Glassix 2 v0.14 released

Hi everybody!

This new version focuses on the choice feature in Events and add a new tab in the Event Editor to handle that. Choices or options however we want to name it are a basic feature in visual novel to (usually) let player decide the outcome of the story. 

In Glassix 2, choices involve much more complexity compared to other game engine such as Renpy because I've given access to most game variables to be able to cover all possible conditions we can think of when displaying a choice. Most of those conditions are the same as conditions for an event and use exactly the same code and prefab, making it easy to update and debug if needed. But as always, there are some exceptions which is what makes coding new interfaces not a simple copy from a previously existing interface (Event conditions VS choice conditions, same-same, but different). Choices are then displayed in the usual way (Just noticed I should add a semi opaque dark background to make it more obvious the players needs to click on one choice :x)

The second important addition to this version is the new game entity properties dropdowns which will allow creators to access dynamic data in their events. Usually, in Renpy, we'd have either the names hard coded or a global variable with the name stored and used. In Glassix 2, we have fixed content created in advanced (such as the Mercer family in the Newbit scenario) and randomly generated content, such as NPCs filling the city. What I think will make Glassix 2 really different from its competitor is mixing this fixed and dynamic content together and make it feel like an enjoyable experience. Fixed content will allow creators to create a proper story with different branchings, similar to Glassix 1, while having randomly generated content will allow the story to have its own flavor even when replaying the same scenario. 

Events can target fixed content and follow a scenario, but it is also possible to create unique events for the randomly generated content and NPCs, to make them appear as a fixed content when they would actually not be. They could be present during your first run in the scenario but in another run, they'd vanish. For example, we could create specific events for a nympho blond girl requiring specific body proportions and age which would keep seducing the player during any scenario played. Her appearance would still be random but would need to match some min-max value. When randomizing the citizens, there could be or not be a match making those events accessible or not.

Another way to make randomly generated content matter would be by using predefined randomly generated citizen. For example, in Newbit, the player has several colleagues, each with a unique job. Their appearances and gender are randomized, but their scenario unique citizen code is not and known in advance meaning we can use this code to make this colleague either a good friend or a rival, whatever their appearance is.

This mix of fixed and random content will make Glassix 2 fun to play and replay (At least I hope so!). I have not included all game entities not all game entity properties yet, only about 10-20% of the total of it I'm guessing but that should be enough at the moment. I'll add more as I create content for the game using those same editors as well as from players feedback if any.

All of this will require proper documentation and tutorials of course. I wanted to release a quick first tutorial for a basic talk event to show how to add some flavor when talking to NPCs but couldn't due to lack of time. I'll try to do so asap since it would be another good testing opportunity for me to test my own code. I did test it as much as I could this time around (did notice some bugs in v0.13 which have been fixed too) but with the code complexity, I wouldn't be surprised if some still escaped me.

As for new content, I'm afraid I didn't have the time to add any yet since both the choice and game entities features took me more time than expected so this version would only serve as a demo for creators to give a shot at the event Editor. I've also some stuff to say about v0.15 content but will keep that for another post coming soon as to not bloat this release post.

That's about it for now! I'd like to add an extra thank you for players reporting bugs, even if I don't fix them right away in the new version, I do (try) to keep track of the reports and fix them when I have the time as well as players suggesting how to make the game better (The new confirm panel comes quite handy like a player suggested, I forgot your name though, let me know if you read this!). I still have a few to fix in my backlog as well as some other QoL suggestions which are pretty good ideas so don't hesitate to report or give feedback on how to make the game or UI better!

Thanks a lot for your patience and support!