Hey all, Dragon here!
Today is the day we reveal the OpenTaiko Blog! This is where we'll be posting our longer ramblings, giving you more detailed info about what we're working on! Dashy has already begun posting on our blog, which you can read here!
"Don't you guys already have Discord channels for this?"
You're right, we do have two separate channels for announcements and updates. However, I've been pushing to have our important information made available to the wider web, as opposed to needing to find everything in our Discord server. I've been pushy about this because :
- We have OpenTaiko users who aren't able to join our server, either because they lack a verified phone number on their account (which is required to join our server), may have lost their account as a result of it being compromised/stolen, or simply don't use Discord for their own personal reasons.
- We have much better control over the way our posts are formatted, especially now that we can put media attachments anywhere we want instead of leaving them at the very bottom of a post! We can even CHANGE FONTS and COLORS and THE WAY THEY DISPLAY for DRAMATIC EFFECTS.
Harnessing the power of HTML and CSS is very liberating, you guys should try it some time!
Anyways, in addition to having this blog made to share our updates, I hope to also migrate more of our helpful resources out of our server, and into pages that don't require an account and verified phone number to access. The Discord server will continue to run as usual, but I've read enough complaints about all of our info being only accessible in our server (which I absolutely agree with) to warrant this push. It'll be a lengthy process, and this blog is just the start!
Speaking of lengthy processes, have you seen our...
0.6.1 Development Progress
We've been very busy working on the next major update for OpenTaiko! For those out of the loop, this specific update is all about expanding the game's skinning capabilities, using the power of Lua to let you customize the game how you've always wanted to, breaking the endless cycle of editing several INI files with confusing variables (only to get confusing results).
Initially, our Lua API could only be used in the background of different stages (Title Screen, Gameplay, Exit, etc.). But soon, you'll be able to create entire stages of your own using Lua. It's no longer just backgrounds you can customize, but the actual mechanics of everything you see, too! Everything I'm about to show you is a heavy W.I.P., is heavily subject to change, and is going to look a little ugly at times :
Boot Stage
Title Stage
Over here is the Title stage. Visually, it's pretty bare-bones, as we're still figuring this part out. Something you may have noticed is that there are new options below Exit. Using a special config file, you can create any number of stages and list them on-screen for the user to enter.
Curious what the other Stages down there are?
Custom Stage (Song Select)
Most of the stages listed are just us fidgeting with the new API we're developing. For example, here's a screenshot of the Song Select stage we're rebuilding from scratch. Using the songlist we requested from the game after enumeration, we can open/close folders, read info about a song, retrieve absolute paths for the song's preimage/audio & load their contents, and send a request to load the chart for gameplay. And what is that in the screenshot I see... Lua documentation...?
Custom Stage (Story Mode?)
Why stop at recreating what already exists? What if we made our own unique Stage, the likes of which have never been conceived on this engine before? What if we made... an isometric map for our upcoming Story Mode? Using what we already know is possible, what if we could make it so the user could walk and jump in this isometric world, complete with different elevations and physics?
Haha, just kidding! ...Unless? 😳
That's all the screenshots I'll share for now! As said before, everything is a heavy work in progress, and is heavily subject to change. This doesn't even cover all the new API features we've added, including the fact that you'll be able to control and animate Characters via. Lua. Naturally, this is going to be a huge update for everybody involved, especially for those who are already creating their own skins. Some things might even be pushed to a future update.
Once we've fleshed out this update enough, we'll release a beta build for everybody to try out. This will give us time to hear feedback from skin creators, and catch any bugs/oversights in the process. And yes, I swear you will actually get Lua documentation. In addition, I'll also be providing a tutorial on how to build a Stage from scratch, giving you all the fundamentals needed.
And that's all for now!
Today's posts have been lengthy, but I hope this helps explain why we've been quiet recently! Running this blog has already been fun for me and Dashy. I'll write to you all again soon!
- Dragon
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