Update the website
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@ -22,7 +22,23 @@ make a custom doodad, and there (will be) some example doodads you can build
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This game is still in **alpha release mode** and it has a few major features
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still to add.
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## Inspiration
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# _Sketchy Maze_ is a "Forever Project"
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I have a list of features I _really_ want for the "1.0" launch of the game, but
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I'll plan on continuing development for as long as I find it interesting and will
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release free updates to everybody who buys the game just once.
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I've always wanted to make a videogame, and always liked to learn about game
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design and everything, but never actually made anything worthwhile until
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_Sketchy Maze._ Over time, I realized that I don't actually want to build
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"a video game," what I wanted was a game _project_. Something I could just work
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on and add features to, more of a game "platform," something long-term like
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Minecraft.
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This page describes the initial set of features planned for the 1.0 and some
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ideas I have kicking around further down the road if all goes well.
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# Inspiration
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I'm a 90's kid, and when I was growing up in the era of Sega Genesys and Super
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Nintendo games, I used to like to draw my own maps on paper of a 2D platformer
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@ -41,13 +57,13 @@ do the job and you can draw whatever shape you want for your level hazards.
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## Mod Friendly
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# Mod Friendly
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While the game ships with a [handful of built-in doodads](doodads.md) to
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While the game ships with a [handful of built-in doodads](/guidebook/doodads.html) to
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spice up your level, you can also create your own and program them to do
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whatever you want, with JavaScript!
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## See Also
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# See Also
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For more information about _Sketchy Maze_, please see the following links:
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112
content/faq.md
112
content/faq.md
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@ -26,11 +26,33 @@ _Sketchy Maze_ is first and foremost a videogame for **desktop operating systems
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It should run on any GNU/Linux, Microsoft Windows or Apple macOS computer.
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If you're feeling dangerous, you can also run it on GNU/Linux smartphone devices
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like the Purism Librem 5 or Pine64 Pinephone.
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like the Purism Librem 5 or Pine64 Pinephone. Mobile ports are _relatively_
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down on the priority list, but it already _sorta_ functions.
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See the [Download](/download) page.
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# Pricing
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## Do I need to learn how to program?
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Nope! You can just draw some levels and use pre-made doodads in them. The "1.0"
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version of the game is expected to include a proper set of single player levels
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that can simply be _played_ so you don't even need to draw your own level if
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you're not feeling creative.
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## The user interface is ugly!
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I find the "Windows 95" look charming.
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The good thing about the user interface is that it's released as a
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[free and open source](#is-this-game-open-source) module. Eventually I plan to
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build theming support into the UI toolkit, and _Sketchy Maze_ will automatically
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look awesome.
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I developed my UI toolkit from scratch, and the "Windows 95" look is _very_ easy
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to program. A button is just a handful of rectangles drawn on top of each other
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with offsets to provide the "3D look" and I found it preferable to make the UI
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toolkit _look how it acts_ until I was confident I did it right.
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# Pricing and Distribution
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## Is this game free?
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@ -56,3 +78,89 @@ Paid versions of the game will include _additional_ features such as:
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sharing with other players.
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* Possibly some access to online account features (in-game UI to share and
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download levels and doodads made by others, etc.)
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It is expected that the full set of built-in doodads will be equally available
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in free versions of the game. And these doodads should be varied and featureful
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enough to create all sorts of custom and creative levels, which can be shared
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with other players.
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## Will the game feature any form of Digital Rights Management (DRM)?
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I hate DRM, so I don't expect so.
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## Will this game be available on Steam?
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I haven't decided yet. I think I could try and distribute the game myself first.
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It's gonna be in beta for some time and I can see if it attracts a cult following
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along the way.
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# Technicals
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## What is this game built with?
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_Sketchy Maze_ runs on a custom game engine, built from the ground up, in the
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[Go](https://golang.org) programming language using [SDL2](https://www.libsdl.org/) for graphics via [veandco/go-sdl2](https://github.com/veandco/go-sdl2) bindings for Go.
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While the game itself is not open source, some of its critical components are released as free and open source projects that other developers can use in their projects.
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## Is this game open source?
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Parts of it are!
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_Sketchy Maze_ was built from the ground up using little more than
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[SDL2](https://www.libsdl.org/) which lets you plot pixels on a screen. While
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I was designing the game, I thought it'd be a good idea to write an abstraction
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layer between low-level SDL2 functions and give me a clean, Go-like API to work
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with that keeps my code from either _depending_ too much on SDL or for my Go
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code to be written too C-like to work with it.
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So I built my own [render](https://git.kirsle.net/go/render) library that
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abstracts around SDL2 for desktops and HTML5 Canvas elements for WebAssembly,
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and my game needed UI buttons so I wrote a [UI toolkit](https://git.kirsle.net/go/ui)
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which provides Labels, Buttons, Menus, Windows, and all sorts of useful widgets
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to draw my user interface with.
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Here are a list of open source projects created **as a part of** development of
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_Sketchy Maze_ which should be generally useful to any Go developers for making
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some simple graphical applications.
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* [go/render](https://git.kirsle.net/go/render): Render engine supporting SDL2
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(native apps) and HTML Canvas (WebAssembly) targets.
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* [go/ui](https://git.kirsle.net/go/ui): Go UI toolkit for adding labels, buttons,
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windows, menus, and more widgets and arranging them sanely in frames with an
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API like Tcl/Tk. It uses go/render so can also target WebAssembly.
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* [go/audio](https://git.kirsle.net/go/audio): Simple audio abstraction which can load and play music or sound effects, currently only SDL2 supported.
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GitHub mirrors of the above:
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* [go/render](https://github.com/kirsle/render)
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* [go/ui](https://github.com/kirsle/ui)
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Also this website, the user guidebook, and other things with the game are
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readable as open source code, at https://code.sketchymaze.com/
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## Wait, does _Sketchy Maze_ have a WebAssembly port?
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Sure does! But performance isn't great yet, and I'm not sure whether WebAssembly
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support in web browsers needs to get better or if I need to tighten up my code.
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There _is_ a lot of room for optimization in my UI toolkit, to minimize the number
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of draw calls per tick.
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One day I might have a "demo this game right in your web browser" feature with a
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(probably stripped-down) version of the game built for WebAssembly. So far, though,
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it just freezes web browsers frequently and I'm not letting you see it yet.
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## Is it coming to Android or iOS?
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These are relatively low on the priority list; maybe after the 1.0 release is
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feature-complete I'll work on making the game work on mobile phones.
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Already the game _sort of_ functions on GNU/Linux smartphones such as the
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Pinephone. This phone has a 720x1280 pixel display and _most_ of the UI buttons
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are usable in the level editor, doodads can be dragged onto levels, etc.; its
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current biggest issue is with the on-screen keyboard app not being able to press
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two keys simultaneously (like to move and jump at the same time).
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An Android port would likely be the first one _after_ testing on the Pinephone
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to get a touch-friendly user interface going. This game mainly just uses SDL2
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which is good for portability!
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@ -9,4 +9,115 @@ before the game leaves "alpha" status.
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TBD.
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# _Sketchy Maze_ is a "Forever Project"
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I have a list of features I _really_ want for the "1.0" launch of the game, but
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I'll plan on continuing development for as long as I find it interesting and will
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release free updates to everybody who buys the game just once.
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I've always wanted to make a videogame, and always liked to learn about game
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design and everything, but never actually made anything worthwhile until
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_Sketchy Maze._ Over time, I realized that I don't actually want to build
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"a video game," what I wanted was a game _project_. Something I could just work
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on and add features to, more of a game "platform," something long-term like
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Minecraft.
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This page describes the initial set of features planned for the 1.0 and some
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ideas I have kicking around further down the road if all goes well.
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# 1.0 Features
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The expected feature list for the "1.0" version of the game, and how
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far along I am.
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## Level & Doodad Editor
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The level editor should include basic drawing tools:
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* **Features:**
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* [x] Easily switch between Play Mode and Edit Mode to test your level.
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* [x] Draw your own pixels anywhere you want.
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* _Should_ be pixel-perfect collision detection, though Boy has a hitbox
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that could use some trimming.
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* [x] Editable Palette to add and modify colors.
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* **Drawing tools:**
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* [x] Freehand
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* [x] Line
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* [x] Rectangle
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* [x] Ellipse
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* [x] Eraser
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* [x] Undo/Redo
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* [ ] Zoom In/Out ([--experimental](/guidebook/experimental.html))
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* **Level Sizes:**
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* [x] Bounded levels (0,0 to 2550,3300)
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* [ ] Custom width/height for Bounded (just needs UI work)
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* [x] No Negative Space: infinitely big levels which still have a
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top-left corner bounded at (0,0)
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* [x] Unbounded: infinitely large levels with no corners.
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* [ ] Bordered: a bounded level where the top and left decorations
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wrap around on the bottom and right sides too.
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* **Wallpaper Themes:**
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* [x] Notebook: standard blue ruled notebook paper.
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* [x] Blueprint: dark blueprint paper.
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* [x] Legal pad: yellow legal pad with blue and red lines.
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* [ ] Blank sheet: a texture of a blank white sheet of paper.
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* [ ] Grid paper: a white page with grid pattern.
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* [x] Pure white: just a solid white background with no texture.
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* [ ] Placemat: a wavy pattern meant to decorate all four sides of a
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Bordered map.
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* [ ] Custom Wallpaper: users will be able to bundle a custom
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wallpaper texture inside their level file.
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* **Doodad Editor:**
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## Doodads Editor
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## Single Player Campaign
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The game is expected to come with a series of proper levels built-in which
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are played in sequence and has some kind of interconnected story or
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something. Currently you get some tutorial levels.
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* **Single Player Campaign:**
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* [ ]
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* **Polish:**
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* The platforming physics will be better. Currently the character gets
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stick walking up sloped surfaces, _especially_ moving Left (but not as
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much moving Right).
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* [ ] Checkbox?
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# Current Doodads
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The current list of doodads built-in with the game can be found in the
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[guidebook](/guidebook/doodads.html). For the exhaustive list so far, we have:
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* **Bird:** a red bird that flies back and forth and can be ridden on.
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* **Button:** sends a power on/off signal to a linked doodad.
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* **Colored Doors & Keys:** four pairs of locks and matching keys.
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* **Crumbly Floor:** a break-away floor.
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* **Electric Door:** a closed door that only opens when it's powered.
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* **Red Azulian:** test mob.
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* **Small Key Doors:** locked doors and keys that are consumed each time
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a door is unlocked.
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* **Start & End Flags:** set the player spawn point and level goal.
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* **State Blocks:** blue and orange blocks that toggle from solid to
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passable.
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* **State Button:** on/off switch that globally toggles state blocks.
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* **Switches:** toggle electric doors open or closed or provide power
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on/off to other doodads.
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* **Trapdoors:** one-way passages (all four directions).
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* **Warp Doors:** for fast travel around the map between any two linked
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Warp Doors.
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* **Warp Doors (Blue & Orange):** boolean state versions of Warp Doors,
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which may only be entered while the door is active.
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Some hidden doodads that you can activate with cheat codes, but which
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don't **do** very much because they were for the player character:
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* **Boy:** the player character in a blue hoodie.
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* **Blue Azulian:** the original placeholder character, a blue version of
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the Red Azulian.
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(For that cheat code, try entering "boolProp showAllDoodads true" into
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the developer console **before** opening the Level Editor, and they will
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be available in the Doodads palette with the others).
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