Plaristote
First time out of the vault
Greetings !
For the past 15 years or so, I've dreamed of some kind of equivalent to RPG Maker that would make it easy to make games based on the Fallout system.
10 years ago, I tried to do it in 3D... and it worked pretty well, but I couldn't make my own 3D assets, and the UI library I relied on ended up being abandoned by its only developer. It lasted four years until I gave up.
Then earlier this year, I had a revelation : the Qt framework. A C++ set of library that's older than myself, and that already provides pretty much everything I would need to make that game engine.
Seven month later, here we are: the game engine works, and I've implemented pretty much all the core features I could think of: scheduling tasks, field of views, pathfinding helpers, quest engine, skill checks, random encounters, and so on...
(Well, not everything works perfectly... rest easy though, this bug has been fixed since then)
As you might've noticed, I'm already using this to make my own Fallout Equestria themed RPG. It would definitely work too for a regular Fallout game too... or for anything that would use Fallout-like game mechanics.
I'm thinking it could be a useful tool for others. Moreover, getting feedback from modders would be quite helpful, to give me some advice on the game editor and scripting API.
My questions are:
- Would anyone be interested in something like this ?
- If you wanted to make a Fallout game, would you consider this as an alternative to the Fallout 1/2/Tactics modding tools ? And why ?
If these possibilities are inspiring to you, I'll gladly answer questions, provide some Windows build if some people want to try things out, and most importantly, listen to your opinions on what this project could become, and what objectives it should try to reach.
Relevant links:
Source code: https://github.com/Plaristote/fallout-equestria-reloaded (needs CMake and Qt5).
Game editor manual: https://plaristote.github.io/fallout-equestria-reloaded (not up to date though, some things have changed since I last updated it, especially with the level editor UI).
* Tiled tilemaps
The game engine loads tilemap from Tiled JSON format.
This means that instead of developing a map editor, we just use the Tiled editor: https://mapeditor.org
We also use some custom variables to define things such as doorway tiles, cover values, entry/exit zones.
* JavaScript script engine
- All the scripts are written in modular JavaScript.
- The user interface is in Qt's QML, which is built over JavaScript as well.
- You get a nice JavaScript debugging console, allowing you to quickly test your scripts and level design.
* JSON database
All the game data is stored within a single JSON file, allowing you to inspect and edit those directly using a text editor. Saved games are also JSON.
* Built-in game editor
The game in itself is mostly just a subset of the game editor. Meaning that anything the game editor does can be achieved from within the game, using JavaScript.
(Note: it's not yet possible to switch from game to game editor mode, and I'm not planning on doing that anytime soon, as I'm trying to keep things stupid simple. You can however start two instances of the game, and quickly check your changes by reloading levels, using the debug console).
* Single dependency
It's entirely developed in C++/Qt. This is very much intentional:
- It makes the engine easy to build, patch, package and release.
- Builds on Windows, Mac, Linux (perhaps more ?)
- New developers don't have to learn new technologies. The backend is C++, the frontend is QML, and all of that is just plain old Qt stuff.
Some possibly interesting stuff:
* Layered spritesheets
Each character has a race, and each race script can define which spritesheet should be used to render characters. In simple cases, such as rats or radscorpions, you can just reference a simple spritesheet : it's simple and quick, one race -> one spritesheet.
In other cases, when you want to bring diversity to the characters of a specific race, you can use layered spritesheets instead : shadow, body, hair, overlay... these layers will be rendered and colorized according to the character's parameters.
Layers are also added based on the armor or weapon the character is carrying.
* Faces
When it comes to faces, I've kept things simple as well. Each race can provide a set of faces, hairstyles and face features. The end result is basically just a bunch of pictures that are colorized (or not) and rendered on top of each other.
For now, only the eyes are animated (they blink randomly). The mouth could be animated as well, but that's a much more complex issue to tackle.
* Gamepad
Yup. It can be played with a gamepad. And it's a surprisingly positive experience as well.
* Night/Day cycle
So... this is actually something that might never get implemented. We do have a logical night/day cycle, but we do not have any way of visually telling when it is day or night. I know that might be a dealbreaker... but my first objective is to keep things simple, both for the engine developers and game developers.
I have yet to find a way to implement this in a way that will be simple for both. I have some clues, but it seems like a ton of work, and I do have a day job and other activities to tend to
!
Game editor in pictures
For the past 15 years or so, I've dreamed of some kind of equivalent to RPG Maker that would make it easy to make games based on the Fallout system.
10 years ago, I tried to do it in 3D... and it worked pretty well, but I couldn't make my own 3D assets, and the UI library I relied on ended up being abandoned by its only developer. It lasted four years until I gave up.
Then earlier this year, I had a revelation : the Qt framework. A C++ set of library that's older than myself, and that already provides pretty much everything I would need to make that game engine.
Seven month later, here we are: the game engine works, and I've implemented pretty much all the core features I could think of: scheduling tasks, field of views, pathfinding helpers, quest engine, skill checks, random encounters, and so on...
(Well, not everything works perfectly... rest easy though, this bug has been fixed since then)
As you might've noticed, I'm already using this to make my own Fallout Equestria themed RPG. It would definitely work too for a regular Fallout game too... or for anything that would use Fallout-like game mechanics.
I'm thinking it could be a useful tool for others. Moreover, getting feedback from modders would be quite helpful, to give me some advice on the game editor and scripting API.
My questions are:
- Would anyone be interested in something like this ?
- If you wanted to make a Fallout game, would you consider this as an alternative to the Fallout 1/2/Tactics modding tools ? And why ?
If these possibilities are inspiring to you, I'll gladly answer questions, provide some Windows build if some people want to try things out, and most importantly, listen to your opinions on what this project could become, and what objectives it should try to reach.
Relevant links:
Source code: https://github.com/Plaristote/fallout-equestria-reloaded (needs CMake and Qt5).
Game editor manual: https://plaristote.github.io/fallout-equestria-reloaded (not up to date though, some things have changed since I last updated it, especially with the level editor UI).
Game Engine Preview
Strong points:* Tiled tilemaps
The game engine loads tilemap from Tiled JSON format.
This means that instead of developing a map editor, we just use the Tiled editor: https://mapeditor.org
We also use some custom variables to define things such as doorway tiles, cover values, entry/exit zones.
* JavaScript script engine
- All the scripts are written in modular JavaScript.
- The user interface is in Qt's QML, which is built over JavaScript as well.
- You get a nice JavaScript debugging console, allowing you to quickly test your scripts and level design.
* JSON database
All the game data is stored within a single JSON file, allowing you to inspect and edit those directly using a text editor. Saved games are also JSON.
* Built-in game editor
The game in itself is mostly just a subset of the game editor. Meaning that anything the game editor does can be achieved from within the game, using JavaScript.
(Note: it's not yet possible to switch from game to game editor mode, and I'm not planning on doing that anytime soon, as I'm trying to keep things stupid simple. You can however start two instances of the game, and quickly check your changes by reloading levels, using the debug console).
* Single dependency
It's entirely developed in C++/Qt. This is very much intentional:
- It makes the engine easy to build, patch, package and release.
- Builds on Windows, Mac, Linux (perhaps more ?)
- New developers don't have to learn new technologies. The backend is C++, the frontend is QML, and all of that is just plain old Qt stuff.
Some possibly interesting stuff:
* Layered spritesheets
Each character has a race, and each race script can define which spritesheet should be used to render characters. In simple cases, such as rats or radscorpions, you can just reference a simple spritesheet : it's simple and quick, one race -> one spritesheet.
In other cases, when you want to bring diversity to the characters of a specific race, you can use layered spritesheets instead : shadow, body, hair, overlay... these layers will be rendered and colorized according to the character's parameters.
Layers are also added based on the armor or weapon the character is carrying.
* Faces
When it comes to faces, I've kept things simple as well. Each race can provide a set of faces, hairstyles and face features. The end result is basically just a bunch of pictures that are colorized (or not) and rendered on top of each other.
For now, only the eyes are animated (they blink randomly). The mouth could be animated as well, but that's a much more complex issue to tackle.
* Gamepad
Yup. It can be played with a gamepad. And it's a surprisingly positive experience as well.
* Night/Day cycle
So... this is actually something that might never get implemented. We do have a logical night/day cycle, but we do not have any way of visually telling when it is day or night. I know that might be a dealbreaker... but my first objective is to keep things simple, both for the engine developers and game developers.
I have yet to find a way to implement this in a way that will be simple for both. I have some clues, but it seems like a ton of work, and I do have a day job and other activities to tend to
!Game editor in pictures
