Amber IDE is an open-source Java project well underway, which when completed will open the door to Generation IV+ game development.
Amber features everything essential to creating your own game, the way you want: a built-in Ruby editor, and a map editor comprising of both a 2D and 3D mode.
An abbreviated list of features can be found below:
// Here be dragons
The Amber engine, runs on top of the Java Virtual Machine. It supports event scripting via the JRuby interface, and renders with OpenGL (LWJGL binding). Amber requires OpenGL 1.2 to operate, and OpenAL 1.1 is utilised for high-quality sound playback.
Amber uses a both sparse and dense matrix format to store tiles. Since many layers of a map are almost empty, the Amber engine removes needless work by storing all tiles sparsely by (x, y) coordinates, rather than two-dimensional arrays. The result is tiny map sizes, streamlined loading, blistering performance, and no height limit.
Map editing is done in a similar way as the RPG Maker XP series (sans some limitations). For one, tilesets are not confined to be 8 tiles wide: one can have tilesets as wide as they desire.
Amber was built around a plug-and-play design. Therefore, maps and other data created by Amber is inherently backwards-compatible. A map codec implements a final map codec interface for each version. Essentially, an Amber 1.2+ engine would be able to load Amber 1.1- maps. This would not be reciprocal, however.
Scripting is done in Ruby. The built-in editor supports running Ruby scripts, and launching the Interactive Ruby Shell (IRB) directly from the IDE. The editor also features syntax highlighting for Ruby, among 16 other languages, including Java and Python.
The 3D map editor features directional tile placement. In other words, a tile's orientation changes depending on what direction you are facing. With this feature enabled, tilesets can become much smaller: instead of the need to have 4 sides and 4 corners for a mountain, one can simply use 1 side and 1 corner to build mountains.
A template for Pokemon games in Amber is already well underway. Species, types, and a large sum of moves have already been completed, along with some base work on battle AIs.
This post is incomplete, as I can not link any media to it yet.
I shall augment this post with more in-depth info, images, and helpful external links once I reach the 15-post barrier. Until then, you may view images of the editor in action from the attachments section of this post. I apologize for the low colour depth of the images.
If you are experienced in either Java or Ruby (or both!) and would like to assist us in this venture, or would just like to chat, feel free to join us at #amberide on the esper.net IRC network.
Amber features everything essential to creating your own game, the way you want: a built-in Ruby editor, and a map editor comprising of both a 2D and 3D mode.
An abbreviated list of features can be found below:
- 2D/3D map editing
- Infinite tilesets per map
- Infinite map height
- High quality sound in wave, aiff, ogg, and midi formats
- Ruby scripting
- Syntax highlighting in 17 languages
Spoiler:
// Here be dragons
The Amber engine, runs on top of the Java Virtual Machine. It supports event scripting via the JRuby interface, and renders with OpenGL (LWJGL binding). Amber requires OpenGL 1.2 to operate, and OpenAL 1.1 is utilised for high-quality sound playback.
Amber uses a both sparse and dense matrix format to store tiles. Since many layers of a map are almost empty, the Amber engine removes needless work by storing all tiles sparsely by (x, y) coordinates, rather than two-dimensional arrays. The result is tiny map sizes, streamlined loading, blistering performance, and no height limit.
Map editing is done in a similar way as the RPG Maker XP series (sans some limitations). For one, tilesets are not confined to be 8 tiles wide: one can have tilesets as wide as they desire.
Amber was built around a plug-and-play design. Therefore, maps and other data created by Amber is inherently backwards-compatible. A map codec implements a final map codec interface for each version. Essentially, an Amber 1.2+ engine would be able to load Amber 1.1- maps. This would not be reciprocal, however.
Scripting is done in Ruby. The built-in editor supports running Ruby scripts, and launching the Interactive Ruby Shell (IRB) directly from the IDE. The editor also features syntax highlighting for Ruby, among 16 other languages, including Java and Python.
The 3D map editor features directional tile placement. In other words, a tile's orientation changes depending on what direction you are facing. With this feature enabled, tilesets can become much smaller: instead of the need to have 4 sides and 4 corners for a mountain, one can simply use 1 side and 1 corner to build mountains.
A template for Pokemon games in Amber is already well underway. Species, types, and a large sum of moves have already been completed, along with some base work on battle AIs.
This post is incomplete, as I can not link any media to it yet.
I shall augment this post with more in-depth info, images, and helpful external links once I reach the 15-post barrier. Until then, you may view images of the editor in action from the attachments section of this post. I apologize for the low colour depth of the images.
If you are experienced in either Java or Ruby (or both!) and would like to assist us in this venture, or would just like to chat, feel free to join us at #amberide on the esper.net IRC network.
Last edited: