After redoing the entity list I still wanted to improve handling game objects more.

Turned cameras into regular game Entities. They now use the safe handle-based referencing system to bind to other entities that they should “follow”. Also I can setup cameras easily in the editor without extra effort.

HUD overlays are now entities too. They link to the player via an Entity ID, get ammo & health info easily. No explicit wiring in main game code. Player dies – no problem.

The amount of code I was able to remove from the main game loop was quite substantial. I guess I should try to do more things like that. The original Devastro had a system of triggers also implemented as game entities. I used them for setting up conditions for victory – for example, there was a level where the player had to protect a herd of sheep.

This was setup completely in the editor by wiring the triggers for “alive” for each sheep into an “AND” node and wiring that into the “WIN” node. Pretty neat, now that I remember it… maybe I’ll use that approach again.