What's up, RMers?

[kyonides]

Well, I keep developing my KUnits Gosu project as some of you may have noticed, I've also been working a bit on my own implementation of the game database thanks to qtbindings rubygem. It uses Qt4 stuff to let Ruby make windows like pop up messages or even simple DataBases... The first version was developed for KyoJournal XP script (available in Spanish only I think), but I've been updating it to let me use it for my KUnits Gosu game project. I finally made it possible to display characters, battlers and faces on screen for any specific game character (any actor?).

[umbralshadows]

down loaded pokemon essentials cuzz me an sum friends are makin a "fan game" while not really all that related ta pokemon exactly more like fakemon?? it'll hav only fake pokemon an a new story an region.. ...

[kyonides]

That's why I hate fan games, they end up being worse than original games that were already, err, ridiculous? Repetitive? Mere grinding machines? XD

Gosu... You should know it's not another RPG making software but a game design framework available in C++ for Windows, Linux, MacOS and iOS, and Ruby all most of them, no iPhone or iPad included for sure. It means it let's you do a Platform game or arcadia styled games like Asteroids, to make it work as an actual RPG means you gotta do it on your own most of the time. (I'm the living proof of it... 4600+ lines of Ruby code back me up here.)

KUnits Gosu might be the first serious attempt in the last few years to make some RPG game with Gosu. If you learned to script in RGSS, that won't make you an expert in pure Ruby or Gosu for Ruby or even in stuff like Rails or Sinatra. (Google them if you ignore what they actually are and what's their actual purpose.) Taking that into account I've been dealing with other software other than the RM series, one of them is Qt4 for Ruby or qtbindings rubygem. It lets you make windows like those you find on any Windows or Linux application.

What you may have not noticed is that Gosu is a great tool indeed, no matter if it's generic or makes you learn actual Ruby programming from scratch if you never touched RGSS ever before. Making an RPG with it without any previous experience in game developing might look like placing a time bomb on your desk waiting for exploding, there's no way you could come up with many stuff you might need under such circumstances. On the contrary making other games like Asteroids, your own version of Super Mario Brothers (Really, I've met people who actually thought it's real name was Super Mario Bros) or Sonic the Hedgehog would be simpler than RPG's and people would believe you that you've got a chance to develop them. I know some guys posted their projects on Gosu's own forum. To be honest some of the stuff I've handle so far in KUnits Gosu would let me start my own platform game right away (especially the two-way side scrolling feature like the one found in Super Mario World).

If you go and take a look at my project README text file you'd agree with me, Gosu does let me handle many stuff on my own, even Sprites! Sprite handling system is completely mine and other Gosu developers have already implemented some of their own! There's no Sprite or Window hidden class! You have to define your own! And believe me when I tell you it's completely possible and not something that could sip your brains out of your skull like a zombie would do. If you've understood some basic concepts related to making Sprites, Windows and Bitmaps, you'll end up coming with your own implementation. The good part is that it'll be your accomplishment, the bad side would be that if there's a bug, it'd be completely your fault! XP

[kyonides]

I implemented some simple but nice looking transition in KUnits Gosu, I used n number of black bars stretching from left to right and viceversa, then they slowly show up the new scene. Sadly it gets a bit stuck whenever the player gets teleported to another map :S. By the way it also sports a heavy rain while the transition is running, he, he.

[DerVVulfman]

A static objective is one where the text is not different whether it is a completed objective or one that is in progress.  And while above has the 'BEFORE', below has some afters.......

Old Pic

As you can see, plenty of formatting going on here......

(Cursory Content Cut for Cuick Comments)

Has it really been over a year since I worked on this? Well, I was asked about further development and am adding more niceties.

1) Newly added is a switch (or collection of switches) which lets you hide an objective in a quest UNTIL all the needed switches are turned on. By this, you may have an objective that reads "KILL ALUXES" just fine. But you may also have an objective that reads "KILL BARBOSA" that is only visible if switch #42 is on.

2) I was requested to have message pops show when an objective task begins. The demo currently shows these pops when one has been completed like.... "All ghosts were killed". But the request was to have popups when an objective starts like "Kill the ghosts". Silly me. I already made the POP_Task command in the demo.

3) Related above, I was requested to have objective pops for 'failed' objectives. I had "current" and "completed" objectives, set up, but no "failed" objectives. Hrm... gotta add that, eh?

I might need to test my quest pops. I think I have em set where you must press [Confirm/Enter] to make them vanish. If that's the case, I need to add an option for them to vanish via a timer too. Options, options, options.....

[DerVVulfman]

Finally had 5 minutes of spare time to tinker. I changed the quest's OBJECTIVE POP system to allow me to just insert my own text rather than rely on pre-defined quest objective lines. So if I just run a call of POP_Task("Hunt for the Golden Quack"), then it will deliver that message in the style used for the Objectives Pop.

Simple

[kyonides]

I'm a bit frustrated because I still need to find a way to simultaneously setup a new game state (a new scene for RGSS scripters) and draw the previous scene so it gets ready for the second step where the new state will be drawn on screen. It obviously includes a transitional effect plus tons of waterdrops, but I've already confirmed 600 waterdrops are no issue there. I tried to use a new Thread to make it happen, but it gets messy while transitioning between two maps or a map and some menu.

[JayRay]

have you thought about screating a screenshot, and saving that as a temporary bitmap, displaying it as a sprite on the screen, all the while loading the new scene and the transition effect? New scene loads, and previous scene (the screenshot) fades out.

Just an idea...

[kyonides]

No such option as of today, plus it insists on setting up the new scene instead of finishing the previous drawing stage... :S

[DerVVulfman]

Well, more work on my quest system and I solved the issue with making the popups change after a set time instead of player input. For those who saw my update to the simple popups script, DUH!

Now, I added in a rudimentary system for making 'objectives' show up as failed. Rudimentary as I need to make it so individual objectives may have failed while a whole quest could be completed. So yeah, I still have some more work to accomplish.