Hey all, it sure hasn't been a while! This may come as a surprise, but we're already at Party Project Workshop v2.0! The biggest update yet.

There are a lot of features I initially wanted to include in the first release of Workshop, but wasn't able to due to my limited knowledge at the time. As I continued working on the project, I learned more about how the Construct 2 compiler outputs, which lead me to manage to add a lot more features in this release than I originally anticipated.

Due to how quickly this update has been released from the last one, there's not going to be a community spotlight this time. The next one will come when the next minor version (the second digit in the version number) releases!

Lets go over some of the new additions to this version:

New Features

• Custom Board NPCs! You can replace the various NPCs that appear on your board through events! Spice up their dialogue even! You can access this new feature by Right clicking on your board in the Node List, and selecting Add > Actor (.pact).
  • More types of actors will be added in future updates!
• Board Testing from within the editor! By pressing F5, or navigating to your board's right-click menu > Test Board, you'll be able to test your board immediately in-game!
  • This feature requires downloading the nw.js SDK, which can be obtained from here: https://nwjs.io/downloads/
• Day/Night cycles are here for custom boards! You can configure the Day/Night cycle within your board node's properties menu.
• A small handful of toggles for your board has been added in the Board Node's properties menu. These include:
  • The Day/Night options and gimmicks
  • The ability to reverse paths at night.
  • The ability to turn stars into shadow stars at night.
  • The ability to make shadow stars take a star instead of 30 coins.
  • In addition to setting the camera zoom, you can now also set the camera height for the board's minimap.
  • A toggle to show junction sprites in-game.
  • Disabling certain items on certain boards.

Additions

• Some new spaces have been added:
  • Day/Night Junction: Branches to a different path depending on whether it is day or night.
  • Ghost (Night Only): Like the Ghost space, but is only active during nighttime.
  • Super Ghost Space: Behaves like the Super Ghost Space in Horror Land, where you can steal coins/stars from everyone.
• Three new objects have been added:
  • Freezie Cat: Blocks a path during night.
  • Vernidee: Purely decorative. Can choose between regular and shadow Vernidee designs.
  • Camera Hook: Required for certain events.
• Several new Events have been added:
  • Happening Space Events: Daytime Bonus, Nighttime Bonus, Plant Trap, Towering Treetop Tree, Swap Day/Night, Give Everyone a Hex, Exchange All Items
  • Pass-By Events: Change to Night

Changes

• The designs of the board editor's icons have been changed.
• Unified the design of all popups (i.e., the 'Save Successful' prompt is no longer a separate popup window now).
• Some notifications that were previously popups have now been changed to toasts that appear in the bottom-right corner.
• The .ppb file format has been reworked. 
  • Old .ppb files will automatically be converted into the new format upon being opened by the program. When checking the contents, they will be divided into four groups:
    • Map: All spaces and objects.
    • Textures: Background sprites, NPC sprites, thumbnail, etc.
    • Audio: Your board's BGM will be here.
    • Actors: NPCs.
  • The process of adding background images to your board has changed. Sprites now must be added by right-clicking the board and selecting Add > Texture (.ptex). This'll prompt for an image, and the sprite will appear in the Textures folder of your board. You can specify which texture you want to use for a component of your board by navigating into your .ppb's Node Properties panel, and selecting the dropdown boxes for the textures to select one.
  • Adding audio has also gone through the same changes as textures.
  • Old .ppb files will still work, but new .ppb files are ~2x faster to be read by the program, which results in faster patching times with new .ppb files. They're also smaller in size by default!
  • An 8 megabyte limit has been imposed on .ppb files. .ppb files larger than 8 MB can still be loaded, but not saved until space is freed up in there.
• Changed the rendering engine of editor. Everything will look mostly the same, though it may introduce unintended bugs. Please report them if you encounter any!
• Some easter eggs!

One more thing...

The Night Before Givingmas, the first ever custom board for Party Project, has a new look! Built using v2, it makes use of the new Day/Night cycle, custom NPCs, and new space and event types! Download it here: https://gamebanana.com/mods/580298