We've got some exciting news to share with you all today - including the announcement of an extended Steam Lunar Sale and a new version of 001 Game Creator with our initial implementation of UNICODE support!
EXTENDED Steam Lunar Sale!
From February 4th to February 18th 001 Game Creator will be 60% off - with our MMORPG, 3D FPS and Point & Click Adventure DLC Kits being 30% off and our Retro Music Pack being 15% off. For most, the Steam Lunar Sale ends on February 11th but we're following the sale with a week-long sale of our own to extend the Steam Lunar Sale from one week to two!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/347400/001_Game_Creator/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/564680/001_Game_Creator__MMORPG_Kit/?snr=1_5_9__405
https://store.steampowered.com/app/564681/001_Game_Creator__3D_FPS__Survival_Horror_Kit/?snr=1_5_9__405
https://store.steampowered.com/app/567360/001_Game_Creator__Point__Click_Adventure_Kit/?snr=1_5_9__405
https://store.steampowered.com/app/951950/001_Game_Creator__Retro_Fantasy_Music_Pack_Volume_1/?snr=1_5_9__405
Full UNICODE Support (Beta)
Perhaps one of the most requested features, and also one of the most challenging features to implement, is the ability to fully support UNICODE characters to allow for foreign languages like Russian and Chinese (which previously weren't supported).
With 001 being built on VB6 (which doesn't natively support UNICODE characters) this was always seen as an impossible feature request...That is until now! We'll spare you the boring technical details and just say that a new discovery was recently found that would allow 001 to support these characters with only a little work on our end - and so we're pleased to announce that UNICODE support is finally available in 001 Game Creator!
However, since this is still only our first implementation, we'd like to hear input/feedback from our community! There are also still some things not implemented to support UNICODE fully in some parts of the engine.
(Some screenshots showcasing Russian characters):
Please Note: You'll need to explicitly add UNICODE characters to your font files first - otherwise they won't be recognised in-game!
Improvements To Fonts
Our UNICODE implementation has also had an added benefit to fonts in general as we've now managed to pack characters in better which means that the padding option is no longer necessary in most cases. As such, the look of characters will appear more natural than before (where spacing wasn't being properly obeyed)
We've also enlarged font images from 2048x1024 to 2048x2048 so that fonts can store more characters!
A Few Smaller User-Requested Features
While UNICODE support is one of the largest feature requests implemented in this version - we've also taken the time to implement a few smaller requests that didn't require much time to add. These include:
Change Reverse, Rising and Falling Speed Events - Three new events that change the Reverse Speed, Rising Speed and Falling Speed of Actors has been added.
Screen Size/Orientation Changed Interface Trigger - A brand new Interface Trigger has been added that runs whenever the size of the game window is changed (Windows/HTML5) or when the orientation of the screen is changed (iOS/Android).
Change Currency Symbol Visual Setting - You can now effortlessly change the currency symbol used for Money by going to Game Settings > Visual Settings. This is also useful, given the implementation of UNICODE and the various different types of currencies used around the globe.
You can see the full list of changes for v2019.001.000 over on our website here: https://001gamecreator.com/changes/
Until Next Time...
We'll continue to improve UNICODE support over the next few months so please let us know if you run into any problems!
We've also been keeping an eye on our Feature Requests page and will be looking into some of these in the coming months as well!