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Panda 2 Release notes


enpu
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I'm very excited to announce that Panda 2 has been released. It is now more than just a JavaScript game engine, it's a full Game Development Platform for Mac, Windows and Linux. You will get better picture by watching this trailer video of Panda 2:

The game engine code will still remain free and open-source.

Check out Panda 2's new website: https://www.panda2.io

There are over 30 minutes of high quality video tutorials: https://www.panda2.io/tutorials

Ready to start simple game templates: https://www.panda2.io/templates

And lots of interactive code examples: https://www.panda2.io/playground

API Documentation: https://www.panda2.io/docs/api

 

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  • enpu changed the title to Panda 2 released

Hello @enpu

For a school project, i've been looking around on the internet for 2D JS game libraries engine. School doesn't offer any budget, so everything we use must be free (or we have to pay this for our self). I've wrote a document, why pandajs is suitable for making the game i'm willing to create. However, one of the requirements is that it has to be a free library. I've been writing this document since last week, and tonight i decided i wanted to develop a game with the pandajs library. It's good to see that panda is under active development and that panda2 has been released, congrats on that one, but it isn't free anymore.

What i've been wondering is, is panda 1 (the free version) still available somewhere with some documentation.

Hope to hear from you soon!

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Hi Enpu,

 

Congrats with your new release of the Panda engine! I just bought the editor and it looks really awesome!

A quick first impression: The editor is a great starting point if you are new to game programming. Out of the box it includes really everything you need to make your first game so it will save you a lot of time to set up a working environment. In fact it is much more than an editor, it is (as it says) a complete Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Well done!

 

The next compliment I want to make is the excellent documentation. The video tutorials get you up and running in no time. The next learning fase can be done by having a look at the playground while setting up your first game. and if you really want to look things up in detail, there is of course the API documentation.


I have a few remarks on the commercial side of the Game platform. First of all, I think $99,00 for a perpetual license is really a bargain. The platform is just absolutely worth it! I do suspect that new users would probably want to give the game platform a try before they descide to buy it. I would therefore consider to release a limited demo version of the platform in addition to the full version because it will probably give you a better revenue on the long run.

I would also explicitely state that the license allows one to use the game platform for commercial purposes. (Currently this is implied only indirectly by stating that you can make as many games you want with no further restrictions).  

 

A few points of feedback about the editor:

  • It would be nice if it would be possible to return to the project overview page once you are in a project
  • On the top of the editor you have a number of buttons: buttons.png.0a92b021ff5e5d0d63ec10dd1e1a8f0f.png I think you should add a button for the class overview. (Currently you can get there by clicking on the name of the module on the upper left of the screen which is a bit confusing).
  • It is VERY easy to use. It has a clean layout and offers everything you need to make an awesome game in notime. Well done! 

 

I will be trying out the new panda Game platform in more detail during the upcomming months. I am probably going to update my current games to the latest version 2 and I will be making a few new games anyway. I am really looking forward to start on it. 

 

So well done Enpu! Keep up the great work!

Stephan

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Hi @Stephan

Thanks for the purchase and your long feedback, really appreciate that!

I have put a lot of time and effort to make Panda 2 as easy as possible for beginners to start game programming and the engine API easy to understand, so it's good to hear those comments.

About the documentation, did you notice that there is also simple game templates for download? (https://www.panda2.io/templates) So there is video tutorials, game templates, playground and API docs. I will keep adding more content on those as much as possible (i already have three more game templates ready and waiting).

I have been thinking about a trial version too, and will think more again. I'm just not sure yet how i would technically accomplish that, how would i build a trial version of the software without having to make a lot of changes to the code or having end up with two separate versions. And what features should the trial version have and what not. But once i figure those out, i will probably make a trial version available for download.

I will update the license to be more clear on that you can use the platform to make commercial games, thanks for that suggestion!

About the editor feedbacks:

Quote

It would be nice if it would be possible to return to the project overview page once you are in a project

By this, do you mean you would like to be able to see the projects list without having to close the current project? Currently you can go back to the projects list by clicking on the Close button, that workflow has been working pretty good for me.

Quote

On the top of the editor you have a number of buttons: buttons.png.0a92b021ff5e5d0d63ec10dd1e1a8f0f.png I think you should add a button for the class overview.

Currently you can switch back to the classes view by clicking on the project name or module name on the top left corner, and also by clicking again to the button that you used to switch to another view on the sidebar, for example if you click on Assets button to switch to assets view, then click on Assets button again to switch back to classes view. I agree that it would be a bit more clear if there was also Classes button, i just tried to save some space and put there as few buttons as possible. But then i also want the ui to be very clear and easy to understand, so maybe i should add that button on the next version.

 

Again thanks for the feedback and let me know if you have any issues. Also looking forward on your new game projects!

-Eemeli

 

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Hi @HeadClot

Thanks for your questions!

1. Technically Panda 2 and also Panda Remote should work on Xbox One. I personally don't have Xbox One, but thinking about getting one soon so i can see how it works. And if it doesn't, i will make it to work ;)

2.3. There is Tiled (http://www.mapeditor.org/) plugin coming soon to Panda 2. The example game Kuru Panda already uses tile maps made with Tiled. I just need to make few updates on the plugin and add some examples. Since Tiled supports isometric maps, it should also work on Panda 2 (will have a look on that).

 

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Panda 2 v1.1.0 released with few new features.

- Added asset file drag and dropping
- Added module file drag and dropping
- Added syntax validation to code editor
- Added asset live preview to assets sidebar
- Updated Ace editor to 1.2.9
- Updated Panda Toolkit to 2.0.3
- Fixed project name undefined when removing new just closed project
- Fixed module and class list to update when requiring new module
- Fixed button texts to show when closing project and button texts hidden

Download update from Gumroad download page.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Panda 2 v1.2.0 has been released. Includes a bunch of fixes and few new features:

 

panda2-docbutton.thumb.gif.fe3693713cee9d274547b896195047f1.gif

- Highlight Panda class and click on new documentation button to open documentation page for that class automatically. Shift-click on the button to open the class in Playground. Really fast way to get some help! (You can double click on class name to highlight it faster)

 

panda2-updateengine.thumb.gif.be36fa015bc9c5ebb4751ff9d0f72540.gif

- Press Alt + Shift and click on the Close button to update the game engine of your current project to the latest master version from GitHub.

 

panda2-toolbar.thumb.gif.df3b75c655b909b90eace035b1ba47d0.gif

- New toolbar to switch the content of the sidebar. Can be turned on from the settings.

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Hi @enpu 

New features are awesome !

I did some testing already and found two issues:

1. The engine still asks "Close project ? All changes will be lost" even when I have saved all the files and click the close button.

2. When I try the engine update function (described above) in my simple breakout game project, it says "Project update failed".

 

 

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Thanks for the feedback @pstrejczek

1. Sorry that was my misunderstanding. I changed it to not confirm when there is nothing to save if you try to close the whole app, not the project. I just fixed that and also added "Confirm project close" to the settings, so you can choose if you want to always confirm project close or not. If there is any unsaved changes, it will always confirm and warn about losing changes (even if the confirm project close is turned off in settings).

2. I think i have fixed this also, will send you test version to confirm that it works.

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Panda 2 v1.3.0 is now released!

One of the biggest add-on is that you can now build and sign APK and IPA files straight from Panda 2 using Adobe PhoneGap Build.
You can even install APK debug builds automatically to your Android device after it's built.
Here is documentation for the cloud building: https://www.panda2.io/docs/build

There is also two other new export options. You can export Ejecta project for iOS or compress your project into ZIP file (to upload it to Cocoon for example).

Here is full list of changes in 1.3.0 version:

- Added PhoneGap Build cloud building
- Added exporting to Ejecta
- Added exporting to ZIP
- Added remote device logging
- Added tab size to settings
- Added minify export file to settings
- Added close project to window menu
- Added module update with drag'n'drop
- Added open folder button to export complete popup
- Added project engine update from dev branch with Shift-click
- Updated Panda Engine to 2.1.0
- Fixed duplicate remote device names to have running number
- Fixed syntax validation on new module
- Fixed project closing to show projects list after project fully closed
- Fixed error popup key events (Enter and Esc)
- Fixed window reloading on Cocoon Canvas+
- Fixed live autocomplete to not trigger from one character
- Fixed goto error when cursor already at error line

 

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