The previous entry in this devlog concluded that, before implementing new characters, we needed a storage format for them. Indeed, making a new character for a game imply designing it, drawing it and possibly implementing some specific behavior. With all that work to do, we really don't want to care about engine's internals like banks layout.

To achieve that, we will make the game moddable.

First we have to forget about the code. Just think about everything that makes a character distinct from others: its animations, hitboxes, special moves,... An easy to edit file format made to contain all that is the base of the mod. When building the game, a script can read this info and integrate it to game's code.

Structure of a Super Tilt Bro. mod

In Super Tilt Bro.'s case the storage format is based on two foundations: JSON and GIF. JSON is handy when it comes to describe hierarchical information, like “it is a mod, containing a character, having an attack animation, with a powerful hitbox”. About GIF, it is an image format, handy to... store images, you know :) OK, there is one property of GIF that is too often overlooked, but make it the ideal format: it stores colors in a palette. As NES graphics are also based on palettes, it is really smooth to work with GIF as graphics source.

To compile a mod means converting it to assembly files that can be integrated to the project

The storage format for mods being defined is a good step forward, there is no more need to fight engine's internals to get a new character in the game. Sadly, writing JSON manually is particularly painful. Better writing tools to take care of that.

Let's get some tools!

The perfect tool would be a graphical editor, running in the browser, easy to use, covering all engine's features, with... OK, stop dreaming. Maybe one day somebody will have enough time to implement such an awesome software. In the meantime reusing existing software will do the trick.

I work a lot with The Gimp, from there comes the idea of reusing its interface. Conforming to a precise hierarchy of layers (animations in a “anims” layers group, hitboxes defined by layers named “hitbox”,...) allows to script the conversion of the file to JSON+GIF mod's format. This way, characters can be drawn directly in the graphics editor, which is definitively more comfortable than editing a bunch of data files.

A word about Open Raster. The Gimp saves XCF files, Krita produces KRA files, Photoshop PSD. Those formats are designed to cover all features of their respective editor, even when it makes them hard to use by other software. When someone wants to share layered graphics, nowadays PSD is commonly used because it is almost universally (partially) supported. It leads too often to the “your file does not work in my editor” kind of issues. Open Raster appeared while there was an argument between Krita's and The Gimp's communities about who should support the format of the other. As such, it is really designed as an exchange format, it is simple and supports only the common feature: layered graphics. It is really simple. Writing a parser that meets the needs of Super Tilt Bro. was trivial. So, technically, build scripts support the Open Raster format, not The Gimp. Character creators can use their favorite editor.
tl;dr Open Raster rocks!

What a big build chain!

As you can see, the problem has been treated step-by-step, resulting in a multi-steps solution. Formerly we had some assembly source and made a ROM from it. Now, that's more something like that: work is done in The Gimp, image saved to Open Raster, converted to JSON+GIF, becomes assembly code then finally a ROM. That is simpler to use, the creator draws the character and some scripts take care of the details. To avoid obscure errors from the complex build system, each step zealously checks for inconsistencies. So errors can be detected early in the chain and reported with high level messages. Nobody wants to see an assembly related message because of a misnamed layer, or worse a valid ROM that crashes from time to time with no clear reason.

Cool, now what's next?

Super Tilt Bro. is moddable! Victory! If building projects  is your jam, you can begin by adding a mustache to characters, modify characters to fit your playstyle or even create a new one from scratch. All that by modifying the official mod.

For now, only characters can be modded. Stages will come next :)

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