The Future of Pixel Vision 8
It's been a while since I've had a chance to post, but that's because I've been hard at work on the MonoGame port of Pixel Vision 8. While I've been reusing a lot of the existing C# code, I've taken the extra time to restructure the entire way the PV8's Runner works. At its core, the Runner represents the wrapper around the PV8 SDK, exposes access to the local file system, and manages all of the boot/loading logic.
The current version of PV8's Runner is being compiled with Unity and is broken up into two parts: The Game Creator and a Game Runner. The Game Creator is what you have been using to make games and has all the built-in tools, etc. that make PV8 feel like a fantasy console. The Game Runner is what the Creator uses when packaging up a game to play on the Web or Desktop as a standalone executable. While both projects share similar code, they are compiled separately and have been a source of annoyance for me to keep in sync with each other as I release new versions of Pixel Vision 8.
That being said, the new MonoGame Runner is very different. The next release of PV8 has a single Runner that can play a single game or run collections of games like all of the Game Creator tools in a single executable. To make this work, I've restructured the Workspace and added the ability to run collections as a more modular operating system package.
To show off the power of this new system, I created Reaper Boy LD42 during Ludum Dare last weekend. I'll post more about this game in the upcoming weeks, but for now, this is the first game built entirely on top of the new MonoGame Runner. The Reaper Boy LD42 Mac, Windows, and Linux executable are examples of how packaging Pixel Vision 8 games work moving forward. The only downside to this new system is that PV8 is dropping HTML5 support. It wasn't working very well, to begin with, and I am focusing more on the Desktop, Mobile, and Xbox One where I can control the experience until I find a better Web solution. Here are some images of the new game. If you took part in Ludum Dare, please help rate my game on their site here.
I feel like the new Pixel Vision 8 MonoGame Runner is nearly ready for release. In addition to Reaper Boy, I've been working with@CastPixelon all-new set of UI, and we are rebuilding the tools to fit this new design.
I plan to release the new runner in September after some more testing and spend the rest of the year rebuilding all of the original Game Creator tools to have a complete Pixel Vision OS by the end of the year. I also promise to post more now that I've hit this milestone. Thanks, everyone for their support and patience through the re-write and I promise the wait is worth it!