[B4] The ClockWork Engine (prev. Knytt Environment)

The ClockWork Engine Beta4 is currently in testing. In the meantime,

Download Knytt Environment Beta3

Hiya!
I have been making this game recently in Game Maker 8. The premise is a game which can be fully customized, and can use 'worlds', much like KS. It does not use a level editor, instead it uses a series of PNG images and a settings INI file. Please note that this game CANNOT be run using a shortcut, as it will then look for the worlds folder wherever the shortcut is.

I have moved editing support, etc. to the readme file to prevent an overly long post
Current Features:

• Supports Background (KS layers 0-3), Collision and a foreground.
• Level select menu with capacity for 12 levels (scrolling action), including an icon for each level.
• Background Music
• Customizable GUI for the menu
• Customizable player sprite
• Customizable window size
• New level!
• Source Included!

• title screen!
• Save System

To-Do list

• If you can think of anything else that you think should be incorporated, post it!

• choice between scrolling and still-frame
• powerups (possibly)

The save system is not currently perfect, so to save you simply have to press down. When you next press 'continue', you will be in exactly the same spot.
RC1 will be a while off, as i will be building it from scratch, to get rid of unnecessary code, etc.


I have PM'd Nifflas about the usage of juni, If he declines, I will replace it ASAP.


EDIT: oh yeah, Depending on how well I can get some programs working, I might be able to make a port of this  onto Wii homebrew  
EDIT2: Programs aren't quite as useful as I had planned, so the port will not support external levels. I will set up a collaboration for the level design for the wii port
EDIT3: Programs are really useless, as it turns out. The wii port still might happen, but I'm gonna gave to learn myself some proper C

Screens?

I can't try it right now, but

Please note that this game CANNOT be run using a shortcut, as it will then look for the worlds folder wherever the shortcut is.

You can use a shortcut, just make sure the working directory is set to the game folder.

You can use a shortcut, just make sure the working directory is set to the game folder.

Not that I know of. I am currently using working_directory, which returns the folder from which the application was launched from. In the final release i will revert this to program_directory, which will not have this problem, however it will not return the working drectory when being tested in game maker.

Screenies on the way!

^ I meant the shortcut's working directory (I think it's the 'From:' field in the shortcut's properties).

Anyway, tried the game and it looks alright. I don't know much about Game Maker, but I read that it's not as powerful as MMF2; what did you plan to include in game, in terms of active elements? Also, regarding the Wii port, does Game Maker provide functions to export games to some compilable language or something like that?

Unfortunately not. I was planning on using Wii Game studio, but in case that don't work out, I'm learning myself a bit of C

nice idea. I'll download it

^ I meant the shortcut's working directory (I think it's the 'From:' field in the shortcut's properties).

Anyway, tried the game and it looks alright. I don't know much about Game Maker, but I read that it's not as powerful as MMF2; what did you plan to include in game, in terms of active elements? Also, regarding the Wii port, does Game Maker provide functions to export games to some compilable language or something like that?

Not so sure about that...

By the way, AClockworkLemon, nice work!

Thanks!

Does anyone else have any thoughts on this? are there any other thing that should be implemented?
Oh, BTW, If someone could work out how do get a good jumping animation going, that wold be great!

This is great for players that dont want to use juni.


It seems we are missing some Knytt Stories features aswell.....

•Save points
•Power ups
•Power collected screen
•Jumping animation

Besides those I feel though that people can play as a different character besides juni now.
I should work on the player from "Knytt".

I am about to tart work on save points, shouldn't be too hard. At the moment I am trying to steer away from powerups, I might implement them in a later release. As for the jumping animation, I'm having difficulty I will try and get it working for Beta3

EDIT: The main problem with powerups is that you would have to specify all the x and y co-ords in the ini file. I'm trying not to make the ini file to complicated, but i'll give it a go

EDIT: Just got the jumping animation working rather well. It will be included in Beta3 (which might be a little while off, as I've got 3500 words due next week)

Wouldn`t it be cool to add special power ups for special characters?
If you use Juni -->  , for instance, you are able to jump very High but not that far.
With the Knyttbarn --> you are a really bad jumper but you can climp up walls.
And with a third character you can perform a dubble jump, which can bring you straight forward but not high enoug to reach certain platforms...

You could create levels for the special characters which would be very cool.
I really like the idea behind Knytt Environment but to be able to stand alone it should have some unique features. =)

OK! I need some user input here....
What would you prefer for a savepoint engine?

• An invisible collision mask that allows you to save whilst within it
• Savepoints with customizable sprites which are placed using the .ini file

Up to you =)

@@Vinterrun
 Maybe not in beta3, but in a later release, the editor will be able to, if they wish, specify custom jump/speed/etc variables in the .ini

Visually quite striking, so far. But it's very small - or is it possible to climb/jump higher and actually get past that small area?

Nah, that's the whole thing. It's only the beta release level, though. Hopefully with the help of some people from here, I can get a nice big level on it. I'm just about to PM PickYerPoison to ask if I can make A KE version of 'outer reaches'! Hopefully he wont mind...

Check the to-do list