JenScripts v3 Progress Update [36%]

For those who don't know, Jen-Scripts is my library for procedural terrain generation in GameMaker. It is some truly ancient Cloaked Games code, first published in 2018. I started working on it around when I started The Last Librarian!

I'm writing this post to formally announce that I am working on the v3 update for Jen-Scripts. It's real this time I swear... This will bring Jen-Scripts up to a reasonable standard for modern GML. I am rewriting almost the entire library from scratch, including the documentation, and adding new powerful features. So far, I am 36% finished with the overhaul, though I feel that the hardest part has passed (getting started).

Here are a few of the things I'm working on with this rewrite:

• Support for latest GameMaker versions including both LTS and monthly.
• Full JSDOC/Feather and rewritten documentation w/ examples.
• Renamed and restructured functions for better consistency and readability.
• Optional array support for replace/new_value, to allow changes to multiple values in the same call.
• Optional setter parameter to override the test and set step of every compatible function.

As a concise example of both of the last two changes listed above, this allows something like:

jen_replace(terrain, [obj_dirt, obj_grass], obj_rock, jen_set_not);

In v3, this function will replace everything that is NOT dirt or grass with rock. In my testing so far--including use in my other projects--these features dramatically expand the flexibility of Jen-Scripts, making new things possible, and old things possible in fewer lines of code.

Needless to say, I am very excited to get this update finished for everyone else to use. But, it is taking a long time. This post today is my commitment to follow through with it, and I will try to post future updates as I make progress to keep folks in the loop.

- Cloaked Games

P.S. The source code is on GitHub, the branch named 3.0.0 has my latest work if you want to see what I'm working on or try it out.