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Rewtro developer manual

Rewtro is a fantasy console inspired game engine thought to load games from a very small amount of data. While coding a game in Rewtro can be a little more difficult than other fantasy consoles and game engines due to its self-imposed limits, Rewtro allows you to distribute your games in unusual ways. Right now, the Rewtro fake console can load games from papercraft cartridges you can build using a computer, any printer, scissors, a cutter, and some foldings. The fake console is thought for mobile devices but it just works on desktop computers too.

To run the Rewtro SDK you just need to download the Rewtro project, host its folder on an Apache/PHP server and then load the carts/ folder in your browser. If everything works, open your favorite editor, create a new JSON file in that carts/ folder and you're ready to go! If you prefer to learn from the code have a look to the JSON files into the carts/ directory (I suggest you to start with K-005-sdong.json which is a self-contained mini-Pong clone) and get inspired.

Rewtro origins are humble and it's not thought as a full-fledged project. It exists just because I needed some nice greeting cards for 2019 Christmas. Then I published the whole code as open-source as I usually do with all of my pet projects. Since my parents and friends liked the idea and few internets were curious about how this works, I decided to write this tiny manual.

I'm a little verbose, sorry, but I also love examples-filled documentation too. I hope that this manual will help you a little on how to code a Rewtro game without annoying you too much.

Index

  • Quickstart: Let's make a Rewtro game from the code to the paper!
  • The Rewtro cartridge: It explains what a Rewtro cartridge is and how to set basic settings of your game.
  • Data blocks: Learn what you can put inside a Rewtro cartridge and how to do that.
    • Sprite attributes: Sprites are the moving parts of your game. We are going to talk about how to define them!
    • Code commands: Time to add some code to your game! Learn how to create conditions and execute actions!
      • Getters: Getters are the most important part of Rewtro. Learn how to select sprites and music notes, create numbers and text, and more!
      • Conditions: When this stuff happens...
      • Statements: ...do that.
    • Special objects: Move the virtual camera, save data across your game scenes and more!
  • Special symbols: Make your game modular and write code a little faster!
  • Extras: A collection of in-depth articles.
    • Lists and iterators: You can make most of your games without knowing how these works but one day you'll want more...
    • Advanced Rewtro: Know Rewtro even better and learn some development tricks.
    • SDK Tool Manual: How to use the Rewtro SDK software.
    • Data storage: The complete list of the Rewtro supported data storages both digital and physical.
    • Physics: How to work with the tiny Rewtro physics engine.
    • Neat ideas for the future: A collection of ideas I've collected from people around the internet to make Rewtro better.
    • Rewtro changelog: Differences between different Retro core versions.

NOTE: All about Rewtro is covered by the manual right now but some extra chapters that may be useful are not available yet. I'll keep the manual up-to-date but I'll write extra chapters on enough demand - or I'll accept contributions!