A rebuild of my engine for Everlost Isle to be more focused on data files and extensibility, and overall just coded better. Everlost Isle was internally known as Survive, hence the name. Built on Monogame 3.8.1. Uses Newtonsoft.Json for Json and MoonSharp for Lua scripting.
Everlost Isle is intended to become a top-down survival game, largely inspired by Terraria's progression style and Stardew Valley's world structure and perspective, though this time I intend to build the engine separately from the game's content in a way that can allow easy modding through Lua and Json files, with potentially entirely new games able to be built on it. The goal is for as much of Everlost Isle as possible to be implemented as an "Asset Pack", so people can easily change or replace practically any part of it.
So far, I've:
- Set up an Instance system able to run as different modes like Server or Client. Also allows to have multiple game clients run in the same executable, potentially useful for split-screen.
- Set up a ticking system, so the update rate of each instance can be modified and the game's framerate can be unlocked without adversely affecting the game loop.
- Made a runtime-loading asset system called Warehouse, which lets me load Json, Lua, and PNG files at runtime for loading mods.
- Added an Entity/Mob system that can somewhat be controlled through basic Lua scripting and inherits properties from Json files.
- Made a simple world generator system that uses a List of Lua routines to build a world.
- Made entities smooth their visual position between ticks, if the framerate is higher than the tickrate.
Notable milestones to-do:
- Add tile entities.
- Don't-Starve-like tiles that can be solid and don't typically move, but are also not necessarily locked to the grid like normal tiles.
- Collisions between entities and tile entities.
- Inventories and items.
- Saving worlds and players.
- Should players be per-world as before like Stardew, or separate like Terraria?
- Multiple worlds/"dimensions" per-save with their own mobs and world properties.
- "Portals" with destination world/position. (may be doorways, caves, or literal portals)
- Mob spawns, biome generators, etc.
- Networking/splitscreen/multiplayer?
- Actual differences between host/client/dedicated.
- Might look into MonoSync and Backdash.
- Game progression triggers.
- May be step-by-step or simple boolean.
- May have dependencies before availability. May optionally need to be fulfilled specifically after being made available, or can be completed beforehand without applying effects until later.
Controls:
- Arrow Keys / ESDF - Move.
- Left Shift - Run.
- Space - Jump. (temporary, we'll see if I want jumping as a mechanic in Everlost Isle later on)
- J, K, L - Adjust tickrate. (/8, x8, x16)
- Left Alt - (while held) Print tick stats to the console.
Special Controls (Hold Right CTRL):
- U - Unload all asset packs.
- I - Load all asset packs.