Roadmap?

[8bitdna]

Hi @enpu

Wondered if you have a roadmap for Panda 2?  Be nice to have some clues as to what awesome things are in the pipeline

Pete

[enpu]

@8bitdna

I have currently only my private todo-list. There is going to be pretty big changes in the next version. After it's released, i will be creating public roadmap maybe to GitHub.

Does that sound good?

[pstrejczek]

Roadmap would be great. I don't know how big Panda2 community is at the moment, but it would be great to have the roadmap public and to see what's coming in next versions.

Can't wait for the next version - It's always so nice to have new features

[8bitdna]

@enpu   Yes that sounds perfect, looking forward to the next version as well .  Any release dates planned?

[Ninjadoodle]

@8bitdna - Good idea! It would be really cool to have a roadmap. It doesn't have to have any dates, just stuff that's being worked on / on the to do list.

@enpu - Awesome, looking forward to the next version - just wondering / will there be any syntax / class changes or is it more editor based stuff, that's coming?

[8bitdna]

Yes, no worries on any dates.  I was asking only if there was something imminent really.  To be honest apart from 'nice to have' things Panda 2 does everything I want and does it really well so far, a credit to @enpu and the engine / IDE.

[enpu]

Biggest change will be that you can edit any files in your project, not just modules. So it then works more like a traditional code editor. Also you can fully customize the class sidebar content, debug buttons etc. You will be able to use Panda 2 with ANY html5 game engine. There will be project templates for few engines. Small sneak peek:

 

[Ninjadoodle]

@enpu - Awesome, sounds really handy.

Saying that, I have no intention of using another engine/framework with Panda Editor.

Panda is absolutely awesome and in my opinion, the most straight forward, easy to get into and fun engine/framework on the market - thanks to all the hard work you're putting in!

Looking forward to the release

[8bitdna]

@enpu Oooooo, I like the project type view.  Will be super handy to dive into the Panda 2 source code in the same editor.

Like @Ninjadoodle I love the Panda 2 engine, hands down the best way to get stuff actually done with minimum fuss.  If I'm being completely honest though I like the idea of being able to use other engines if the need arises and so on.

For instance Phaser has a big following and soooo much info out there it makes it hard to ignore, not a reflection on Panda 2 at all, just how things are.  However when we talk about stuff like device scaling, multi resolution asset management, nice deployment features, Panda 2 is ruling IMO.  You have to go through quite a bit of effort to get the same with other engines like Phaser by either rolling some code or environment setup of a HTML server / webpack / package management etc which is a pain.

If your bringing the Game View, Deployment, Editor, Debug stuff etc to Phaser lets say, that is something I'd definitely like to play with, especially now I'm getting more comfortable with javascript.  I don't have huge amounts of time but let me know if you need a bad tester 

[Ninjadoodle]

@enpu @8bitdna @pstrejczek

I think it's awesome to allow people to choose their preferred engine to use with the editor, and while I agree that Phaser is an awesome piece of work, I feel that (and this is just my experience), a lot of stuff falls trough the cracks (small bugs / features etc).

I honestly believe that the only fields that Panda can't yet compete with Phaser is a 'choice of a physics engine'  and a 'visual editor'.

If Panda had these, it would not even be a contest (this is again only my view).

I completely understand however, that people have their preferences and reasons for going with different frameworks.

Saying that, it's time to put my money where my mouth is and actually start getting stuff out there lol

 

[8bitdna]

Good point @Ninjadoodle

I’ve only used Phaser for a few hours so don’t know its downsides really.  I’m just aware of a lof info / tutorials and so on out there and its popularity.

Most people flock to Phaser (it seems) so I should be was my mindset, most people can’t be wrong?  Or can they

I fell in love with Panda 2’s workflow and simplicity.  The engine and editor combo rocks.  It really is fantastic, however, sometimes its not as easy to find out info on something or understand a key concept.

A silly niggling worry of mine is what happens if @enpu and @Ninjadoodle get ill (sorry guys lol) ?  Who can help to the same level ?  Larger projects like Phaser have more people to cover gaps.  Doesn’t make Phaser a better engine, just less risk.  I’m using Panda 2 in professional sense so these are concerns for me sadly.

I’d like to see Panda 2 grow, I’m just a bit worried about it finding a longterm place against Phaser inparticually.

With support coming for both engines in the Panda 2 editor I’d certainly like to see what Phaser is all about and so on.  I will probably get confused or not enjoy it haha

Regardless of engine the workflow of the game view and so on is super awesome in Panda 2, recommended it already to various people.

[Ninjadoodle]

Hi @8bitdna

It's really funny that you bring this up, as I've had exactly the same concerns in the past. I used to make a decent income using flash in the past and was pretty happy with how things were going - and look what happened.

Granted, in that case it was the technology it was based on, more than the program it self, but still. I was doing pretty well with Mochiads as well, and wait ... they also went under lol.

I don't mean to sound all prophetic and all that, but I've honestly learned, that in this life, there is no certainty.

Phaser was run by one guy for a long time, until it got to a certain size, then (I think) other people were brough on. Contruct 2 was run by 2 brothers for ages, before they hired more employees, and look where they are now!

You honestly sound so similar to me it's scary (past experiences with game dev / concerns etc.).

I'm also using Panda 'professionally' to (re)build a game dev business, and after my search and experiences elsewhere - I'm happy to put my faith in this engine

I wish @enpu all the success in the world with Panda 2 (he deserves it) and I'm really looking forward to seeing where this engine goes and how the community grows.

Saying that, if there ever came a time where Panda could not be developed anymore for whatever reason, sad as it might be - I'd have to adapt and search for another tool.

Honestly, tho - if it ever came to that, my second pick for an engine would be Construct 3 (again just my experiences - and Phaser is very good).

[8bitdna]

Hi @Ninjadoodle

I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking about the things I put down, we defiantly are very very alike in outlook and thoughts!  I come from a commercial web dev background but mainly the backend stuff, a little frontend, bit of jQuery / Bootstrap that kind of thing.  However I wrote games in assembly language as a kid on the Atari ST / Amiga and really want some new challenges in life now, the world of HTML5 games for me offers that, I can take some of the skills I already have and cross them over into something fun (and brings some income) hopefully, thats the plan!

An taking a big step back I actually think your 100% right, theres no certainty.  Just difficult sometimes not to get sucked down the popular route with a perceived risk minimised etc.

I think Construct is still mainly two brothers and one of them is the main dev, other designs, I might be wrong!  An yes Phaser is headed up by Richard Davey I think?  An again being honest I don't know how many other devs are really involved.

So I guess looking at it once more the other tech stacks / engines have the same risk.  The only thing missing from Panda right now is a larger community but again is that a bad thing....  I come here and ask a question and get a direct answer from the lead dev or yourself most times, not sure I'd get that attention anywhere else!  Worrying about nothing, I hope anybody thinking the same just gets on and buys Panda 2, it is worth every penny.

So how can I help Panda grow?  If I did a few blog articles would you guys take a look and give me any corrections and stuff please, that would certainly help myself and others I hope?

[enpu]

@8bitdna

Yes Panda engine will be the "main" engine and some of the editor features will only work with it. I will continue developing the engine, as well as plugins and templates for it.

I really think that the editor has some unique features for html5 game developers and that's why i want to all developers (not just Panda engine users) to be able to use it. Hopefully this will attract more users, which would mean that i can put more and more time on the development.

[8bitdna]

Thanks @enpu

I hoped this was the case and your absolutely right, I really like the editor experience, makes dev really pleasent.  I still love seeing instant changes on my mobile devices, fantastic.

More users would be great to nuture a larger community, get them over to the darkside lol. Oppsss I mean Panda 2 of course

[8bitdna]

An apologies just realised I edited out my question previously which was asking if Panda 2 engine support was going to continue longterm due to the support of other engines coming to the Panda 2 editor.  Removed because I was forcing myself not to worry and take a leaf out of @Ninjadoodle s book!  You managed to reply before I edited it @enpu once again a rapid response   Hope the questions are not too silly or annoying, thank you for your time and patience as always.

[pstrejczek]

It's really nice to see those improvements in the editor. 

@enpu if there is something we could do to help get more people use Panda 2 please let us know. Next week I'm going to write a blog post on my blog (in Polish) about Panda 2, but the range of my blog is rather limited - I'm not sure if this will help.

I think the best way is for us to develop and publish our games. There is probably nothing better for a game engine than examples of published games which are polished and enjoyable to play.

 

[ftguy2018]

I am very excited to see work to be done on the editor side, I am using Panda2 mainly because it is something I can code by hand and is convenient to use, not too big, I need that hand made coding precision because I am interfacing a lot... personally I am not into visual editor, so please add as much as possible editor functions and you'll make me happy ^^ (hope to see a quick jump to function/classes definition )