The SP-Studio remake - news

During the last couple of months there was not much to talk about, but now development has made a huge step forward because we have a beta version. So let me share some details about the current state of the process. I will write a more detailed blog post as well in a couple of days.

The developer who offered me help is named Kai and luckily he is an absolute pro when it comes to the things I need for the SP-Studio remake. It's impossible for me to code the remake myself, because I'd need way too much coding knowledge to pull it off without Flash. So Kai is coding the main logic behind the new SP-Studio in Angular CLI and I am trying to understand the structure to be able to work with it in the future. This way I can create the user interface myself. As I understand it so far Angular CLI can optimize the project for different devices so a mobile version will be possible. Right now the single parts are already organized in categories, they can be moved, rotate and recolored.

What's pretty amazing for me is how simple it will be for me to include a new object. Of course I still have to draw everything, but the proccess of adding a new item has been made way easier - especially for things like the freestyle collection! This means you will very very likely see more items with custom colors and a way to change the layer position.

I want to finish this little post with a new survey. While I asked about the character design and general things in the past survey this one is a very specific one about the functions (like moving and rotating objects, the text tool and full screen mode). Please take the time to answer it:

THE FUNCTIONS SURVEY

Till, your new signature gives me the creeps!

Here is another bit of information I think I can share publicly:

REPLACING OF ITEMS

I can group items now into "types". Items of the same type will replace each other when you pick a new one. And by replacing I mean they will keep their position.
Example 1: You have built a character and moved it to a different position. This took some time, but then you suddenly realize: I want a short hairstyle instead of this long hair! You can add the new hair and it will appear at the exact same spot as the old one because both share the type "hair". So you don't need to move it again.
Example 2: You are not sure what your character should hold in his hand and want to try different items. Because all these items are grouped in the type "onehandobjects" they automatically replace each other: apple, sword, drum, pen... No more deleting when you search for the perfect item.

"But wait", you might think now, "what's if I WANT multiple of these items in one picture?"
This will very likely be solved with a "lock" option. You can lock every item wich will prevent other items from the same category or type to replace it. Yes, this function will replace the freestyle collection - and it will work for every item! If you lock an item and add another one of the same type or category it will appear on top of the first item. It's also planned to have buttons to change the layer of an item manually, but we will have to see if this works out.

A detailed blog post about the current state of development:

SP-Studio remake: First look!

Yes, we will try to include png and svg export. But work on the export function has not begun yet, so I cannot promise yet if it will work.

Yes, I guess this will be possible. You could have one of each of the different "body patterns" (thin, fat, muscles, stripes...). But it won't be possible to add the same body multiple times. At least that's how it's planned right now.

The backround will stay the same size, because it would be too much work to change all the background sceneries. And since most people use the SP-Studio for profile picture and won't add more characters I think the square shape makes more sense.

I am still working on transferring and fixing all items to the new SP-Studio. I feel bad for how long this takes, but unfortunately I don't have the option to invest more time right now. The donations are a huge help, but they are not enough to reduce my regular work time a lot. So while the new SP-Studio is constantly growing this happens rather slowly.

The beta version is working, but it's not worth sharing it for testing because there is not much potential for errors yet.

I will give a more detailed update in September and will see if I can show some more intersting things until then.