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BABS 2.25 released ;)

A heap of updates in this one, here’s a small list:

  • Improved spell support
    • Added Heal 1-2, Blaze 1-3 and Bolt 1-2
    • Added support for 4 spells per character
  • Implemented a VERY basic AI.
    • AI will walk randomly within range and then attack whenever possible. You can enable it for any entity by setting “(entitynumber).ai=1” in the accompanying entityfile.
  • Battle talk option
  • Optimized Smee tile editor
    • Improved import tileset and load new tileset features.
    • Right mouse button can also hold a color now.
  • Fixed the messy SMEE GUI on startup
  • Enhanced hit point display in combat
  • Additional battle backgrounds and land types :)

You can already see the screenshots below and the download link waay above. It’s still more or less a beta version, so any feedback is certainly appreciated!

I hope you guys will like it :)

More BABS screenshots

Today I spent a lot of work completing the spell support and adding AI to BABS, so that you can also fight computer-controlled players in the battles.

Making screenshots of AI tends to be rather hard, but I can show you some stuff from the spells:


Choose different spells, and with different spell levels using a temporary (and ugly) interface ;)


Torture thy enemies with fire straight from the Paint Shop Pro clipart library (which in fact is worse than the Abyss)!

Stay tuned for a beta release containing these features. The engine gets along nicely all in all, but I really do need some more testing and bug reports in order to get the stuff reliable :)

BABS update + screenshot

Yesterday and today I added a lot of new features to BABS, but I decided to wait with the release until there are more graphics around for me to use (or until I made more stuff, in case nobody helps).

Here’s a listing of what I added (among other things):

  • Added a battle talk option like in Shining Force 3. Events can be hooked up to talking opponents.
  • Optimized Smee tile editor
    • Improved import tileset and load new tileset features.
    • Right mouse button can also hold a color now.
    • Added bucket fill to the tile editor.
  • Fixed the messy SMEE interface bug on startup
  • Improved the spell support
    • Added Blaze level 2 and Bolt level 1.
    • Added support for huge range and huge area spells (see screenshot).
    • Made some very poor spell animations ;)

Thought this would be an interesting sight to see :P

Anyway, I can most certainly use help in the mapping, spritemaking and animation department, as I’m very short on graphics.

Also, I’ll be gone from tomorrow until Sunday, so if I happen to be silent, that is probably the cause :)

BABS 2.10 out!

I just uploaded a fresh version of BABS. Here is what I changed :)

Updates from 2.01

  • Added Walkabout map support. You can now link battle maps to walkabout maps and vice versa!
  • Added a rudimentary zone editor in SMEE. Press ‘5’ to switch to the zoning mode. Selecting different tiles on the right will change the active zone number. Zones with a number greater than 0 will be represented in Smee with a special cross mark. The current tile indicator displays the active zone number.
  • Added some basics for the events system. Every zone can be linked to an event through some code in the accompanying scriptfile. The only working event right now is a Map Switch, which can be coded in a script file like this:


    zone.(number).type=mapswitch
    zone.(number).target=(mapname without the .smf extension)

    Note that zones and events only work in walkabout maps at the moment. Support for them in battle maps might arrive later on.

  • You can’t only switch maps now, but also have different music with each map. Just edit the “general.music” flag in the scriptfile.
  • Fixed a bug where maps were slightly misaligned after map switches or loading
  • Fixed the Resize tool (thanks to Zylokh for noticing this one!).
  • Slightly improved the error output of both programs.
  • Did some small code cleanup.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Zylokh, Elvenfyre, Peter van Dalen and Ranges (even though I haven’t had much time tofix the bugs he reported yet) for their ongoing support :)

I hope you’ll enjoy the program! I’m still quite short on tiles, maps and sprites, so if you like, feel free to make some and send them to me :D

BABS 2.01 out :)

Hi guys,

Just replaced the BABS 2.0 release with a BABS 2.01 release. It only has two changes, but I think they’re quite vital!

First of all, I added support for linking multiple battles together. Finishing your first battle will lead you to the next map as defined in the (mapname).scriptfile file :).

I decided to release this right away, because this feature sort of enables you to make ‘Tatakai’-like games, where one battle follows up another. Support for town and walkabout scenes will follow later, but expect that to be highly Shining Force 2-like :P.

With that being said, I am hereby going to launch a contest!

I would like you guys to make your own battle scenes, which means the following:

  • Make a full map with SMEE (the map editor), either using the existing tileset or using your own!
  • Fill in a proper entityfile that contains the participants of your battle.
  • If you like, feel free to use custom sprites and battle animations. Ripping them from somewhere else is fine with me too, but let me know where stuff came from!
  • Custom music is allowed too, just send a single midi file along then :)

Put all your custom files in a .zip archive and e-mail it to djgroen@science.uva.nl

The contest closes at March, 10th because I really can’t wait much longer to release the next update :P.

All decent maps will make it to the next BABS release, and the winning battle map will be featured in the actual SSC game! :D

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