Hi friends, update time.
So last week’s update was a short one. In summary it read: ‘I’ve been working on chests, they’re just been difficult’. Unfortunately, the situation hasn’t changed much! In fact, if anything, it’s worse. Turns out the item system needs a good ol’ re-write.
Not to panic, let’s all just laugh it off …
In the last update I demonstrated that the latest problem with implementing chests was that Samphi needs to be able to deal with multiple item stacks in order for them to work correctly. Unfortunately, that’s currently not the case, and to implement that means a re-write of the item system.
Bit more info; All item info is currently stored in a single list, so while we can have two icons, they both use the same data values such as quantity; they’re not individual stacks which they need to be. There’s also an issue with saving and loading items. The current system is designed around working with a single instance of each item, and to enable that to load/save multiple of the same type also requires some work.
All of this is 100% doable, just it’s not something I couldn’t fit into this update, but rest assured I’m working on it! Over the next two weeks I’ll be taking the item system back to the ground and doing a full re-build. This will allow multiple item stacks, loading/saving of multiple items, and in turn will enable chests to work correctly.
Sorry it’s taking so long. That’s the last I’m going to talk about the C word. The next time it makes an appearance in an update will be when they make it into the game. Still, there’s lots to be excited about in this update!
v0.1e hit the beta branch today and it’s brought with it something very exciting! Samphi is made in Game Maker, and Game Maker has an export tool call the YYC. Without getting into too much boring detail, it’s basically a tool that makes the game run faster. For the first time ever Samphi is exported with it so we should see some speed increases.
According to GM, YYC can " increase your games performance by a hundred-fold". We won’t see a performance upgrade quite on that scale I don’t think, but do let me know if you notice the game being a bit nippier!
Along with the performance upgrade, I’ve also fixed a few bugs in this update, so here’s the full changelog:
- Samphi is now compiled with Windows YYC, so we should see a speed increase! According to GM, YYC can " increase your games performance by a hundred-fold". Let me know how this goes.
- Hopefully fixed a bug where music was playing twice in the menu. I say hopefully because I could never recreate it, but I put something in-place that should stop that ever happening.
- Fixed a bug where feeding honeycomb to your dog would cause the game to crash.
- Fixed a bug where small items disappear in water and the ground.
Getting Samphi translated into as many languages as possible has always been a goal of mine, and thankfully a number of great people from the community offered their help! I’ve spent a bit of time collecting together all of the text that is currently in the game and collated it into a Google docs sheet, so those wanting to offer their help can now do so!
I’ll post these instructions in the discussion also, but if you’re wanting to help translate Samphi, send me an email to [email protected]. I’ll send you an invite to the appropriate Google doc. Hopefully over the next few versions we can start incorporating more language options. :)
The item rebuild will be most of my work unfortunately. I say unfortunately because I always feel these updates are boring. From my perspective it’s a huge update as part of the engine gets a re-write, but from the player’s perspective nothing changes! If I do my job correctly, you won’t know anything has changed!
Because of this I always end up trying to sneak in other work, such as the updates to the sheep so there’s something visibly different, but that takes time away from the core work that needs doing. Downside of being a one-man-team I guess.
Hope you’ve all had a great week and have an even better weekend. I wish there were flashier updates to show, but we’re going to have to put some time into engine work for a little while. :)
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