Like our other Swift-based kits, we make full use of Xcode’s amazing Scene Editor, which enables you to visually layout your level, and even animate it. For example, you could quickly drop in a mine cart, and animate it rolling back and forth. All without ever having to use the property list (or code). Xcode also allows you to save animated sequences, for use later. This makes the property list a perfect companion to the Scene Editor. For example to specify an enemy’s backward walk cycle, we would just note it in the property list as something like, “TrollWalkBack” and save that sequence using the Scene Editor.

Now that Xcode supports tile maps, it is incredibly easy to “paint” your levels. You’ll import in squares of your level art (for example, a 128 by 128 PNG file), then build up a collection of art for that level. For example, all your farm-style tiles would be together. Then in Xcode’s Scene Editor, you simply drop in a new SKTileMapNode and begin filling in the tiles onto the grid. You can even leave tiles blank and create a maze scene. Then via the property list, you can specify that you want the tiles to have a physics body, so the character would only be able to walk through the non-tiled part.  Tile maps can also scroll parallax-style, so you can layer your level with multiple tile map grids.

Enemies in the Kit fully support 4-directional art, or none at all. They can be as simple a spike popping up from the ground. Or they can look and attack exactly like the player, meaning they have 4 directions of animated artwork and can do ranged (thrown) attacks or short-range, melee attacks. Enemies can be idle until the player moves within a certain range, thus triggering them to move. And enemies can have three types of movements: totally random, follow the player, or any kind of saved action you want to setup. You can even create lists of saved actions, so the enemy performs a lengthy pattern of movements. Enemies have a ton more options, too many to go into great detail here.

Items in the kit can be anything you want. You can use them as portals to other levels, they can reward the player, give the player info, play sounds, remember if they’ve been opened before (great for treasure chests), require certain things to become open (like a key), or be time-sensitive where the player must stay in contact long enough for it to open. And like everything else, items can be animated, for example a spinning coin.

The GUI file in the kit is a shared scene among every level of your game. So for example, if you update or alter the GUI, it will be changed in every level of your game (so you wouldn’t have to make minor GUI changes on every level of your game). Your GUI can be arranged any way you want, and you can exclude anything you want as well. So if you didn’t want to display an armor value, you wouldn’t have to. And most important you can show icons and amount values for ANY kind of inventory you want. 

Both players and enemies can attack using short-range, melee style or by throwing projectiles. A player’s melee attack is determined by their current Class (which can change whenever), but a ranged attack can be changed as often as the player picks up different projectiles in the level, or is rewarded with different projectiles. These weapons can also be set to run out of ammo, or be unlimited. Players can get new projectile weapons by gaining XP, entering new levels, defeating enemies or opening items like treasure chests. 

With a few simple properties you can set up buttons to purchase access to any number of In-App Products. Once purchased your buttons can be used to enter the game at specific levels. So you could create a game map, with a mix of jump points to specific levels and levels that require purchase. Level-select buttons can also be restricted to whether or not the player has already reached that point in the game.  If a player enters a level that requires a purchase, for example, portals to a new level they haven’t bought access to, you can automatically send them to a menu with your purchase buttons.  

The Kit now supports the new Promoted In-App Purchase feature in iOS11

Connect your bluetooth Nimbus or other external game controller and starting controlling your RPG character right away. Use the directional pad or thumb-pad joysticks to move, X to throw projectiles, A to melee attack and Y to change weapons. If your controller has shoulder/trigger buttons those will also attack. As you can imagine, tvOS apps get WAY more downloads if they support external controllers. 

Congrats to Ervan for his recent app made with our kit. He took less of an exploration-game approach and made a battle arena /escape game. Great idea! Here’s what he says about his app….“Race against the clock to the exit levels by crossing vacant honeycomb sections and avoid scatter guards. Unlike other escape games, Badbee is full of surprises and extremely addictive!”

People often ask us if there is a CartoonSmart published-app in the Store using this kit, and there’s not. We’d love to do an especially tongue-in-cheek, “meta” role playing game, but we’ve been way too busy learning and training to fully see that through. We don’t submit demos to the store for the sake of just showing off our kits. If we publish an app, it’s going to be a real app, and a good RPG takes time!