Producer Letter #18
Version 1.2.0 and Future Improvement Plans
Hello everyone, producer Morino again here.
In this 18th Producer Letter, I’d like to talk about Version 1.2.0, which is finally released, as well as our plans for future improvements.
Version 1.2.0 Update Details
Bullet Hell System and Area2DGameObject
The contents are the same as what was explained in Producer Letter #17, so please refer to that letter for detailed information.
The bullet hell system is a bit tricky to use, but it allows you to fire a large number of bullets. So it’s possible to create some really interesting behaviors.
We’ve also created a new sample project for this system, so please look for in the Sample Project list.
We don’t consider the bullet hell system complete as yet, as we plan to continue updating and expanding its settings over time.
There are still many things we want to add, such as stopping bullet generation, more allowing direction control when firing, setting targets for shotgun shots, rotating the origin positions for all-direction attacks, and more. These will be added gradually in future updates.
Area2DGameObject is compatible with existing GameObjects, so by simply switching the root node for GameObjects that don’t require collision (such as UI), you can expect a reasonable amount of performance improvement.
That said, we don’t consider this sufficient optimization on its own, and we’ll explain further improvements later.
Display Direction (DisplayDirection) System Improvements
We didn’t mention this in the previous letter because we weren’t sure it would make it into Version 1.2.0 in time, but we’re happy to say it was successfully implemented!
Previously, display direction was always forced to be the same as the direction of movement, which significantly limited our scripting system’s flexibility. This has now been improved so objects can face various directions regardless of movement.
You can now select an Object’s display direction type from the following options:
Does not change automatically
Movement direction (pre-v1.2.0 function)
Movement key direction (Pixel Game Maker MV’s system)
Follow an Object
Follow a Group
These settings are applied by adding a FaceDirectionSettings node to the Object you need to control and then configuring it as needed.
Some of you might wonder why this wasn’t added directly to an Object’s master properties, but this structure was needed so that the settings can be easily controlled via property-changing actions.
With this structure, you can switch follow targets or change movement types dynamically, maximizing your freedom as a creator.
It is also possible to change the facing direction using the new ChangeFaceDirection action.
By combining these settings and actions, it becomes much easier to create behaviors that were previously difficult, such as:
Drift-like movement
Facing a mouse cursor
Temporarily facing a specific direction during event scenes
This should be powerful enough for most use cases, but please let us know if further improvements are needed.
Future Development Plans
For now, we plan to continue enhancing the bullet hell system, further improve lightweight objects and the display direction features added in Version 1.2.0.
But we’d like to share our plans beyond that immediate future as well.
Addressing Performance Issues When Creating Objects
We’ve continued optimizing and updating the engine to address performance issues, but it’s still not in a perfect state.
In particular, we believe that the heaviness when creating objects cannot be fully resolved through optimization of the current structures alone.
To address this, we’re considering implementing a system commonly known as an object pool.
This involves generating objects in advance when a scene is loaded, keeping them invisible and disabled, and then activating them only when needed.
This is a common approach for solving performance issues during object creation, and we expect it to be quite effective.
Updating to Godot 4.6
The current version of ACTION GAME MAKER is based on Godot 4.4, but Godot itself was recently updated to 4.6.
We skipped the 4.5 update because it mainly focused on 3D features, but Godot 4.6 includes several useful additions for us, such as new default themes and unique node ID functionality.
Because of this, we targeting an update ACTION GAME MAKER to Godot 4.6.
Other Development Items
Since we still have some large-scale development work ahead, please bear with us a bit longer regarding the Linux and Mac versions.
At the same time, we will continue working in parallel on fixing reported bugs and updating other features.
Closing
That’s all for this Producer Letter.
I’ll talk to you all again soon, and thank you for your continued support of ACTION GAME MAKER!