The Road to RPG in a Box 2.0 (Godot 4 Devlog)

I'm super excited to announce that fun, simple music making will be coming to RPG in a Box 2.0 in the form of Bosca Ceoil, which you may be familiar with! So much appreciation and thanks to Yuri Sizov for his work in porting Bosca Ceoil to Godot, and of course to Terry Cavanagh for creating Bosca Ceoil and making a fun music tool available to everyone!

A quote from Yuri's release announcement on GitHub:

Bosca Ceoil: The Blue Album is a port and rework of the classic music making app by Terry Cavanagh. It has a playful nature and is very easy to use, especially if you are not musically inclined!

More details to come as I move forward and begin to integrate it into RPG in a Box 2.0!

Worlds are colliding (part 2). More details to come.

The Asset Library will also be leveling up in RPG in a Box 2.0! In addition to importing built-in assets, it will allow you to import models, widgets, items, and other assets directly from your other game projects and from Steam Workshop if you're running through Steam! The existing file system import functionality will be moved here, also, which will include the ability to import directly from external formats like MagicaVoxel, Blockbench, OBJ, and others.

Steam Workshop is one of the many game changers in RPG in a Box 2.0! The Steam Workshop tab in the new assets dialog will display any workshop items that you've subscribed to. You'll then be able to select and import any of the assets directly into your current project! Shown in the screenshot below are actual live workshop items being tested, with the preview image, title, and description text grabbed and displayed from Steam Workshop.

In the Model Maker for RPG in a Box 2.0, you'll be able to mix and match styles all within one model! Voxels, sprites, meshes, and even decals, can be combined together using the new layering system to create the model that YOU want!

Stay tuned for more details as I break down the latest teaser video over the coming week.

Have something blocky that you want to add to your model, or just simply enjoy drawing with voxels? Add a voxel layer to your model! In the teaser video, the grass surface and stones are made of voxels. Similar to RPG in a Box 1.0, a voxel layer will be converted into a textured mesh for in-game purposes.

Creating a 2D or 2.5D game, or just want to add details to your 3D model as billboard sprites? Add a sprite layer to your model! In the teaser video, the grass sprouts are made of sprites. Additionally, you'll even be able to import sprite sheet animations into the Model Maker, a commonly requested feature that will be extremely useful for 2D and 2.5D games!

Not a fan of voxels or sprites? In RPG in a Box 2.0, you'll be able to create low poly models directly within the Model Maker! Just add a mesh layer to your model, then build what you'd like by adding shapes together, or even carve into a shape with another one. This method is known as CSG (Constructive Solid Geometry).

In the teaser video, the acorn is a mesh that was made using this method. The stem is a cylinder, the body is an elongated sphere, and the cap is another sphere that has been cut in half using a box shape. All of these are combined into one resulting mesh. So excited for what this will open up for model creation!

Last, but not least: decals! Want to add smaller details to your models, like dirt, puddles, footprints, or fake shadows? Just add a decal layer to your model! A decal, as its name suggests, behaves like a sticker that you can place onto other things and is new to 2.0. In the teaser video, the puddles, animal tracks, and shadow of the acorn are decals.

In 2.0, you'll be able to mix and match voxels, sprites, meshes, and decals to bring your game to life, with even more of the fun and simplicity you've come to know and love about RPG in a Box!

The new Model Maker will include an Outliner tab which, as its name suggests, displays an outline of the elements within your model. Beyond using it to view the structure of your model, you'll also be able to hide/show elements, rename them, nest them beneath others, and more!