Tyler is an open-source (MIT license) toolkit for building tile-based console RPGs, similar to the early Final Fantasy games. It lets you build games that run in a Web browser, or that could be bundled into a mobile app. Games are designed to work great on touchscreen devices, but can also be played with keyboard and mouse.

Tyler's current status is "barely started" (or "vaporware" if you prefer).

Tyler is a compiler. You create a "game project" (a directory full of JSON and script files that define your characters, maps, items, etc.), and you use Tyler to compile your project into a Web-based game. Tyler also contains a runtime library with a map system, battle system, etc., which is automatically included into compiled games.

Most of this isn't working yet.

• Create a Web page that shows the name of the sample game
• ...uh, yeah, that's it.

I'm currently working on the logic behind the battle system, but there's not much to see yet (besides the tests).

First, see the above warnings about the current status. Don't expect much yet.

Tyler is written using Node.js. The source code is written in IcedCoffeeScript.

To play around with it, follow these steps:

• Install Node.js.
• Check out the Tyler repository.
• Open a command prompt in your checkout directory.
• npm install -- This will install Tyler's dependencies (IcedCoffeeScript, Mocha, etc).
• npm install -g jake -- Installs Jake, which is used to build Tyler and run its tests.
• jake -- Builds Tyler, runs the tests, and builds the sample game.

You can now open sample/www/index.html in a Web browser. Exciting!

Or you can hack on the code. Tests are in test/*.iced, the source code for the battle-system runtime library is in runtime/battle, the Eco template for the HTML page is in runtime/view, and the build logic behind the Jakefile is in build/ (for building the Tyler runtime library) and compiler/ (for compiling the sample game). A more complete introduction will be forthcoming once there's more to see.