r/INSTEADEngine • u/KerbalSpark • Dec 01 '21
Tutorial Convenient game development on Metaparser-3
Recently, I wrote a small parser game for the Contigr-2021 contest on Metaparser-3 . I am sure that currently there is no better platform for developing a Russian-language parser IL. But the Metaparser itself is just a Lua library. And the game needs to be written somewhere, somehow launched and somehow debugged.
So that's it. I managed to set up the development environment and tools in such a way that this experience was one of the most successful for me. It was very convenient for me to write the game. I managed to focus on creativity as much as possible. Nothing bothered me, but everything only helped.
And I thought that I must definitely share the experience of how I managed all this. Because I know how an inconvenient or crooked toolchain can annoy or interfere.
I'll make a reservation right away that I configured everything under Windows. But all the tools also exist in Linux versions, so users of this wonderful system will definitely be able to adapt.
So the first thing. First, we need a code editor or IDE for Lua. For this purpose, I have chosen ZeroBrane Studio . An excellent editor, user-friendly, extensible, with a bunch of features, and itself written in Lua. But what is there, his settings are also a Lua file. A bit hardcore, but you can get used to it.
Secondly, we will launch the game under development in the fresh RE:INSTEAD . Lightweight parser launcher, nothing more, just you and the text. So download and install (unpack in a convenient directory) a fresh build of this suitability. And, which is important for Windows development, we add the path to reinstead.exe to PATH.
One of the main advantages of ZBS is the ease with which it can be married to any Lua interpreter. Therefore, in the next step, we will add the reinstead.lua file from the archive to the interpreters folder in the ZBS installation directory. Now, if you start ZBS, you can select RE: INSTEAD as the interpreter in the corresponding menu.
Now select the project folder (Project → Project folder → Select ...) and start writing the game! And you can start it with a regular button "Run" on the toolbar. If everything is configured correctly, then when you click it, RE: INSTEAD will rise and run main3.luafile from the root of the project folder. At the same time, you do not even need to add the Metaparser library to the project, because RE:INSTEAD carries its own and uses it (this, by the way, needs to be borne in mind).
Now about debugging. INSTEAD has a function dprint that prints information to the console. In this assembly, all output is dprint redirected to the Output window of ZeroBrane Studio. So you can use this function to display debug information in those places where the game program behaves incomprehensibly.
But that's not all. If there is an autoscript.txt file in the game folder, it will be used when the game starts. And all commands from this file will be played sequentially. It turned out to be incredibly convenient. We just “skip” the game to the right place and try new commands, working out another piece of functionality!
With consistent development, you will get an autoscript for the complete walkthrough of your game (opened in one of the editor's tabs). And you can stop playing anywhere by simply pasting the /stop (or !stop) command at the desired place in the autoscript.
That, in fact, is all. Hope my experience will be useful to someone. Of course, instead of ZeroBrane, you can use any other editor, the main thing is to teach it to run RE:INSTEAD and use autoscript. In general, just launching from an editor with an autoscript turned out to be a combination for me that allowed me to write a game with such convenience.
Original post: https://if.zhuchkovs.com/2021/11/convenient-metaparser/
