Point and Click Engine/Editor

[DeltaF1]

I'm currently writing the groundwork for a simple point-and-click engine thing in LOVE. My idea is that someone will install the engine, and then download games from the internet to run. These games would include lua files describing scenes, dialogue, etc. and all the art assets included.

I'm realizing I'll have to make an editor to generate the scene files, since writing them by hand would take way too long, and be awkward to say the least. My question is, should I write the editor in LOVE, or should I write an external program in .NET? I would write it in LOVE, but I haven't had a lot of success using GUI libraries. Does anyone have a suggestion for a LOVE GUI library to use, or a non-LOVE system to use? Thanks

[kbmonkey]

This idea sounds very adventurous, pun intended

My idea is that someone will install the engine, and then download games from the internet to run.

Would the engine provide the UI to download these games? If your engine does not come bundled with each game (as it sounds like), then you will have to approach versioning too - functionality in your engine will change over time and backwards compatibility is important.

I'm realizing I'll have to make an editor to generate the scene files, since writing them by hand would take way too long, and be awkward to say the least.

The thing about adventure games is, each is so unique that trying to generalize them through an editor is a very, very high target. You will need scripting as you mentioned, Lua. But the balance of how much editor-scripting vs coding the game directly in Love, makes it worthwhile to build such an editor?

My question is, should I write the editor in LOVE, or should I write an external program in .NET? I would write it in LOVE, but I haven't had a lot of success using GUI libraries. Does anyone have a suggestion for a LOVE GUI library to use, or a non-LOVE system to use?

Fixing to a platform specific framework like .Net will only alienate some users. Yes there is Mono, but a lot of folks do not even go there - why limit yourself?

The one adventure system I know of that comes close is http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk (the editor is written in .Net), however the engine is ported to a bunch of platforms. So if you wanted to make a LOVE engine port, the editor is already there for your use!

Don't fret, I am not discouraging you! In fact adventure games are great, we Love them and need more people to make them

In fact I started on my own adventure game engine for Love, a couple months back (after a rampant 48 hour Ludum Dare entry). However it is not an editor-based engine - You still need to code your game in pure Love.

Thanks

You're welcome

[DeltaF1]

Thanks for all the feedback!

I think I'm going to write the editor in Qt. It gives me a chance to learn C++ and is cross-platform.

I have a mockup of my editor in paint The idea is that the editor will load from and save to a lua file, that can be read by the engine written in LOVE. You'll be able to edit the trigger/effect functions on the fly. I don't think there's any point to sandboxing this, do you think I should sandbox the loading of the scene files?



In this example, a variable "plantPot1" would be created in the scene file, with the specified position, scale, rotation, and functions. Elements in general won't have functions, but instead there will be "triggers" (what you called "hotspots" in SLIME) with functions that fire when triggered.

Well, on to Qt I go!

[kbmonkey]

I should have mentioned that the Löve Frames UI library is pretty neat to use. Plenty controls and easier than expected. Just separate your UI-building code from your logic and all is dandy.

Qt is also a very good choice I will be watching out for updates!

[dusoft]

I'm currently writing the groundwork for a simple point-and-click engine thing in LOVE. My idea is that someone will install the engine, and then download games from the internet to run. These games would include lua files describing scenes, dialogue, etc. and all the art assets included.

I'm realizing I'll have to make an editor to generate the scene files, since writing them by hand would take way too long, and be awkward to say the least. My question is, should I write the editor in LOVE, or should I write an external program in .NET? I would write it in LOVE, but I haven't had a lot of success using GUI libraries. Does anyone have a suggestion for a LOVE GUI library to use, or a non-LOVE system to use? Thanks

Hello, has anything come out of your engine?