Instructions for v0.1

The source code for OAX6 can now be checked out by campaign backers as defined in their perk level.

It is still early, but even at this stage, a simple game could be created! I hope some of them get to play around with it and come back with suggestions. Of course, as development continues it will become easier (ultimately providing editing tools for this) and more complex games will be able to be created.

Below are the current, 0.1 instructions to create a game using OAX6:

How to Create a Game Using OAX6

Disclaimer

This guide applies for v0.1, first version publicly available to backers. We are in a very early stage still, the engine is limited both in what it can do and on how easy it can be used.

This build is provided for the following reasons:

  • So you can fulfill your curiosity on how the game works.
  • So you can start having an idea of the capabilities and format of the engine for your future projects using it.
  • So that more people (who cares about the project) has access to the source in case something terrible happens.

Setup

After cloning the repository

The default scenario should show up in the browser.

Maps

Tiled maps are saved on scenarios/wod6/maps.

Make sure you are using uncompressed JSON format.

The maps should have the following layers:

  • Solid Tiles: Any tile in this layer is considered as solid when loaded on the engine
  • Mobs: Tiles placed here should have at least an ‘id’ custom property, pointing to a valid MobType. It can additionally have a type, which can be ‘mob’ or ‘npc’, if the type is npc, then it should have a NPC id instead of a MobType id
  • Buildings: This and the following 4 layers don’t have any logical effect, use them to make cool maps.
  • Vegetation
  • Objects
  • Terrain

Scenario Data

Set your scenario data in scenarios/wod6/Info.js

startingState

  • minuteOfDay: Determines the stating time
  • map: Points to the list of maps below (name)
  • x: Starting player position
  • y: Starting player position
  • party: List of NPCs in the starting party, id, x and y
  • scene: Points to the list of scenes below

maps

  • name: Identifies the map
  • filename: Filename in scenario/wod6/maps/

scenes

Key is the scene key, each scene is a list of string which are shown in succession

Appearances

Defined in src/js/data/Appearances.js

  • The numbers refer to indexes on the tileset
  • The mob appearances include 4 frames for each direction

Items

Defined in src/js/data/Items.js Each item can have the following attributes:

  • id: Identifies the item
  • name: Description of the item
  • appearance: Referencing an item appearance on Appearances.js
  • flyAppearance: Used when the item is “flying” (for example when thrown)
  • throwable: Whether the item can be thrown
  • range: Max distance for throwing the item
  • flyType: ‘rotate’ or ‘straight’ animation to use when throwing the item
  • damage: Points of damage caused

MobTypes

Defined in src/js/data/MobTypes.js

  • id
  • name
  • appearance: Points to Appearances
  • hp
  • damage
  • defense
  • speed: Determines the order in the queue for combat mode
  • corpse: References Items.js, item placed on the floor when the mob dies
  • intent: ‘seekPlayer’, ‘waitCommand’, ‘wander’, ‘combat’

NPCs – Basic Data

Defined in src/js/data/NPCs.js

  • id
  • name
  • type: Points to MobTypes
  • alignment: ‘b’ for friendly, ‘a’ for enemy, ‘c’ for neutral. Likely to be revised
  • weapon: Points to Items
  • firstTalk: Number, will talk to player first if he gets closer than this.
  • intent: Same options as MobTypes

NPCs – Conversations

The conversation trees are defined in the “dialog” attribute of each NPC.

They are a list of objects, each object is a dialog fragment, tied to a keyword.

Each dialog fragment can have either

  • A list of dialog pieces (see below)
  • A list of dialog variants (see below)
  • A synonym keyword

A dialog variant contains a condition with a flag name and value, and a list of dialog pieces. If the condition is met the conversation will follow these dialog pieces.

A dialog piece can be either

  • A string of text
  • An object with the following types:
  • “event” is similar to a normal text, except it describes something happening instead of something the NPC is saying.
  • “dialogInterruption” is similar to a normal text, except another NPC is talking
  • “endConversation” finishes the current conversation
  • “joinParty” makes the NPC join the party
  • “setFlag” sets a global flag to a given value

There is a special dialog fragment marked as “unknown” which is used when the keyword input by the player doesn’t match any dialog fragment or variant.

Assembling a build

Once you have all data set, you can execute the build.sh script, then the game package will be available in the build directory (open the index.html file using a web server)