edited January 2015 in General Discussion
I'm currently trying to evaluate ORK for my needs before purchasing. I have a handful of questions.

- most importantly, I see that *some* but not all of the source is included. What exactly does "code access to gameplay related code" mean? What's *not* included?
- how extensible is ORK? If I run across something about it I want to change, will I be able to?
- similarly, what's this "plugin system"? I can't find anything about it on the site :/
- is the formula editor required? what if I just want to write ability code manually? Can you write custom nodes for the formula editor?
  • edited January 2015
    Hi, greay. All I can say is ORK works really well to make a marketable game. And I continue to be astonished at what I can do and how easily I can do it.

    But I don't use the source code so wait for those who do to answer your questions. : )
    My understanding of what you get for the source code is everything but not the stuff that creates the editor itself. I could be wrong but that's my understanding. I think you get everything you need to change something related to gameplay and game mechanics.

    You can use 3rd party assets from the Unity asset store with Ork--like the KGF minimap system or NGUI and many other systems like Unistorm. : )

    I'm very happy with what ORK can do---and GIL is always open to suggestions and is probably the most helpful developer and creator of an editor you could ask for---he's having a New Year break right now as most of us are. : ) I'm sure your other questions will be answered--I just don't know the answers.

    But my betatesters are enjoying the game I'm making with ORK and that's all I can ask. They wanted 3d arms and to input their names for their players and I got some support here and ORK did it for me and that's all I could possibly ask--

    The event node system blows almost every other game editor out there out of the water. It's amazing how fast I can make things happen. For example, for a new quest---I just copy the old event, substitute the new stuff in the right nodes and in minutes I have my new quest done.

    I haven't gone through each and every thing you can do with the node system yet because I've been focused on the practicality of actually getting a game done---and making my betatesters happy---but it's like looking into a chest of wonderful possibilities and I can't wait to have some down time to try all those possibilities out. : )

    I assume you've tried out the free version and you know all that and your questions are focused on the paid version.

    Just wait a bit for those who can answer your questions to recover from their New Year's break. : )

    Post edited by Catacomber on
  • All gameplay related source code is included, i.e. you'll have access to everything that's related to game mechanics, so pretty much everything :)
    Only the editor and data serialization remain closed source.

    ORK Framework is very extensible, beside adding new functionality or interact 3rd party software through the event system, you can also change the code or add it as a plugin (the full version contains a plugin example).

    The plugin system allows you to bring custom settings into ORK and save/load them with ORK's other data. You can also use the event system to interact with plugins and react to callbacks (e.g. scene loaded).
    Generally, the plugin system allows you to add custom code to ORK without the need to change anything of the base code - so you'll be able to upgrade to new ORK versions without having to add your own changes again.

    The formula editor is required in some parts, but it depends if you're using those parts. Most of the time, you can also use defined values or game variables instead.
    You can add custom nodes to formulas, the battle AI and the event system. This is also possible without adding them to ORK's code, a simple script file in your Unity project will be enough. You can find more details on custom nodes in this comment.
    Please consider rating/reviewing my products on the Asset Store (hopefully positively), as that helps tremendously with getting found.
    If you're enjoying my products, updates and support, please consider supporting me on patreon.com!
  • Excellent, thank both of you! This definitely alleviates most of my concerns. I'm sure I'll have other questions, but it sounds like with custom nodes / plugins & source access, any issues or shortcomings I find in ORK will be solvable.
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