Just a few questions about Defold (UI support, character customization, extensions) (SOLVED)

Questions
1

Hi all!

As a Defold newbie (with a first project in mind), I’d like to tackle 3 different aspects (in order to anticipate some issues).

Animated UI (and GUI in general)

I went through the forums and interesting things about Defold, but just to clarify my understanding: there is no advanced GUI support in Defold, right?

Ex1: if I want buttons and all their states (default, pressed etc.); will I need to create the “component” myself?

Ex2: if I want to animate UI elements (fade in-out, translation, bump etc.), will I need to do it myself? (in code)

Actually this is not an issue in itself since I’ve already created UIs from scratch in other engines (took a bit of time though)… But it could eventually become an issue someday when I’ll start working with UI Artists who will have to create top notch UI animations/effects etc.

But just to know, are there good UI extensions you would recommend? (I’ve seen Druid and a few others, but not sure to have the complete list)

2D character customization

In terms of production, I’ll probably need to create several customized characters (ex: weapon, haircut, boots etc.) with a minimum number of animations etc.

I’ve been reading there and there that Spine support in Defold was limited (2.x version?), but since being able to customize characters is something any 2D game could need, I’d like to know:

Question 1: is there another tool/method (other than Spine I mean) to customize 2D characters in Defold? Something that would not be a super tricky work-around, at least… :slight_smile:

Question 2: if not… I just noticed that a Spine extension was mentioned in the “Roadmap 2020 “(https://github.com/defold/defold/projects/27), but 2020 is almost over, so… Is this something we can realistically expect for early 2021? (let’s say March-April at least, I don’t know)

Extensions

There seems to be a bunch of really cool extensions that would make my life easier and help me save time/energy, but I’d like to know:

If an extension that I use is not updated for a long time, will my game get broken once I update Defold itself? (as it can happen with Unity plugins that become obsolete after a while if they’re not constantly updated)

Thanks!

Rag

2

You can. There are resources available which offer you premade ways of handling the state of UI components like these.

GitHub - britzl/gooey: Defold GUI system

GitHub - critique-gaming/crit: Battle-tested collection of un-opinionated modules for Defold games

Ex2: if I want to animate UI elements (fade in-out, translation, bump etc.), will I need to do it myself? (in code)

This can be done with gui.animate() or you can code it manually too.

I’ve been reading there and there that Spine support in Defold was limited (2.x version?)

The exact version I use is 3.7.94 (though not all features this version supports is supported in Defold - best way to know for sure is to test on a bundled release) and an up to date and hopefully mostly feature complete Spine extension should happen eventually.

Question 1: is there another tool/method (other than Spine I mean) to customize 2D characters in Defold?

There is a version of DragonBones that should be compatible too if you search.

but 2020 is almost over, so… Is this something we can realistically expect for early 2021?

It seems like a priority at least but the official team would have to say.

If an extension that I use is not updated for a long time, will my game get broken once I update Defold itself?

Most likely not. The Defold team is very careful not to need to break legacy projects / extensions / libraries. It sometimes still happens, and when it does there are clearly communicated instructions on (usually minor) changes necessary. As a general practice, you should download / fork extensions that you use for serious projects / use specific release versions instead of master unless you have a reason to.

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Thank you very much for your useful answers.

I don’t know much about Dragonbones, but looks like it requires to export to Spine format to make it work with Defold… which doesn’t seem very reliable.

Anyway, in the short term, I’ll focus on my prototype/MVP’s gameplay and systems while keeping an eye on the 2021 roadmap (to eventually make my game move to the next level).

In the meantime, fingers crossed for the Spine extension in 2021… that would be awesome (since I already have a Spine licence :slight_smile: and it can be considered an industry standard now)

Thank you again!

Rag

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5

Not as early as March-April I’m afraid. We will be able to share more information in our roadmap for 2021. Stay tuned!

We have several official extensions which we always keep updated:

And my own:

We test most of the extensions mentioned above, and some community created extensions, daily:

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Thank you for all this information & resources!

Can’t wait to know more about the 2021 roadmap, and I’ll keep my fingers crossed for the Spine extension :pray:

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