Yay! Mulligans have arrived. Updated already, check the tutorial here:
You can take a look at more flares by visiting GML-Pro Pack on Github: http://github.com/h3rb/gml-pro
Previous announcement:
It's Christmas Eve, and the Mulligans are coming!
Today I've laid the groundwork for the Mulligans. In the next two weeks I will be finalizing this feature and releasing it. Mulligans are an alternative way of creating explosions, particle effects, bullets and the like. In addition to creating the individual particles, I'm planning an export feature that will provide you with a way of exporting one or multiple mulligan effects.
Here's an example from Fringes of the Empire: https://twitter.com/LAGameStudio/status/767571233185599488
Why the term, Mulligans? We're not talking Golf here...
The term derives from a hobo term meaning a "stew of odds and ends", but also if you go further back, the term relates directly to "explosive", "missile", "mine" and "gunpowder" -- it also means a mishmash and a medley.
Our medley consists of: waveforms (for easing/tween effects), images, numeric values and ranges, and of course, WAV sounds!
By the way you can capture them when in windowed mode, using Screen2Gif (https://www.screentogif.com)
What the term means in ATE is simple: Particle systems built of a combination of images and sounds to make a "audio-visual effect soup" ... you can create and manage your mulligans, and what's more exciting, you can then mix your mulligans and export them in a few different ways:
1) You can snip and clip them together into a "final mulligan" that stacks multiple effects on top of each other, or lets you otherwise manipulate them in time and duration.
2) You can export just the JSON for each frame, so your engine can display them per-frame, generated on the fly.
3) You can export them frame-by-frame (no sound, though it does provide you with the JSON to play the sounds so you don't forget which ones you've picked)
Once you've exported them frame-by-frame you can:
1) Re-import them and assemble them into a sprite atlas
2) Trigger ffmpeg to build them into an MP4 file or animated gif
3) Use individual frames as a source for making new mulligans!
4) Use them in GameMaker, RPGMaker or other game engines!
I will produce a tutorial showing off these features when they are ready in early January. Stay tuned! And, if I don't get back to you in time, Happy New Year!