Reply to Re: v1.09?
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This is a matter about time investment. There's no doubt writing a new engine takes time. LOTS of time. And truth be told, there are dozens of free engines out there that would probably be better than what our community could come up with without using a large team. However, I have tried 90% of those and came back to Dink 
The truth is, making a game with an engine is a daunting task, nigh impossible for a single purpose. You're left with a new scripting language to learn and completely new assets to create.
That's why I think Someone's on the right track when he's looking to define what Dink's essence really consists of. I think it would be possible to have "screens" without having a screen based engine though. It's simply a matter of moving the camera on the render area. That way, both "persistent" and screen based worlds could be created, and obviously the editor would only have rudimentary screen indiciations. That would indeed eliminate scripts attached to screens, yes, but it would vastly simplify altering the game world dynamically (just think about the trees burning on one screen but not the other).
Scripts attached to sprites. Yes, we should keep this, it's a basic part of Dink development and I actually quite like it. Game editors like for Neverwinter Nights, Dragon Age, ... also use this and it works well.
We need to keep the resources we have to seperate us from the advanced engines out there. At the same time, we should have a much easier time importing new resources without the current restrictions holding us back. This means transparency and possibly better collission detection (simple or pixel). Animation might have to be looked at in more detail too.
So, looking back at the time investment required, I think we can cut it down immensily if we deal with the fact we would be going for an upgraded, yet new Dink engine. Yes, this would mean that we won't be making a "great" contribution to the development community as a whole, but it would be able to fill a certain niche between the hard team based engines and the slightly too simple and restricted engines like our own Dink engine. All in all, I think making this would not only be a dreamy present for this community, but will also lure completely Dink unrelated people to the project. It would be great to witness this evolution take place
The truth is, making a game with an engine is a daunting task, nigh impossible for a single purpose. You're left with a new scripting language to learn and completely new assets to create.That's why I think Someone's on the right track when he's looking to define what Dink's essence really consists of. I think it would be possible to have "screens" without having a screen based engine though. It's simply a matter of moving the camera on the render area. That way, both "persistent" and screen based worlds could be created, and obviously the editor would only have rudimentary screen indiciations. That would indeed eliminate scripts attached to screens, yes, but it would vastly simplify altering the game world dynamically (just think about the trees burning on one screen but not the other).
Scripts attached to sprites. Yes, we should keep this, it's a basic part of Dink development and I actually quite like it. Game editors like for Neverwinter Nights, Dragon Age, ... also use this and it works well.
We need to keep the resources we have to seperate us from the advanced engines out there. At the same time, we should have a much easier time importing new resources without the current restrictions holding us back. This means transparency and possibly better collission detection (simple or pixel). Animation might have to be looked at in more detail too.
So, looking back at the time investment required, I think we can cut it down immensily if we deal with the fact we would be going for an upgraded, yet new Dink engine. Yes, this would mean that we won't be making a "great" contribution to the development community as a whole, but it would be able to fill a certain niche between the hard team based engines and the slightly too simple and restricted engines like our own Dink engine. All in all, I think making this would not only be a dreamy present for this community, but will also lure completely Dink unrelated people to the project. It would be great to witness this evolution take place
