DD EDITOR 2021 - status report (Patreon)

UPDATE: 31st October:
The Dynamic Dungeons Editor is live now on Steam

Hi there,

I’m here with some great news: 

DD Editor’s Unity version is ready, the development of v. 1.0. has been completed. 

The bad news though is that Steam is only making it available after a verifying period of about 2 weeks, thus delaying the actual launch day. I didn’t know this in advance, sorry for that.

Mac version difficulties

The software is much better and more stable than the previous version of Editor, everything works perfectly on Windows but unfortunately, our programmers faced some difficulties with the version for Mac. Play options for Unity video are available both for Mac and Windows, but seamless looping is a bigger challenge for Mac, so looping videos might not be totally flawless in the first version on Mac. It’s interesting how this issue doesn’t come up on Windows, but we’ll do our best to correct it in version 1.1.

Stability above all

The main reason for bringing Editor to life was to create a stable, improvable, and modern software. So above all else, it’s going to be stable - this was a higher priority than filling it to brim with new features. 

However, not all functions remained the same, thus you’ll encounter some great new additions:

• Images of any size can be uploaded and scrolled with fog of war. This way third-party mapmakers’ giant static images can be used and scaled to the right size without cropping with the new version of Editor.
• By default, Editor will save file paths for each story, but you’ll also have the option to save your story bundle when the story contains the videos, stories, and props in it.
• The size of each story can be increased without any negative side-effects on performance.
• The sound mixer lets you mute or adjusts the volume of the background video and the props separately. 
• It's one application running in a freely resizable window, which opens a player window that appears on the attached display without any problem. 
• You can add notes to the scenes, select another scene without leaving the scene editor,  freely transform and group props, set different splash screens for each story, import particle effects, and VFX made in Unity, and more...

Moreover, Editor is faster, too: you’ll have almost no loading time when firing up a story.

Deadline and further development

You know me, I’m a maximalist, so I don’t feel great for missing my deadline and not having the software readily available on schedule, plus I’m also stressed about the Mac version. Yet, I have to realize that software engineering is a completely different matter than what I do, and bringing the whole project home is not entirely on me. Nonetheless, those in our programmers team are professional, enthusiastic, and ready for all challenges.

What's next?

All in all, every user can look forward to getting an email with a Steam key in October. This will let you install the software and the default assets DLC for free. 

Before the email is sent you can expect to be notified again with a new post, so those not receiving it will be given the key in a private message. Until then, we're working on the help documentation to make your first meeting with the new Editor as smooth as possible.

One of my kind supporters, Patron, and beta tester IceUnicorn will stream a demonstration on October 4. Monday at 8 pm CET on Twitch where you can have a peek at the new software in action: https://twitch.tv/iceunicorn 

Minor bug fixes are also expected for the current version of the Editor, but no new features, of course, the focus is now on the new version. 

Thanks for your patience!