Rebel Engine now has automated nightly builds! Every night we now perform a full build of Rebel Editor for Windows, Mac and Linux, and we create a full build of both the release and debug versions of the Rebel Engine export templates for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iPhone and Web!
If you’ve ever wondered if that bug has been fixed yet, or if that feature has been added yet, checkout the latest nightly build. Not only does it provide you with a summary of all the changes that have been committed since the last release, you can click and download Rebel Editor for your operating system, along with all the export templates, and test it out.
Nightly builds provide a number of additional, new benefits:
- It confirms that all our builds work. Although we perform a broad set of tests every time a Pull Request is created, to save time, these tests are limited to a few, specific, individual builds. Nightly builds enable us to perform a full build of all the various options available. It helps confirm that the changes haven’t introduced unintended new bugs which were not picked up by the Pull Request tests.
- It automates the build process from start to finish. By automating the builds, we have also documented the build process. This ensures that anyone can create a build. It doesn’t rely on one person knowing what needs to be done. The nightly build automates and documents the entire build process across operating systems and between Rebel Editor and the Rebel Engine templates. Furthermore, it uses the Rebel Build Action, which itself automates and documents each individual build. The Rebel Build Action automates and documents the pre-requisites for the builds on each operating system. In addition it allows us to test the builds with different compilers; including cross-compiling.
- It allows ongoing community involvement in testing. By providing a build every night, anyone can test the incremental changes as they are introduced. No more waiting for a beta build or a release candidate before you can start testing and identifying new bugs, unexpected changes or regressions. We can now catch these problems early and fix them quickly. This ensures that when the stable versions of Rebel Engine and Rebel Editor are released, they perform as you expected. There should be no surprises, and no surge in bug reports.
- It improves the quality of the changes submitted. If contributors know that problems with their changes will impact the nightly release, they’re more likely to ensure that they test their changes thoroughly before submitting them. If problems with changes aren’t exposed immediately, some contributors (and they know who they are) may submit half-finished solutions with the idea of fixing them later.
- It increases the speed of fixes. Combining the previous two advantages, we see that, not only will changes introduce fewer problems, but, if a problem is introduced, it will be picked up quicker. Not only can the contributor fix the new problem sooner, it is easier for the contributor to fix the problem – while they can still remember what changes they made and why.
- It reduces the timeline for releasing your game. Although we don’t recommend using a nightly build for the release version of your game, nightly builds provide the opportunity for you to use a relatively stable nightly build for a beta version of your game. In this way you can beta test your game and Rebel Engine at the same time. This will allow you to significantly bring forward your release schedule. You no longer have to wait for the next release before you can even begin developing, never mind testing your next game.
The nightly builds do not yet include the Mono versions of Rebel Engine and the export templates. Let us know if this is important for you, but, hopefully, these will be included soon.
Try our latest nightly build today, and let us know what you think.