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 DizzyAGE install
Make sure you download the latest version of development tools from the DizzyAGE
official website.
To install it, just extract (unzip) it's content on your hard disk, for example in the C:\DizzyAGE folder.
The documentation consists in three books, available for download or for read online.
If you download them, I recommend placing them in the C:\DizzyAGE\Doc folder.
If you like, add desktop shortcuts to the editor, game and documentation, for easy access.
To uninstall DizzyAGE, just delete the files and folders from your files manager.
Let's have a quick look at the content of the DizzyAGE package.
The editor
The map editor (editor.exe) is used to create the game's map and this editing process is explained in detail in the
DizzyAGE Editor Book.
It's configuration is stored in the editor.ini file and it's internal data in the editor.pak.
The game engine
The game's run-time engine (dizzy.exe) is the motor that runs all DizzyAGE games.
It is responsable for loading and interpreting each game's data and it must be delivered along with the game.
The game engine can output debug log information, or eventual execution errors, in the dizzy.log file.
The game's options, like video and audio configurations, are kept in the dizzy.ini file.
The players can edit them, from the setup.exe tool, that must also be delivered with the game.
It also can create desktop shortcut to the game, or even a program group in the Start menu.
The game's data consists in graphic tiles, sounds, music and script files.
All these must be placed in specific folders inside the DATA folder.
It is what makes each game unique.
If the game's data is packed, like in the case of most released games, the engine will load it from the dizzy.pak file.
The default template
The game's data that comes in the DizzyAGE devtools is called the default template.
As the name suggests, it is a starting point, a template ready to be adjusted for any of your games.
It provides basic functionality similar to the original Dizzy games,
including most of the classic graphic tiles, ripped from original Z80 versions,
and a few specific sounds and musics.
Most important, it includes the script functionality that provides the game flow with interface, dialogs, inventory and a lot more.
The only thing a developers must do for a simple game, is to add response functions, specific to their game's events.
The other wonderful thing about this template, is that it's very customizable.
If a game require other kind of menus, or a different inventory, it's all in the scripts.
The scripts are written in
GS9,
the programming language used by DizzyAGE. It is a simple scripting language, with a syntax very similar to C.
It is recomended to keep an original copy of the default template DATA folder,
and start from it, each time you create a new game.
As you gain experience, you may use your own improved template, as a starting point for your games.
Other tools
The DizzyAGE package include other tools, used for various operations in the development process.
The Pak tool (pak.exe)
This application is used to pack (compress in a single file) game's data before releasing it.
It can also be used to unpack other games, exposing their content.
This can be very usefull to learn how other people have implemented various puzzles in their games.
The Check Tiles tool (checktiles.exe)
This application can be used to reduce the size of the game when it's ready to be released.
It can delete all the graphic images that have not been used in the game's map.
The TGA Works tool (tgaworks.exe)
This application offers a few features to work with TGA files and it can be usefull for people who don't have
a good graphic editor with alpha channels support. The tool can "explode" a TGA file, saving it's
RGB channels and it's ALPHA channels in two separate BMP files. These two files can be edited with
simple editors and then, they can be "imploded" back into the original TGA file.
The Audio Works tool (audioworks.exe)
This application offers a few features to work with YM music files.
It can detect repeating loops in these files and it allows you to crop parts of them.
The Font Works tool (fontworks.exe)
This application can be used to create fonts for DizzyAGE games.
It can paint Windows fonts into a tga tile, aligned according to a grid.
Then, it can use this font tile, or a similar one, to generate the font format file (.fnt).
Fonts with characters of different widths are also supported.
The Text Works tool (textworks.exe)
This application can be used to export and then reimport texts, from game's script files.
It helps with spell checking the dialogs, translating them, or to localize the game,
by having all dialog texts separated from the rest of the code.
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