Mage Game Engine Documentation

MGE VM

WARNING

This VM image was prepared for the Chapter 1 version of the Mage Game Engine (MGE), back before there was a web build to use.

Seriously, just use the web build now! It's so much easier!

Download the VM image

The VM imageopen in new window, available to download from Google Drive, is approximately 6GB.

In case you need to sudo anything:

username: dc801
password: helga

VirtualBox

  1. Install VirtualBoxopen in new window.
  2. Go to File > Import Appliance, then find the .ova file you downloaded previously.
    • The expanded VM image will be about 12GB, but can become as large as 32GB (depending on what you do inside it), so keep that in mind when choosing where to put it.

To Run the Game

First Time

Double click pull_latest_and_build.sh to download and compile the latest version of the MGE. The game will launch itself. Close the window when finished.

Thereafter

To run the game without compiling it again, double click start_game.sh.

Game Development

You could do all your game development in your host OS, but you might have to be a bit clever to get the encoded game.dat inside the VM environment. Instead, consider doing your game development 100% inside the VM:

  • Double click open_ide.sh to launch Visual Studio Code, which has been set up for you.
  • Launch Chromium by clicking the "whisker menu" in the top-left corner of the screen, then click "Web Browser." (You'll need Chromium to use the web encoder.)

Raw Game Data Folders

The VM already contains the raw game data for the Black Mage Game, which you could copy to use as a template for your own project, but we have also prepared a bare-bones sample project repoopen in new window, which has all of the necessary structure but without the bloat of the finished game.

The encoder is capable of generating a game.dat file from an arbitrary scenario_source_files/ folder, so having multiple project folders is not a problem.