Release Notes 0.6.0

Kiwi.js (BETA)

HTML5 game library written in TypeScript/Javascript

version 0.6.0

Release notes for this version

New Features and major updates

• Tilemap system has been totally revmped (see below)
• The four core gameobjects (Sprite, staticImage, Tilemap and Textfield) now all render in both 2d canvas and WebGL.
• WebGL rendering system has been greatly expanded, allowing the easy addition custom renderers and shaders when writing plugins. Examples are forthcoming.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed bug that would stop Kiwi from working on Safari on the iPad 2.
• Reimplement Kiwi.DEVICE.touch. Was previously commented out.
• Fixed issue where destroying groups would generate an error when switching states.
• Fixed the 'cocoon.php' Previously was generating a js error and so the settings were not being taken into affect.

Changes (no impact on pre-existing API)

• Entity now has a rendererGL property and a renderGL method that can be overriden by WebGL compatible gameobjects.
• The list of Base2 sizes are now stored as a Static property on the Kiwi.Utils.Common.
• A method for resizing a Image/Canvas to be Base2 is now on the Kiwi.Utils.Common.
• Textfields now always use the 'optimised' version and the 'unoptimised' version has been removed.
• Pointers (Mouse/Touch Input)
  • Now takes the scale of stage into consideration. Thus making inputs more accurate when smaller/enlarged.
• Stage
  • Now contains a 'scale' property, which keeps track of how much the 'stage' has been scaled down due to CSS. In Cocoon this is always at 1 for now.
  • The offset of the stage and scale is now re-calculated when the browser is resized.
• Kiwi.Files Object
  • File class on Kiwi has be refactored.
  • The XHR loading method now times-out after 4000 milliseconds, previously was 2000.
  • You can tell the XHR to not timeout by setting the delay to null.
• Arcade Physics
  • New method 'isTouching' has been added. Used just like the flixel 'touching' equivalent.
  • Now can affect rotation/angle of attached GameObjects.
  • Can now resolve collisions vs tiles in a TileMapLayer using the 'overlapsTiles' method.
• States
  • Code has been refactored.
  • Redundant checks and conditions removed.
  • StateConfig now keeps track of how many times a State has been switched to/used.
  • Now have a 'shutDown' method which developers override. Is called just before a state is destroyed.
  • Nicer messages appear throughout the state process.
    
• Example Folder.
  • New examples for ArcadePhysics have been added.
  • A few new examples for Groups have been added.
  • A list of TileMap examples have been implemented.

Changes to API pre-exisiting API in this release

• Previous property 'visibility' on Entities has been renamed to visible.
• New Tilemap system has been implemented.
  • You can now use TextureAtlases when creating Tilemaps.
  • JSON format used when creating a Tilemap is the same as Tiled.
  • See the examples and docs for more documentation.

Known Issues

The WebGL/Cocoon combination is not currently stable and some visual errors may occur. This is due to internal coocoon issues and we're working with Ludei to improve stability.

See Kiwijs.org for more information about using Kiwi.js to build games, including some getting started examples. Note: this release is a beta and is not intended as a preview only and not for building production games at this stage.

Getting Started Tutorials
Code Examples
API Documentation
Contact

Aim

• An opensource TypeScript/Javascript library for game creation
• Targeting native mobile apps as well as both desktop and mobile browsers
• Future focused
• WebGL and 2D Canvas rendering
• Support for Cocoon.js as a native mobile app deployment solution

License

• GPL 2

Features

These features are either currently supported or very close to being supported. Many more features are in the pipeline.

• State Management
• Extensible game objects (such as sprites)
• Entity/Component system
• 2D Canvas
• 2D WebGL rendering (experimental)
• Target Cocoon.js (experimental)
• Full nested display list
• HTML5 HUD
• Tween Engine (based on Tween.js)
• Signals
• Spritesheets, Texture Atlases and Tilemaps
• Multitouch support
• Geometry Utilities
• Plugin System
• Arcade Physics
• File Management and loading
• Clocks and Timers

RoadMap

Within the next few weeks

• API documentation
• Improved build support (grunt)
• Lots of examples
• Many bug fixes and improved robustness

Within the next few months

• Plugins and products
• Much optimisation

Build

Kiwi.js is currently using Typescript 9.0.1 Either - use Visual Studio/TS extension. There are csproj files for both the main project and also the examples. Or - use the grunt file. This requires installing node.js, and the grunt CLI package.

The csproj and grunt compilation methods both output a single kiwi.js file in /build Grunt will also create a min.js version and also output a kiwi.d.ts definition file in /build as well Shortly there will be further grunt options for dev builds and for compiling the documentation using YUIDoc

Contribution

We'd love you to get involved in making the Kiwi.js library. If you'd like to contribute please get in touch, clone the repo and have a dig around. Full contributor guidelines will be here soon along with detailed build instructions.

Main Contributors

Ben Harding
Richard Davey
Ross Kettle

Kiwi.js also uses code from a number of open source projects. Effort has been made to clearly identify authors in the code comments. If you notice and missing or incorrect attribution please let us know.