Open-source bishoujo game engine

Visual Novel Community Archive, 2000-2009
#1

It’s been a very long time since I posted here, but I thought you guys might be interested in this.

I’ve just started working on an open-source adventure game engine that will be of interest to anyone wanting to create their own adventure game. It will be particularly suited to the creation of bishoujo games, especially simulations, though it will be possible to create a wide variety of styles with anything from purely text-based right up to RPG with battles (Though I won’t be going for anything 3D).

All this will be possible with no programming whatsoever and will be implemented via a menu-driven interface.

Basically, I’m looking for anyone who’s willing to give this a go; tell me what you think of it, maybe get something created in it to show what it’s capable of. It’s completely free and I’m planning to release it before Christmas, at which time I’ll post an update with download link.

I won’t hide my intention and aim for this project. I am hoping to use this in order to encourage more cross-platform development in bishoujo games (As I am not a Windows user and find the lack of bishoujo games on my OS rather frustrating). I’m even hoping to use this engine to port existing games to, starting with simpler titles such as X-Change, but moving on to things like Kana, Tokimeki Check-In etc. (No, I will not release them to the public), in order to show that it can be used for commercial quality bishoujo games.

I haven’t got a definite name yet, but I’m thinking of calling it “Package” (Powerful Adventure Construction Kit And Game Engine)

Of course, I’m open to suggestions as to what you’d like to see in such a program.

So, any thoughts on this? Ideas? Opinions? Criticsms?

Cheers.

#2

great idea…i was always searchin for such an engine in the past but gave up…would be really great!

#3

The open source adventure game engine that you spoke of sounds too good to be true as mentioned in the post that, “All this will be possible with no programming whatsoever and will be implemented via a menu-driven interface” and “it can be used for commercial quality bishoujo games.” However, I certainly am looking forward to see the birth of such a powerful engine if it really is as powerful as you said it will be. You have my support here. :slight_smile:

Good luck with the project!!!

[This message has been edited by Noirbo (edited 12-07-2003).]

#4

I can’t wait to hear what happens when your bishoujo engine project is proposed to SourceForge.

Porting existing titles as a proof of concept will not be as easy as you think. For X-Change, you’d have to bypass light encryption and port the 237K script to your own format; TCI!'s script is much larger at 1.3MB. X-Change2 is a monster at 1.6MB and also has heavier encryption and a more powerful engine (basic math, dynamic string construction, full flow control). There is a LOT of text in these scripts!

I presume the biggest problem with releasing an open engine that could read existing formats is that someone would hack it up, rip all the images, and post them publicly. This is a real shame, as the newer games are much improved over early US versions. People are very surprised when I show them XC2, particularly at the amount of comedy and that a voice was given to male Takuya.

#5
quote:
Originally posted by TurricaN:
*snip*

I won't hide my intention and aim for this project. I am hoping to use this in order to encourage more cross-platform development in bishoujo games (As I am not a Windows user and find the lack of bishoujo games on my OS rather frustrating). I'm even hoping to use this engine to port existing games to, starting with simpler titles such as X-Change, but moving on to things like Kana, Tokimeki Check-In etc. (No, I will not release them to the public), in order to show that it can be used for commercial quality bishoujo games.

You have got to stop reading my mind like that. You'll go blind.

...seriously, I had exactly the same idea, except mine was more along the lines of "companies will be able to use it to port games more easily".

And I'm sure you've given it a lot more thought than I have, but I'm not a big fan of the name Package.

I'll take a look at this sometime. Sounds cool.

#6
quote:
Originally posted by aiharasama:
I presume the biggest problem with releasing an open engine that could read existing formats is that someone would hack it up, rip all the images, and post them publicly. This is a real shame, as the newer games are much improved over early US versions. People are very surprised when I show them XC2, particularly at the amount of comedy and that a voice was given to male Takuya.

Um. People do this all the time anyway. Aside from websites, there are plenty of IRC channels devoted to this. That doesn't even mention usenet, where within a week of any game's release the CG will be ripped and posted as well as a full binary image of the discs.

#7

Frankly, I dun think that’s gonna work. Even basic scripting languages that perform some simple game alogrithms take months & prehaps years of hardwork.

To build a particular bishoujo game itself is already a daunting task, but we are talking about a scriptless, pure wizard GUI sort of SDK here & I dun see much hope for it if it’s gonna be non-commercial, hobbyist kinda project. The only language I’m proficient at is VB6 & unless some other language makes developing game engines a breeze, I would say you need at least 500,000 lines of code.

Of course I would love & hope to see such a feat accomplished, but that’s my honest opinion.

[This message has been edited by Angry Gamer (edited 12-07-2003).]

#8

This sounds like an intriguing project. I’d be happy to provide feedback or discuss possibilities with you.

I have to say I share a certain amount of the skepticism others have voiced - this sounds like a large project, particularly making it fully GUI/menu-driven, and to have it released by Christmas sounds… ambitious.

However, don’t let us put you off. I’d say stick at it, work hard, and when you’ve got something to show, start seeking contributions from others for the areas you can’t do yourself. Aim for something realistically manageable to start with - for example, process scripts in a particular format, and add the GUI to create those scripts later.

In the meantime, if there’s any way I can help with this project as an interested programmer and game developer, let me know.

Your email address in your forum profile doesn’t work, by the way, TurricaN. Could you update it so that people can email you?

#9

Just to clear a few things up:

The reason I chose games like X-Change and Kana is that they have no voice. Music is purely CD-Audio and graphics can easily be ripped via screenshots. Text can be copied. I have two screens for doing that. The hardest part of any port would certainly be getting the voices.

The program is being developed in C++/SDL (SDL is similar to Direct-X, but works on Linux, MacOS and RiscOS in addition to Windows). It’s actually my first C++ project, though I have done a lot of C already. It wouldn’t be possible to develop on Visual BASIC because it is a Windows-only language, which would defeat the purpose of the project. I do find that VB is a very difficult language anyway compared with anything else that I’ve used (JAVA, Pascal, Dark BASIC, C, C++).

The project is so far, about 2,000 lines of code. That only includes functionality for creation of locations, association with images / sounds, saving and loading, and basic game properties. Bear in mind that this won’t be purely for bishoujo games. My aim is to allow the creation of any type of adventure game, including bishoujo games.

Finally, the editor is currently not a GUI. That is, yes, it is menu-driven, however, it runs as a console mode (text-based) program. That’s not to say it’s difficult to use.

Oh, and the e-mail address in my profile should be working now.

[This message has been edited by TurricaN (edited 12-08-2003).]

#10

I wouldn’t necessarily say that C/C++/SDL is complex. Though if you know of anything that’s easier (and cross-platform), I’m open to suggestions.

I do understand your concern though in regards to quick editing and testing. The current console mode editor is not well suited to this. It’s really just to test that the functionality is there, and is working properly. I’ll have to hack up a proper GUI-driven editor using GTK (with SDL) when the program is in a usable and stable state. Only problem is, I don’t know GTK yet, so I guess that’s another API to learn.

The scripts are not edited in plain-text by the way, but are edited using the editor and then saved into the game file. The program won’t produce a binary (executable) game, but will produce the data that goes into a generic game engine. The data will be used to set up exactly how the game will run and behave.

I do have some nice features implemented for text layout. The engine can use bitmapped, anti-aliased alpha-transparrent variable-width fonts, and text automatically word wraps within the specified text-box. It will even automatically pause and wait for a mouse click if the text fills the box.

I seem to remember that Peach Princess had problems relating to word wrapping in some of their earlier games, in that the returns keys had to be written into the scripts. My engine solves that little problem.

[This message has been edited by TurricaN (edited 12-09-2003).]

#11
quote:
Originally posted by woodelf:
I say DUMP C++ and any other complex system.

C++ is in fact a byzantine, complicated sprawl. I didn't realize so at first, but the more you peek under the hood the more oddness and gotcha!'s you find.

That said, the amount of raw power available in C++ is stunning. C++ is flexible enough to be adapted to many things - from using the C subset to do embedded programming for (say) the GBA to writing the Linux kernel.

Don't dismiss C++ simply because it's complicated. C is complicated, too, in its own way. If you want to write a general-purpose engine like this, C++ features like namespaces and classes are actually easier, in a way.

#12
quote:
Originally posted by TurricaN:
I wouldn't necessarily say that C/C++/SDL is complex. Though if you know of anything that's easier (and cross-platform), I'm open to suggestions.

[This message has been edited by TurricaN (edited 12-09-2003).]

Uh. Well, there is always the obvious. Java has a herculean standard library that can do anything short of KitchenSink() (and it can probably do that too) and it's multiplatform by definition. It does GUIs and plays music clips and all that, right out of the box. (If it had a box.) Plus it's very close to C++.

I don't like the language much at all, so I hate to say this, but really - you should take a look at it. But don't try to learn from Sun's "documentation", it sucks.

#13

Well, to be honest, it’s really more of a mix of C and C++, as I’m very new to C++ (I have no idea what namespaces are, but I read somewhere that they’re a bad idea :confused .

I did two semesters of JAVA last year at university, and expect that I will be doing it again next semester. I always dread JAVA. I have no idea what it is or why, but despite it’s striking similarities with C++, I could never really get the hang of it like I could with C++.

Although I do like the multi-platformness of JAVA, it’s not for me unfortunetly. Plus, I think interfacing SDL with Java would defeat the possible compatibility advantages of JAVA anyways, and if I cut out SDL, I’d then I would end up having to write functions that SDL could have already done for me.

SDL works on Linux, Windows, BeOS, MacOS, MacOS X, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, BSD/OS, Solaris, IRIX and QNX anyways, so I think it’s just about cross-platform enough.

#14