Changelog

A list of notable changes to Pulp and PulpScript.

Since June 16, 2023

Runtime

• fixed: crashes in fin

Since July 18, 2022

Editor

• added: tiles within a room can be selected and shifted

Web Player

• added: screenshot button for capturing gameplay

Since May 5, 2022

Editor

• added: importing tiles from a png that follows the Playdate imagetable naming conventions now prefixes imported tiles with the imagetable name
• fixed: loss of transparency information when importing/exporting tiles

PulpScript

• added: calling store without an argument now immediately writes persistent storage to disk
• added: id function to get tile id by name or coords

Runtime

• fixed: wait timers not firing under certain conditions (again!)

Documentation

• added: changes to store function

Since March 4, 2022

Editor

• changed: downloaded pdx now contains a zipped copy of the game’s data.json (an additional safeguard against data loss, can be removed without affecting the game)
• changed: commented out toss in the finish handler of the default Untitled Pulp Game example code
• fixed: envelope sustain volume was miscalculated
• fixed: room becomes invisible when highlight tile is active
• fixed: deselect erase tool when not on player tile

Runtime

• changed: reduced overall volume to reduce clipping at max hardware volume
• changed: reduced noise volume to better match editor/web player
• fixed: wait timers disappearing before completing

PulpScript

• fixed: handling of trailing backslash in strings

Documentation

• added: Publishing a Pulp Game section
• updated: clarified event.ra (relative angle)

Web Player

• fixed: envelope sustain volume was miscalculated

Since March 1, 2022

Editor

• added: Player tiles now support transparency!
• fixed: prevent overlapping exit (except for perpendicular edge exits)

PulpScript

• added: done statement to return from an event handler or callback early
• updated: the w argument to say/ask/menu at is now measured in tiles not chars (this is only a breaking change if using half-width fonts)

Runtime

• added: menus can now be navigated with the crank

Web Player

• fixed: locked down incompatible JavaScript string concatenation in PulpScript

Since February 10, 2022

Editor

• fixed: newline parsing in formatted strings

PulpScript

• fixed: embedded tiles work in fin exit
• added: crop to x,y,w,h
• added: config.followOverflowTile, config.followCenterX, and config.followCenterY
• added: datetime.timestamp (seconds since midnight on January 1, 2000 UTC)
• updated: label now supports newlines and optional len and lines arguments
• added: crank dock and undock events

Runtime

• updated: optimized drawing for when the camera follows the Player
• fixed: room dirty logic when drawing to non-screen contexts
• fixed: dirty logic around windows and menus
• fixed: wait’s duration is parsed inline, not at the end of the frame

Web Player

• added: keyboard key to web player UI
• added: toggle crank docked state

Documentation

• updated: non-macOS shortcuts
• updated: documented PulpScript additions
• added: link to default Ace keyboard shortcuts
• added: note about emit’s impact on performance

Since January 28, 2022

Editor

• updated: window resize breakpoint
• fixed: volume slider alignment
• fixed: volume slider appearance in Firefox
• changed: bitsy link opens in a new window or tab
• fixed: alignment of Song mode center icons
• added: descriptive text to remaining layers in Room mode
• changed: wording of wall toggle icon tooltip
• fixed: AudioNode.disconnect errors after playing Noise channel in Song and Sound modes
• fixed: missing UI when certain nodes aren’t available
• fixed: missing UI after importing certain tiles

PulpScript

• fixed: parsing of negative numbers
• fixed: passing variables to once and loop
• added: datetime variable
• added: basic trig functions
• added: left and right pad string formatting

Runtime

• fixed: type in error message
• fixed: drawing now handles negative dimensions correctly

Web Player

• fixed: missing music
• changed: now simulates Lua’s number formatting

Documentation

• changed: improved readability on mobile devices
• updated: additional info about exit
• added: documented datetime variable
• added: documented basic trig functions
• added: documented left and right pad string formatting

Since January 10, 2022

Editor

• added: condensed mode for less wide displays
• fixed: incorrect mapping for backslash character in UI
• updated: indenting and block matching in PulpScript editor
• updated: prevent name collisions when importing a game from json
• fixed: simple says behavior containing embed syntax
• fixed: player icon in the connecting rooms menu was too large
• changed: deferred PulpScript syntax error reporting when clicking on docs
• fixed: dragging to draw or move something no longer drags the underlying HTML element in Firefox
• fixed: page disappearing when opening a scrollable menu in Firefox/Chrome
• fixed: command/control detection in Firefox
• fixed: prevent audio voice settings from getting into invalid state and fix those that have
• changed: undoable UI changes no longer set the data dirty flag
• changed: saving adjusts history dirty flags
• changed: constant editor internal variables are now actually constants
• changed: correct interleaving of editor and navigation elements including overlays and menus
• changed: compatibility alert overlay changed to dismissible banner
• added: link to Pulp category of developer forum
• added: link to help form

PulpScript

• fixed: frame returns the correct frame for 0fps tiles
• fixed: variables can include “frame” in their name

Runtime

• fixed: incorrectly calculating dirty rects for fill

Web Player

• fixed: shake
• fixed: return to editor keyboard shortcut in Firefox
• fixed: command/control detection in Firefox
• fixed: antialiasing when using non-integer values

Compiler

• removed: uncompressed flag for faster loading on device
• added: strip debug symbols flag for smaller pdx size

Documentation

• added: syntax for positionable versions of say and ask
• added: web player keyboard shortcuts for fullscreen and pause

Since December 3, 2021

Editor

• fixed: percussion lagging in Chrome on Windows
• added: room center to grid UI
• fixed: weird interaction between card overlay and disabled grid overlay
• fixed: Font mode clear and invert button titles
• added: keyboard shortcuts to change Voice in Song and Sound modes
• added: additional Tile transform options and keyboard shortcuts
• added: keyboard shortcuts to Font mode
• fixed: icon alignment issues
• added: highlight tile feature
• fixed: alert window scrolling the page
• added: constraints on tile name display widths throughout UI
• changed: context-based Tile buttons are disabled instead of hidden
• added: link to the Pulp category of Playdate Developer Forum
• changed: disabled Fill tool on Exits and Player layers in Room mode

PulpScript

• added: config.allowDismissRootMenu to allow dismissing a root menu with B
• added: support for page breaks \f in say dialog
• added: config.sayAdvanceDelay to insert a short delay before the player can advance text
• updated: say, ask, and fin are now positionable
• changed: the edge of the screen triggers bump event
• changed: frame can now be called without an argument or with dimensions to get the frame of the targeted tile

Web Player

• fixed: percussion lagging in Chrome on Windows

Documentation

• added: section and function anchors
• added: table of contents
• added: Song and Sound mode documentation
• updated: Pulp editor documentation

Since November 12, 2021

Editor

• fixed: room with same room id as the player tile id displaying as “player” in Script mode editor
• fixed: selecting text in an overlay and releasing the mouse outside the overlay window shouldn’t dismiss the overlay
• fixed: deleting the last instance of a search result and finding again would enter an interminable loop

PulpScript

• changed: number strings are no longer converted to number literals
• fixed: broken {embed:tileName} syntax
• fixed: escaped newline not recognized in strings

Runtime

• changed: correctly identifies room state when warning about failed emit
• fixed: incorrectly identifying the source of a coordinateless tell call in error reporting
• changed: swap now clears the tile play timer
• fixed: crash when calling fin from event handler called by emit
• added: warn when menu has 0 valid options
• changed: using goto in an “exit” event handler is now a fatal error (instead of a crash)
• changed: calling swap on a room is now a fatal error (instead of a crash)
• changed: prevent selecting empty spaces in menus
• changed: removed deferred dirty optimization (was causing dismissed windows to hang around for a noticeable extra frame)
• added: event.option is now available in a menu’s option callback (and not just the select event handler)
• fixed: {embed:tileName} lookup is now shared by all strings (so now you can compare and match event.option to identical strings that include embeds)
• fixed: wrong menu width when using half-width font
• fixed: label crash if maxChars argument is provided and the string was less than that value
• fixed: crash caused by calling fin in unanticipated event handlers
• fixed: fatal error when manually drawing tiles with fps set to 0

Web Player

• changed: Lua’s a or b syntax is transpiled using JavaScript’s ternary operator LuaTrue(a) ? a : b to ensure comparable behavior

Compiler

• fixed: cached pdx downloads (by adding timestamp to filename of all pdx downloads)
• updated: compiler to latest version

Since November 9, 2021

Editor

• updated: persistant storage locations in PulpScript docs
• fixed: menus with longer item names overlapping adjacent UI elements

PulpScript

• added: event.ax, event.ay, event.az, and event.orientation to access accelerometer data

Web Player

• added: accelerometer UI

Since November 5, 2021

Editor

• added: mute to global volume
• fixed: card overlay UI updates immediately when changing card room in Game mode
• changed: made bar divisions more pronounced in Notes palettes

Runtime

• changed: calling emit in the load event will warn that the room and tiles haven’t been loaded yet
• fixed: variable set to empty string was being set to 0 instead

Web Player

• added: press F key to enter fullscreen mode, ESC key to exit
• added: mute to global volume
• added: controller UI

Since October 12, 2021

Editor

• added: short explanation about tiles in the Player layer
• fixed: Download pdx now uses the correct room to generate the launcher card

PulpScript

• added: event.player (use tell event.player instead of tell "player")
• added: shake function
• added: invert function
• fixed: the increment/decrement operators no longer result in a parse error
• updated: draw now accepts a variable for its tile argument
• added: invalid event, sent to game object whenever the player performs an invalid action (current dismissing a top-level menu or selecting an undefined menu option)

Runtime

• changed: while loops now have a max iterations of 400
• updated: optimized runtime by minimizing unnecessary drawing, string allocations, and function calls
• updated: added additional event members to dump output
• changed: loop event is no longer emitted while say, ask, or menu window is on screen
• changed: select event now emitted after dismissing the ask window (otherwise any window displayed by the select event would be dismissed immediately)
• changed: ask menu now paginates 6 or more options
• added: event.option now available in select event
• changed: change event also emitted when a menu is initially displayed
• fixed: prevent selecting undefined ask options

Web Player

• added: pressing the space bar or clicking the screen pauses/resumes the game

Since October 5, 2021

Editor

• fixed: event menu listing comment ids when a script contains only comments and no event handlers
• fixed: overlap issues in search input field and events menu in Behavior pane
• fixed: only autocomplete exact matches
• fixed: Import button confirmation
• fixed: name function could be parsed from but not back into PulpScript
• added: Pulp audio runtime download
• added: Assets pane to Game mode
• fixed: keyboard focus in modal windows with no text inputs
• fixed: modal window + menu + esc key interaction
• fixed: documentation typos

Runtime

• fixed: emit could call the same event multiple times on the same tile

Since August 17, 2021

Editor

• added: play sound when interacting with a sprite or collecting an item without writing any PulpScript
• updated: improved PulpScript syntax error reporting
• updated: improved keyboard navigation of custom buttons and select menus
• fixed: all other inputs are disabled when modal window is visible
• added: copious Aria labels
• fixed: various icon alignment issues
• added: auto-complete for default event names and event and config properties
• updated: script editor now also restores cursor position when switching between scripts
• added: Events menu for quicker script editor navigation
• fixed: search error when Player object has no script

PulpScript

• added: name x,y/name tileId function
• added: config.follow to make the camera follow the player around the current room
• added: fill stringColorName at x,y,w,h function
• added: multiply and divide assignment operators
• added: floor, ceil, and round functions

Runtime

• added: cranking 180° advances/dismisses says text
• fixed: crank input now honors ignore
• fixed: loop event only called after a room has loaded
• added: independent PulpAudioRuntime to enable using Pulp songs and sounds in non-Pulp Lua games

Web Player

• fixed: event.ra returns correct change when crossing 0° counterclockwise

Since July 2, 2021

Editor

• added: this changelog!
• added: two new styles, the darker Perpetual and lighter White Collar
• added: a new type of exit that connects the entire edge of one room to the opposite edge of another
• added: search (Command+F to focus input, Tab or Up/Down arrow keys to change selected result, Return to go to select result, Command+G and Command+Shift+G to go to next or previous result)
• added: volume control (shares value with web player)
• fixed: clicking an icon in the Recent Used scripts list selects the script
• updated: Script mode editor resizes with window
• updated: card overlay more accurately reflects crop
• updated: Script editor remembers scroll position when switching back and forth between sources
• fixed: voice volume of short notes

PulpScript

• removed: sound ... priority ... form of sound ... (editor will update game next time opened and saved, runtime ignores existing priority)
• added: while loops
• added: change, select, and dismiss menu events
• added: event.option to change event

Runtime

• added: a new type of exit that connects the entire edge of one room with the opposite edge of another
• updated: Playdate compiler from 1.0 to 1.2
• fixed: play no longer plays the first frame twice
• fixed: math.random() is now manually seeded on hardware

Web Player

• fixed: missing sound when song plays a note on the same tick on an earlier channel
• fixed: arrow keys no longer scroll the page
• added: hold Shift when clicking Toss to toss storage without confirmation
• fixed: 0=="" is true in JavaScript but false in Lua (JavaScript now uses === to match Lua result)
• fixed: voice volume of short notes

Since March 26, 2021

Editor

• fixed: default fonts didn’t include new cursors used by ask and menu PulpScript
• fixed: tool-specific cursors
• changed: remove/replace unsupported characters from say calls
• added: icons to docs links
• changed: tile fps is capped at 20fps
• updated: increased line-height in Script mode editor
• fixed: couldn’t create new exits
• fixed: if an input value was clamped to its previous value it still displayed the pre-clamped value