Has Paper2D development stopped?

[jfaz48]

Hello! I am very interested in creating a 2D game in UE4 but my experiences with it early 2015 made it feel like everything I did was a workaround. I like C++, dislike Unity, and find Game Maker way too limiting. I also have a decent amount of experience in UE4 and just love the engine in general.

That said, I was looking at the Paper2D Trello and noticed that the last completed task was done in 4.8, well over a year ago, and that there's nothing "in progress". When I used Paper2D, it was missing plenty (and I know it still is). Issues such as the lack of skeletal sprite support, the weird/inconsistent collision, the orthographic camera being hard to work with (perspective camera is cool though), no anim notifies, no state machines (although I guess you can make your own, but it just doesn't feel right), no real tile system, etc. plague the engine's 2D capabilities.

Is the Trello just outdated? Or have there really been no additions to Paper2D since 4.8? Can we expect anything in the upcoming releases where Paper2D is concerned?

Thanks!

[KVogler]

From the looks of it, it seems that Michael Noland was/is maintaining that board.
But as far as I know, he is heavily involved with Paragon..
So yeah, I guess Paper 2D had to take the backseat in the priority bus...

[jfaz48]

From the looks of it, it seems that Michael Noland was/is maintaining that board.
But as far as I know, he is heavily involved with Paragon..
So yeah, I guess Paper 2D had to take the backseat in the priority bus...

Ahhh that's right, it was mainly Noland maintaining it, I didn't know he was heavily involved with Paragon. Guess that's it for now

[StefanHohnwald]

I hope that they'll start working on Paper2D again.
I'd soooooo love to have anim notifiers, state machines, etc for Paper2D... At least anim notifiers and state machines.

[Mr_SquarePeg]

I really want to see Paper2D get some love

[Demoneyejin]

I really want to see Paper2D get some love

You and me both !

[Roccinio]

I have given up hope, a long time ago...

But hey! You can create levels using a VR set, with the added bonus of getting a seizure while getting nothing done!

What more logical that forgetting about what started the whole gaming industry, to focus in worthless gimmicks just for the sake of marketing hype?

Up until this day i still cannot understand how a company this big, cannot afford to dedicate one person to continue support for Paper2D.

And if anyone responsible for this situation is reading this , let me tell you something.
Regardless if you are trying to be on the cutting edge of technology, please do not forget about your roots.

Even if you can push 6 trillion polys on screen for the next graphics ***** customer , 2D will still be No1 in the hearts of a lot of people. Inducing me! You cannot deny that 2D will still be here, long after most of the "trends" you now worship will be gone.

Just my 2 Cents.

Cheers.

[KVogler]

Even if you can push 6 trillion polys on screen for the next graphics ***** customer , 2D will still be No1 in the hearts of a lot of people. Inducing me! You cannot deny that 2D will still be here, long after most of the "trends" you now worship will be gone.

I agree with the overall stance in your post, but then again, one could argue that Unreal Engine is a 3D engine to begin with and Paper 2D is, from that perspective, a gimmick as well.
There are a lot of dedicated 2D engines out there. So i can understand why Epic does not put all too much focus on it.

But I totally agree on the too-much-VR part.
Personally I start considering exploring VR not before its so common that its available as a Brack Friday Bunduru

PS:

When you look at the normal roadmap, you will find that the entire "AI" category is backlogged.

https://trello.com/b/gHooNW9I/ue4-roadmap

So not only Paper 2D is suffering from neglect

[DEV_Ethan]

I have given up hope, a long time ago...

But hey! You can create levels using a VR set, with the added bonus of getting a seizure while getting nothing done!

What more logical that forgetting about what started the whole gaming industry, to focus in worthless gimmicks just for the sake of marketing hype?

Up until this day i still cannot understand how a company this big, cannot afford to dedicate one person to continue support for Paper2D.

And if anyone responsible for this situation is reading this , let me tell you something.
Regardless if you are trying to be on the cutting edge of technology, please do not forget about your roots.

Even if you can push 6 trillion polys on screen for the next graphics ***** customer , 2D will still be No1 in the hearts of a lot of people. Inducing me! You cannot deny that 2D will still be here, long after most of the "trends" you now worship will be gone.

Just my 2 Cents.

Cheers.

From what I've heard Unitys documentation team is larger than Epic combined, don't know how true this really is, but it makes you think...

[KVogler]

From what I've heard Unitys documentation team is larger than Epic combined, don't know how true this really is, but it makes you think...

Makes me think that the Unity team is probably less efficient.

[jfaz48]

I agree with the overall stance in your post, but then again, one could argue that Unreal Engine is a 3D engine to begin with and Paper 2D is, from that perspective, a gimmick as well.
There are a lot of dedicated 2D engines out there. So i can understand why Epic does not put all too much focus on it.

But I totally agree on the too-much-VR part.
Personally I start considering exploring VR not before its so common that its available as a Brack Friday Bunduru

PS:

When you look at the normal roadmap, you will find that the entire "AI" category is backlogged.

https://trello.com/b/gHooNW9I/ue4-roadmap

So not only Paper 2D is suffering from neglect

Wait how is Paper2D a gimmick? It's probably a gimmick in technical terms, but if you're going to argue that 2D development is gimmick, you can probably make the case that the entire engine is a gimmick as well lmao

Yes there are a lot of dedicated 2D engines out there, but there are also a lot of dedicated 3D engines out there as well. None of them have as much potential as Unreal (imo).

[KVogler]

Wait how is Paper2D a gimmick?

Roccinio was considering other engine components as gimmicks.

What more logical that forgetting about what started the whole gaming industry, to focus in worthless gimmicks just for the sake of marketing hype?

So all I was saying is, if those features are regarded as "gimmick" then paper2d would also qualify as such.
I would never call them that

[VictorBurgos]

I wish Paper2D didn't die... but now that I am more heavy in VR dev...I am noticing a trend... VR (Vive at least) problems all over that haven't been fixed yet, even though there have been fixes made by the community. Motion Controller replication??? Year later...

Anyway. I love 2D stuff, I had to use Unity for a school project because UE4's 2D engine wasn't up to snuff. TBH, Game Maker Studio 2 is your best bet for 2D dev work.

Mr Noland is way too busy with other projects.

[jfaz48]

Roccinio was considering other engine components as gimmicks.



So all I was saying is, if those features are regarded as "gimmick" then paper2d would also qualify as such.
I would never call them that

You don't consider VR editing a gimmick?

[KVogler]

You don't consider VR editing a gimmick?

Its in the subspace between gimmick and a fad