here: https://zeromatrix.itch.io/rpginabox - game projects are limited to a single small map and will display a splash screen, but other than that it includes all of the features normally available!

Thanks again, and I hope everyone has a great week! :)

Hello again everyone! Unfortunately I haven't been able to stick with the bi-weekly schedule quite like I had wanted, but I've been trying to get a development update out at least once very few weeks. This particular update will focus more on some smaller changes and additions I've made to the current version since most of the recent work on the Godot 3.0 upgrade has been more code-related (therefore I don't have as many visual things to show on that front).

A new scripting function, "Add Character", allows you to add a new character into the current scene at a specific tile location. You can optionally provide an entity ID that will be assigned to the character once it is added to the scene so you can reference it elsewhere by its ID, for example to assign a dialogue to the character. You can read more about this new function on the documentation wiki here: http://www.rpginabox.com/docs/doku.php?id=add_character



Entity tooltips are a new feature that lets you assign some descriptive text to a tile, object, or character from the Map Editor. This text will display when the player hovers their mouse cursor over that particular entity, similar to the item tooltip feature. The new "Set Entity Tooltip" function can be called from a script in-game to change an entity's tooltip (or remove it) at any time. You can read more about this function here: http://www.rpginabox.com/docs/doku.php?id=set_entity_tooltip



When an entity has been assigned some tooltip text from the Map Editor, a corresponding marker icon will display above it. As part of this addition, I also made some improvements to the logic for displaying multiple marker icons above one entity to make it easier to include new icon types in the future.



I also added a new predefined animation name, specifically one for when the player interacts with objects. If a character's model has been given an animation with the name "interact", this animation will automatically trigger whenever the player interacts with an object in the map.



Another small but useful change involves the built-in Image Editor that is used to edit UI images. Whenever you are editing a 9-patch image, for example the dialogue box image, the slice lines will now be displayed to show where the image gets split apart for the corners, borders, etc. They can be toggled on and off with a checkbox as desired.



In regards to the new version using Godot 3.0 (which will be RPG in a Box v0.5), I've been focusing on the Voxel Editor and related functionality. The grid is now implemented and mostly working, and each side of the grid will be seamlessly hidden/shown as you rotate the view around. As with the current version, the grid can be completely hidden if desired.



And finally, a quick preview of the new selection tool that I've started working on! There's not much you can do with it yet, but it's a small step towards a more featured editor than the current one which doesn't have any sort of selection capabilities. I plan for this tool to allow for a variety of new possibilities, for example to select a group of voxels and move them around.



Thank you again for your interest and support, and for taking the time to read this development update! :) Any feedback is welcomed and appreciated, it's always great to hear from the community! If you are interested, you can find out more information and try out a demo of RPG in a Box on my Itch.io page here: https://zeromatrix.itch.io/rpginabox

Hello again everyone! Unfortunately I haven't been able to stick with the bi-weekly schedule quite like I had wanted, but I've been trying to get a development update out at least once very few weeks. This particular update will focus more on some smaller changes and additions I've made to the current version since most of the recent work on the Godot 3.0 upgrade has been more code-related (therefore I don't have as many visual things to show on that front).

A new scripting function, "Add Character", allows you to add a new character into the current scene at a specific tile location. You can optionally provide an entity ID that will be assigned to the character once it is added to the scene so you can reference it elsewhere by its ID, for example to assign a dialogue to the character. You can read more about this new function on the documentation wiki here: http://www.rpginabox.com/docs/doku.php?id=add_character



Entity tooltips are a new feature that lets you assign some descriptive text to a tile, object, or character from the Map Editor. This text will display when the player hovers their mouse cursor over that particular entity, similar to the item tooltip feature. The new "Set Entity Tooltip" function can be called from a script in-game to change an entity's tooltip (or remove it) at any time. You can read more about this function here: http://www.rpginabox.com/docs/doku.php?id=set_entity_tooltip



When an entity has been assigned some tooltip text from the Map Editor, a corresponding marker icon will display above it. As part of this addition, I also made some improvements to the logic for displaying multiple marker icons above one entity to make it easier to include new icon types in the future.



I also added a new predefined animation name, specifically one for when the player interacts with objects. If a character's model has been given an animation with the name "interact", this animation will automatically trigger whenever the player interacts with an object in the map.



Another small but useful change involves the built-in Image Editor that is used to edit UI images. Whenever you are editing a 9-patch image, for example the dialogue box image, the slice lines will now be displayed to show where the image gets split apart for the corners, borders, etc. They can be toggled on and off with a checkbox as desired.



In regards to the new version using Godot 3.0 (which will be RPG in a Box v0.5), I've been focusing on the Voxel Editor and related functionality. The grid is now implemented and mostly working, and each side of the grid will be seamlessly hidden/shown as you rotate the view around. As with the current version, the grid can be completely hidden if desired.



And finally, a quick preview of the new selection tool that I've started working on! There's not much you can do with it yet, but it's a small step towards a more featured editor than the current one which doesn't have any sort of selection capabilities. I plan for this tool to allow for a variety of new possibilities, for example to select a group of voxels and move them around.



Thank you again for your interest and support, and for taking the time to read this development update! :) Any feedback is welcomed and appreciated, it's always great to hear from the community! If you are interested, you can find out more information and try out a demo of RPG in a Box on my Itch.io page here: https://zeromatrix.itch.io/rpginabox

Over the past few weeks I've been spending most of my time on the migration to Godot 3.0, so this update will primarily focus on my progress around that effort. I have a lot of cool GIFs to show this time around! I've continued to be very deliberate in my development while re-implementing features into the new version since this is a perfect opportunity (and a second chance) for polishing and making improvements. I want the end result to be even better - not just a straight copy of what I already have. :)

One of the aspects I have been focusing on during this upgrade is usability. I've been trying to think of handy features that would make sense to include and would generally make the experience more fun. After getting the Game Manager and overall interface up and running, I have shifted focus onto the Voxel Editor. As one example, I added a slider that lets you navigate through your animation frames more easily than before.



Another improvement I made to the editor interface relates to the resource container on the right side that includes the tabs for your tiles, objects, and characters. This panel is now resizable and the number of columns will auto-adjust to the width. The animation toolbar for the Voxel Editor will also adjust accordingly to ensure as many buttons are visible as possible.



In my first build of this new version (which will be v0.5 once officially released), you can import project files that have been exported from the existing version. This process will be necessary since the file formats are different and certain 3D resources (tiles, objects, maps, etc.) cannot be directly opened in the new version. As shown below, animation playback is now working for resources that have been imported.



The shader language in Godot 3.0 is very close to GLSL now and I've taken some time recently to learn more about the language and shaders in general. I was able to put together a voxel shader for the Voxel Editor that can draw both outlines around the voxels (first image below) as well as surface edge highlights (second image below). These can toggled on or off in the editor as desired.





Over the past few days I've been focusing on the palette implementation in preparation for work on the drawing tools (for adding voxels, painting voxels, etc.). As with the other functionality, it's fairly similar to the existing version, but it will come with improvements as well! There will now be a set of built-in color palettes you can choose from. Choosing a particular palette can help create a consistent look across your game's resources. And of course you'll be able to create your own palette, either from scratch or using a built-in one as a base for inspiration.



I also took some time to learn about color spaces and color comparison methods for an experimental new tool I may include. This tool will retrofit a model's color to match the currently selected palette as best as possible. In the example below, I'm updating the red potion model to use the Commodore 64 palette. It doesn't always work great according to the palette size and the existing model's colors, but it could be a convenient feature!



I've added a few small features here and there to the current version, but considering the amount of content I decided I'd save those for another update. One final bit of exciting information I wanted to share with everyone and make official: after much planning and deliberation, I decided to resign from my day job so I can focus on RPG in a Box full-time! This is a project I've always been very passionate about making, and the timing was finally right. These past couple of weeks have been great being able to fully devote myself to development without the constraints of my previous job. Besides having more time for development, I'll also have more time to support the community (and other aspects, like documentation and tutorials).

Thanks so much for taking the time to read this update! :) I always appreciate any feedback, comments, or suggestions. Don't hesitate to reach out to me by any method if you'd like to know more! You can also find more information about RPG in a Box and try out the demo on Itch.io here: https://zeromatrix.itch.io/rpginabox

Over the past few weeks I've been spending most of my time on the migration to Godot 3.0, so this update will primarily focus on my progress around that effort. I have a lot of cool GIFs to show this time around! I've continued to be very deliberate in my development while re-implementing features into the new version since this is a perfect opportunity (and a second chance) for polishing and making improvements. I want the end result to be even better - not just a straight copy of what I already have. :)

One of the aspects I have been focusing on during this upgrade is usability. I've been trying to think of handy features that would make sense to include and would generally make the experience more fun. After getting the Game Manager and overall interface up and running, I have shifted focus onto the Voxel Editor. As one example, I added a slider that lets you navigate through your animation frames more easily than before.



Another improvement I made to the editor interface relates to the resource container on the right side that includes the tabs for your tiles, objects, and characters. This panel is now resizable and the number of columns will auto-adjust to the width. The animation toolbar for the Voxel Editor will also adjust accordingly to ensure as many buttons are visible as possible.



In my first build of this new version (which will be v0.5 once officially released), you can import project files that have been exported from the existing version. This process will be necessary since the file formats are different and certain 3D resources (tiles, objects, maps, etc.) cannot be directly opened in the new version. As shown below, animation playback is now working for resources that have been imported.



The shader language in Godot 3.0 is very close to GLSL now and I've taken some time recently to learn more about the language and shaders in general. I was able to put together a voxel shader for the Voxel Editor that can draw both outlines around the voxels (first image below) as well as surface edge highlights (second image below). These can toggled on or off in the editor as desired.





Over the past few days I've been focusing on the palette implementation in preparation for work on the drawing tools (for adding voxels, painting voxels, etc.). As with the other functionality, it's fairly similar to the existing version, but it will come with improvements as well! There will now be a set of built-in color palettes you can choose from. Choosing a particular palette can help create a consistent look across your game's resources. And of course you'll be able to create your own palette, either from scratch or using a built-in one as a base for inspiration.



I also took some time to learn about color spaces and color comparison methods for an experimental new tool I may include. This tool will retrofit a model's color to match the currently selected palette as best as possible. In the example below, I'm updating the red potion model to use the Commodore 64 palette. It doesn't always work great according to the palette size and the existing model's colors, but it could be a convenient feature!



I've added a few small features here and there to the current version, but considering the amount of content I decided I'd save those for another update. One final bit of exciting information I wanted to share with everyone and make official: after much planning and deliberation, I decided to resign from my day job so I can focus on RPG in a Box full-time! This is a project I've always been very passionate about making, and the timing was finally right. These past couple of weeks have been great being able to fully devote myself to development without the constraints of my previous job. Besides having more time for development, I'll also have more time to support the community (and other aspects, like documentation and tutorials).

Thanks so much for taking the time to read this update! :) I always appreciate any feedback, comments, or suggestions. Don't hesitate to reach out to me by any method if you'd like to know more! You can also find more information about RPG in a Box and try out the demo on Itch.io here: https://zeromatrix.itch.io/rpginabox

Hello again, everyone! I don't have as many interesting features to cover as usual in this bi-weekly development update since I've been focusing a lot on the conversion to Godot 3.0, however I thought it would be worth sharing a bit about the progress that I've made in regards to that aspect, as well as a few minor features that were added. Read below for some highlights on what I've been working on recently!

Since some of the resource files for your game project, like tiles and maps, will not be directly compatible with the new version of RPG in a Box that uses Godot 3.0, I've been building out a feature that will let you export your project files into an intermediate format that can then be imported into the new version without needing to recreate anything. In addition to that tool, I've also been focusing on getting some of the basic Voxel Editor functionality working. In the first test build, I plan to have support for at least loading and viewing your models, and then I will gradually add in all of the editing tools.

I am using this upgrade to Godot 3.0 as an opportunity to clean up a lot of my code and apply lessons learned from what I've designed up to this point. I have been gradually re-implementing features in small chunks so it's easier to test and ensure that the code is well organized. This will also provide some great opportunities to implement new features and usability improvements that would be difficult to do with the current version without some extensive effort.



A new feature that I've implemented as part of the conversion so far is an expandable resource panel, as shown in the GIF below. In the current version of RPG in a Box, this panel is limited to two columns and cannot be resized. This change will make it easier to browse through the tiles, objects, and characters in your game project, and will set up the workspace to be a bit more flexible in general.



Outside of the conversion to Godot 3.0, I've managed to fit in some minor new features and bug fixes here and there. One of these features, which I've been wanting to add for some time now and finally got around to, is to display a marker icon in the Map Editor for any entities that have an ID assigned. This particular marker is represented with a "tag" icon to match the icon used in the entity properties dialog next to the ID field. This will make it easier to quickly see which entities in your map have an ID assigned without selecting each one. As shown in the image below, you can quickly tell that the chest has a script attached, is defined as a container, and has an ID assigned.



When playing your game, you can now hold the Shift key and left-click on an item in a container window to immediately transfer it into your inventory (assuming there is an open slot) instead of manually moving it into a slot. You can also use this same method to transfer an item from your inventory into the active container if one is currently opened.



And lastly, a feature I meant to cover in a previous update, is the ability to duplicate nodes in both the Script Editor and Dialogue Editor. To do so, you can simply select one or more nodes then click the "Duplicate" button. Any parameters or values will be retained for the duplicated nodes, as well as any connections between them.



Thanks so much for following my progress and taking the time to read this! Your support is greatly appreciated. :) Check out https://zeromatrix.itch.io/rpginabox if you'd like to find out more about the tool or to try out the demo version.

Hello again, everyone! I don't have as many interesting features to cover as usual in this bi-weekly development update since I've been focusing a lot on the conversion to Godot 3.0, however I thought it would be worth sharing a bit about the progress that I've made in regards to that aspect, as well as a few minor features that were added. Read below for some highlights on what I've been working on recently!

Since some of the resource files for your game project, like tiles and maps, will not be directly compatible with the new version of RPG in a Box that uses Godot 3.0, I've been building out a feature that will let you export your project files into an intermediate format that can then be imported into the new version without needing to recreate anything. In addition to that tool, I've also been focusing on getting some of the basic Voxel Editor functionality working. In the first test build, I plan to have support for at least loading and viewing your models, and then I will gradually add in all of the editing tools.

I am using this upgrade to Godot 3.0 as an opportunity to clean up a lot of my code and apply lessons learned from what I've designed up to this point. I have been gradually re-implementing features in small chunks so it's easier to test and ensure that the code is well organized. This will also provide some great opportunities to implement new features and usability improvements that would be difficult to do with the current version without some extensive effort.



A new feature that I've implemented as part of the conversion so far is an expandable resource panel, as shown in the GIF below. In the current version of RPG in a Box, this panel is limited to two columns and cannot be resized. This change will make it easier to browse through the tiles, objects, and characters in your game project, and will set up the workspace to be a bit more flexible in general.



Outside of the conversion to Godot 3.0, I've managed to fit in some minor new features and bug fixes here and there. One of these features, which I've been wanting to add for some time now and finally got around to, is to display a marker icon in the Map Editor for any entities that have an ID assigned. This particular marker is represented with a "tag" icon to match the icon used in the entity properties dialog next to the ID field. This will make it easier to quickly see which entities in your map have an ID assigned without selecting each one. As shown in the image below, you can quickly tell that the chest has a script attached, is defined as a container, and has an ID assigned.



When playing your game, you can now hold the Shift key and left-click on an item in a container window to immediately transfer it into your inventory (assuming there is an open slot) instead of manually moving it into a slot. You can also use this same method to transfer an item from your inventory into the active container if one is currently opened.



And lastly, a feature I meant to cover in a previous update, is the ability to duplicate nodes in both the Script Editor and Dialogue Editor. To do so, you can simply select one or more nodes then click the "Duplicate" button. Any parameters or values will be retained for the duplicated nodes, as well as any connections between them.



Thanks so much for following my progress and taking the time to read this! Your support is greatly appreciated. :) Check out https://zeromatrix.itch.io/rpginabox if you'd like to find out more about the tool or to try out the demo version.