The main problem is that the image editor in MMF2 (I presume the one in CF2.5 is much the same) is truly terrible. Honestly, I cannot express just how bad it is, compared to any number of alternatives (including freeware), most of which will already include a range of palette-related features to begin with. Do yourself a favour, and start using something better.
Aside from that, you're selecting colors by red/green/blue value, which is not good. It would be *much* better to be able to pick colors by hue/saturation/lightness (or better yet, hue/chroma/luminance). Adjustable color temperature would be a nice bonus too. Also, it would be very useful to be able to interpolate between two colors, and to adjust the color balance of the palette as a whole.
As far as my editor goes, I understand what you're saying about being able to create and place pre-fabricated blocks of tiles, and at some point I may include options for "copy selection to clipboard" / "paste from clipboard" / "paste from file" etc.
However, I really don't want to waste too much time on non-essential features.
If you look at the image editor in MMF2, it is as I've already said, complete rubbish - but that's fine. There's no point in them trying to reinvent the wheel, when users can already download a great free graphics application from elsewhere (eg. The GIMP).
Similarly, the frame editor is really quite basic, but that's because no "universal" level editor could ever match a level editor that was custom made for a specific project, and most users working on more complex games will be making their own anyway.
So basically, I want to get the important basic features really slick and functional, and forget the unnecessary extras.
Thanks for the suggestions. Yes, HSL/HSV would be better than RGB. That, and adding automatic gradients are top of my list if I update it, which I would like to do sometime but for now I've moved on to other projects. I'm sure someone who knows what they're doing could make a much better palette editor. Earlier I made a bunch of 15 retro palettes that could be useful to anyone making a retro-styled game.
Originally Posted by Matthew Phizacklea Some of this stuff looks really nice. Andy, looks like you put a lot of effort into that background there. Are you still working on that? That post was nine months ago!
Not that I know of. It's kinda super-buggy and super-limited, but it's the quickest way to get stuff into your game.
Originally Posted by Sketchy Just in case anyone working on a palette editor wants a color selector example...
Ha, I just used the Color Selector Object. It's kinda tacky, but it gets the job done. Pixel shaders are a bit above my head, anyhow.
So, here's what I ended up making. It's a little mini-palette generator. It uses a set of "Key Colors" placed into a little grid and blended with each other to create a small palette of like colors. And it's got a "randomize" button.
Not a full-on palette creation tool, but it's good for creating color schemes for inspiration.
Fifth, that's really nice! Where did you get the idea to use key colours like that? I've never seen that done before. I'm sure this will be handy so thanks for making it available.
Anyone else got games to show off? It's E3 season!
Not an E3 participant, but I actually did finish a few short projects lately. Most recently is a minigame sort of like those arcade cranes, where the player is trying to find their keys while digging under the couch.
Oh man, it's perfect! Everything just feels right!
I love all the little interface touches you've got, like the controls appearing on the title screen only if you try pressing a non-controls button, and the options for the color tint and the vignette, and how the game pauses with a little noise if the window loses focus (or how the boss intro stops playing if you die against a boss too many times, as I've just found out with Cliff)... All these little things add up. There's a lot of care put into it.
And the bosses are incredible. I love how you ran with the juicy feel of your original Mini Falafel Adventure. Even if I'm dying a bunch, they're still a joy to fight. And the way you end up damaging Handsman (I think that was its name?) is so very satisfying.
I'm still in the middle of it (currently stumped by Rupa), but I'm enjoying it thoroughly.
EDIT: And just beat it. That was magical. The last bit was kinda reminiscent of Rocket Knight Adventures.
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Edited by Fifth