Producer Letter #10: Modules & Official Community
Hello, everyone! Producer Morino here again!
In this 10th producer letter, I'd like to talk about new features that will make visual scripting easier to use and provide some information about our plans for the user community. But first let me share some information for users of the previous tool, so please bear with me.
In our previous tool, Common Actions (actions that can be triggered from any state when conditions are met) were configured in a separate tab from the visual scripting, and only one action could be set for each Common Action. However, we’ve add a special state called "AnyState," to turn any action into a Common Action. Note that you can return to the preceding action with a dedicated return action.
Multiple actions can be connected to “Any State”, and those actions can connect into your normal logic, providing you with more freedom than ever before.
This is a brand new function! With it, you are able to select part of a visual script and save it as a “Module” for repeated use. Modules can also be exported and imported.
This means that it is both easy to reuse specific functions and easy to share them between projects!
And of course, you can share these with other people, enabling improved shared development opportunities.
[h2]Using Modules[/h2]
Simply select the states (action boxes) you wish to include in the module, and select “Create Module” from the right-click menu! A popup window asking you to input a file name, creator’s name, description, and other information will appear.
Once you click “OK” the module gets saved to the Module List.
Modules can be added to any visual script simply by selecting it from the Module List and dragging it into the visual script panel. It will be added as a Group.
Modules only save the configured states and actions included in the visual script data, and other data, such as visual assets or animation data, is not included. However, as the saved information does include the file path to such data, it will be loaded automatically if that data exists at the saved file path in the local file system.
[h2]Why Modules?[/h2]
We’ve had a powerful and highly flexible visual scripting system since our previous tool released, but it does have a learning cost. The predecessor didn’t have a way of sharing just visual script, so you had to share sample projects or import whole Objects to get learning materials and then manually recreate those structures. It was inefficient both for learning and for power users needing to recreate stuff every time.
For the new ACTION GAME MAKER, we wanted to harness the power of Godot to make it to give users the luxury to share a scene, an object, a visual script state as needed.
And it is thanks to this Module function that we are able users to share visual script quickly and easily – even if it is just 1 single state.
We also hope that, because it is easier to share, our user community will be active in sharing interesting bits of script, provide more samples to help new users learn and study from, and build a sense of togetherness that was difficult with Pixel Game Maker MV.
On launch day we will also be launching an official Discord and official user forum!
The official forum will include a dedicated section for sharing Modules, and we’ve implemented a way to show forum posts directly from the ACTION GAME MAKER launcher.
Our hope is that by providing these places for getting official information and communicating with other users, it will help users to quickly and easily get the support they need to continue their game dev journey smoothly!
We’ll be at Tokyo Game Dungeon 8, the next installment of one of Japan’s most popular indie game events! It’ll be held on May 4th, in Hamamatsu-cho, Tokyo.
We’ll be allowing people to check out the latest version of the launcher and play a sample game.
I’ll be there in person, so please feel free to ask me questions if you stop by!
https://tokyogamedungeon.com/
And with that, we’ve come to the end of this producer’s letter! But I’ll be back again at the end of May with the next one. We’re just 2 months away from release, so we hope your excitement is building!
In this 10th producer letter, I'd like to talk about new features that will make visual scripting easier to use and provide some information about our plans for the user community. But first let me share some information for users of the previous tool, so please bear with me.
Changes to Common Actions
In our previous tool, Common Actions (actions that can be triggered from any state when conditions are met) were configured in a separate tab from the visual scripting, and only one action could be set for each Common Action. However, we’ve add a special state called "AnyState," to turn any action into a Common Action. Note that you can return to the preceding action with a dedicated return action.
Multiple actions can be connected to “Any State”, and those actions can connect into your normal logic, providing you with more freedom than ever before.
Module Function
This is a brand new function! With it, you are able to select part of a visual script and save it as a “Module” for repeated use. Modules can also be exported and imported.
This means that it is both easy to reuse specific functions and easy to share them between projects!
And of course, you can share these with other people, enabling improved shared development opportunities.
[h2]Using Modules[/h2]
Simply select the states (action boxes) you wish to include in the module, and select “Create Module” from the right-click menu! A popup window asking you to input a file name, creator’s name, description, and other information will appear.
Once you click “OK” the module gets saved to the Module List.
Modules can be added to any visual script simply by selecting it from the Module List and dragging it into the visual script panel. It will be added as a Group.
Modules only save the configured states and actions included in the visual script data, and other data, such as visual assets or animation data, is not included. However, as the saved information does include the file path to such data, it will be loaded automatically if that data exists at the saved file path in the local file system.
[h2]Why Modules?[/h2]
We’ve had a powerful and highly flexible visual scripting system since our previous tool released, but it does have a learning cost. The predecessor didn’t have a way of sharing just visual script, so you had to share sample projects or import whole Objects to get learning materials and then manually recreate those structures. It was inefficient both for learning and for power users needing to recreate stuff every time.
For the new ACTION GAME MAKER, we wanted to harness the power of Godot to make it to give users the luxury to share a scene, an object, a visual script state as needed.
And it is thanks to this Module function that we are able users to share visual script quickly and easily – even if it is just 1 single state.
We also hope that, because it is easier to share, our user community will be active in sharing interesting bits of script, provide more samples to help new users learn and study from, and build a sense of togetherness that was difficult with Pixel Game Maker MV.
The Community
On launch day we will also be launching an official Discord and official user forum!
The official forum will include a dedicated section for sharing Modules, and we’ve implemented a way to show forum posts directly from the ACTION GAME MAKER launcher.
Our hope is that by providing these places for getting official information and communicating with other users, it will help users to quickly and easily get the support they need to continue their game dev journey smoothly!
Event Notice: Tokyo Game Dungeon 8!
We’ll be at Tokyo Game Dungeon 8, the next installment of one of Japan’s most popular indie game events! It’ll be held on May 4th, in Hamamatsu-cho, Tokyo.
We’ll be allowing people to check out the latest version of the launcher and play a sample game.
I’ll be there in person, so please feel free to ask me questions if you stop by!
https://tokyogamedungeon.com/
And with that, we’ve come to the end of this producer’s letter! But I’ll be back again at the end of May with the next one. We’re just 2 months away from release, so we hope your excitement is building!