It’s been a while since The Engine of Chaos was released, but Chaoswizard98 has been hard at work on improving it in just about every conceivable way.
Here’s a few of the changes that will be in the next version:
Windows are drawn relative to screen position now to make changing internal resolution easier. tile_size is now a variable, so you’re not limited to 24×24. Setting a character to start at level 20 will automatically figure out their level 20 stats based off of level scheme.
Support for shaders, AI / Story flags, swapping control from Max to Bowie, having more than 1 party (SFCD party split), limited quantity shops, dynamic menus (once an event is made (such as ‘promote’) you can plug that option into whatever menu you want), More decisions other than Yes/No (Truth / Lie, ‘maybe’, ‘warrior / mage / healer’, whatever you want really).
The site actually turned 20 on August 10th, but it wouldn’t be TSS if we were on time ;)
Things have changed a lot since those early days. But even though the Shining Force front is quiet (come on Sega, re-release SF3 already) there are still new shining-style projects being developed.
TSS would not be what it is today without everyone that has visited us over the years. Whether you downloaded a demo, created your own, or just sent us an email calling us shit, we are eternally thankful for you.
Finally I’d like to thank Devlyn for giving life to the site all those years ago. And thank you to some of our original contributors: Edgemaster, Elvenfyre, and Newts. You all helped turn this place into something special.
Stay safe, drink applesap, and keep on Shining. Here’s to another 20 years!
War of Velana is a project we first talked about back in October. Since then there have been some exciting updates, including a demo release!
There are new NPC’s, new maps, and new Chapters in development. Here’s a peek at some of the updated sprite artwork:
Speaking of those animations, with the new character art, there are a lot of sprite design changes that are taking place to have the characters look a lot closer to their official designs. Here are some before and after comparisons of the main cast.
The maps are also looking great:
If you want to keep up with development, updates are posted on the War of Velana Devblog.
But enough talk, go grab the demo and leave some feedback!
Instead of boring words about half-finished code I’m working on, have some screenshots of half-working features!
Click to view the animated “GIVE” process.
Tooltips have been tidied up since that gif was created:
Who doesn’t love a good drop shadow?
And finally, here’s a look at a Cody targeting some enemies in a test battle
I really need to fix the gaps created by my dodgy window rendering code.
Battle mode is coming along nicely. Characters can be spawned in specific areas, so it’s possible to have the team split into multiple sections. Enemies can be targeted, and land effects and movement are working.
The next step is getting attack animations working, and then there might actually be something approaching a playable battle. Finally!
The above screenshot is from the very first town in the next Shining Online demo. Like other Shining Force games, you start alone and have to recruit a team before you can venture into the wide open world.
All of the above is handled by a little bit of lispy-script:
There are a lot of TODO entries in the source code
Shining Online uses a custom lisp engine for scripting, and has an entity + component system for managing in-game objects. Entities can be anything from characters walking around to hidden triggers or spawn zones.
So far this setup is working really well. Entities can have scripts attached to them, and it’s possible to add components to entities via script. I’m not 100% happy with how inspecting works; it’s far too complicated for what it is, but it works so I’m trying to leave it alone.
In development
I’m currently working through milestone 3 – items. At this point it’s mostly UI work that is left. It’s not one of my strong points, but it’s slowly getting there. My aim is to have it all complete by the end of the month so that I can start on shops and the priest.
The main screen for managing items looks like this
Apologies for the placeholder portrait
I’m not totally happy with the tooltip yet, but it’s pretty close to what I’m aiming for. Giving items to other characters works, but the table needs updating with stat changes. Equipping items and armor is getting a slight revamp, but should be working by the time March rolls around.
I’m looking forward to working on something a little more fun.
