Dev Mode Functionality

Usagi provides a simple boolean that represents whether or not your game is running in dev mode (usagi dev) or release mode (usagi run or just the player running the executable): usagi.IS_DEV

When making games, it is so incredibly helpful to add dev mode functionality that makes developing your game easier. Dev mode-specific functionality could be things like:

• Jump between levels when you press a keyboard key
• Make the player invincible
• Show hitboxes
• Skip tedious stuff

All you have to do is:

if usagi.IS_DEV then
  gfx.text("HP: ", State.player.hp, 10, 10, gfx.COLOR_RED)
end

Here’s an example from one of my games where I use it to draw a hitbox, toggleable with 0:

-- _init
State.draw_debug = false

-- _update
if usagi.IS_DEV then
  if input.key_pressed(input.KEY_0) then
    State.draw_debug = not State.draw_debug
  end
end

-- _draw
if usagi.IS_DEV then
  if State.draw_debug then
    gfx.circ(e.x, e.y, e.r, Color.RED)
  end
end

📺 Watch a video tutorial I made on this topic!