18 replies to this topic

[jmc-88]

Hi! I'm here to announce the second beta release of Canvace (http://www.canvace.com/), a development kit for 2D and 2.5D games based on HTML5.

This is how the development environment looks like:



and these are some screenshots from a test stage created with Canvace (http://www.canvace.com/demo/):



The project currently contains two fundamental elements: a development environment and a JavaScript library.
Let me list some of the features we offer:

• the development environment is itself a web application: one can install it on a local HTTP server, so that several people at once can access the same resources
• not just isometric: users are free to choose a custom 3×3 projection matrix, thus being able to create orthogonal and much more
• integrated versioning system: so you have a long-term history of the changes made to your stages
• output in JSON format: for easier integration in your JavaScript code
• excellent performance: so that your games can run decently even on less powerful devices, like some smartphones are.

We'd love to receive your feedback: praises or curses, anything is welcome. We're open to all kind of feedback.

 

P.S.: to take a quick glance of what it looks like, you can also check out our first video tutorial:

http://youtu.be/YLix6o0gFgk

We're planning to make more videos soon - stay tuned! ;)

Edited by jmc-88, 13 July 2012 - 03:32 AM.

[Krohm]

Very nice, bookmarking. Perhaps I'll use it in the future.
Is version diff visual? That would be cool.

[jmc-88]

Glad to see you like it!

To answer your question: no, at the moment there's no visual diff available. If you really feel it's something that needs to be added, we'll definitely consider the idea. Could I ask you to elaborate a bit more on how would you use that feature?

[Krohm]

I think having a full track of past resources would be too hefty.
Since everything is tile-based, I suppose just blinking the changed tiles would be sufficient.
Or perhaps some more generic marker for named points and other non-tile data. Something on this degree of complexity.

[Telcontar]

Beautiful. Looks extremely handy for adventure games or perhaps smaller-scale strategy. I'll definitely be taking a look soon.

[jmc-88]

I think having a full track of past resources would be too hefty.
Since everything is tile-based, I suppose just blinking the changed tiles would be sufficient.
Or perhaps some more generic marker for named points and other non-tile data. Something on this degree of complexity.

Hmm, yes, highlighting the affected areas might work. Thanks for the suggestion, we'll surely keep that in mind. ;)

In the meanwhile, we realized another quick video where we "paint" a stage, from an empty canvas to a complete map, you can see it here:

http://youtu.be/Q-haBMqdnQ4

[jmc-88]

Also, forgot to specify that the artwork you see in the video is going to be released with free usage permissions in the next release, together with some more artwork and demo stages.

[jmc-88]

Another update!

With the artwork shown in the video, we created a little demo "game" - which is still WIP, so for now you just have a character wandering around in the map. We need to add some virtual buttons to the game area in case the user is running on a touchscreen device, for the rest it should work flawlessly everywhere.

You can test it by visiting: http://www.canvace.com/demo2/

All feedback is appreciated.
bye

[Cornstalks]

@jmc-88: This looks like something I could really use. I started making an HTML5+Javascript game but moved to Flash, only to realize Flash wasn't much of an advancement. I am considering requesting to be in the Beta and porting my existing Javascript code to use Cavace, but I have one big question: Audio. I don't see any audio/music/sound classes/APIs in your docs. Does Canvace support audio? And does it support gapless looping of audio (currently the only way to gaplessly loop audio that I know of is to use the Web Audio API/Audio Data API (Chrome & Safari use Web Audio, Firefox uses Audio Data IIRC; I don't know how to gaplessly play audio in IE or Opera))?

Edited by Cornstalks, 28 July 2012 - 09:12 AM.

[jmc-88]

@jmc-88: This looks like something I could really use. I started making an HTML5+Javascript game but moved to Flash, only to realize Flash wasn't much of an advancement. I am considering requesting to be in the Beta and porting my existing Javascript code to use Cavace, but I have one big question: Audio. I don't see any audio/music/sound classes/APIs in your docs. Does Canvace support audio? And does it support gapless looping of audio (currently the only way to gaplessly loop audio that I know of is to use the Web Audio API/Audio Data API (Chrome & Safari use Web Audio, Firefox uses Audio Data IIRC; I don't know how to gaplessly play audio in IE or Opera))?

Yes and no: audio support is still something we're working on. At the moment we provide some methods to automate the loading of the sound resources as HTMLAudioElements (check in the Canvace.Loader class, methods loadSounds and getSound), which is what HTML5 provides and is more equally supported across browsers than WebAudio/Audio Data. More generally speaking, audio support (and, specifically, gapless audio support) is still somewhat poor in most browsers: to overcome their limitations, you could try a hybrid HTML5/Flash solution like SoundManager 2 (http://www.schillmania.com/projects/soundmanager2), and I bet that one could be used together with our engine without any problem.

As a side note, that demo is being developed with the upcoming 0.2.1 version of the engine and the API: if you're curious, you could as well check out its code until the new version is released.

[jmc-88]

Bump! Version 0.2.1 is out!

New features in the development environment:

• ability to export and import stages, comprehensive of all the revisions;
• simplified installation procedure, which now creates the configuration file by itself after the first launch, guiding the user through a next-next procedure.

New features in the API:

• physics: http://api.canvace.c...tangleCollision
• pathfinding: http://api.canvace.c...vace.Astar.html
• state machines: http://api.canvace.c...ateMachine.html
• ...and more.

There's also a new little, interactive demo of the A* implementation: http://www.canvace.com/demo/astar.html (You can draw obstacles, then you can calculate the optimal route from the top-left square to the bottom-right square.)

Edited by jmc-88, 03 August 2012 - 08:53 AM.

[71104]

Hi! I'm the other developer of the Canvace Platform

I'd like to announce our latest release, version 0.2.2.

There have been significant improvements in the API (physics is easier to manage and performances have been improved) and we fixed a couple of potential issues in the installer.

We will now focus on completing the demo scroller game.

Edited by 71104, 09 August 2012 - 09:24 AM.

[71104]

update: today I've been working on making the demo game work on mobile platforms.

so far, the only known issues are bad (sometimes horrifying) performances on older and slower devices and IE not receiving any input on Windows Phone (snort).

if you want to try it, just visit the web page of the game with your mobile browser.

stay tuned!

[71104]

one annoying problem of HTML5 browser games (and web applications in general) is that HTTP caching must be carefully crafted in order not to serve an old version or, even worse, the old version for some files and the new version for the rest, very likely since server pages are always served new while images are often cached.

in the case of "Ladybug", Canvace's demo game, HTTP caching has not been crafted at all, lol.

we'll find a remedy ASAP and, in the meantime, notify this topic every time there is an update
(I swear this is not a trick to periodically bump the topic, lol, I really care about fixing the caching issue! )

today's update is that our ladybug now has a finite life and a gauge in the top left corner of the display. the ladybug actually gets hurt when it collides with the spider and shortly before that there is a weapon she should use to defeat it, but I haven't implemented shooting yet.

stay tuned as usual

[71104]

updates: the loading screen. comfortably implemented using Canvace. manual refresh still needed.

[jmc-88]

Bump!

We have just released the 0.2.3 version. We're bringing you some bug fixes and:

• an improved setup screen
• an improved JavaScript framework
• some UI improvements
• ...welcome back, tile sheet import wizard!

Also, HTTP caching should now be properly set up for Ladybug, which, by the way, can now be reached at the following URL: http://ladybug.canvace.com/

[71104]

I think it's time to open a new dedicated topic for Ladybug, I'm gonna do it right now

[snowman321]

Is is possible for the map you make to be exported so it can be loaded using my own game engine/framework?

I like your map editor!

--Mike
http://www.zynpo.com

[71104]

Is is possible for the map you make to be exported so it can be loaded using my own game engine/framework?

I like your map editor!

yes, it is!

the output format of the development environment is a very intuitive JSON format we documented here: http://www.canvace.com/documentation/guides/canvace-output-format-guide

i still have to update that guide to the 0.2.3 release, where there has been an addition (there's a new useful field in entity descriptors: the bounding box).

thanks for the liking