Lord English, yeah I know you weren't really trying to wrap the map editor, but to me it seems like you were. Removing the hooks to Update/RenderScript and instead calling them within your own game loop kinda implies that. Which is not bad, but I'm uncertain as to what functionality you gain/lose by doing that. For one, SetMapEngineFrameRate() may not work as intended (or at all).

I think I remember now.  The reason I had Scenario hijack the map engine instead of using user-accessible update/render hooks was because I didn't want Scenario.run() to return until the scene was over.  This makes it much easier to add teardown code (setting event flags, etc.) after the scene.  I suppose I could refactor everything to make this requirement unnecessary, but that would be Scenario 4.0, which I don't expect to be able to do for a while, as I have a few other time-consuming changes planned for 4.0.

Getting back on topic: Much of the Specs battle engine is programmed.  I had been putting this off for a long time due to the sheer complexity of the design, but thanks to a drop-dead simple Console class I programmed in an hour last night, I've been making a lot of progress.  I suppose not having to waste time finding (or making) placeholder sprites to see what's going on in the battle helps.

Stuff that's implemented:
-- Turn resolver (resolves turn order based on battler stats/move used)
-- Action queue - for multi-turn moves
-- Enemy AI framework
-- Status effect framework (WIP)
-- Weapon switching framework (WIP)

Quite an impressive list I think, considering the battle engine didn't do a thing a few days ago--although to be fair several pieces of the framework were already in place as of my initial git commit, albeit not operational.

Anyway, that's my status update for today. I'm getting closer to releasing the Tech Demo, but that will require an actual battle screen layout first, so it's still a ways off. Sit tight, I promise it'll be worth the wait!

Finally just released the first Spectacles tech demo, showing off its CTB battle system!   Here's the Google Drive link to get it:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BxPKLRqQOUSNQTB3dFBtc0F4bUk/edit?usp=sharing

For convenience, the archive contains a copy of the Sphere 1.5 engine.

Let me know what you guys think!

I can't seem to download files off of Google Drive. It just goes to a page with infinite redirects, or says the app is "unreachable". Is this the same stuff in the github repo? Because I can check that out instead.

Yes, my latest git commit is identical to what I released here

So has anyone tried the demo yet, out of curiosity?

Also @Radnen:
I've made a bunch of new commits since releasing the demo. If you haven't played it yet, just be aware that if you check out the latest commit now, you might get a misbehaved demo since I'm currently in the process of implementing various statuses--which often involves doing strange things to stress test them!

Downloaded it just now (from the Drive link above). The opening screen looks promising, but once I get to the main menu (with the option Start Demo), I can't seem to find the button to confirm that yes, I want to start the demo... Only the left/right keys do anything. I should tell you that I'm running Sphere through Wine, but so far, no game has failed because of that particular fact.

Nice music, though.

EDIT: hm. It didn't work because I used my own version of Sphere. It works with the one you provide.

So has anyone tried the demo yet, out of curiosity?

wow!

i like it, the ui is really clean, the pop ups, the fades, the typing, all of it looks really pro, i like the handling of the turns on the top, and the cooldowns of the abilities.

so... are u going for a super simplistic look? i sword slashed someone and i didnt see a sword or a slash. #sadface. and i was a little confused at first as to what button(s) to press,, maybe some text on the landing menu. also, when u zip things, put them in a folder and zip the folder, its a little cleaner that way for the user that wants to quickly extract without having to create a folder themselves.

good job man keep up the good work (or come to work for me on my game and clean up my ui!!)

Okay, this is freakin' polished and I can easily see it turn into something great. Robert was impossible to beat, though.
Mind if I put it on Spherical's downloads repository?

ninjasword: have you seen any in-battle graphics at all? I'm sure by far most of it is placeholder, which explains the lack of any animation (other than the slick interface animation).

It was really very nice! This is one of the better battle engines I've seen, right up there with trial and error's.

Glad everybody likes it!  The story for all three installments is actually finished, at least in concept.  Not all of the script has been written, but we're (me and my cousin) working on it.

But yeah, most of it is placeholder graphics for now. Battle animations and such will come in time, I just want to get all the technical things out of the way first.  It is possible to win against Robert, though--you just have to manage the turns right. What you're seeing is a sneak peek at the final battle of Spectacles I, it's not meant to be easy!  The anti-AI-cheating I implemented may halt the game early if he runs out of MP though...

@DaVince
Sure, feel free.

So nobody's figured out the cheat to beat Robert in only two turns yet, huh?  That won't work in the final game, but I don't have the architecture in place at the moment to prevent it.

hint: it involves Alcohol

ok so i played ur demo again to try and beat robert and... well, is there no way to speed/skip the drawing of text? its really annoying after i die and play again to have to watch the words crawl across the screen when i already know wat they say

ok so i played ur demo again to try and beat robert and... well, is there no way to speed/skip the drawing of text? its really annoying after i die and play again to have to watch the words crawl across the screen when i already know wat they say

Not currently (it's just a tech demo), but you can edit main.js and change DBG_DISABLE_TEXTBOXES to true.