BABS
The concept
BABS (which literally means BAby Battle System) was intended to be an exceedingly simple framework for a Shining-style engine. It was completed on 28 December 2001, and it was written with Verge 2 for Windows (a.k.a. WinV2). BABS is as barebone as a battle engine can be, featuring stone-age graphics as the focus was more laid on stability and ease of tinkering. Back when the project was out it turned out to be exceedingly stable, especially when compared to the releases of The Shiny Sword up til then. Like The SSC, BABS is completely open-source. Even the graphics (as if you wanted to ;) may be ripped!
Even though BABS contains pretty detailed documentation, it is not as customizable to make it totally easy for everyone, but if you’re a little experienced with programming, you should be able to tinker with most things. I’ve uploaded the manual as well, in case you want to browse it before downloading the game. You’ll find it on the menu on the left.
The future of BABS
The current version of BABS is final. It will not be updated unless there is significant demand for it (like someone actually using it and wanting new features :). Does that mean that BABS is dead? Not in the slightest! I’m always willing to lend out a helping hand, and moreover the features and usability of BABS will be recoded into the main SSC project. Hopefully the main project will run BABS totally obsolete one day…
Known feedback
very nice by x3r0 – 04/11/2002, 10:16pm
“although the graphics sucked majorly… that wasnt the point of the battle demo… the battle system kicked ass! from what I could tell there were no bugs and the AI seemed to work perfectly.”
(rated 4 stars out of 5)
Screen shots
Here are two screen shots of BABS, to give you a small impression. However, once more I’ll mention that BABS wasn’t about the graphics obviously. :p
BABS main screen
This is what you see on startup.
BABS fireball battle scene
BABS fully in action here. The fireball moves as the screen flikkers between more and less reddish colors.
