I'll be mirroring some of the communication that was Discord-only before on the site too, without being a big news roundup like last time.

Hey fellas, here's the plan for the next few releases (not necessarily in order). After this is done, you'll be able to do most of your core gameplay with v0.54.

1. Adding some mechanics / code cleanup.

Getting a few quick wins for the feature list but don't really require anything substancial on the backend. These may happen interspurced with other versions.

• Run / Backdash / Airdash / Superjump
• Jump / Dash Cancel on attacks
• Burst
• Look at the list above in the previous post, not everything included there is in this category but there's a lot.

2. Sound module, as well as improvements on the sprite workflow

This will be done through a new system, tentatively called Castagne Data. This is an extension of CASP script that will allow linking to assets, as well as adding an interface for its edition, similarly to the tool interface. Some details are still TBD, but I plan on adding it for:

• Sound effects, in order to set sound files and sound events directly from the editor
• Sprite, in order to setup spritesheets / individual sprites directly with visual feedback. This should be a bit faster than going through nodes or editing code, and merge the codepaths with the model workflow.

Other uses can be suggested, I'm wondering if it's going to be useful for models or for variables setup. This should be thought of similarly to metadata and defines.

3. Improving the entity system for faster and easier use, as well as performance

Currently, everything uses "regular entities", which is nice and powerful from a theoretical standpoint but is a bit unwieldy at times. I intend on complexifying that a bit to allow easier interoperation and increase performance in some cases, by spliting it in 3 entity types:

• Full Entities: These are meant for the main characters you control. These will continue to work as usual.
• Sub-Entities: These are meant for projectiles and the like. More control options will be available for them, in both ways (stuff like "destroy when in hitstun" and "is one already on screen"), but they'll also have some restrictions (like it won't be able to become your main character).
• Light Entities: These are meant for effects, similarly to the current VFX system. These can't interact with characters, and are not even forced to have a CASP script running. Their instanciation will be able to go through an easier setup.

This is a bit early and will require some deeper changes to clarify CASP syntax and define interaction order.

4. Attack system improvement

It's becoming pretty spaghetti and blocking is getting bigger and bigger. I think this part needs a cleanup and redesign to allow more flexibility, through code or CASP.

Similarily, I wish to improve some of the ways attacks can be customized to enable complex behaviors in an easier way, stuff like making some hitboxes only be able to hit OTG, or being able to detect when a clean hit on the opponent has been made to be able to move him and him only, or having different properties depending on a variable on the opponent. All of that is still in design phase

5. Second mechanics pass and polish

Finally, a cleanup / polish phase plus implementation of some of the trickier parts that couldn't be done before (like assists and the like). Will include some editor improvements, update to tutorials, and a new Castagneur if possible.

For all of these, don't hesitate to ask questions. This is going to be a long (months) cycle of updates, considering the sheer quantity of attributes to add. At the end of this however, Castagne should finally expose a lot of its potential in an easier to access way, so I hope you guys will be there for it!

Now that developpement is also getting more stable, I'll also try to look for ways to define and open up contributions in a clearer way than just "hop on discord and ask" lol