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Thanks for putting your stuff on Github, it's a really useful collection of resources.  Looking forward getting time to poke around the Dungeon Hands source code inparticular.

[AeroNuts]

The Discord server is useful for stream-of-consciousness type updates that don't necessarily fit on twitter or on forums. 

This evening I ported seven AGS games from scratch and got all up and running in XAGE, albeit with various degrees of success: AeroNuts, Byte of the Draculator, OpenQuest, Eternally Us, Dog From Hell, Ortis, Odot Tamat On.

It's a useful exercise as it helps keep on top of any regressions that may have been introduced as part of other changes.  For instance, this shadow effect is a bug I've not encountered (or noticed) previously:



It's also rewarding to see each game incrementally improve as the conversion process and engine runtime both mature.  Every so often I'll scour the forums and github for open sourced AGS games I may have missed, as each one helps move the needle forward.

A quiet week due to my dayjob (and lockdown picnics), though TextBox is now mostly complete.  This will be finished off once ListBox has been implemented and the two are confirmed to play nicely together, per the AGS Sierra template.

I've also created a Discord server:  https://discord.gg/wQNnz5g

Primary use will be webhook notifications for automated builds, but Discord will also be the quickest way to get help with anything XAGE-related, although emails/DMs are still fine too.  Alpha access is also still available to anyone who is interested.

Today I implemented Sliders.

Still, the AGS download is less than 30MB.  Compare that to however many GB the Visual Studio installation is.  AGS is self-contained and simple to use and that puts it in a good position, particularly for less technically-minded people who may otherwise be intimidated by using Visual Studio. 

Glad it's going ok so far.  Let me know if anything goes wrong with the conversion - it's reasonably stable as a fair few games have gone through it, though sometimes the process falls over when something unexpected comes up.  There is usually also scripting issues to fix - for the most part these are simple things like typing issues (where AGS allows bools to be used as ints and vice versa, where C# is much stricter), but sometimes more complicated modules take a bit of rework to get running.

After playing around with the AGS template games yesterday I'm wondering whether caching a known good C# version of common AGS modules might be a good idea, to limit the amount of rework developers may need to do.  The only downside with this is that they'd need to be kept up to date with any of the AGS equivalents.  XAGE has zero telemetry in it, but this is one area where I could see it being useful.  On the whole I think I'd rather stay clear of any data privacy issues though.

To clarify, I don't see XAGE as a successor to AGS.  The model AGS uses - an all-in-one program that handles everything for you - is compelling, and both the engine and editor tools are very mature.  XAGE is aimed at people who want a comfortable AGS-esque experience but also want the benefits of using Visual Studio and C#, and the platform publishing mechanisms it offers.

Locals and Edit & Continue are two things I really miss whenever I go from Visual Studio to debugging in AGS. 

I've updated the list of items that need to be addressed before going public with v1:  https://github.com/clarvalon/XAGE-Public/projects/1

Most of these should be fairly straightforward, though the big ones are:

• Being able to automate serialization testing (in order to have confidence in loading old save games with each release, or at least knowing about breaking changes).
• Finish off GUI editing, along with implementing some missing GUI Controls in-engine.

My dayjob is going through a busy spell, so it's hard to put an ETA on it, but at least there is some visibility of current progress.

That sort of longevity means it's a labour of love (or indicative of a masochistic streak).

Thanks!  That's running on a very old version of the engine, when it was still built on top of MonoGame.  Things have gotten considerably better since (it's just taken much too long), although I'll probably focus on iOS next ahead of Android as there are so many systemic problems with it.

The license is here: https://clarvalon.com/documentation/license

I should probably flesh the wording out a bit, but the gist of it is XAGE is free for non-commercial use, with a license applicable to the engine for commercial use.  After mulling over lots of options this felt like the fairest option while still keeping XAGE as a commercial concern.  License will be percentage based.  The idea is that nobody who chooses to use XAGE should be out of pocket for doing so, which is why there's no up front cost.  It also gives me a bit more leeway in terms of providing support, as I'm doing so in my free time which is sometimes limited for reasons outside of my control.

XAGE requires Visual Studio 2019, but you can use the Community Edition which is free for independent users or small teams.  You can also use the lighter weight Visual Studio Code, though without the editor hooks so you'd have to do a bit more by hand (and also lose some things like being able to edit the code while debugging).

A new version has been released - XAGE alpha users can finally now deploy to Xbox One.  Read more here:  https://clarvalon.blogspot.com/2020/05/big-fat-update-fna3d-uwp-new.html

There's also a bunch of new functionality in place, as well as restructuring to allow for forthcoming rendering backends to be plugged in - Vulkan, Metal, Directx11 etc.  This is all coming sooner rather than later due to all the good work being done by the clever folk in the FNA Discord.

Not having a long commute at the moment is really helping me put some extra time into XAGE at the moment.  This week I've added support for Cameras and Viewports which were originally introduced in AGS v3.5.  It became a good opportunity to rethink and restructure how some of the rendering was being performed under the hood and it's working pretty nicely.  Quick update here:  https://clarvalon.blogspot.com/2020/04/viewports-cameras.html.

Oh, I assumed you had access to Xbox Live.  While it's possible to sideload it, you'd still need Internet access (as well as a Dev account).  If your Xbox is permanently offline then we're out of luck.

If you search within the Xbox itself you can find it there (listed under 'Creators Collection'), though it is not in the newest releases yet.

The MS store link allows you to install to your xbox remotely assuming you're using the same credentials on both.

Here's the thing I've been working on - Last 'n Furious is now playable for free on Xbox One.  Details here:  http://clarvalon.blogspot.com/2020/04/official-console-support.html

Microsoft App Store link:  https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/p/last-n-furious/9p3c8dq7qfsh

I've got lots to keep me busy but I need a new project   

Still working on the UWP build, should have something concrete to show soon.

One item that came up was the ability to integrate with Xbox Live services via the game script in such a way that it doesn't impact other non-UWP platforms.  To this end I wrote a very basic PlatformService interface that can currently be used to initiate an asynchronous SignIn and pull out your Gamertag.  The idea is that the same code can be used when running under different platforms (e.g. SteamWorks) - the implementation for the relevant platform is just injected in by the calling executable. 

This may end up being a bad idea if the core services differ too much to be able to abstract them easily.  But I'm hoping it will be sufficient for the basics - e.g. achievements, leaderboards et al.

Adding GamePad support turned out to be pretty simple once I'd decided to expose FNA to the script API (rather than have an abstraction layer):  https://github.com/clarvalon/LastAndFurious/commit/731262ef296f99193873e571d08274be6388a62c

This will be fleshed out so that there is a basic mapping available (i.e. have your controller mimic a mouse cursor) or advanced version where you can handle button presses, thumbsticks and triggers in the game script itself, as per above.

Last 'n Furious got the same treatment:  https://github.com/clarvalon/LastAndFurious



Thanks to Crimson Wizard for OK'ing the availability of the C# source.  I am tempted to use this for figuring out how to properly expose controller support, as everything thus far has been hacks in-engine.

A port of AGS game Space Pool Alpha has been completed:  http://clarvalon.blogspot.com/2020/04/space-pool-alpha.html

The C# source is also available on GitHub:  https://github.com/clarvalon/SpacePoolAlpha

XAGE v0.6.7405 has been pushed to itch which allows alpha users to immediately pull the source and assets in to tinker with.

I've been playing around with some free assets to see how easy it is to knock something up quickly:  https://twitter.com/Clarvalon/status/1245480316321628163

More recently I've gotten the AGS SpeechBubble module converting across:



Alpha users:  I'll be pushing out a new build to itch.io once I've cleaned up a few usability issues, particularly around creating projects from scratch (missing default cursors etc).