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[Alec]

Josh Whelchel (indie game composer extraordinaire) is writing an audio system for Monocle. It has some cool possibilities, check it out:

Audio Demo 1:




Audio Demo 2:

[Eraser]

Can't wait until a scripting language gets implemented In the mean time, it's looking great all around. These are some features that will seriously speed up development.

[Chris Pavia]

Can't wait until a scripting language gets implemented

+ 1

[Alec]

Aye, aye. We've been looking into a lot of different scripting languages.

What's been holding us back is we haven't found the "perfect solution" yet. (there may not be one)

I'm probably going to mess around with implementing LUA for the time being.

[Chris Pavia]

Cool, glad to hear about LUA since it's a pretty common language for people like me who can script, but not "program."

[bengrue]

The difference between scripting and programming is purely mindset; If you can script, you're a programmer.

I used to hold the same distinction back when I was scripting games 15 years ago*.  When a C++ "engine" coder pointed out that the code I was writing was just as "real" as his, my eyes opened.

(*get off my lawn)

[_Tommo_]

The difference between scripting and programming is purely mindset; If you can script, you're a programmer.

I used to hold the same distinction back when I was scripting games 15 years ago*.  When a C++ "engine" coder pointed out that the code I was writing was just as "real" as his, my eyes opened.

(*get off my lawn)

So true... but it is so hip today to say "hey I put my gameplay in a script so I don't have to mantain it" as if it was thrown out of a window.
I always say that if you do scripting, you end mantaning the C++, the script AND the wrapper, and you program your gameplay through a sandbox wich you coded in the first place.
It is just stupid, if the program is meant to be developed by some-3 guys.

but this is a generic engine, so the scripting fits perfectly 

[Chris Pavia]

I understand what you're saying Grue, but I the distinction for me is that if you gave me an engine without a scripting layer, I'd be pretty clueless as to how to use it to build a game. And I'd be pretty clueless if someone asked me to build an engine of even basic complexity (although if you know of any good learning material I'd love to check it out!).

[Alec]

I think there are a few additional points here:

For People New to Programming
One of the reasons GameMaker is popular, is because it includes everything you need to make a game. You just grab one download and you're good to go.
- tools (level editing, graphics, etc)
- reasonably easy-to-understand scripting

You don't need to go download compilers, libraries, etc. You don't need to learn the (sometimes ugly) in-and-outs of C++.

The advantage of using a scripting environment is that we can setup something that is really accessible. i.e. Eventually you'll be able to just download Monocle pre-built for your platform and start messing around with scripts and using the built-in editors to make a game. Combined with video tutorials and a helpful community, I think this would be a pretty welcoming way for those new to game development to start out.

And the way Monocle is setup, once these folks figure out scripting, they can start hacking around in the C++ source if they would like to customize the engine further. (or if they'd prefer to build their game code in C++ for speed)

Sort of Data Driven-ish
For Aquaria, I decided to use LUA for creatures and cutscene scripting. I think this was a good choice, because it let the scripts act kind of like "entity definition files." i.e. I could just scan the entities folder to find all the entities in the game. I could be messing around in the level editor, fix some entity behavior in a script, and hit "reload" to see the changes right away. Making a new entity just involved creating a new LUA file. (and adding its name to an index file, but we might be able to remove that step for Monocle)

Adding new creatures and cutscenes in C++ would have been more tedious and time consuming.

[gianmichele]

Is this project still active. I was very much looking into it.

Gian