v0.5.3 - Smörgåsbug

It's been a few weeks, but I've been able to get a whole big batch of bugs fixed, and the Sokoban example is getting ever-closer to something resembling a game: The player can move and push boxes around.

A couple new features added:

• Added sprite repeat count for X and Y dimensions to make tiled, repeating backgrounds easier
• Added linear and angular damping to RigidBody so that Sokoban boxes will stay put after being pushed

And the bugs squashed:

• Upgrade to ThreeJS r166
• Upgrade to BitECS v0.34.0
• Split InputGameObject component into InputAsset (for files) and InputEntity (for entities)
• Fix delete entity in Scene Editor
• Fixed new entities and components not having default values
• Fixed component form data sometimes does not change when switching entities
• Fixed project not rebuilt when *.ts or *.js changes
• Fixed Scene Editor does not indicate when project is rebuilding
• Fixed new systems and components not loaded when created
• Fixed entity panel lacks scrollbar
• Fixed cannot drag entity from Entities tab to Systems tab

v0.5.2 - Geomancy

Another mostly bugfix release, but this time I made some changes to how sprites are rendered: Sprites are now 3d objects, and the sprite geometry now matches the size of the sprite's texture. This fixes the sprites being distorted when they're first created, and needing to use scaling to make it look right. Games can also now configure the sprites' scale in pixels, so that 1 unit in the world can equal any number of pixels. These are both steps towards the goal of tile maps and sprite animations.

Full list of bugs fixed below:

• Fixed missing icons in asset and entity trees
• Fixed Name/Icon appearance in asset tree and entity tree
• Fixed update to entity in-game not enabling Save button
• Fixed New Component and New System creating double file extension (.ts.ts)
• Fixed update to entity panel does not enable Save button
• Fixed asset tree not updated when filesystem is changed
• Fixed project not re-built when filesystem is changed

v0.5.1 - Gridded Loins

This release is mostly bugfixes for issues I've been encountering while putting the Sokoban example together, but there is one minor feature: The scene editor now has a grid toggle, and objects will snap to the grid when it is visible. This makes it much easier to align things for tile-based games.

The full list of fixes:

• Fix reactivity in entity properties
• Fix entity drag/drop in game not updating entity data in scene panel
• Fix entity selection in game not showing entity properties in panel
• Fix texture bleeding in texture atlases
• Fix entities not appearing right away in editor
• Fix creating new scene throws errors
• Fix cannot change entity name
• Fix duplicate entity menu option broken

0.5.0 - Renewal

After all this work, I wish I had something more exciting to talk about, but this release is mostly a lot of internal rewriting to support one relatively small but important feature: Sprite sheets. This feature is the base of a bunch of higher-level features, like tile maps and sprite animations, which I hope will be my next big features to develop (as I build an example Sokoban game).

Other changes in this release include:

• Asset system, so individual files can provide multiple game assets
• Bugfixes that prevented the Prefab editor from working right
• Fixes to the Scene Entity tree so that entities can be rearranged and reordered
• Fixes to the Space Shooter example (still a work-in-progress)

v0.4.0 - Two steps forward; one step back.

Well, that took longer than expected. But, Bitwise now has automated tests and a much better internal structure, and even got some end-to-end tests with Playwright. With this, I can now move forward with tilesets and sprite animations!

v0.3.0 - Everything is Transitory

This release of the Bitwise game development framework adds the ability to transition between scenes. Along with that, this release adds tiling to UI images and fires progress events during scene and system initialization. Altogether, these features can be used to build a simple loading screen with a progress bar (an example of this is included in the Solitaire example game).

This release also fixes multiple bugs when stopping one scene to start another, as well as a bug in the Input system that prevented a second scene from accepting any user input. Finally, I've added a simple Jest test suite to the core game framework. I expect to expand this test suite as development continues.

More information and downloads are available on the Bitwise project page on Itch.io.

v0.2.1 - The only good bug is a dead bug

Would you like to know more?

This releases fixes a good dozen bugs, including ones that prevented new projects from being created ☹️. The performance of project builds has been improved, and this release fixes some bizarre bugs that would happen if the scene editor was open when the project was rebuilt. Finally, some features like "New Game" and "Undo" were added to the Solitaire example game.

With this, I'm ready to start the next feature phase of development, which will involve scene transitions (pre-loaders) and tile maps (to create a Sokuban-type game).

v0.2.0

This is the second release of Bitwise, an ECS-based game framework and editor written in TypeScript and currently targeting WebGL using three.js. This release of Bitwise adds support for UI nodes: Buttons, images, text, and flexible UI containers. Additionally, entities in a scene can be marked as "active" or "inactive". Inactive entities are created but not shown until they are activated.

This release also fixes multiple bugs and cleans up some of the data organization. Finally, I've started documenting the core framework classes.

More information about the status of the Bitwise project can be found on the Itch.io project page for Bitwise.

Editor v0.1.0

This is the first release of Bitwise, an ECS-based game framework and editor written in TypeScript and currently targeting WebGL using three.js. This initial release has basic support for editing/testing game scenes, developing components and systems, manipulating sprites, and physics collisions using Ammo.js. There are two included demo games: A solitaire game and a space shooter. Games can be exported as Zip archives compatible with Itch.io HTML5 games playable in the browser.

More information about the status of the Bitwise project can be found on the Itch.io project page for Bitwise.