Ugh… I just typed up a long post about this, and then promptly destroyed it by accident.
So, apologies if this is not super illuminating, but I just can’t bring myself to type it again. 
RGTiled
SSK2 include a "Tiled Level Loader and Drawing Library’ called RGTiled. It is similar to many of the other loaders you can find (list below), but also includes these features:
- Supports embedded and external tilesets.
- Supports defining bodies using Tiled physics editor. (Default, Rectangle, Polygon.)
- Supports multi-body too.
- Circular bodies can not be edited, but can be defined from properties.
- Can edit physics properties from Tiled
- One-line Load
- One-line Drawing
- ForEach Iterator
- User Defined Builders - You can provide custom code for just those objects that need more features than are available via the standard RGTiled standar features.
- Behaviors - Attach code to objects by defining named properies w/ optional arguments to the behavior.
- Stitchers - i.e. Stitch multiple levels together.
There is way too much to discuss here so I made a video and as time permits I’ll make more posts, demos etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYihtSvuH-s
Other Tiled Loaders++
Behaviors / Scripted Entity Component System
I added a new feature to SSK that allows you to pre-define arbitrary packages of code and to ‘late attach and configure’ them.
While I call these Behaviors, you may be more familiar with the term ‘Entity Component System’.
These packages let you give display objects arbitrary complex behaviors in just a few lines of code.
When time permits I will make some examples, videos, etc. for I’ll just tease you with some random code.
local obj = display.newCircle( centerX, centerY, 40 ) -- Silly way to give the object an initial color, make it jiggle, take focus when you touch it, -- and change color when you touch and release it. ssk.behaviors.add( obj, "b\_fillColor", "color=FF33dd" ) ssk.behaviors.add( obj, "b\_jiggler", "x1 = -10, x2 = 10, y1 = 0, y2 = 0, period = 100" ) ssk.behaviors.add( obj, "b\_touch\_color", { began\_color = "#FF0000", end\_color = "#FFFFFF"} ) ssk.behaviors.add( obj, "b\_touch\_focus" )
The jiggler behavior:
-- ============================================================= -- Copyright Roaming Gamer, LLC. 2008-2018 (All Rights Reserved) -- ============================================================= local mRand = math.random local getTimer = system.getTimer -- local mod = {} function mod.new( settings ) local behavior = {} behavior.ll = {} -- local listeners obj:event() ) ==\> ex: obj:addEventListener( "collision" ) behavior.gl = {} -- global listeners Runtime:event() ==\> ex: Runtime:addEventListener( "enterFrame", obj ) -- --table.dump(settings) local x0 local y0 local lastT local x1 = settings.x1 or 0 local y1 = settings.y1 or 0 local x2 = settings.x2 or 0 local y2 = settings.y2 or 0 local period = settings.period or 0 -- function behavior.onCreate( obj ) lastT = getTimer() x0 = obj.x y0 = obj.y end -- function behavior.gl.enterFrame( self ) local curT = getTimer() if( curT - lastT \< period ) then return end lastT = curT self.x = x0 + mRand(x1, x2) self.y = y0 + mRand(y1, y2) end -- return behavior end return mod
The touch color behavior:
-- ============================================================= -- Copyright Roaming Gamer, LLC. 2008-2018 (All Rights Reserved) -- ============================================================= local mod = {} function mod.new( settings ) local behavior = {} behavior.ll = {} -- local listeners obj:event() ) ==\> ex: obj:addEventListener( "collision" ) behavior.gl = {} -- global listeners Runtime:event() ==\> ex: Runtime:addEventListener( "enterFrame", obj ) -- local beganColor = settings.began\_color or {1,0,0,1} local endedColor = settings.end\_color or {1,1,1,1} if( type(beganColor) == "string" ) then beganColor = hexcolor(beganColor) end if( type(endedColor) == "string" ) then endedColor = hexcolor(endedColor) end -- Ensure we have a four-value color coded for i = 1, 4 do beganColor[i] = (beganColor[i] ~= nil) and beganColor[i] or 1 endedColor[i] = (endedColor[i] ~= nil) and endedColor[i] or 1 end -- function behavior.ll.touch( self, event ) if( event.phase == "began" ) then self:setFillColor(unpack(beganColor)) elseif( event.phase == "ended" ) then self:setFillColor(unpack(endedColor)) end return true end -- return behavior end return mod
The ‘take focus on touch’ behavior:
-- ============================================================= -- Copyright Roaming Gamer, LLC. 2008-2018 (All Rights Reserved) -- ============================================================= local mod = {} function mod.new( settings ) local behavior = {} behavior.ll = {} -- local listeners obj:event() ) ==\> ex: obj:addEventListener( "collision" ) behavior.gl = {} -- global listeners Runtime:event() ==\> ex: Runtime:addEventListener( "enterFrame", obj ) -- function behavior.ll.touch( self, event ) if( event.phase == "began" ) then behavior.\_isFocus = true display.getCurrentStage():setFocus( self, event.id ) elseif( behavior.\_isFocus ) then if( event.phase == "ended" ) then timer.performWithDelay( 1, function() behavior.\_isFocus = false display.getCurrentStage():setFocus( self, nil ) end ) end end return true end -- return behavior end return mod