[Solaris Paradox]

Correct. Does anyone know any suitable engines, even a vb engine? Just to make this great. If I cant find an engine, It will most likley be the GM Sonic Dash engine.

Well, any vaguely workable engine can do for now, but eventually when the editor itself is all worked out it'd be cool if a custom engine could be made or an existing engine adapted to run the levels produced by Sonic Maker in something more akin to actual Sonic physics and such.

By the way, is there any way you could make provision for custom tilesets in the editor? That would be a cool feature for those who're artistically-inclined and can create their own level graphics.

This post has been edited by Solaris Paradox: 20 April 2010 - 02:20 PM

[Lapper]

Well, the fact is, It wont save a stand alone exe, so that means more external files (without that feature, it would only have a text file).

The great thing about this system is that to play other peoples levels, you just need to recive the data text file, and put it into the Exe location!

This post has been edited by Sonica: 20 April 2010 - 02:35 PM

[Mercury]

I'm working on something much like this, in Game Maker.

Sadly, it's still a ways from being finished, or I'd be glad to let you use my engine.

DASH is a good engine, though.

[Lapper]

Your engine? Can you PM it to me, if you may?

Also, a quick question to all people:

How would you like to go abouts making your games? With meta-blocks or using 32*32 collision masks (meta-blocks are WAY easier (for me and you) btw).

This post has been edited by Sonica: 21 April 2010 - 09:52 AM

[Lapper]

Comment removed (Double post)
EDIT:
I am now releasing a demo of the editor. The levels made are not complete, nor playable. This is just to get a general idea of how it works!
http://www.mediafire.com/file/dgzmn2qjzmm/Sonic_Maker.rar

Also, I am aware that the last Green Hill tile is repeated many times.

This post has been edited by Sonica: 21 April 2010 - 02:23 PM

[Selbi]

Why did you make this with VB 2010? .NET Framework 4.0 is the gayness (at least on the current days).

EDIT:
It's pretty nice designed so far, the only I need to complain about is the object and chunk placement. Instead of clicking on it so it apperas at the top left corner is kinda annoying. I would prefer to simply drag'n'drop the object I want from the selection list to the spot I want it.

This post has been edited by Selbi: 21 April 2010 - 03:34 PM

[Solaris Paradox]

EDIT:

Yeah, I'm definitely going to like this thing once it's operational. Very user-friendly, and with the right additions could make actual technical knowledge an extravagance when it comes to fangame-making. (Granted that'd result in a lot more LittleBigPlanet Syndrome, I.e. more crappy fangames, but...)

I whipped up a little level chunk of what I imaging the start of my own fangame would look like:

http://i916.photobucket.com/albums/ad9/Sol...lCoastTest1.png

http://i916.photobucket.com/albums/ad9/Sol...lCoastTest2.png

http://i916.photobucket.com/albums/ad9/Sol...lCoastTest3.png

Unfortunately screencaps are the best I can do; this demo lacks a save feature. =P

One thing I noticed is that it's impossible to place objects beneath the contents of a tile without the object being totally invisible: the empty spaces within a tile count as part of the tile itself, and thus everything "beneath" the empty space is invisible. So I can't hide monitors in palm trees, nor place a tile on top of another tile to make more complex level designs by combining level chunks. Ideally, the empty space (through which the grid and background are visible) should also allow one to see the tiles and objects beneath that tile as well.

Also it's kind of annoying how every new tile you select appears at the very top corner of the level, requiring you to drag it to wherever you want it to be. Quite tiresome during ring-placement especially. Also, it'd be cool if you could select and move multiple tiles at once.

EDIT 2: Also, I notice there's currently no tab for enemy placement...?

This post has been edited by Solaris Paradox: 21 April 2010 - 04:08 PM

[RGamer2009]

I have died and gone to heaven. Thank you VERY MUCH.

Shame I can't save or at the very least test the layout...

[HighFrictionZone]

This program does not run on linux. Attempting to run it using WINE just gives the error that I need mono (or .NET), and attempting to run it with linux native mono (whatever version is most recent in the Debian Unstable repositories) gives errors. I am attempting to get the windows version of mono inside of WINE and see if that fares any better, but I doubt it.

CODE

philbert@lappy2-debian:~/Desktop$ wine SonicGameCreator.exe
install the Windows version of Mono to run .NET executables
philbert@lappy2-debian:~/Desktop$ mono SonicGameCreator.exe
WARNING: The runtime version supported by this application is unavailable.
Using default runtime: v1.1.4322

** (SonicGameCreator.exe:22963): WARNING **: The following assembly referenced from /home/philbert/Desktop/SonicGameCreator.exe could not be loaded:
     Assembly:   Microsoft.VisualBasic    (assemblyref_index=1)
     Version:    10.0.0.0
     Public Key: b03f5f7f11d50a3a
The assembly was not found in the Global Assembly Cache, a path listed in the MONO_PATH environment variable, or in the location of the executing assembly (/home/philbert/Desktop/).


** (SonicGameCreator.exe:22963): WARNING **: Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.VisualBasic, Version=10.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a' or one of its dependencies.
The entry point method could not be loaded

[Conan Kudo]

This program does not run on linux. Attempting to run it using WINE just gives the error that I need mono (or .NET), and attempting to run it with linux native mono (whatever version is most recent in the Debian Unstable repositories) gives errors. I am attempting to get the windows version of mono inside of WINE and see if that fares any better, but I doubt it.

CODE

philbert@lappy2-debian:~/Desktop$ wine SonicGameCreator.exe
install the Windows version of Mono to run .NET executables
philbert@lappy2-debian:~/Desktop$ mono SonicGameCreator.exe
WARNING: The runtime version supported by this application is unavailable.
Using default runtime: v1.1.4322

** (SonicGameCreator.exe:22963): WARNING **: The following assembly referenced from /home/philbert/Desktop/SonicGameCreator.exe could not be loaded:
     Assembly:   Microsoft.VisualBasic    (assemblyref_index=1)
     Version:    10.0.0.0
     Public Key: b03f5f7f11d50a3a
The assembly was not found in the Global Assembly Cache, a path listed in the MONO_PATH environment variable, or in the location of the executing assembly (/home/philbert/Desktop/).


** (SonicGameCreator.exe:22963): WARNING **: Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.VisualBasic, Version=10.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a' or one of its dependencies.
The entry point method could not be loaded

According to that, it was compiled with Visual Basic 2010. Mono only supports Visual Basic 8.0 language features, and some of Visual Basic 9.0 features.
The .NET framework support level is 2.0, with patches of 3.0 and higher.

To run it in Wine, you need to install Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0.

This post has been edited by King InuYasha: 22 April 2010 - 10:07 AM

[Lapper]

Visual basic 10 is what it was compiled in, because my VB9 'app properties' editor is non-existent.

EDIT:

Yeah, I'm definitely going to like this thing once it's operational. Very user-friendly, and with the right additions could make actual technical knowledge an extravagance when it comes to fangame-making. (Granted that'd result in a lot more LittleBigPlanet Syndrome, I.e. more crappy fangames, but...)

I whipped up a little level chunk of what I imaging the start of my own fangame would look like:

http://i916.photobucket.com/albums/ad9/Sol...lCoastTest1.png

http://i916.photobucket.com/albums/ad9/Sol...lCoastTest2.png

http://i916.photobucket.com/albums/ad9/Sol...lCoastTest3.png

Unfortunately screencaps are the best I can do; this demo lacks a save feature. =P

One thing I noticed is that it's impossible to place objects beneath the contents of a tile without the object being totally invisible: the empty spaces within a tile count as part of the tile itself, and thus everything "beneath" the empty space is invisible. So I can't hide monitors in palm trees, nor place a tile on top of another tile to make more complex level designs by combining level chunks. Ideally, the empty space (through which the grid and background are visible) should also allow one to see the tiles and objects beneath that tile as well.

Also it's kind of annoying how every new tile you select appears at the very top corner of the level, requiring you to drag it to wherever you want it to be. Quite tiresome during ring-placement especially. Also, it'd be cool if you could select and move multiple tiles at once.

EDIT 2: Also, I notice there's currently no tab for enemy placement...?

Umm, the like layering is a toughy.. but I guess it's going to have to happen soon.

Dragging would be very interesting, also selecting a tile and ject clicking on the layout is an option.

This post has been edited by Sonica: 22 April 2010 - 10:17 AM

[Solaris Paradox]

Umm, the like layering is a toughy.. but I guess it's going to have to happen soon.

Dragging would be very interesting, also selecting a tile and ject clicking on the layout is an option.

Another option is to have the tile or object you choose appear on the top corner of the portion of the grid the user is presently on, rather than simply on the top corner of the grid itself.

[Lapper]

I'm pretty sure I've done that! I'll have a look...

Also, implemented 'new game' function. :S

Edit:
I'm pretty sure I've done that! I'll have a look...
Yes, I have.

Well, It works for me, anyway.

Edit 2:
Adding labels to all tiles and objects, even the metablocks. o_0

This post has been edited by Sonica: 22 April 2010 - 11:02 AM

[Solaris Paradox]

I'm pretty sure I've done that! I'll have a look...

Also, implemented 'new game' function. :S

Edit:
I'm pretty sure I've done that! I'll have a look...
Yes, I have.

Well, It works for me, anyway.

Edit 2:
Adding labels to all tiles and objects, even the metablocks. o_0

"Metablocks?"

Pardon my ignorance, but I'm not sure what that means.

[Afti]

A tile in an 8x8. A block is 16x16, made of four tiles. A chunk is 128x128 or 256x256, made of an asston of blocks.

I would guess that, from that grid, he is referring to metablocks as an intermediate between the block and the chunk. Since he doesn't need to fit as much as possible in very little RAM, this makes sense; he doesn't need to build levels with 256x256 monsters, and a 32x32 maintains convenience without limiting options the way a 256x256 system does, wherein measurable chunks of level (roughly 3/4 a screen, horizontally, if 256x256) are repeated.