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Topics - patrickgh3

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1
Gameplay & Discussion / Introducing Blue Fruit!
« on: November 01, 2017, 11:07:13 PM »
httpss://blue.delicious-fruit.com

Blue Fruit is a new site where you can create an account and submit your fangames!

We're releasing now because of news that the original wiki is shutting down. :BibleThump: 7 But fangames live on!  :denProgress:

Blue Fruit is developed by Patrickgh3 (me), hosted by Klazen108, and translated into Japanese by Normal. There is a small team of administrators who approve games. If you have any questions, post in this thread, or contact us in the I Wanna Community Discord.

Please keep the following in mind:
  • Games will eventually automatically be added to DelFruit, but right now they're added manually by admins.
  • You may encounter bugs; please be patient and report them to us.
  • Check your spam folder for your confirmation email.
  • Blue fruit isn't 100% finished; there are still features we'd like to add in the future!

FAQ / Updates:

  • The current list of games on the wiki will soon be added to Blue Fruit. No need to re-submit your old games.

  • Blue Fruit is a separate site from Delicious Fruit. You can think of it as replacing the wiki.

  • Accounts are required to reduce "junk" uploads, and to be able to "own" your submitted games through your account.

  • Delicious Fruit will eventually automatically add games from both Blue Fruit and https://ibbs.info/?id=iwanna.


2
Game Design / Fangame coding video tutorials
« on: March 28, 2017, 04:04:57 PM »
I thought some video tutorials would be helpful to people in our community who want to get started with coding for fangames but don't know where to start. Be sure to read the video descriptions. Please give me feedback on them, so I can improve for possible future videos, if I make any more. :) I'm Patrick#0303 on Discord.

Boss Phase (49:48) - Making a simple shooty boss. States, iframes, draw event, plus other misc stuff.
Small examples (23:08) - Random functions, loops, timers, lengthdir functions, scripts, plus other misc stuff.
Avoidance basics (23:11) - Set up avoidance music, useful timing features, very basic attack examples

Handy dandy link to Klazen's tutorial: https://klazen.com/IWBTG/tutorial/dev_tutorial.html

3
Engines / IWBT Fusion 2.5 Engine Patrickgh3 Edition
« on: March 25, 2017, 08:14:32 PM »
I ported the standard physics to Clickteam Fusion 2.5 for MattinJ's game, I wanna be the Overlord, since he started with Zly's Engine but needed accurate physics. I since touched up the project and added save files, music, etc. Hopefully a few people who already use Fusion will see this and give making fangames a shot! :)

Features:
- Accurate physics
- Multiple save files
- Non-restarting music system
- Gravity arrows, vines, horizontal platforms
- Death and time in saves

v0.2 Download

Playable exe if you want to check it out

4
Tournaments / Fangame Marathon 2017 Megathread
« on: March 05, 2017, 11:45:02 AM »
Hi everyone! It’s about time to start preparing for FM 2017! This post has information about general plans and how we’re going to organize things this year. I’m really excited for another Fangame Marathon, and I hope you all are too! Also, thanks for your quick responses to the date thread.

I. General info

Fangame Marathon 2017 will be held June 16th - 18th, starting at around 12:00 PM EDT Friday, and ending around 12:00 PM EDT Sunday. (EDT is UTC-4)

A few of us decided it’s best to “rebrand” and use the acronym FM instead of FGM. This is because the old acronym turned up very unsavory things when newcomers Googled it (don’t do it yourself, seriously not worth it). So let’s all try to use FM from now on.

The FM Discord will be where we discuss and plan the marathon, so please join here if you’re interested in helping out: httpss://discord.gg/AtrNMT7. Please stay on-topic about the marathon at all times, and avoid excessive jokes/memes, since there will be a lot of people in there.

I sort of took the initiative to start administrating things this year, so feel free to contact me about anything relating to organizing the marathon: Discord: Patrick#0303, Twitch: Patrickgh3, IWC Forums: Patrickgh3.



II. Runners and volunteers

Here is the runner, volunteer, and relay submission form (Closed May 12th, schedule here!). (please read the thread first though)

Here is the submissions list.

The last day for submissions is Friday May 12th!. Don’t wait until the last minute, but you also have time to prepare your runs.

Runner / event submissions

I think we should go for 48 hours of content again. Also, last year we had great variety in the submitted runs; I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone submits this year! For reference, here’s last year’s schedule.

Note that “showcase” submissions, or "special events" of any kind are also welcome! Examples from last year include Nader and Max’s Churatch Sunpossible race, Shadows’s needle maker, david and goliath, needle master events, my fangame creation demonstration, Geezer’s twitch plays fangames, etc.

Please note that a submission does not necessarily mean an accepted submission. It will largely depend on dates and times that work for runners. Runners, please be as flexible as possible, as it makes scheduling much easier and allows for more variety within the schedule. The last two years, every single runner that submitted had a run in the marathon!

Volunteer work

We need A LOT of help, as much as possible.

Some “tech crew” things we need help with are: hosting, a.k.a. managing the actual FM stream for a shift or two, announcing during run transitions, ensuring runners are all set up, managing run highlights and YouTube videos, and generally making sure things go smoothly.

There’s also a bunch of odd jobs like sprucing up the channel page, making some graphics (Shadows will be helping with this), possibly putting together a fangame music playlist for transitions, etc. If you think of anything that you can help with, mention it in the submission form and in Discord.

Here are some details and differences from last year. For hosts/restreamers, we’ll have a remote PC that you can log on to that will do the actual restreaming, so bad internet is hopefully not an issue and we can have more hosts! We’re planning on hosting an RTMP server on that mchine too. Thanks to Klazen for setting this up! We’ll also have around 4 hour shifts instead of 8 hours. Also, we’re gonna try to have announcers be a separate person than the current restreamer, to divide up the work a little and hopefully avoid audio issues.

Relay Race

In addition to all the submitted segments, we’re going to try to organize an additional big relay race segment this year! Denferok will be in charge of the relay.

Here’s how it works: There are multiple teams each with the same number of people, and they race to complete a set order of games as quickly as possible, with each person running 1 game. It should make for a pretty hype segment!

The games themselves will be well-known, race friendly games that our community has a history of commonly speedrunning. Also note that a game being played during the relay doesn't rule it out of being a run on it's own in the marathon too. Once we get pretty far into the submissions period, we can start figuring out teams, a best time, and what games each person will play. We might end up with around 5-8 games and 2-3 teams, but it all depends on interest and scheduling. If you’re interested, fill out the relay section of the submission form.

(click to show/hide)

III. Guidelines for runners and viewers

These rules are pretty much the same as last year’s, just reworded. Most are pretty obvious, but I appreciate everyone reading them regardless.

For runners:

- Please be ready to stream at your designated time. We ask that runners be available up to 30 minutes before their scheduled time for setup and to allow for schedule inconsistency.
- We encourage you to commentate your own run as you go. You’re also allowed to bring in other commentators, as long as they are actually knowledgeable about the run. Let us know if your run is silent so the tech crew can get someone to commentate during the run.
- Please ensure that your stream is set up correctly beforehand, including audio balancing and a stable bitrate for your connection. We will provide instructions for streaming to the RTMP server closer to the marathon date.
- Please keep the FM twitch chat open during your run to be able to see tech crew messages and also interact with viewers.
- We ask that you keep your language to a respectable level. While a lot of players in the community tend to curse off some gate jumps, we ask that it stays as PG-13 as possible with no excessive cursing.
- Runners must comply with Twitch's Community Guidelines at all times. This includes no racism of any kind, even in jest. Please avoid use of words like "retarded" or "faggot" that may be grounds for offensive content per Twitch's rules.
- Most importantly, have fun! We put on Fangame Marathon to have a good time, so we hope you guys have fun during your runs!

For viewers:

- Most of our viewers behaved excellently during the last event, so we look forward to positive behavior this time around! Please remember that just like broadcasters, viewers should refrain from excessive language in the chat, as well as any form of racism, even in jest
- Last year the marathon attracted a lot of newcomers, and as TJ noted, chat was very responsive and helpful in answering questions like "What are these games?" and "Where can I download them", and not making fun of them. Let's keep that up this year!
- Last year chat moderators did a great job last year with squelching spam and inappropriate messages, and generally being helpful and not abusing their power to spam the chat. Keep it up this year!
- Be sure to follow the twitch account, www.twitch.tv/fangamemarathon, and feel free to host the channel during the marathon as well!
- We’ll be using the hashtag #FangameMarathon on Twitter, so feel free to join in on the hype using it as we approach the marathon.
- Know any big or small streamers that would love to watch FM with their viewers? Have any friends that would want to watch? Tell them about FM!
- Get HYPE!

IV. Misc notes and in closing

We’re not going to do donations to a charity this year. Last year it was a hassle and wasn’t very successful.

Also, for reference, here's TJ's wrap-up thread from last year.

Other links:
Twitch channel - www.twitch.tv/fangamemarathon
YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/channel/UCfKa7cwruF4fSvlQ1Coxtnw

If you haven’t already, please join the FM Discord (linked above) if you’re intersted in helping out with the marathon. Feel free to ask any questions there or in this thread. Thanks for reading!

5
Tournaments / Fangame Marathon 2017 Date Discussion
« on: March 01, 2017, 12:40:22 PM »
Hi everyone! It’s that time of year to get the ball rolling for Fangame Marathon 2017! I’m excited and I hope you all are too. We as a community need to decide the date the event will take place, which is what this thread is for.

First though, an important change. A few of us decided it’s best to “rebrand” and use the acronym FM instead of FGM. This is because the old acronym turned up very unsavory things when newcomers Googled it (don’t do it yourself, seriously not worth it), so let’s use FM from now on.

(non-final logo)

The tentative date for FM 2017 is June 16th - 18th, starting at around 12:00 PM EST Friday and ending around that time Sunday. Other secondary options if needed are June 9th - 11th and June 23rd - 25th.

We would like to know if that date works for the majority of potential runners and tech help volunteers (and non-speedrun event submitters). So, if you’re thinking of or planning on participating, please post here to let us know if that date works for you, or if you notice anything wrong about it, or if you absolutely can’t make any date along with another date suggestion. If you want you can also message me at Patrick#0303 on Discord.

The main announcement thread for FM 2017 with all the information will be posted soon (within a week), along with a FM planning discord. This thread should be only for discussing the date; please save other questions and comments til the main thread and discord are posted. Thanks for reading!

6
Gameplay & Discussion / Serious fangame making questions
« on: November 25, 2016, 01:27:39 PM »
Recently I have been doing some thinking about the various dynamics of making fangames in our community. Sometimes I get discouraged when I think about this stuff. I think this discouragement comes from neither me personally nor the community having clear answers to these questions. These are like murky waters in my mind I would like to try and clear up.

  • How much appreciation and support (if any) do fangame creators deserve, and are they currently getting enough?
  • Is it okay to heavily criticize people’s fangames that they made on their own time for everyone to enjoy?
  • How much patience and forgiveness (if any) should fangame streamers and players be expected to have?
  • What is the right balance of encouraging quality fangames while not scaring off potentially good creators?
  • To what extent can you be proud of a fangame that heavily uses other people’s content? (spook jam, medleys, and in general using music+sprites+sounds made by others)
  • Is it okay to use the self-made assets of other people’s fangames?
  • To what extent (if any) are quality fangames not getting attention they deserve?
  • To what extent (if any) are fangame creators limiting their creative growth as opposed to making freeware games for a bigger, more general audience?

I want to hear what everyone thinks about these kind of topics.

7
User-Made Creations / I Wanna Spook Jam Release
« on: October 31, 2016, 04:39:06 AM »


Download: https://cwpat.me/i-wanna-spook-jam-download

Please do not post bugs, balance issues, or other issues in the thread. Contact me directly with those. (twitch.tv/patrickgh3, Discord: Patrick#0303)

I'm very happy this game is released. I'll update this post with more text later. Read the readme.txt!

(click to show/hide)

8
Game Design / I Wanna Spook Jam Contest + Collab (8/14 - 9/30)
« on: August 14, 2016, 05:48:22 PM »


Date:
8/14/16 - 9/30/16 (mid August - end of September)


Overview:
I invite all fangame makers to make a short halloween-themed stage! I’ve made a ghost kid and a few other sprites to use. After the September deadline we'll vote on the best stages, and compile all stages into a game and release to the wiki on October 31st. I think it’ll be a fun event for our community to do!

Stages should be:
•  Short length. (about 10 minutes playtime)
•  Easy difficulty. (about 25/100)
•  Halloween-themed! Spooky!
•  Made in the provided engine (Yoyo with ghost kid sprite)





Rules List
1. Aim for 25/100 difficulty. Examples: Strongest Fairy, Spook House. https://cwpat.me/up/rfehffei.png https://cwpat.me/up/ezpbclng.png
2. Aim for 10 minutes playtime for an intermediate player.
3. Make it halloween themed! Spooky!
4. Use the provided engine with the ghost kid and other stuff.
5. Prefix all your new resources with your name. The exact format is up to you. For example: sprPatSpikeUp, s_patSpikeUp, etc.
6. When you submit, include a .txt list of any scripts, objects, or other resources you modify.
7. As you make your stage, make a .txt list of where you found resources you didn't make yourself, like music, graphics, sound effects, etc.
8. End your stage with a portal with some space around it. The portal will look like: https://cwpat.me/up/uyrnindh.gif.

Clarifications
•  Don’t feel like you have to use the whole month. If you finish in a week or less that’s fine.
•  Type/genre can be whatever you want. Adventure, needle, trap, with or without boss, just a boss, etc, as long as it fits the difficulty and length.
•  It’s okay to reuse previous work (graphics, levels, etc.) as long as it fits the halloween theme.
•  All skill levels are welcome. Don't be scared, the competition aspect is friendly.
•  More production value will be added or changed later and you shouldn't worry about it, such as a title screen, game over image, etc.






In October (after the deadline):
•  For 2 weeks we will rate each other’s stages. (No external judges, just participants) The rankings will be in the credits of the game.
•  For 1 month, as a group we will work on:
   •  Order of stages
   •  Balance stages
   •  Consider a hard difficulty mode (60/100?)
   •  Misc. production value

How to participate:
Join the Spook Jam Discord server (SEPERATE from the I wanna community discord): httpss://discord.gg/EScE5kH (new link 8/28)
or
Contact me: Skype: patrickgh3, Twitch: patrickgh3.

Engine download: httpss://www.dropbox.com/s/c14n29y0rowvkrh/spook%20jam%20engine%20v1.gmz?dl=0


Let me know if you have any questions! I'm open to changing anything. And I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone makes! :D

9
Gameplay & Discussion / Helpful Streaming Tools
« on: July 21, 2016, 05:03:14 PM »
Let's compile a list of tools, scripts, plugins, etc. that are useful for streaming fangames.

Snip adds playing song information from Spotify, iTunes, Winamp, foobar2000, or VLC to a Text Source. I configured snip to launch on startup of my computer.

I wrote a batch (.bat) script to automate opening all the stuff i use when streaming. It's not perfect; please let me know if you find any improvments.
Code: [Select]
start /b "" "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\OBS Studio\OBS Studio (64bit).lnk"
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" "httpss://www.twitch.tv/patrickgh3/dashboard"
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --app="httpss://www.twitch.tv/patrickgh3/chat?popout="
start /b "" "C:\Patrick\Stream\pat chat bg.exe"
start /b "" "C:\Patrick\Stream\pats balls.exe"
pause

10
Game Design / Case studies in fangame design
« on: July 19, 2016, 06:17:24 PM »
A case study is a detailed examination of an isolated event, person, or thing in order to see what can be learned from it. Or something close to that anyways. I think sharing small writeups like this can help us learn from how others approach design stuff. Feel free to post your own! I'll start it off.

https://i.imgur.com/XZJiG2N.gifv

This is an attack of a boss from I wanna run the Marathon before tweaks. It kind of feels unfair and unfun. The peaches are too fast and unpredictable, and the random direction of the crowns is too luck-based. Often when I die it feels like there was nothing I could have done.

So, I decided to change the attack instead of scrap it because its ideas seemed solid.
  • Fix the peaches sprite origin so they rotated around their center correctly and weren't confusing to read.
  • Make peaches move a bit slower overall to give more time to react to them.
  • Instead of randomizing both x and y speed, randomize only x speed and keep y speed constant so peaches land in the lava at regular intervals.
  • Make crowns always launch at the same direction to the left.
  • Make even numbered peaches land on the left half of the arena, and odd numbered ones on the right half. I noticed that the attack was free if most peaches were far away, and too hard if most peaches were near you, and this spreads them out more evenly.

Now the attack felt fair and mildly challenging every time. Mission accomplished! I want to note there were many other variables I could have adjusted, such as peaches size, crown size, crown speed, peaches spawn rate, peaches arc height, and crown arc height. So I think the main takeaway point here is there's usually a lot of variables and axes you can adjust, and you have to think hard to find them since they aren't all immediately obvious.

https://i.imgur.com/ibl0i2U.gifv

11
Game Design / GM Studio Pros and Cons
« on: July 19, 2016, 03:10:38 PM »
I thought a centralized pros and cons list like this would be useful. I'm a big supporter of switching to studio, but I tried to be fair and present both sides. Please note anything I missed and I'll add it to the list.

Switching to Studio from 8.X for fangames

Pros
- Better optimized
        • Games can handle more objects before lagging
        • No need to worry about ~150MB project size limit
- More features
        • Built-in good networking
        • Built-in shaders
        • Built-in good audio system with pitch and volume changing, etc
        • Built-in physics system (e.g. golf area in run the marathon)
        • Draw begin and end, draw GUI, pre and post draw events
- Better project structure
        • Easier to transfer resources between projects
        • More easily compatible with version control (git, etc)
- Better interface
        • Can have multiple code windows open
        • Room editor can stretch and rotate, and select multiple objects
        • Dark theme option
- Other
        • Lots of misc small improvements (script argument hints, play multiple mp3s, better “var” syntax)
        • Yoyo’s engine works great and is well-organized
        • Forced initializing variables makes debugging easier
        • Better debugger
        • Supported by the company, improvements are coming (however slowly)
        • Many people have switched, you can trust their judgement

Cons
        • Have to get used to initializing variables
        • Have to get used to small changes in UI and hotkeys
        • Have to get used to some logic changes (e.g. creation code after create event)
        • Manipulating files is annoying due to sandboxing
        • A select few people get mysterious occasional lag with studio games
        • The input delay is slightly lower, which bothers a select few people
        • Some functions were made obsolete, most you shouldn’t use anyway
        • Introduces a few new annoying quirks, to be expected

12
User-Made Creations / I wanna run the Marathon
« on: June 13, 2016, 12:08:14 AM »
This is the game that me, Mr Wonderful, Kadykunde, and Pieceofcheese87 made to be raced blind at this year's Fangame Marathon. Enjoy!

Download Link: https://cwpat.me/i-wanna-run-the-marathon-download

Version 1.1 change log

Version 1.2 fixes occasional music, freezing, and lag issues.


13
Gameplay & Discussion / Windows 10 Cultured + GENKI fix
« on: May 15, 2016, 02:54:08 PM »
Recently Brokenpeanut67 found a fix for certain fangames not working on Windows 10.

EDIT: On 9/5/16 I made a simple program to apply this fix to all exes in a folder. Scroll down to that post for more info.

Here's downloads of fixed exes for Cultured and Genki so you don't have to do it yourself (put the exe in the game folder next to the old exe). The steps are listed below for the sake of documentation. Please post if the fix works for any other fangames.

1. Download and install CFF Explorer https://www.softpedia.com/get/Programming/SDK-DDK/CFF-Explorer.shtml#download
2. Right-click on the game exe and open with CFF explorer. Click "no" to dialog.
3.
(click to show/hide)
Click "File Header" on the left, "Click here" on the right, check "App can handle 2gb address space", click ok. See the screenshot.
4. Save the exe, and try running it.

14
Gameplay & Discussion / Download site help, etc.
« on: February 14, 2016, 04:52:17 PM »
I thought it'd be nice to gather these kind of explanations all in one place. Let me know if you have any additions to this list and I'll add them here.



Axfc

Axfc is confusing for everyone, not just you, don't worry. You might also consider enabling your ad blocker for it.

1. First, click this button.

2. On the next page, click this link.

I've noticed you'll occasionally be sent to this "unavailable" page. If you do, try again after waiting a while, or try incognito/private mode.

3. On the next page, click this link to start the download.

Note: If that last link doesn't work, there's a magical workaround called the herring trick. Replace the first word in the URL (some fish thing) with "herring", and try that.



Mediafire

Click this button when it's loaded. You might have to solve a captcha or watch a video ad beforehand. (consider enabling ad blocker)

Note: If the page gives you an error saying the download was blocked due to some music file or similar, try going back and then loading the page again a few times.



ux.getuploader
Scroll down and click this tiny Download button in the middle of the page.




pan.baidu

Click this button at the top. You might have to enter a captcha.




Error: Cannot read the game file


If you get this error message, it's because of the strange characters in the name. You have to rename the .exe AND ITS FOLDER and remove those strange characters.



Game crashes on Windows 8

See bmxbandit's fix for Windows 8 crashes

15
Game Design / Tutorial: Version update detection using Delfruit
« on: February 12, 2016, 12:36:17 AM »
Hi all. In a recent Delicious Fruit update, Klazen recently added some neat features, and I'd like to show people how to use them to make your game check if a new version is available when it starts up.

This tutorial is kinda long and involved because what we're doing is kinda complicated, and I tried to provide a lot of detail. Once you know how the process works, actually implementing it for your game should be pretty quick.

A. Adding a version attribute to your game's Delfruit page

First, before you upload your game to the wiki, create a Delfruit page for your game. You probably only want to do this when you're about to release. Make sure the name you type matches the name you will type when you upload to the wiki.

Next, claim your game's Delfruit page. Log in and click "report" on your game's page, and mention that you are the creator, and that this is a new game. Then you'll have to wait for the admin team to approve your request. This might take a little while since the admins aren't adminning 24/7.

You can tell your request was approved if when you edit your review for your game, an additional "attribute system" text appears. These instructions tell you how to add an attribute, and the URL to then access it. Go ahead and add a version tag with some number, e.g. [attribute]version=1.0[/attribute], and click the button to update your review. Visit that attribute's URL in your browser, e.g. https://delicious-fruit.com/ratings/game_details.php?id=12243&attribute=version, and make sure "success" is true, and "version" is the number you set.

Delfruit automagically takes care of reading the attributes you've set and then serving them over a REST API. If you have access to your own server, you could do this yourself, like I've done for Jtool update checking. But having this readily-configurable on Delfruit is very convenient.

B. Accessing the version attribute from your game

These instructions assume you're using GM Studio, which has built-in networking stuff. I might later add resources to check out for 8.1. Consider this another nudge to switch to Studio if you're still using 8 for new projects.

First, let's send an HTTP request for our game's version. This snippet should be executed once at the start of your game. We'll save the id the function returns for later.
Code: [Select]
versionRequestId = -1
if os_is_network_connected() {
    versionRequestId = https_get('blahblahblah?id=12345&attribute=version')
}

This is an asynchronous request, which means we don't get the response right away when this line executes. Create an HTTP event (under the Asynchronous group). This is where we receive the response to our request and deal with it accordingly. Put this snippet in there.

Code: [Select]
var result = ds_map_find_value(async_load, "result")
resultMap = json_decode(result)
if resultMap == -1 exit

var Id = ds_map_find_value(async_load, "id")
if Id == versionRequestId {
    var success = ds_map_find_value(resultMap, 'success')
    if is_undefined(success) exit
    if is_string(success) exit
    if not success exit
    var newestVersion = ds_map_find_value(resultMap, 'version')
    if is_undefined(newestVersion) exit
    newestVersion = string(newestVersion)
    if newestVersion == '' exit
   
    var thisVersion = '1.0'
    if newestVersion != thisVersion {
        if show_question('Theres a new version available. Visit the download page?') {
            url_open_full('https://www.google.com','_blank','')
        }
    }
}
ds_map_destroy(resultMap)

Let's analyze that snippet. In the first 3 lines, we store a ds_map of the response into the variable resultMap. From this ds_map we can access the version number and whatever else the response contains. Next, we grab the id of the response. We compare this to the id we saved earlier in the variable versionRequestId to check which response we're dealing with. Right now our game only sends one request ever, so this isn't really necessary, but it's good practice, since you could potentially have multiple requests in the future.

Inside the if-block, first we do a bunch of error-checking just in case. Then we grab the newest version and compare it to the game's version. If they're different, you know there's a newer version available, and we can prompt the player to visit the download page. The '_blank' target argument opens the page in a new tab. You should also consider using something other than GM's built in popups, for example creating a button on the title screen, since the built-in popups can feel kinda janky.

C. Managing versions

When you release a new version of your game, there are two things you need to do to keep update checking working correctly.
1. Update the version number variable inside the game.
2. Update the version attribute on your game's delfruit game to that same number.
Always remember to do both! It can be easy to forget one.

Something to note is that while the delfruit version attribute updates immediately, the download links on your game's wiki and delfruit pages do not. So if a player's game detects a new version, and you send them to your game's wiki or delfruit page, they could arrive before the download link has been updated. One solution is to upload your games to Mediafire, keep all uploaded versions in one folder, and have your game send players to the Mediafire folder instead since it's updated immediately. Another solution is to have another attribute on your delfruit page that is the newest download link, and the game grabs that and that's where the player is sent to. If you do that be sure you don't have a race condition issue.

Another note: The reason you create your game's delfruit page before uploading to the wiki is so that you can add the version attribute and put the URL into your game.

Another note: It's okay to release your game before the admins approve your request and you're able to add the version attribute on your delfruit page. You're not going to release an update within that timespan anyways. And the version checker code doesn't break if you haven't set the version attribute yet.

D. Checklists

First release your game:
1. Create delfruit page
2. Request to be that page's creator (don't have to wait for approval)
3. Copy delfruit version URL into the game's update check code
3a. If using Mediafire folder: create folder, copy folder URL into game code.
4. Test the case when version numbers are different
5. Test the case when version numbers are the same
6. Double-check game version number 1.0 or whatever it's supposed to be
7. Upload game
7a. If using Mediafire folder, put in that folder
8. Submit game to wiki, be sure it's the same title as delfruit page

Release an update:
1. Increment game's internal version number
2. Increment delfruit page version number
3. Upload game
3a. If using Mediafire folder, put in that folder
4. Possibly submit update to wiki*

*If you submitted your Mediafire folder to the wiki, the links for your wiki and delfruit pages don't need to be updated. But you might consider submitting that your game has an update if it's very important, like a lot more content or a balance overhaul.

Conclusion

I hope this tutorial makes it as easy as possible to add an update checker to your game, and that it'll encourage more people to do it. You don't have to give me credit for using this tutorial. After all, the real work was done by Klazen adding and maintaining these features in Delfruit! That said however, it's probably a good idea to mention in your game's readme that it connects to the internet to check for a new version, to let people know it's not doing anything malicious and to allow it.

If you have any questions, go ahead and ask, I'm happy to try and help. And if you have any feedback on the writing, for example if certain parts weren't clear, if something's incorrect, or if something's missing, I'd appreciate it. Enjoy! :)

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