I am happy to report I have returned to this project after several weeks of low activity. My time away has given me some time to think of a new approach to the engine, which I think will work out better for me as a developer, as well as for everyone making games with the engine. It’s not so much a set of new features that is the most exciting, but a new philosophy. Rather than build something which can emulate a specific series of games, why not open it up to allow other kinds of games to be made?

This idea of branching out in the game world, and seeing where things can go, has led me to look for another popular series of DS games to start with. I think I have found the perfect series. This series is so different from Phoenix Wright, that it will be a great test for the engine. There is no courtroom, no court record, no focus on textboxes, none of the things that make the “ace law” games what they are. And there are quite a lot of these games too, and I’m sure many fans (although I don’t know any).

A limited beta release of 1.0 has been making the rounds, and received great feedback! “I’ve never seen anything like it before”, said one beta tester. “It was so, I mean, wow. It made my eyes bleed,” said another. Some random guy on the court records forum who managed to beg the beta from me informed me that “I didn’t try it for very long, I am done with it.” I think he means it is really fast to get things done with it! It’s quite simply unique in the case maker world.

Screenshot is below, and once the beta testing period has ensured that there are no last minute bugs which will need updates and patch nonsense (ha ha ha), you will all get to try out this grand new vision for my engine. Enter PyMagine:

It will let you create games based on the “imagine” series of games for the Nintendo Ds!

I hope you will enjoy the new changes!