A camera that follows smoothly stands between pixels most of the time, and pixel art then wanders between them. The new camera switch draws what the camera shows on the game view's own grid, while positions in the model keep their fractions. - `Pixel perfect` is a camera row, off by default. It works at every fixed game scale and at Auto, but not at Fit and not in the Scene tab, where one works with the fractions. - The grid has one step per device pixel of a world unit. At 100% that is whole units, at 500% fifths. The view carries it (`View.grid`), so no view draws with the grid of another. - The view looks from a point that puts the world's origin on a whole device pixel (`lookFrom`). This also covers odd camera sizes and views that cut the picture to an odd size. - Sprites, texts and tilemaps snap their top left corner when they are unturned, so an odd size lands on whole pixels too. A turned object snaps its pivot (`snapPlacement` in `pixelGrid.ts`). - Under a camera shader the picture is taken the same way, and the objects in it use the picture's grid. With Camera pixels that is one step per camera pixel. - An overlay camera has its own switch and snaps only while the main picture is at a fixed scale. - Particles are drawn where they are. - New test hook `__gm.gameDrawnRect(id)` reads where a sprite's picture is drawn, which `gameRect` (the model's) cannot tell. Found: the e2e fixture at 300% drew the crate at y 205.5 device pixels without moving the camera, because the view cut to an odd height puts its centre on half a pixel. With the switch on it is at 206. Tests: - Gate: 237 files, 3587 tests (+10 in pixel-grid.test.ts) - e2e 2,3: ALL PASSED, 75 checks (+1, 3j) - Counter-checks: without the origin snap 3 unit tests fail, with the centre snapped instead of the corner 2 fail Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
97 lines
7.0 KiB
Markdown
97 lines
7.0 KiB
Markdown
# Game Maker
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[](https://git.nockal.com/meleki/game-maker/actions?workflow=ci.yml)
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A browser-based tool "one step before a game engine": create **assets** (scenes, cameras,
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sprites), place them into scenes, tweak their properties in an inspector and press **Play** –
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all in one program, all drawn inside a single WebGL canvas.
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Live: <https://nockal.com/game-maker/> · Widget playground: <https://nockal.com/game-maker/?playground>
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**The documentation is the wiki:** <https://git.nockal.com/meleki/game-maker/wiki> – every concept,
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node, tab and shortcut, plus the architecture and the development workflow. This file is the short
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way in.
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## In one screen
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- An **asset** is a named, typed thing (scene, camera, sprite, text, behavior, variables, struct,
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collider, rigidbody, joint, container, clip area, texture, vector art, pixel art, palette,
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animation, curve, tile, tilemap, state machine, shader, shader function, font, sound, particles)
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with properties and no position.
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- A **scene object** places an asset: position, sparse **overrides** of its properties, an optional
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parent. Only what differs from the asset is stored; the inspector paints it gold and offers ↺ / ↑.
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- A **container** is a reusable group edited once and placed many times; its content is resolved
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from the template on every read. A **screen** is a container switched on and off.
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- A **behavior** is logic as a node graph, placed like anything else and parented to the object it
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acts on. Play has no built-in behaviour – everything that happens is a graph.
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- An **account** owns projects: the editor asks for a user name and a password first, and each
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account sees only its own projects. The Account menu at the far right of the toolbar changes
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the password and signs out.
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- **Play** runs a throwaway copy of the project; every panel stays usable and Stop brings back
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exactly what was saved. **Release…** shares a link that plays the saved game on its own, without
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the editor and without signing in.
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## Quick start
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Node 22 is required.
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```bash
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npm install
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npm run dev # http://localhost:5175/game-maker/dist/ – API calls are proxied to production
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npm run check # typecheck + lint + format:check + unit tests – the gate CI runs too
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npm run build # writes dist/ and regenerates index.html; the folder is what nginx serves
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```
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The browser suite and the three example games need a machine with a GPU:
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```bash
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node tools/seed-e2e.mjs && node tools/e2e.mjs # the editor, 1742 checks (GM_STEPS=20 for one step)
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# every tool signs in first – see the Accounts page
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node tools/seed-jumprun.mjs && node tools/smoke-jumprun.mjs
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node tools/seed-tetris.mjs && node tools/smoke-tetris.mjs
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node tools/seed-actor.mjs && node tools/smoke-actor.mjs
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```
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Every push runs all of it on the Gitea runners – the gate as one job, build and suite as another
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beside it – so locally take the gate plus the step your change touches and leave the full run to
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CI. Details, the GPU requirement and the detached runner are in
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[Development](https://git.nockal.com/meleki/game-maker/wiki/Development).
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## Documentation
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| Page | What it covers |
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|---|---|
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| [Concepts](https://git.nockal.com/meleki/game-maker/wiki/Concepts) | Assets, scene objects, overrides, play mode, the camera, the console |
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| [Accounts](https://git.nockal.com/meleki/game-maker/wiki/Accounts) | Signing in and out, the accounts, who a project belongs to, what the check tools need |
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| [Scenes](https://git.nockal.com/meleki/game-maker/wiki/Scenes) | The edited scene, the start scene, and switching scenes from a graph |
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| [Scene editing](https://git.nockal.com/meleki/game-maker/wiki/Scene-editing) | Placing, z-order, hierarchy, the editor offset |
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| [Behaviors](https://git.nockal.com/meleki/game-maker/wiki/Behaviors) | Node graphs: variables, the node set, structs and lists, loops, nesting, editing |
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| [Structs](https://git.nockal.com/meleki/game-maker/wiki/Structs) | Struct assets: a named shape that struct variables, fields and `Pack`/`Expand` follow |
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| [Colliders](https://git.nockal.com/meleki/game-maker/wiki/Colliders) | Shapes (box, circle, capsule, polygon), collision events, blocking movement, one-way colliders and raycasts |
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| [Physics](https://git.nockal.com/meleki/game-maker/wiki/Physics) | Rigidbodies, the collider material, gravity, the fixed step, joints |
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| [Textures](https://git.nockal.com/meleki/game-maker/wiki/Textures) | Images, frames, nine-slice, the filter, upload limits |
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| [Vector art](https://git.nockal.com/meleki/game-maker/wiki/Vector-Art) | Pictures drawn from shapes: the pen, curves, gradients and texture fills, combining shapes |
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| [Pixel art](https://git.nockal.com/meleki/game-maker/wiki/Pixel-Art) | Pictures painted pixel by pixel: the palette, the tools, layers and frames |
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| [Fonts](https://git.nockal.com/meleki/game-maker/wiki/Fonts) | Font assets, the picker, what a text falls back to |
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| [Sounds](https://git.nockal.com/meleki/game-maker/wiki/Sounds) | Sound assets and `Play sound` |
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| [Animations](https://git.nockal.com/meleki/game-maker/wiki/Animations) | Animation assets and the Animation tab |
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| [Curves](https://git.nockal.com/meleki/game-maker/wiki/Curves) | Easings drawn by hand, the Curve tab, using one on a key or a `Lerp` |
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| [Shaders](https://git.nockal.com/meleki/game-maker/wiki/Shaders) | Shader graphs that sprites, texts, particle fields and cameras wear, their node set, passes, shader functions |
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| [Particles](https://git.nockal.com/meleki/game-maker/wiki/Particles) | Particle graphs: a particle as a function of its age |
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| [State machines](https://git.nockal.com/meleki/game-maker/wiki/State-machines) | The asset, named transitions, `State branch`, `Set state` and `State transition` |
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| [Containers](https://git.nockal.com/meleki/game-maker/wiki/Containers) | Templates, instances, screens |
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| [Tiles](https://git.nockal.com/meleki/game-maker/wiki/Tiles) | The tile asset, plain tiles and the two autotile kinds, the pictures as animation steps, the Tile tab |
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| [Tilemaps](https://git.nockal.com/meleki/game-maker/wiki/Tilemaps) | The tilemap asset, painting in the scene view, layers, what it looks like in the game |
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| [Plugins](https://git.nockal.com/meleki/game-maker/wiki/Plugins) | Extending the editor: the plugin file, how it is loaded, switching one on and off, API v1 |
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| [Keyboard](https://git.nockal.com/meleki/game-maker/wiki/Keyboard) | Every shortcut |
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| [Architecture](https://git.nockal.com/meleki/game-maker/wiki/Architecture) | Stack, source layout, the rules that keep it organised |
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| [Development](https://git.nockal.com/meleki/game-maker/wiki/Development) | Commands, the e2e suite, the example games, CI |
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| [API](https://git.nockal.com/meleki/game-maker/wiki/API) | The PHP JSON API and the project document |
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## Ideas, gaps and bugs
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They live in the issue tracker: <https://git.nockal.com/meleki/game-maker/issues>. What is not
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there yet is listed on the wiki's [Home](https://git.nockal.com/meleki/game-maker/wiki) page.
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