The coming week
Added 2018-07-13 13:24:30 +0000 UTCWill be a programming week, as decided by Human-tier patrons and up. This means I will spend a week developing the code that runs Kobold Adventure, instead of writing scenes. After this week is over (let's say next week Wednesday), I will continue work on Varanar, Noon Two (part two).
In this programming week, I will be focussing on two main objectives. First off, I will be writing a compiler for Kobold Adventure, which can squeeze all of the hundreds of files the game uses into a single one. This will reduce page load times and scene loading times, and make development a bit easier because I no longer need to manually add everything to the .html file.
I'm happy to say that I've already created a large part of this first requirement. During my free time (between the pushing of the last update and the end of the poll) I've been programming away at two versions of the compiler (one for scenes and one for the rest of the code), and they're both fully operational. Webms of them in action can be viewed below.
What is not yet done, however, is hooking these compiled files into a new loading system. Old loading, new loading and hotloading (the current loading mechanisms) will all remain to exist, but their meaning will change.
Current new loading will become the new old loading. New new loading will load compiled files (which will become the default loading behavior of Kobold Adventure). Hotloading will load a single large compiled file, instead of hundreds of separate files.
I know this all sounds confusing, heck I had a hard time even explaining it, but what it boils down to is that all forms of loading will become better.
After this is done, I will set my mind to the second objective of this programming week: making a backwards-compatible framework for theme generation.
Basically, right now, each theme (each set of colors for the game to use) corresponds to a single 140-line CSS file. These are not fun to make, and they are hell to maintain.
Whenever I add a new component that needs a separate color rule, I need to add this rule to each and every one of these files. Not to mention that every theme I add needs to be loaded whenever the game gets accessed. An unsustainable system.
The theme generator I intend to create will fix both of these issues by providing a central repository which'll spit out parametrized themes. In short, it'll accept a bunch of parameters, and it'll generate one of those 140+ line themes in return.
A much better system, which will further reduce the amount of files that need to be loaded, and which will enable me to add new UI components without needing to fuck around in sixteen different files.
Once both of these objectives are achieved, I'll spend any remaining time on a bunch of different minor things I have on a checklist. Splitting up one big controller into subcontrollers, adding a dark mode to the theme generator, mentioning the drag and drop capability of the loading screen somewhere, and some other boring programming stuff.
Anyway, that's all for now. Those webms of the compilers in action can be found below. Thank you for your continued interest in Kobold Adventure. I know this month hasn't been very content-filled so far, but after Noon Three has been completed, I'll be able to pump out some guestwritten content that'll hopefully make up for it.
See you all next week on another episode of How to Hurt your Kobold.
Comments
Don't be afraid to ask questions just because you're not a patron. I can understand not wanting to throw money at a kobold violation simulator. Several characters will be developed further along the course of the storyline, although a bunch of people you meet will never be seen again. Moe doesn't necessarily *hate* humans, but like a cornered animal, they'll fight until their last breath if survival is on the line. No morality system is planned, but I do keep track of who the kobold has killed. Your actions will have repercussions!
TinkeringTurian
2018-07-15 18:36:38 +0000 UTC
