The Americana Engine is a result of two years of work (since 2013), and is currently under ongoing development. It was originally created for the JRPG game Americana Dawn, which its engine was used for prototypes and beta demos, but has been used in other personal projects in recent times, such as Americana: Foundations (which is based on AD, but is otherwise unrelated).

All map terrain editing and general sprite placement is done within the game's editor, while scripting is done using an external text editor.

The engine was created in January 2013 when seltaire, a former classmate, initally asked me for help regarding the audio modules in RPG Maker. Knowing the project's past history, and discovering a lot of limitations she had with the program, I opted to help her out, my original goal being to produce a game engine without limits and to get copy of the game to everyone who wanted it on a timely basis. There were also plenty of things I wanted to change in AD to make it better, and many of those suggestions eventually made it into the game.

The game engine is partially based on the design of RPG Maker, using tilesets and scripting, however the main differences include a custom scripting system (allowing map edits to be made quickly) and building the game's database and assets around map files instead of depending on a single internal database in order to get updates over to testers as quickly as possible while keeping file sizes down. Modding support was designed in mind knowing anything in the game could be changed at any time in an instant.

The editor was formerly used as an internal development tool to create maps for Americana Dawn (including those in the trailer). Although the game no longer uses this engine in favor of Unity, I have chosen to continue development on this game engine (as well as make both the engine and the editor free of charge), not only as a portfolio piece, but to showcase a game engine and a RPG that could have been.

• Four terrain layers (one rendered above characters)
• Mask Tile system to restrict character movement
• Scripting system (non-gui)
• Macrobattle tile-weight system and shortest path calculations
• Map autotiling (via script)
• Regions / Locations
• Sprite System (16 layers), and can place and move sprites
• Tile Picker
• Sprite Picker, Selection, and Placement
• Custom Tilesets
• Generate Dialogue
• Can create maps up to 2000 tiles in size
• Can place / move objects around in-game

Coming soon

Game Engine

There are no publically available releases of the game engine available for download at the momement; please send an email or direct message @bchantech to obtain a copy.

Other Downloads

ADMScript Notepad++ highlighting (Apr 2014)

Terms of Use:

The Americana Engine / Editor is copyright (c) 2013-2016 Brendan Chan and is freeware for non-commericial projects under the following conditions:

• The game engine is provided 'as is' due to being in active development and the author does not take responsibility for any damages that arise during pre-release builds.
• The copyright notice must be included if any part of the game engine (except for dependencies) is redistributed.
• Maps created using the game engine must be distributed free of charge.

If you are interested in using the game engine in any commerial projects, please send an email.

The portfolio maps (under /maps/portfolio) are released under the additional terms:

• You may not extract or use any assets contained in any of the forementioned maps outside of the scope of the Americana Engine, as its assets are licensed exclusively for demonstrating the game engine as a portfolio piece.

Beta 4

• libcurl will now be used to sync weapon data in order to ensure all players have the same version of the simulator for balance testing purposes
• Characters can now equip and unequip items
• Equip Navigation now usable using arrow keys
• Capacity moved to under character stats
• Mastery now defaults at -1 instead of 0
• Weapon types the character has equipped
• Item details display only what is necessary and hides anything that has no effect (such as 0 damage)
• Weapons now display Skills that are granted in battle
• Skill tab added, damage does not factor the character's stats
• Inventory cap increased to 2 million per item

Scripting Changes:

• AddItemToInventory now supports a third parameter that indicates quantity
• Triggers which remove weapons have been disabled for now

Showcase Map Changes:

• A three second window before a battle starts is now given to swap gear.
• You can now enter the menu in between battles
• A variety of accessories and weapons have been added.

Limitations:

• Status effects are not working properly for accessories
• Inventory, Journal, and Options still do not display stuff and should be greyed out
• Thames and Lucille can equip gear but the battle version is being used for the simulator.

Beta 3

• Map version updated to Beta 3; maps are backwards compatible with any pre-existing beta 2 maps.
• Support for upper layer tiles (Layer 4) added. If there are any lag issues the entire layer can be disabled.

Scripting Changes:

• New Skill parameter: charge_animation (plays this animation when a character is charging this attack
• All characters have a settable 'base_speed' parameter to set their CD speed. Default is 10.
• Skills can have their accuracy not displayed by setting acc_multiplier for the skill to -1. Attacks with this value are guaranteed to hit the target regardless of evasion.

Engine Changes:

• The game now loads both images and sounds from a global resource file, regardless of version.
• Changed the location of some files.
• Item use skills now have a default animation of 'Item', which plays the character using an item animation if they have one.
• WASD can now be used to navigate the battle menus
• Items that damage a target are now guaranteed to hit and will no longer crit
• Defend now changed to 30% damage reduction, and can only stack once.
• Enemy colors should now be generated in a way that they do not share the same color.
• All animations now run at the same framerate
• Fixed an issue where the entire character sprite did not display when they were in the back row
• Stat text buffs and debuffs (ex. STR Up) will no longer display in a unit’s status bar
• Armor indicator on enemies changed
• Testing: Right Arrow will select between valid enemies. Left arrow will still cycle through all characters in the battle.

Showcase Map Changes:

• A number of units have their base speed changed
• Drummer's stats were rebalanced
• Water now regenerates a percent of the character’s HP
• Fixed a few skill names
• Some items have their descriptions changed
• Slight readjustment of microbattle unit placement
• Controls are now listed in the info panel.
• Grid GUI has been changed

Known Issues:

• Character does not display if they do not have an idle animation and their charge animation is invalid.
• Foster's sprites are hardcoded and cannot be changed in a map.

For any questions or support about the game engine, please visit the forums.

To contact the author directly, send an email to brendan.chan at sbcglobal.net.

This project page only covers the game engine and the author's own maps and is independent from the Americana Dawn storyline; any specific questions about that should be directed to @seltaire instead.

Donations

The game engine is free, however the sprites in the game are not. Donations will be used to obtain graphic replacements. You may choose to donate using one of the following links below. Your support is greatly appreciated!

BTC: 1LicAo1fRfXj9X89BZWm8W7n5pJRGSZj7q
LTC: LX6aDRVGX6dc5RNXvkmsEyiFKr1y4NUBQx

Disclaimer:

This page was created by Brendan Chan for the purposes of showcasing a portfolio piece. The opinions and statements expressed on this page are the author's own and do not reflect the views of Bit Bonton LLC.