355 lines
16 KiB
Markdown
355 lines
16 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: "Frequently Asked Questions"
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draft: false
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toc: true
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---
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About Sketchy Maze.
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# General
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## What is _Sketchy Maze?_
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It is a "drawing-based maze game" themed around hand-drawn maps on paper.
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It's one part 'yet another 2D platformer game', one part 'Mario Maker but you can
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make whatever you want', and part educational game in that it might help teach
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someone to code so they can program their own custom doodads to use with their
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levels.
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With _Sketchy Maze_, you may draw your own levels and then play them as a
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side-scrolling platformer game. You may draw maps freehand or with some basic
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drawing tools (like rectangles and ellipses), specify which color lines are
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"solid" and which behave like "fire" or "water," and then drag and drop various
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"doodads" such as buttons and doors onto your map to add some interactive elements.
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If you're not much of a level designer, fear not! The game will also feature some
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built-in levels that you can play and get some inspiration from. You will
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also be able to play custom maps created by others, which may come with their
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own custom doodads attached ([details](/register)).
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## What devices can I play it on?
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_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. It also
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happens to run on Linux smartphones and is mostly playable at screen resolutions as
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narrow as 375x750.
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I currently package releases of the game for:
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* **Windows** (64-bit and 32-bit)
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* **Mac OS** (Intel 64-bit only for now!)
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* **GNU/Linux**
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* Flatpak (x86_64 and aarch64) should work across all modern Linux distributions.
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* Native packages (x86_64, i386, and aarch64) for Fedora-likes (.rpm) and Debian-likes (.deb) and .tar.gz
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* Works on Linux smartphones like the Pinephone and Librem 5!
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Some places I could see it going in the future:
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* **Android:** I saw an [example app](https://github.com/veandco/go-sdl2-examples/tree/master/examples/android)
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how to run a Go SDL2 program like mine on Android but its documentation seems outdated and I haven't
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figured it out yet. I'm using my Pinephone to plan a mobile/touch friendly UI but Android is a
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likely target at some point.
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* The **[Steam Deck](https://store.steampowered.com/steamdeck/):** _Sketchy Maze_ has some joystick
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control support and with a little more love this Nintendo Switch-like device could be an amazing
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host to my game! I don't own a Deck but try and see if my game can run on it,
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[let me know](https://www.kirsle.net/contact) how it goes!
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## What are "doodads?"
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Doodads are the dynamic objects you drag and drop into your level to make
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it "do" things. They are the Buttons, Switches, Trapdoors, and other traps
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and hazards to create puzzles and perilous platforming sections of your
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level.
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The game ships with a handful of [built-in doodads](/guidebook/doodads.html)
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and players may also [create their own](/guidebook/custom-doodads/index.html),
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and [program their behavior](/guidebook/custom-doodads/scripts.html) using
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JavaScript.
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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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You can also create some useful custom doodads in-game by selecting from a
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"generic script" to drive its behavior. For example, you could draw a "spikes"
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doodad and choose the "Generic Fire" script and it will act as a hazard to
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the player in-game: "Watch out for spikes!"
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## How do I program a custom doodad?
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There are some [full example doodads](https://code.sketchymaze.com/declassified/doodads)
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that you can learn from for creating your own custom Warp Doors or
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playable characters similar to the ones the game ships with.
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You may also peek at [the game's built-in doodad sources](https://code.sketchymaze.com/game/assets)
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to see how they're programmed if you want to make something similar.
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You may also pick from a built-in generic script for your doodad, and then
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download the script out of your doodad to use as a starting place to
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customize it.
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See the [Doodad Scripts](/guidebook/custom-doodads/scripts.html) documentation
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that came in the game's Guidebook and the
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[full JavaScript reference](/guidebook/custom-doodads/api-reference.html)
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for more information.
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## The user interface is ugly!
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I find the "Windows 95" look charming.
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Along with this game I'm also developing my own user interface toolkit from
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scratch, with a simple API inspired by the [Tk toolkit](https://www.tcl.tk/).
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It happens that the "Windows 95" look is easy to draw programmatically, as
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a button is just a few rectangles overlapped to draw shadows and highlights.
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The user interface toolkit is released as a
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[free and open source](#is-this-game-open-source) module that other Go
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developers can use to draw buttons, menus and other UI controls into a
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graphical application. One day, the UI toolkit will support fancy theming
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of widgets, and _Sketchy Maze_ will very easily look better (or have
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user-configurable themes available to choose from).
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## Why does my launcher icon have an orange logo?
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<img src="/images/pinephone-apps-crop.png"
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style="cursor: pointer"
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onClick="this.src = this.src.indexOf('crop') > -1 ? '/images/pinephone-apps.png' : '/images/pinephone-apps-crop.png'">
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Since version 0.13.0, Flatpak builds for Linux are now using an orange
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version of the launcher icon. This is mostly because I install both the
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Flatpak and the native (rpm/deb) package simultaneously and it was hard to
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tell which version is which!
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---
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# Known Issues
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While the game is still in beta, it's bound to have some bugs. Tell me about
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any you find at <a href="mailto:support@sketchymaze.com">support@sketchymaze.com</a>.
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Some current known issues and work-arounds are as follows:
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## Zoom in/out bugs
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If you draw onto your level while zoomed in or out, the pixels that get committed
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to the level may be offset from where the preview was on-screen. Draw some test
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lines to find out the offset or else avoid drawing while zoomed. The 1 (one) key
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restores the zoom level to default 100%.
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## Text sometimes gets glitchy
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Sometimes, the text in-game will begin to look glitchy, especially on Menu Bars
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and pop-up windows. The root cause and reliable repro steps haven't been found yet;
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I suspect it has to do with memory leaks in the way I use SDL2. If you begin to
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see text get a bit wonky, save your work and restart the game. Whatever condition
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triggers this to happen seems to eventually crash the game if it goes on for long
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enough!
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# Pricing and Distribution
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## Is this game free?
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Yes!
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While the game is in beta, all releases are **100% free and fully functional.**
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After the game reaches "1.0" it will have a free version and a paid one
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which unlocks additional modding capabilities, like the ability to embed
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custom doodads in your levels. I like Minecraft's model of "buy the game
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once, free updates forever" and will do similar.
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The full version would mainly add quality-of-life improvements supporting
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custom user content, such as the ability to play a custom level which
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_comes with_ all of its custom doodads, wallpaper, and other assets
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embedded directly inside the level file.
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The free versions of the game would include:
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* One chapter of built-in single player levels.
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* The level editor where you can create and share your own custom maps, using
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the [built-in doodads](/guidebook/doodads.html) that the game shipped with.
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You can also play levels created by other players as long as they use the
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built-in doodads only, or uses custom doodads the player has installed
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locally.
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Paid versions of the game will include _additional_ features such as:
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* Additional chapters of built-in single player levels.
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* Better support for **custom doodads**: when sharing your level with others,
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you may embed all custom doodads _inside_ of the level so that it can be
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easily played on a different computer, and the ability to play such
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levels (the free version won't use embedded custom doodads).
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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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Likely, the same program .exe will use "free version" features by default
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until registered as a paid version, with any of these options:
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* With a license key file for offline activation.
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* If it gets online services, by logging into an account associated with your
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purchased copy of the game (provable by the license key file).
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* If released on Steam or other managed store, a check with the store's API
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following their standard procedure.
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But the plan is that the "license key file for offline activation" _always_
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be available. You get a proof file that you can keep forever and any version
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of the game that accepted it before will always do so. That way even if I got
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hit by a bus or you lost your Steam account, the game can still be played to
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its full potential.
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## What about piracy?
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When I start to discover license keys which have leaked online to game piracy
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websites, _future_ releases of Sketchy Maze will begin to include license
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revocation lists and will cease honoring the compromised license key.
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The compromised license key would still work on all _older_ versions of the game,
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but would be barred from newer releases; and while the game is still being
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actively worked on and gaining new features, these leaked keys would become less
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interesting over time, as custom user content made for newer versions of the game
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would become incompatible with the older versions.
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If the game gets online services in the future (e.g. for seamless in-game
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sharing of custom levels and doodads), players would need a valid signed
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license key to log on and these leaked keys would be excluded.
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---
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# Level Creators
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## Future planned features vs. levels created today
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While in beta, this game is sort of evolving as it goes and some features added
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later may break or affect custom levels created today. As a general rule of
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thumb: the game's built-in levels are expected to _mostly_ keep working as the
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game is developed further as I don't want to create too much more work for
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myself revisiting old levels to fix them up.
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Here are a few current quirks in the game and how they're going to be handled
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in the future:
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### Enemy mobs being invulnerable to fire pixels
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Currently, fire pixels only kill the player character but enemy mobs can walk
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through them unscathed.
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Eventually, fire pixels will be able to destroy enemy mobs and the mobs will
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_try_ and avoid walking into fire but if they fall into it on accident they'll
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be destroyed.
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Planned feature: a "Fireproof Mobs" Game Rule, so existing maps that have lava
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pits and dumb mobs (like Azulian Tag, where the Azulians chase the player to
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Hell and back) will be able to gain backwards compatibility by toggling a
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game rule on.
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### Jump height and reach
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The platforming physics and player controls may be tweaked still but generally
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the player's jump height and reach will be kept close to its current state.
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Use the built-in levels for inspiration.
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### Multiplayer features
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The game may eventually have multiplayer features where you can design a map
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meant to be played by two or more players. Doodad Script functions such as
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`Actors.FindPlayer()` will operate on the _nearest_ player character and try
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and maintain backwards compatibility for maps made today.
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---
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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 and using [SDL2](https://www.libsdl.org/)
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for graphics, sound, gamepad and other basic features via the
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[veandco/go-sdl2](https://github.com/veandco/go-sdl2) bindings for Go.
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While the game itself is not open source (yet), some of its critical components are
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released as free and open source projects that other developers can use in
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their projects.
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## Is this game open source?
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Yes!
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The source code to the game is available at <https://git.kirsle.net/SketchyMaze>
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with a mirror of the important repositories [on GitHub](https://github.com/SketchyMaze).
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The game engine, called "doodle," is released as open source software under the GNU
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General Public License. However, the game assets -- including the built-in doodads
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and levels -- are licensed separately, under exclusive copyright for distribution
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only with official builds of Sketchy Maze.
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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 much like C to work with its raw API.
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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 HTML 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. The render engine can be extended to target
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other APIs in the future, such as OpenGL or Vulkan, as needs arise.
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Here are a list of open source projects released 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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* [SketchyMaze/render](https://github.com/SketchyMaze/render)
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* [SketchyMaze/ui](https://github.com/SketchyMaze/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 as well.
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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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An Android app is the most likely one of these, but it may be a while out (after the
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"1.0" release). The game is primarily meant for desktop-sized displays, but it
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also runs as-is on GNU/Linux smartphones like the Pinephone, so I am testing
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the game on that to make sure it _mostly_ works on that size of screen, if only a
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bit awkwardly.
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I have some resources on how I might compile my game as an Android app, but I
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haven't found any info on how one compiles a Go SDL2 app for iOS; and I don't
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own any of the hardware needed to develop for iOS anyway.
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