Outlaw Editor

Outlaw Editor allows creation of old-school style role-playing games, in the style and tradition as the Ultima and Final Fantasy series games.  The aim is to create the necessary game data (images, scripts, tiles, sprites, images) in a platform-agnostic, user-friendly environment such that porting to multiple platforms is possible if desired.  Outlaw Editor is only an editor, it is not a game engine nor is it a playable game.  That being said, there might be preview-like features added to help you test out logical pieces of your game design, but ultimately in order to play your game on your desired target platform (be it Atari 800, Apple //, C64, etc) you will need to write some code if your platform has no engine port yet.  It is possible to edit your game and organize graphical assets such that you can effortlessly switch between different platforms and see the likeness of your game rendered as it would in that platform.

For the time being, the Apple // series is supported but the underlying structure of the editor allows for any number of platforms to be added in the future as time and interest permit.

Outlaw Editor is part of a larger project entitled "Lawless Legends" which is still quite early in its development.  Once more information is available, this page will offer you an appropriate pointer to the master project page where you can learn more about it.  I know this sounds heavily ambitious.  I'd have to agree.  But the aim is that even if we only get partially through our goal, the tools we authored to get here so far offer an incredibly useful utility to the community even today.  If we actually succeed, it's just gravy. ;-)

For now, I'm just posting some pretty screenshots for people who might have heard a thing or two and want to see what I'm seeing.  You will eventually have the ability to download the editor, the code, and other assets of the project once we have assembled things in an orderly fashion that enables others to contribute or browse.

Yours truly,

-Brendan

This screenshot is from the alpha version of the tile editor, showing a single 28x16 Apple double hi-resolution tile.  It is possible to toggle individual bits in this view, or use the tool menu to pick a color and brush and draw larger areas with the desired color pattern.  The reason why colors look all funky here is because that is how NTSC video works, and this editor shows you what your stuff will look like on a real composite monitor.  Though confusing, you get a more accurate picture of what really is going on.  (Side note: This NTSC representation of apple graphics is Steve Wozniak approved.  Thanks KFest 2013!)  White boxes indicate active bits.  Color boxes indicate inactive bits providing you a hint as to what sort of colors might arise from enabling those bits.

This is an example of a double-hires graphic converted by the editor.  

Below is a bootable disk image with example pictures converted in regular hi-res mode so you get an idea of the hi-res image conversion quality as well.