(2026-04-06) State Call Defaults

Today, I’m making updates for me. That’s right, it’s the castagne dev experience update, but CASP-side this time.

You know how sometimes you want to make a part of a state easily extensible? Like how I like having WalkF and WalkF-Movement so that you can completely change the movement if you don’t like it? It’s great for the end user, however it’s always annoying to set up: I need to create several states. That’s partially why I added hooks, so that I can “add” these without really doing work, with a simple WalkF-Anim? for example. The issue is that they don’t do anything, therefore if I want to have behavior you can change as opposed to behavior you can add, I still need to go through that process. Introducing:

!WalkF-Movement:
	Move(1000)
endif

As you might expect, it’s just like a hook, except if the hook doesn’t exist it will call on the interior code! That allows these elements to be MUCH cleaner, as all the behavior is in the same state. These have got two particularities:

• You can’t use arguments. If you want arguments, you need to define them and therefore should add them to an actual proper state.
• Call Parent works, HOWEVER it is a tricky one: the parent will ONLY exist for that specific state that calls the default. This means the same function could compile to different code, and that !!? is mandatory. Good enough imo, it’s added as the base parent so overriding the hooked state works as usual, it’s just a tricky integration that most likely won’t come up unless you start calling on hooks from several states or have several defaults.

Another update is that, since the Castagne base files are now embedded inside of the binary, well you can’t really change them. This instantly makes the lock feature of the old editor unneeded since you can’t change it, but that means that I as a dev can’t do that either, which is annoying for development. I’ve therefore added an option where you can give the path to Castagne’s source to load these dynamically!

These updates mostly affect me since I’m the one writing the base CASP files lol. I am making my work environment better so that I can do better work, and I wish to thank me for taking the time to add one of my requested features.

(2026-04-04) Gizmos!

Heyo! I’ve been working in the editor these days, but never had time to share. I’m writing a quick post to share some screenshots.

First off, I’ve advanced enough on the EdSpec compilation and handling to properly handle functions! Every function has its own EdSpec it can add internally, that is different from the one you can attach in the editor.

There’s also handling of colors through a system, and several options out of the box for Gizmos, including lines with caps and boxes with different styles. You can specify boxes in different ways, which match the way hitbox vs hurtbox are handled. In the screenshot below, you can see how Move() now adds an arrow, with a notch. The notch shows one frame, the arrow shows 10, in order to visualise the movement. Boxes show the box where it is.

Additionally, I’m working on the UI bit by bit. A lot of it is temporary with big buttons that don’t do anything but take place for future functionality, but here’s the file selection! As you can see there’s a good few more than usual, and it’s gonna get bigger. The rest of the window will help keep track.

There’s still some work to be done editor wise before I can get properly started on the mechmods and base CASP, mostly how to link to the actual Castagne project, and a fair bit of in engine stuff. Stay tuned!

(2026-03-31) Introducing EdSpec!

Hey! So I’ve mentioned the EdSpec (which I’ve just renamed from ‘VarSpec’ if you’ve read the previous updates) system a few times, but what is it? Put simply, it’s a refined version of Castagne’s Gizmo, SpecBlocks, and Custom Editors, all put together as a single interface.

At it’s core, it’s a second language right inside of Castagne Script. Don’t worry, most users don’t need to learn it, and it doesn’t affect gameplay in any way, it only talks to the editor (hence the name, EDitor SPECifications.). It’s also way more forgiving, as it always tries to work and doesn’t crash (although you might get funky results). Its main objective is to make character creation in Castagne extremely efficient and fast. Here’s a quick example:

> GLine [0,20000,0] [20000,0,0]

This command, Gizmo Line, will draw a line on-screen at those game coordinates. This is the most basic usecase. A new feature in the editor is that these gizmos can now be drawn on a separate grid, even when the game is not running. Take a look!

As you can see, the grid is centered at your character, along with a preview of your ColBox. When the game is not running, information available is more limited, but this might also make it more clear. This is something I wish to expand upon in the future, but at the moment it’s already quite agreeable. The mouse is also tracked, which is a slight hint about future abilities ;)

I’ve got a LOT to say on EdSpec, but after writing a very long post yesterday (which I didn’t post), I figured it’s one of those cases where it would be way too much info at once, and actually seeing it will have more impact. So, expect little EdSpec updates bit by bit! What I can say however, is that this is the star of the new version, it put a lot of constraints on the compiler but I sincerely believe it will be worth it. The most impressive features are still on the way!

Also, I noticed just before posting I left some other hints about parts that got implemented in the screenshot. Consider that a bonus preview lol