Hi all.
I'd love to be able to do a Vassal (www.vassalengine.org) mod to have a wider beta audience for a game I've worked on for about three months now. It's a card-and-dice game, non-collectable.
The problems:
1) I can't program mods...at all.
2) the Vassal forums seem kind of stagnant for requests like this
So here's where I would love some input as to good tutorials, someone who'd be willing to get the mechanical aspects done (allowing me to go in and clean up as needed) etc.
Thanks!
I don't know anything about Vassal but I've had pretty good success so far with Zun Tzu (www.zuntzu.com). It can handle dice and cards without a problem, and it's very easy to make up a gamebox -- no programming required, all you need are .jpg files of your components (and you can put all your cards in a single .jpg file).
Good luck!
-Jeff
IIRC, Vassal is going to require at least a basic familiarity with the Java programming language. I haven't peeked at it in a few iterations, so that may have changed, but if you have never programmed anything before, it's probably not your cup of tea. As has been mentioned, there are a couple other tools available out there, however.
Zunztu is extremely easy to work with and I would have to give that a +1. Problem with Vassal and with Zunztu is finding people to play with, but Zuntzu does offer an easy way to make a virtual boardgame, if for nothing else then solo playtesting.
I give Ztntzu a -1, because it's Windows only. Vassal is multiplatform.
Agreed.
Hmmm, didn't know that. I have a pc so didn't even think twice.
Most old content has yet to be migrated to the new site. You should use the Archive link on the top right to access the old site. Sadly, you won't be able to see any images uploaded as tiki-wiki user images, but at least you'll be able to see the written instructions and external images.
Not sure if you were looking for how to make a board specifically, or something more general. Here are the "make your own board" tutorials: http://archive.bgdf.com/tiki-index.php?page=Making+Game+Boards
You do NOT need to program Java (or any other programming language) to make a VASSAL module. You CAN add special effects using Java, but it is nothing that is used in many modules (I only now of one for certain, ASL) and I did not have to do that for the two playtest modules I have made.
There is plenty of documentation on the VASSAL site on how to do modules, and you can open any other module in edit mode as well to see how they configured it to get various effects.
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Looking around on ZT, it looks really good.
Related, and maybe its own thread, but I was looking for the Design tutorial for making your own board games, and it dead-links back to the BDGF main page...anyone know where to get that?