New Phoenix USC user interface system on Monkey X
Hi,
I have been busy porting Phoenix USC from the BlitzMAX programming language to Monkey X. Monkey X is made by the same company as BltzMAX and is now developing Monkey X2 which is just going to be completely awesome for coding games across Linux, Windows, OSX, IOS and Android. If you are a coder and have never heard of Monkey X I suggest you check out their webpage and the new Monkey X2 forum. If you are not into Unity and you want fast 2D and a text based IDE (I just dislike Unity's IDE) and a sexy coding language Monkey X2 will be for you. :) One other nice thing is Monkey X2 will come with Mojo 2 (a 2D engine) that will provide shader support, lighting FX and more which will all be adapted into PUSC. Got to love that. 
So I am currently porting all of my code and as I do I am taking advantage to retool and redesign some of the aspects of PUSC. One big change is in the user interface (UI). My goal is to make my game engine as flexible as possible and support as many platforms as possible. To do so I need a flexible GUI and UI that can be adapted to cope with all the displays and other differences in platforms. So I am writing a UI (that works with my GUI system) to facilitate this. Basically it allows me to write a script file that can be custom for each platform handling all the settings options, menus and really anything were the user needs an interface. In the video above you can see one of the menu systems I am working for mobile and desktops.
Additionally I have spent time reworking the GUI system The GUI system has a window and GUI components framework. The window framework has been expanded and now supports gaming in windows (as seen in video). While small displays like cell phones will not benefit too much from this tablets and desktop systems will. Probably the biggest use aside from map building and such will be in spectating. Spectating is a great way to allow others to watch a game or match or league play and having multiple game map views (really limited only by system performance) will provide for an awesome spectating experience. The idea here is to stream a match live and let others view the match with player, location and other viewing options.
I hope you will all stick around for what is to come. Phoenix USC will soon be more then a game it will be a 2D gaming framework.
Rock on,
Rich
