RPG Toolset

RPG Toolset is an open-ended set of tools for creating your own 3D role-playing games. The toolset is currently in the early stages of development and includes a basic map editor, tile editor, and object editor. Fantasy-themed content will be bundled with the toolset, but the tile and object editors can be used to import custom models into your game, allowing for virtually endless possibilities. There is still a large amount of work to be done, but the end goal of this project is to design a set of editors for creating a completely customized RPG that can be distributed and played independently of the toolset. As of the second release (v0.2), the game engine runs on top of jMonkey Engine and LWJGL (the Lightweight Java Game Library). For an idea of the current features, see the Engine Demo or the Screenshots page.

I am finally starting up the development of my RPG Toolset again! Since they have made a lot of progress on the latest version of jMonkeyEngine (jME 3.0), I decided I would take the opportunity and port the toolset from jME 2.0 to jME 3.0. I am also going to migrate from Eclipse RCP to the NetBeans Platform, so I will basically be creating the editors and engine from scratch. However, I will be keeping all of the original features, functionality, and file formats, so I won't need to redo a lot of the design aspects.

I made a couple of small updates to the site recently - a new title font as well as an updated shield logo and sidebar image. I also implemented a Lightbox script on the screenshots page and added a new screenshot to give an idea of the current state of the game engine. I was planning on releasing a new version of the toolset around the beginning on the year, but I decided to focus on getting more features implemented for now in order to get closer to a more complete product before trying to push out another release. I decided to go with OGRE as the standard format for models/animations and found some nice models created by Psionic to use along with the example game (I am currently making use of the dwarf, zombie, ant, and beast - these were imported into Blender from the MilkShape format and then exported to OGRE meshes).

Also, once I get a few more things finished up, I am planning on creating a series of short videos to demonstrate some of the main features and capabilities of the toolset and game engine.

I am still hard at work on the RPG Toolset, and I believe I am getting very close to the 0.4 release. I'm currently in the middle of implementing support for the jME XML format (or possibly OGRE) for models and animations, as I am planning on using one of them as the primary format instead of MD5. I'd like to wrap that up as well as a few other small features and then get a new game demo uploaded to the website (hopefully within the month). Also, just a sidenote, I recently installed Windows 7 on my machine and the toolset appears to run fine, with the exception that you need to use a basic or classic theme while running the toolset, since it seems that Aero prevents the 3D view from displaying correctly. I don't know if there's a way around this, but I will look into it further at some point.

The download page has been updated to include a Linux and Mac OS X version of RPG Toolset v0.3 in addition to the Windows version. The Engine Demo has been outdated for quite some time, so I updated it as well - the demo now contains a direct build of the example project that's included with v0.3.

RPG Toolset v0.3 is here, check out the forum for the release announcement.

I'm getting very close to finally releasing RPG Toolset v0.3! I've been making some changes here and there to the website to prepare for the release, including a link to the forum I set up (I have it disabled for now). I am shooting for a release date of ~~November 30th~~ early December. At this point I am primarily working on creating an example project to use for the engine demo and to include with the toolset (while doing some last minute checks for bugs in the process). I'll be posting another update once I have finalized everything and have made the new release available.

Well, once again I went on a hiatus from the project, but I haven't given up. I made quite a bit of progress on the RCP version before I took another break, so once I get back into it I should be able to release some sort of beta fairly soon. As before, keep an eye on my development journal (I'll try to actually update it more often this time around). I have also set up a forum for the project that I'll be opening once I get a release of the toolset out.

I know it's been almost a year since my last update, but, believe it or not, I haven't abandonded this project. In fact, after an extended break, I've decided to make a fresh start on the RPG Toolset using the Eclipse RCP (Rich Client Platform). For now, keep an eye on my development journal, as I will be posting frequent updates. At some point I also plan to set up a page for new screenshots and such.

The demo has been updated with a much larger map, in addition to some other features such as scripting (displaying messages, linking maps, etc.), fog, and overall engine optimizations. I have been cleaning up some things I broke while fixing others, but I am steadily working towards a 0.3 release. If you have a problem with performance while running the demo, I'd recommend turning off cel-shading by pressing F2, as this will generally help improve your FPS. I also added a couple new screenshots of the toolset to the site.

The second release of the RPG Toolset is (finally) available to download. The new version, as mentioned previously, now runs on jMonkey Engine and LWJGL. While converting the engine over to jME I took the opportunity to redesign a large part of the application structure, so it's likely there may be bugs that didn't exist in the first version. I didn't get around to testing as much as I had hoped, but I figured since this is basically a beta I would go ahead and release what I had and go from there. I will plan on releasing incremental updates as any major problems arise. In addition, I have also added several new pages to the site: Tutorials, Resources, and Dev Journal.

It's been somewhat longer than I had planned due to some distractions (namely feature creep and Battlefield 2142), but I am getting very close to the second release. I have updated the engine demo to reflect the current status of the game engine, if you have any problems running it send me a message and I will look into it. At this point the main things left to do include finishing up the manual and general testing of the toolset. More information will be posted once v0.2 is ready to be released.

I set up an engine demo to give an idea of what the toolset is currently capable of. The demo uses jMonkey Engine, and I am making good progress in converting the toolset itself over to jME for the v0.2 release. For more information, click the "engine demo" link to the left.

I decided to go ahead and switch from Xith3D over to jMonkey Engine, so I've been working on redesigning things for the toolset. I have also taken the opportunity to clean up a lot of the interface code that's already been written. A lot will have to be redone in the conversion process, but I believe it will help out in the long run. Just for fun I implemented shadows, and they definitely add a nice touch to the maps. At this point I am working towards version 0.2, which will consist of the new engine running on jME along with a basic tile editor and object editor and some other minor features here and there.

The initial beta release of the RPG Toolset has been posted on the Download page. This version is, of course, nowhere near a completely functional toolset, but it's a step towards that goal. At this point, I am considering switching from Xith3D over to jMonkey Engine, as I believe it will make a lot of things easier to implement. If you have any questions, comments, or bugs to report, please send me a message using the Contact page.

I got rid of the individual editor pages and replaced them with a "Features" page and a "Screenshots" page. The current screenshot was moved to the appropriate page, and I added some information to the "Features" page related to the map editor and the toolset in general. I am getting close to the point of releasing an initial version of the RPG Toolset, I'll post another update once I get to that point and put together some sort of help guide for anyone interested in testing it out.

Welcome to the new website for the RPG Toolset! I am currently working on setting up an RSS feed for anyone interested in receiving news and updates relating to this project. If you're using Firefox there should be a Live Bookmark link up in the navigation toolbar, otherwise you can use this link. As of now I am just manually entering these updates into the XML file, but I plan on setting up a page to do everything for me, similar to my journal. Once that is ready I will be posting an entry detailing what I have accomplished so far along with some recent screenshots of the toolset.