Retro Gadgets News & Patch Notes

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Retro Gadgets News & Patch Notes | SteamScope

DITsteam_community_announcements

860d ago

While working on the new features and content for Retro Gadgets, delving into the multitude of awesome gadgets created by the community is our ultimate delight — we're completely enchanted by the continuous flow of creations from our players! ✨ Month after month, we look forward to discovering new gadgets that grab our attention, all to enrich and diversify your Retro Gadgets experience. This time we are proud to present to you the winner for the "Transparent" challenge, together with some of the highlights from our Discord community! 🌟

Winner of the "Transparent" challenge:

Transparent | BitVision A1 (1975)

by Relt https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3134676418

Community Highlights:

Infinite Craft

by Stas A recreation of inifinite Craft by Neal Agarwal inside Retro Gadgets. If you like the game, visit neal.fun https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3193038775

HEXAGON (C64 Synthesizer)

by eurocorpfx A synthesizer powered by the Commodore 64 SID Soundchip. Ideal for sweet Retro tunes! https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3056829950

C5 Chord Machine

by illegitimate-egg A gadget that assembles chords from simple samples and plays them back. Equipped with 5 chord modes, and an advanced AR envelope generator for dynamic sound shaping. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3141082520&searchtext=C5+cord

Space Defender

by Filter62 A simple yet thrilling game where you're the last line of defense against incoming enemies! If an enemy slips past you, it's game over. But beware, they get faster over time. Can you set a new high score? https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3044771025&searchtext=Space+Defender

Lights Out

by Ray Challenge yourself with this captivating game. Every click toggles a light and its neighbors - can you turn them all off? https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2897505113&searchtext=Lights+out

Roadmap Update

DITsteam_community_announcements

1072d ago

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43015733/97dfc22cc16bc2adc896549e1e24795f9a838978.png Hello Gadgeteers, We hope you all are doing great! Update 0.1.6 has been out there for a while so.... It's time for a roadmap update! Since we released the Launcher Update, we have been working tirelessly on laying the groundwork for one of the biggest new features coming to the game: the story mode. This update will add an optional mission-based gameplay loop to Retro Gadgets that will function as a much needed introduction to the game. We are working on new systems for jobs (think quests but in Retro Gadgets), complete with messages, funny characters, time-slots, money, components to buy, unlockables, magazines. It's a ton of work and it's going to take some time before it's ready for release. We are aiming to release the story mode during the first quarter of 2024 but nothing is set in stone. The good news is, game updates will come while we work on the story mode. However, we have to finish building the core systems for the narrative layer before we can get back to adding features to the existing "sandbox mode". Our plan is to have the core for the story mode ready by the end of October, and then split up and have the content-focused people in the team work on the content for the story, while the tech-people team returns to its rightful mission to provide you regular, awesome, updates for retro gadgets "classic" mode. Why story mode? - you might ask - Was making the sandbox mode not complex enough already? Well... Yes. But in order to be able to realize our grand vision for the game, we need more people playing the game. While our current approach has been good enough for you bunch of beautiful and awesome nerds (we will never be thankful enough for all your love and support to the game and its community!), we really need to get the game out there to a lot more people if we want this project to thrive in the future years. Right now there are two things we believe are keeping people away from the game:

To have fun playing Retro Gadgets, some knowledge of coding/Lua is mandatory

Retro Gadgets has no tutorial whatsoever and the only solution to learn how to play the game is "reading the fucking manual" Providing an intro and a compelling narrative is also something we think has great potential not only to attract a larger audience, but also to improve the overall charm of the game by adding game-like rules, resources and systems that later could end up in the sandbox as well. We are really proud of the launcher update, so we decided its release was the right time to commit several months to the development of an awesome story. We are working around the clock to get a demo of the story mode ready to play at The Tokyo Game Show 2023 in late September. Retro Gadgets has been nominated for the "Selected Indie 80" portion of the exhibit so we will have our own booth there! Can't wait to show you more of what we are building for Retro Gadgets!

The Launcher Update

DITsteam_community_announcementsworkshop

1125d ago

Ready to bring back the desktop widgets? Here comes Retro Gadgets 0.1.6! Build the most awesome gadget, add it to the launcher and BAM! It's 200X all over again! This new release is our first step in making gadgets exist outside the game itself. If you have at least one Gadget selected for the Launcher, you can open it directly from you system tray without having to launch the game first. Your amazing creations will always be just a couple of clicks away! But there is more! We also added a serial port component, the ability to read files from your system, touch screens, access to render buffers and game localization. This is a comprehensive list of everything that is new in RG version 0.1.6

New Launcher that allows you to add Gadgets to your Windows desktop without opening the game. It is also possible to flag them to start at Windows startup
New Serial module to communicate through the PC serial port
The VideoChip now contains an array of RenderBuffers that can be set as a render target
Lua access to RenderBuffers and SpriteSheets content
AudioChip event sent when playback is finished to allow better management of audio channels
AudioSample now contains the metadata of the imported file
The RealityChip can now access files in the My Games/Retro/UserData folder allowing you to load AudioSamples and SpriteSheets at runtime
New RealityChip methods for reading date and time
Screens are now touch, interactions can be read from the connected VideoChip
The game interface is now translated in several languages (check the setting) and better supports different alphabets.
We added new gadgets for you to discover in the tutorials section of the game. These new gadgets are great widgets that you can use out of the box .
Several bug fixes and UI improvements

Check the Official Documentation for more info or join our Discord to talk about these new features with the community and the Dev-team!

Update 0.1.5 and Roadmap!

DITsteam_community_announcementsworkshop

1257d ago

Hello fellow Gadgeteers! You have been with us for a long, long time, especially during our release in Early Access in November. Now it's time to talk about the future and what we have in store for you, so here's a little roadmap to illustrate what you can look forward to, and what to expect throughout the year. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43015733/2ff47c74e674c042b1f0307fca73f733ada51ae2.png Bear in mind that there are no visible timeframes: that's because we don't want to set anything in stone for now, especially since our development team closely follows community feedback and suggestions, and for that reason some features may get priority over others, or get scrapped completely. If you read correctly (which we know you did), you realized new content is dropping TODAY and it's part of a big series of updates that aim to improve the core of the game. We want to give you new parts, new components, and tools at your disposal to unleash your creativity and coding capabilities, sandbox-style. But, we are also aiming to improve the gameplay aspects of Retro Gadgets, and ease new players into the intricacies of gadget-making with a brand-new story mode/tutorial mode.

Update 0.1.5 Coming NOW™️

This is what you get with today's update:

NEW CODE EDITOR

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43015733/06d2af7c35e1d5535b72d13550e79742f77d007d.png

A new Code Editor, rebuilt from scratch
Much faster and simpler to use
A new, more advanced debugger

We heard your feedback, and this is going to be a big game-changer for all of you. Coding will be faster and less cumbersome, in every possible way (even on lower-spec machines). We implemented a slew of new features which include:

The editor now supports nearly infinite lines without slowing down, it will be more reliable and future-proof.
The debugger can now display the value of local variables and allows you to step through the stack-trace. This is also possible for runtime exceptions.
For the nostalgic, an optional VIM editing mode has been added.

MULTITOOL UPGRADES

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43015733/637e042f36c8d7903b3fcdbbe6db0e7009a56a17.png

It is now possible to export PNG and Lua assets.
When importing assets, it is now possible to directly replace any pre-existing ones with the same name, provided that confirmation is given.
Error, Warning and Info messages now will appear in a brand new bar.

SPRITE EDITOR

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43015733/f35a30e2c565707b8f60c1ccaf512ed37064cd00.png We added several functions to the sprite editor. Our main goal for this update was to improve and simplify the creation of custom fonts and sprites.

The sprite grid now supports non-power-of-two values This allows non-square, 100% custom for font sizes.
The editor can now display the pixel coordinates, cell coordinates and font index under your mouse cursor.
Using the selection tool you can now flip pixel areas horizontally or vertically.
When an area is selected, the selection button is now highlighted in the interface.

MOTHERBOARD VISIBLE IN LUA

Motherboards have been exposed in Lua code:

Introduced the new Motherboard type, it is a table containing the modules of a specific motherboard. Like gdt, the key is the module name and the value is the Module itself.
gdt.Motherboards contain the array of all Motherboards.
All Modules contain a Type property of type string which contains the name of the type ("CPU", "LedButton", ...)
All Modules contain a Motherboard property of type Motherboard which represents the motherboard they are on.

ENHANCED MAGNETIC CONNECTOR:

MagneticConnector contains a new property AttachedConnector of type MagneticConnector which contains the connector it is connected to.
MagneticConnector raises a new MagneticConnectorEvent when the connection state changes.

FIXES

Images that contained transparency but were not imported correctly have now been fixed.
Several annoying bugs were fixed in the sprite editor.
When the Steam connection is lost an Error message is displayed, while an Info message appears when the connection is back.

Update 0.1.3

DITsteam_community_announcements

1314d ago

Hello Gadgeteers! We just released Retro Gadgets Update 0.1.3, also know as Workbench Update. In this update we added a bunch of workbench-related features, implemented a couple of advanced drawing options for the Video Chip, fixed some bugs and hopefully improved the performances a bit.

New Features:

DrawCustomSprite() and RasterCustomSprite() added to VideoChip. These new methods allow the user to draw a part of the sprite-sheet ignoring the standard grid.
You can now control the color of the desktop lamp using: `desk.SetLampColor(color:color)`
Recorder Tool: A video recorder tool has been added to the top-left part of your Workshop. By pressing the record button you can start recording right away. right now the recorder has two modes: Automatic portrait and fullscreen landscape. Fullscreen landscape simply records the entire screen, while Automatic Portrait mode tries to follow your mouse cursor and focuses on essential parts of the screen. This should generate interesting videos that are ready to use for popular portrait-mode social networks.
Minitool: We added a pager-like tool to display small text messages. The mini-tool will deliver important game hints. Custom messages can be triggered directly by the user from the desk table. desk.ShowMessage(message:string, persistent:boolean) desk.ShowWarning(message:string, persistent:boolean) desk.ShowError(message:string, persistent:boolean) desk.HideMessage() Messages last a standard amount of time, or can be made persistent by setting the "persistent" argument to true. HideMessage() Clears the last displayed message.
Cutting Mats can now be changed real time when you have no gadget active on your Workbench. A small tab pops up in the lower right of the cutting mat that allows you to cycle through all the mats available in your cuttingmats/active folder.
In the game options, we added an option to disable the bloom effect.

Bug Fixes and improvements:

Reworked many buttons and IU elements in the Multitool
Updated and repositioned a few visual elements in the workshop to reduce visual clutter
We reworked the 2D lights on the game desktop to slightly improve performance on older computers.
Fixed a bug that caused an error when turning on a Gadget with a CPU without a code asset assigned
Fixed a bug that always could return 0 when accessing the AudioChip "ChannelsCount" property
Fixed a bug that caused variables returned by require() to be duplicated. This could cause TypeMismatch errors even if the actual type was the same.
Fixed a bug that displayed the "downloaded gadget" post-it during widget mode.

Update 0.0.6

DITsteam_community_announcementsworkshop

1379d ago

Retro Gadgets update 0.0.6 is available for everybody! This update contains mostly bug fixes and quality of life improvements. We wanted you all to enjoy this last week of demo in style. Thank you again for all the feedback and bug reports! These are the complete patch notes: FIXES AND CHANGES:

Fixed a bug that deleted all your code by pressing CTRL-z twice.
Fixed a bug that locked the sprite editor into having the current tool always active
Fixed a rendering bug that misaligned screen rendering
Fixed an issue with multiple screens not being properly rendered while turning a PCB
Fixed a crash when using a gadget in in widget mode
Fixed a bug that allowed some gadgets to and up outside the workbench area
Fixed an issue with the multitool connector that was too big to fit in certain shapes of boards
Fixed an issue with screen components sticking out from gadget cover in some limit positions
Fixed a bug with the rendering of the paint color on the backside of a gadget case
Fixed an issue with the palette editor not working on unused palette slot when importing a sprite from outside RG
Fixed the shape of the border power button to be compatible with some board shapes
Fixed minor visual glitches on smaller board shapes
Changed the shape of the multitool connector to be more compact and visible.
Changed the shape of “Cassette Switches” to have a smaller size in the back of the PCB
Changed the effect of the lamp. The Workbench is now brighter when the lamp is on, and darker when the lamp is turned off. We also disabled the projected shadow of the lamp when it’s dark.
Fixed a bug that locked many boards in an invalid position if clicking really fast on top of the boards folder.
Fixed a bug that did not allow grid sizes with width greater than 64 px in the sprite editor

NEW FEATURES:

We added a simple search bar to the gadget browser. It can currently only search for gadget names, but it’s a start.
We added some options to the grid display in the sprite editor. It can now display pixel borders and cell borders. You can also change the background color for transparent areas and define grids colors and transparency.
Screens now have some new properties:

Screen.Width Screen.Height Screen.Offset (offset of the screen in the Video Chip rendering coordinates) Have Fun!

Retro Gadgets news & patch notes

Retro Gadgets news & patch notes

We’re delighted to announce the launch of Retro Gadgets Playground, now available on Steam!

If you are a Retro Gadgets creator

If you are new to Retro Gadgets

Download Retro Gadgets Playground now for free!

Retro Gadgets Playground launches FREE on 🗓️ September 18th!

Browsing the available gadgets on Steam or from a simple webpage, anyone can play and use gadgets for free!

Community Update

QuickHow does it work?

Join the game jam on the RG Game Jams Discord

REMINDER: This is an unofficial, community-led, game jam organized by the RG Game Jams Discord Community. Get in touch with the organizers on the RG Game Jams server for more info.

Introducing the "Retro Gadgets Game Libraries"

RG Game includes tools for:

json.lua

xml2lua

But wait! There is a new module available!

Additional Highlights:

Winner of the "Transparent" challenge:

Transparent | BitVision A1 (1975)

Community Highlights:

Infinite Craft

HEXAGON (C64 Synthesizer)

C5 Chord Machine

Space Defender

Lights Out

The Desktop Gadget Launcher

Update 0.1.5 Coming NOW™️

NEW CODE EDITOR

MULTITOOL UPGRADES

SPRITE EDITOR

MOTHERBOARD VISIBLE IN LUA

ENHANCED MAGNETIC CONNECTOR:

FIXES

New Features:

Bug Fixes and improvements:

Steam news for Retro Gadgets