How did this start?#
A BattleNetwork fan in his child-hood, James King started building a battle engine after playing the Chrono X fan game in the summer of 2019.
Originally contributing upstream to Pheelbert's project, James was given Pheelbert's blessing to continue on the project and it became something quite ambitious beyond the original scope.
Since then, James has been the primary programmer and project leader.
Who else is involved?#
Years have passed and the project exploded in growth and now has an active community with thousands of members.
There are many, very cool people who have phased in and out, contributing to the project as a whole. And some have continued to make a lasting, positive impact on the project to this day; they are .
For the full list of those very cool people, visit the credits.
Is this a full game?#
Not exactly.
This is a custom game engine but has many features implemented and could be described as a small MMO.
The engine can be used by anyone to create their own games for many platforms.
Can I copy the engine?#
James has a predilection for teaching others and enjoys helping people learn new things. His background as a comp. sci tutor is a testament to that. ONB is intended to be a fun experience where others can learn from and even help eachother.
Tip
While the code is open source and is technically free to all to use, copying the project with the intent to divide the community or publish the work as one's own is not ethical.
Follow the example set by James and Pheelbert by contributing back to upstream if you are improving upon the engine. Collaborate - don't aggravate. This helps make ONB a better experience for everyone.
If your work is truly derivative and indistinguishable, then give credit where credit is due in your project to James King and .
Show respect to those who paved the way for you.
Can ONB run on X?#
The engine is custom and so it could be built for proprietary devices like the switch. James builds primarily for Windows but wants to deploy for the web as well.
Deployment Targets#
- Windows
- Linux
- Android
- Raspberry pi
- iOS
What chips are there?#
Some people have already recreated content from the original games. Very cool people have created their own chips.
Will chips be rebalanced?#
Scripting will allow the community to tweak chips to be more PVP friendly.
Can I make my own X?#
The engine as it stands allows you to make your own navis, chips, enemies, bosses, tiles, overworld maps,
...really anything.
With scripting you can make your own content easier and share it with the world.
How do I script?#
The engine uses Lua 5.1+ to make mods. Visit Modding to learn how to start.
I want a real PET!#
This isn't a real question but we do too. There are some cool engineers in the ONB community who are collaborating to put the Client into a PET case in order to make the real thing.
How can we donate?#
James will not accept payments, donations, bribes, or blackmail.
For legal reasons this project is free and source code is available online at github.
Contributing directly to the engine with C++ code will be a thankless job. James will reject any contributed C++ code with monetary backing and will continue to refuse donations and work freely.
Who owns ONB?#
ONB's modding scene is community-oriented. Volunteers help manage aspects of the community.
is currently led by the primary coder James King. He will select the next leaders from volunteers.
ONB will continue to exist and thrive for as long as good people are willing to work together in order to make that happen.
When will ONB complete?#
ONB 2.5 already contains many long awaited features and more than originally estimated. This means 2.5 is prototypically the last version, with 3.0 having been polished and deploying to more devices as intended.
For a passion project at this scale, there is no realized "end date". If a date is determined, it will be announced.
TL;DR It will be out when it's out.