Blog

Physics with Box2D

I just wrote a short tutorial about how to use the Box2D Physics Engine in Impact. Enjoy!

• Physics with Box2D - Tutorial
• Jetpack Demo Game

The source for this demo can be found on your download page.

Impact 1.16

Version 1.16 of Impact is now available on your download page. This release brings various bugfixes and some new features for Weltmeister: "copy/paste", reloading of last opened level and pretty printing of level files.

The copy/paste in Weltmeister works as follows: hold the SHIFT key and drag a selection around some tiles with MOUSE1. The selected area will become your new "brush" with which you can paint on layers just as normal. The selection of tiles works on background layers, as well as on the tile selection menu (SPACE).

Pretty printing of levels is disabled by default and can be enabled through your lib/weltmeister/config.js file. You can also disable the new auto-reload of the last saved level in this config if you want.

If you're updating from a previous version, take care to not overwrite your own files. You'll just need to update the files in lib/impact/ and lib/weltmeister/.

Changelog

• Auto reloading of the last saved level in Weltmeister
• Ask before closing Weltmeister with unsaved changes
• New "brush selection" mode in Weltmeister (copy/paste)
• Clone function (C key) in Weltmeister now also clones an entity's settings
• Removed some trailing commas and a global var leakage in ig.Class
• Made sure that ig.Entity's .kill() does not disturb the current update() cycle
• Added .loadLevelDeferred() method to ig.Game
• Added .widthForString() method and .height property to ig.Font
• Added detailed error messages for unresolved dependencies in modules
• Fixed some issues with glob() in the PHP backend on certain systems
• Fixed touch issues on certain mobile devices
• Fixed bug when loading sound files with a .* [sic] extension

Biolab Disaster Entity Pack

I just packed some Biolab Disaster's entities together. The pack mostly contains "logic" entities that are not directly visible in the game. These entities are ready to be used in your project.

Visit your download page for the link.

The Entity Pack includes:

• EntityTrigger – a generic trigger entity, that does something when touched
• EntityDelay – a delay that can be used in conjunction with a trigger
• EntityHurt – gives damage to the activating entity
• EntityLevelchange – loads the specified level when triggered
• EntityEarthquake – shakes the screen when triggered
• EntityMover – an example of a simple moving platform that visits all its targets
• EntityParticle – generic particle entity
• EntityDebris – spawns a number of particles when triggered
• EntityVoid – does nothing; can be used as a target for movers

Impact 1.15

Version 1.15 of Impact is now available on your download page.

If you're updating from a previous version, take care to not overwrite your own files. You'll just need to update the files in lib/impact/ and lib/weltmeister/.

Changelog

• Added screen and viewport dimensions to ig.ua
• Added new .angle and .pivot.x, .pivot.y properties to rotate Animations
• Added Touch Support for MOUSE1 button and .mouse.x, .mouse.y position for ig.Input
• Added Sensible Error Message for PHP errors when loading the list of entities in Weltmeister
• Fixed bug when drawing a repeating BackgroundMap with negative screen coordinates
• Fixed bug where a special collision response rule for sidescrollers was used in top/down games
• Fixed ig.copy and ig.merge to not descent into HTMLElements
• Fixed a bug where an entity's name was not correctly recognized when not set through the settings object

Have a Happy New Year!

Git Repository

The current dev version of Impact is now available from a Git repository. Visit your private download page for more info.

I will provide detailed changelogs for each release version, i.e. as soon as the current changes are packed up into version 1.15.

Merry Christmas!

Impact is Now Ready!

It has been some time since I showed my game Biolab Disaster to the world. I knew I still had a lot of work ahead if I want to release the engine behind the game – I just didn't know it was that much.

You can read a bit more about the entire process and my decision to sell Impact, rather than releasing it for free, on my personal Blog.

The work for me is far from over, though. I still have a list of Video Tutorials I want to do and of course new features I want to add to the Engine.

This Blog will keep you informed about new releases, bugfixes, new tutorials, resources and everything else going on with Impact.

Finishing touches...

There's still some stuff on my pre-launch To-Do list, but I'm confident now that I can finish everything up till Monday. You will see rough edges here and there, but overall it should work. It being not only the Game Engine itself, but this very website.

Setback of the day: Finding out that merchant accounts for Google Checkout are only available in the US and UK. That means I'm stuck with PayPal only – I hate it as much as you do. Sorry.