GDevelop 5 new editor - Beta versions

Hey,

As announced in a previous thread, I’ve been working on a new editor to replace in the future the current editor that is getting old.

[size=150]Why a new editor?[/size]

The current editor is slowly becoming old and harder to maintain as the underlying technology is quite hard to get for new developers and not often updated.
The idea is to have a new editor that is:

-Built on web technologies, so usable on a desktop, tablet, maybe even mobile phones.
-Easier to understand and modify for external developers that want to contribute to GDevelop.
-Have a more simplified UI, easier to understand for new comers (based on “Material UI” components and guidelines by Google).
-Unifying GDevelop and GDevApp.
-Working on Windows, OS X, and every major version of Linux without having to do special work on my side or maintain tricky compatibility!

[size=150]Try it[/size]

I was supposed to release it at the same time as the next version of GDevelop, but I think it may be a good idea to let you play a bit with it!
Download it from the website:

[size=120]http://compilgames.net/[/size]

The whole editor is still in an early stage.

[size=150]What about the current editor?[/size]

I’ve developed an update that will make the new editor available INSIDE the existing editor. Take a look:

[size=150]What are the next steps?[/size]

I plan to continue improving the editor so that it is progressively able to replace the old editor.
I’ll release a new GD version with improvements and the option to use the new IDE as the scene editor, like the previous screenshot :slight_smile:

The Events editor is to be recreated inside the new IDE, and all the objects editor. Support for native games may be added later. I also plan to make the editor available online, replacing GDevApp :slight_smile:

It’s a good opportunity for me to simplify as much as possible GDevelop, and make the editors more straighforward/easier to use :smiley:
I also plan to add features aiming to ease the publishing of a game. In this version, you can export your game to a free Amazon hosting in a single click! This can evolve in the future. I could also try to integrate the forum or chat in the editor later :slight_smile:

Translations and auto-update should also be added later :laughing:

[size=150]How can I contribute?[/size]

If you know a bit of Javascript or want to learn, you can help to design components:
github.com/4ian/GD/blob/master/ … components

It is looks really promising :slight_smile:

Few thoughts:
Maybe it a stupid idea but it was my very first thought when I opened a project and I was looking at the available options.
Since the panels are slide in and out on the edge I think it might look better if we would have little tabs on the edges of screen to represent the panels and options instead of the traditional top panel menu. Would be also cool if we could drag and move the tabs around and position them anywhere on the edges and make the panels slide in and out by clicking on the tabs. So basically, replace the top panel as a whole and put all the options on draggable tabs on the edge of the screen.
If this idea with tabs is feasible and you think it something worth considering, I would also suggest to make the properties panel sliding panel too because being the only fixed panel on the screen just doesn’t really fit in to the picture imo.

And a question:
When I choose export, it mention something about exporting and uploading my game to GDevelop game hosting.
So what is this “GDevelop game hosting” going to be?
Is it going to be something integrated with GDevApp, same hosting platform shared between the two or is it going to be GameDevShare reborn dedicated for GDevelop only or something else or nothing?

It was a quite experiment to see how I could offer a robust and scalable game hosting (it’s 100% amazon powered and could host lots of games without any problem - and it’s quite simple in the way it’s done).
No real plan for this for now, I’ll see later if this can evolve into something like GDevApp.
Traditional website export is still available of course :slight_smile:

That could be cool indeed :slight_smile: I’ll have to take a look at this, not sure how this is feasible.

Yes, that’s the goal! Even if for now only the properties panel is resizeable and not drag’n’droppable.

But in any case having a good and flexible interface for these different panels is one of the most challenging part - to keep something simple and flexible enough for advanced users.

I’ve released another Beta version, with objects editors. You are now able to add, rename, move, delete objects and edit them.
Most editors are simple for now. Everything is not implemented in particular for sprite objects (like collision masks and points) but I aim for something simple for now!

I’ve done improvements so that objects list and properties panel are draggable and resizeable.

Download it here:
[size=120]Windows : github.com/4ian/GD/releases/dow … -beta2.exe
macOS : github.com/4ian/GD/releases/dow … -beta2.dmg
Linux : github.com/4ian/GD/releases/dow … ta2.tar.gz[/size]

Next step will be to release a new version of GD where you can use the scene editor of the new IDE inside the existing IDE.
I’ll then work on a new events editor so that the new IDE can be used to create a new game from scratch. I’ll also see if I can release a web version to help people to quickly jump in the world of game making :slight_smile:

It is coming together nicely :slight_smile:

One thing I would like to mention is folders and sub-folders …
Are you planning to add the option to the Project Manager and the Objects Editor to create folders and sub-folders?
So we can organize our objects, scenes, layouts and external events in to folders. This is something that I miss from GDevelop since day 1. In really huge projects where you possibly have hundreds of objects in a scene and a bunch of different scenes (many different dungeons for each scene for example) I always find it difficult to keep it organised all this.
Also in image bank would be nice to use sub-folders too for the same reason.

That’s indeed something that is missing right now.
I’m not sure what would be the best way to handle it. For example, we could take the convention that scenes can be named like this: World1/Level1 (meaning that Level1 is in folder World1).
So it would already be working with the current system (that’s what I’m using the organize scenes/external layouts/external events).
For objects it’s trickier as object names can be used in expression, so / is not a valid separator. (Maybe use _ instead ?).

An alternative system would be to allow scenes/external layouts/external events/objects to have arbitrary tags, and then have a list of tags to quickly reach the scene you want.

Ah! because you want the option to have objects/scenes with the same name but in different folders, right?

It’s possible to do this with the first solution, by naming your scenes:
World1/Level1
World1/Level2
World2/Level1

Technically, the name of the scenes finishing by Level1 are different because they are “World1/Level1” and “World2/Level1”.
That’s what I’m using in a game to organize scenes and external layouts.

So an idea would be to display such scenes as grouped in folders in the editor:
World1

Level1
Level2
World2
Level1

What I really meant was is only group the scenes, objects, layouts under different “labels” or “tags” that we can fold and unfold in the IDE:

World1

scene1
scene2

World2

scene3
scene4

World1Enemies

enemy1
enemy2

Just to keep everything organized in the IDE and able to fold-unfold the items.

Yeah, that would be easier, as everything will have different names (as always), you don’t need to break your head thinking how to implement the object names and so, the folders would be a IDE-only frature to keep the things organized visually :slight_smile:

Hey, I know a bit of Java and pure JavaScript… How can I help you…???

The best would be to start with simple but useful additions. Feel free to read the README, install the newIDE and start modifying a component. For example, a link to the forum could be added on the “StartPage” component :slight_smile:

I’m follow the instructions here… but after run npm start… It’s showing…

./src/Export/ExportDialog.js
Line 23: ‘_onChangeTab’ is not defined no-undef

Search for the keywords to learn more about each error.

Before changing any file… is it a bug… or different environments, maybe eslint…???

Strange. Can you “git pull” the latest changes and try again?

I used a new nodejs environment… totally clean… and Bang… It’s working… My previous environment is set in strict mode… I suspect it to be it.

To begin … I’ll add a link on the StartPage. But then … I need you to tell me what you want… :slight_smile:

Sure, let me know once you have a Pull Request on github ready or if you need help :slight_smile:
After that, I think I can find other things to do :slight_smile: The most important thing will be to have soon Help links that redirect to wiki pages :slight_smile:

pull request done… :slight_smile:

Cool, I’ve posted an answer, let’s continue the conversation on the Pull Request for now :slight_smile:

A new beta version is available!

You can try the new event editor and behaviors are now editable for objects. The event editor is still basic and missing features like events folding or better autocompletion of parameters!

[size=150]Try it[/size]
[size=120]Windows : github.com/4ian/GD/releases/dow … -beta5.exe
macOS : github.com/4ian/GD/releases/dow … -beta5.dmg
Linux : github.com/4ian/GD/releases/dow … ta5.tar.gz[/size]

[size=150]Try it online[/size]
I’ve published a better version online too : http://4ian.github.io/GD/
This is a proof-of-concept to show how GDevelop 5 can run in a browser. This is still limited to a demo game but that’s a good start :slight_smile:
The main objective is still to have a fully functional desktop version.

In the online version the preview doesn’t work, and I can not drag and move the view in the scene editor with the mouse not even in the offline version. I don’t know if it normal or not.
In Chrome, the scene doesn’t load properly, lot of objects are missing.
I think compatibility with Chrome (over Firefox and other browsers) need to be priority. Personally, I’m looking forward to use GDevelop (or even an offline version with optional google drive support of GDevApp) in Chrome OS :slight_smile:

Would be nice if I could use right mouse button in the object and project properties tab to get the options just to make it look and feel more traditional on PC. Nothing wrong with the option button next to each item and on a touch device and Mac it is obviously preferred, but on a PC personally I would prefer to use right click to get options.

Finally, in the event editor I don’t like this flat design with a single background color in case it is what you going for intentionally. I find it hard to read and also hurt my eyes.
I think some border and shadow around each event block and around options in the list could help on that and would also make it look better. Or at least if the background and each event block would appear in different color with some gap or something in case you really want to go for a flat design.

It would be all, I hope it was not too tiresome to read all my complains :stuck_out_tongue: