Char Factory 0.5.1: macOS, Linux and jumps between tabs

macOS and Linux builds, a better simulator and shortcuts between sprites, animations and states.

Added

• macOS and Linux support, with downloads for both.
• Alt+G on a frame opens its sprite; Alt+G on a state opens its animation.
• Simulator: projectiles, throws, juggle points, screen edges and camera, air guard and many more controllers.

Changed

• Onion skin section is open, with an Enable box.

Fixed

• Animation preview in States was blank for animations with transparency.
• Several simulator fixes for hits, targets, helpers and knockdowns.

Full Changelog: v0.5.0...v0.5.1

Full Changelog: v0.5.0...v0.5.1

Char Factory 0.5.0: text size, French and Chinese

Text size, French and Chinese, and new animation tools.

Added

• Text size for the interface and the code (View › Text size).
• Interface in French and Simplified Chinese.
• README in Spanish, French, Portuguese and Chinese.
• Palettes: "Other palette" tab to copy colors from another palette or image.
• Onion skin button in the toolbar.
• Automatic boxes on all frames of an animation at once.
• New animation window, with the sprite group optional.

Changed

• Animations: frame split into "Current frame" and "Position".
• Opening a palette no longer replaces the current one.

Fixed

• Editor names no longer vanish from the toolbar on the Animations tab.
• Toolbar tools no longer disappear at 1366 px wide.

Full Changelog: v0.4.6...v0.5.0

Char Factory 0.4.6: frame slider in animations

Picking an animation frame no longer goes through the timeline.

Changed

• Animations: "Current frame" section at the top, with a slider to pick the frame without changing its time.

Full Changelog: v0.4.5...v0.4.6

Char Factory 0.4.5: simulator, ZSS and saving fixes

Fixes for the reported issues, a simulator that no longer hangs, ZSS that opens and saves as ZSS, and safer saving for old characters.

Added

• Simulator shows the advantage on hit and on guard, with blockstun and cancel windows.
• Zoom out for giant sprites, centered on the mouse.
• Timeline: arrow keys move between frames and the timing can be locked.
• Show or hide the right panel (Ctrl+Alt+N).
• ZSS loops run in the simulator.
• Updated for Ikemen GO 1.0.

Fixed

• The simulator no longer hangs on moves that loop through states in the same tick.
• Effects and helpers that never ended in the simulator now end.
• Clicking a frame on the timeline selects it without changing its time.
• ZSS files open, show and save as ZSS.
• Ikemen constants are no longer flagged as errors.
• Saving no longer damages Japanese text or SFF v1 palettes.
• Damaged or truncated sprites no longer break the editor or block saving.
• The command line shows short errors instead of a traceback.

Full Changelog: v0.4.0...v0.4.5

Char Factory 0.4.0: palette ideas and a video-style timeline

Palettes come as ideas to pick from (including light and dark clothes), the animation timeline works like a video editor, every controller has a parameter window, and Run uses what you edited without saving.

Added

• Run profiles (Debug › Run profiles, Ctrl+Shift+R): opponent, stage, AI, palette, life, power, rounds and time.
• charfactory run --profile NAME uses the profiles saved in the app.
• Run in MUGEN or Ikemen GO with the unsaved edits, without saving.
• Sprites: drag the sprite to align it (Shift locks the direction).
• Stage background in sprites and animations: simple stage, a MUGEN stage or a PNG.
• Timeline: drag a frame edge to change its time, Shift+drag to stretch the whole animation, drag a frame to reorder it, right-click for more.
• States: parameter window for every controller, with defaults, options and what each one does (Ctrl+Shift+Space).
• Parameter descriptions in Portuguese and Spanish, and the Ikemen GO parameters explained.
• Code: find bar with Ctrl+F (regex, replace); Ctrl+Shift+G goes to a statedef, command or animation.
• 12 palettes step by step: pick what changes, styles and intensity, then choose among the ideas.
• New palette styles: light and dark clothes, tones of one color, complementary, metals, nature and fighting game classics.
• Simulator: damage of the move, power gained and P2 life tick by tick.
• Import images: palette embedded in the image, recommended mode, scale and "fit to the character's height".
• Palettes: import a palette from an image (PNG, PCX, GIF, BMP).
• AI: tools for images, palettes and run profiles, quick actions and "Ask the AI to fix this move".

Fixed

• Simulator draws ticks several times faster and big zoomed or rotated sprites no longer vanish.
• A tick that fails to draw shows the error instead of stalling playback.
• The animation preview next to States no longer freezes the window.
• Importing or editing a very large image no longer freezes the program.
• Helper and Explod were shown as deprecated.
• Generating palettes keeps the old ones (moved to 13 and up) and the sprites that use them.
• Light and black clothes no longer stay the same in every generated palette.
• Cleaner side panels in animations, sprites, sounds and the simulator.

Char Factory 0.3.0: moves built by the AI

The AI assistant now builds whole moves, from one hit to a combo with a launcher and an air attack, and tunes them in the simulator; Ctrl+F searches only the open tab; and sprites come in through a new Import images window and a sheet slicer.

Added

• Import images window (Add image, Add several images, dropping images on the window and
  pasting), with a preview of how each image will look:
  group and first index; the colors from the character palette (1,1), from any palette in the
  SFF, from an own palette made from the image (one per image or one for the whole batch, up
  to N colors; an indexed image that fits keeps its palette) or as true colors (32-bit PNG,
  for images with more colors than a palette holds; MUGEN 1.1 and Ikemen); optional dithering;
  and the transparent background (automatic, alpha, top-left corner, index 0 of the image or a
  picked color), which always goes to index 0 of a new palette. A note warns when the colors
  change a lot in the chosen palette. Before, every image was remapped to palette 1,1.

• Import images: group and index from the file name
  (kfm_200-3.png), numbering in steps of 1 or 10, the axis by 9 anchors or exact X/Y (a yellow
  cross in the preview), Keep the indices and use the palette (swap) besides adapting the
  image, a reversed palette (last color as background), reusing an identical palette already in
  the SFF and choosing the number of the new one, Don't crop the image, and images equal to a
  sprite that already exists becoming a link to it (always, never or ask).

• Sprite editor, Palettes panel: All palettes in the SFF, besides the character palettes
  (1,x): the palette slider goes through every palette in the file.
  Picking one shows a sprite that uses it, the grid edits that exact palette (even when the SFF
  repeats the same number) and the text links to every sprite that uses it, or says none does.

• Palette editor: Color effects, in two lines: Turn one color into
  another (blue into red and so on; only the tones of that color change, skin, grays and the rest
  stay) and an Effect list (grayscale, invert, sepia, lighter, darker, more and less
  saturated, swapping or rotating the red, green and blue channels). They act on the selected
  colors or the whole palette, each one an Undo step.

• AI: build_move makes a whole move from a list of steps, without writing CNS. The agent
  says what each step does (strike, launcher, jump, air strike, air finisher, finisher, dash) and
  which animation it uses; the tool writes one statedef per step, each one chained only if the
  step before it hit, with enough hitstun for the next step, the launch, the jump after the
  opponent and the landing, plus the command and the [Statedef -1] entry. It then tunes launch
  height, jump strength and timing in the simulator until every hit connects, and says which
  step misses and why when one does. The jump is added on its own, and an animation with no
  attack box gets a copy with one. Calling it again with the same state changes the move.
  The move follows the character's own style, read from its other moves: its hit and guard
  sounds, its sparks (the Explod or Helper its normals create on a hit, with sparkno = -1) and
  its SuperPause. Every ground step closes in to the opponent, and in a step with several hits
  only the last one launches or knocks down.

• AI: guide topic style, what to do and what to avoid when writing moves by hand, measured on
  260 JUS-style characters: helpers instead of the Projectile controller, the character's own
  sparks and sounds, SuperPause without the engine's flash, the Explod and HitDef values most of
  them use, and effect angles, facing and scale (angles written facing right, since the engine
  mirrors them; facing by postype; varied sparks; uniform scale; the character's own scale
  factor). The projectiles and supers topics now teach the same.

• Ctrl+F searches the open tab: animations by number or name, sprites by group or
  group,item, sounds by group or group,number, statedefs by number or comment, commands by name
  or input, [Statedef -1] entries by the state they go to, and states in the simulator; the
  exact number comes first. In the code tabs, finding the text in the file is the last item of
  the list. Ctrl+H and the Definitions tab keep the text search.

Changed

• AI assistant: much shorter path to a move. The recipe sends the agent to build_move after one
  look at the animations, instead of reading the guide, other moves and dozens of animations
  first; the guide is no longer sent on every step (mugen_guide still has it); the editor note
  about what is on screen is used only when the user points at it; pictures already seen are not
  sent again (Gemini, OpenAI); Gemini thinks at the low level on each step (models without levels
  fall back on their own); and after eight read-only calls in a row the agent is reminded to act.

• Slice sprite sheet: the sheet fills the window, with zoom (wheel, buttons, Ctrl+0/Ctrl+9,
  zoom to the selected box) and panning (middle button or Space), and the boxes are edited right
  on it: drag one to move it, its handles to resize, the yellow cross to move the axis, drag on an
  empty spot to add one, Del removes, arrows nudge, and X/Y/W/H/axis fields for exact values,
  with Undo/Redo. The detection runs by itself at each setting (no more Show preview button),
  without discarding boxes edited by hand; Hide the background shows what will be cut, the
  background color can be picked on the sheet, and the settings are remembered.

• One Palette editor (Ctrl+Shift+P) replaces the advanced palette editor and the separate
  "12 palettes by color bands" window. A strip at the top shows the character in each of its
  palettes 1–12 (an empty slot is a + that leads to making it); below are the color grid, the
  preview with the character's poses and three tabs: Colors (the color tools), New palette
  (hue, saturation and brightness with the preview showing the result before saving) and
  12 palettes (color bands with locks, a scheme that generates palettes 2–12, and adjusting one
  band in one palette, applied at once). The sprite editor's Palettes panel opens it on the
  right tab.

• Palette editor: editing a color repaints the sprite at each color tried (Cancel puts it back),
  clicking the sprite selects its color in the grid and Blink the selected colors shows where
  they are (or where the chosen band is). The preview only lists sprites drawn with the character
  palette.

• Palette editor: Undo/Redo buttons and Ctrl+Z/Ctrl+Y inside the editor (it opens in its
  own window, which the main window's Ctrl+Z did not reach, so a tool like Grayscale could only be
  reverted by reloading from disk), and Back to how it was returns every palette to how it was
  when the editor opened. Each palette tool is its own undo step, also in the Palettes panel of
  the sprite editor.

• Simulator timeline: sounds, effects and screen events triggered by AnimElem = N,
  AnimElemTime(N) = M or !Time (with or without a triggerall) can be dragged to another tick,
  not only those with trigger1 = Time = N; a frame trigger stays a frame trigger. Dropping one in
  the hit pause says that it plays when the pause ends, and the tooltip of an event that cannot be
  dragged says why. The cursor is an open hand (closed while dragging) instead of the resize
  arrows.

• States: an Organize choice at the top of the state tree, also in View › State tree:
  Smart (grouped by what each state is) or Classic (every state by number). The old file-order list opens as
  Classic.

• Open characters: one button on the main bar with the current character (and how many others
  are open) and a menu to switch, open another or close, instead of tabs that shrank and cut the
  names when several were open.

• Palette editor: it always opens on the sprite on screen (the frame's sprite on the Animations
  page) with that sprite's default palette, whatever palette the panel had picked; a sprite with
  its own palette (like 3,0 of an effect) opens on that palette.

• 12 palettes: two new schemes. Themes gives each palette its own look (shadow, gold, ice,
  toxic, royal, fire, ocean, ghost, pastel, military, neon), tinting white and gray bands too, and
  the strip shows each name; Surprise draws color harmonies again on each click. The bands now
  take every sprite into account (colors used only after the first 120 sprites never changed).

• 12 palettes: choose which palettes to generate (from/to) and Only empty slots to keep the
  ones already made; with Also fix the .def, the buttons in [Palette Keymap] (when some
  palette could not be picked, like every button on palette 1) and pal.defaults (so the engine
  does not repeat palette 1 for the CPU or a mirror match) are set too, in the same undo step.

• Palette editor: a note at the top says when the .def keeps palettes from being picked in the
  game, with a Fix in the .def button. Back to how it was also puts the .def back.

• The .def is now part of Undo/Redo, like sprites and states.

• Cleaner palette icons: the painter's palette is drawn with curves, and the 12 palettes icon has
  room between the swatches.

• States, Smart view: a Helpers group gathers the states that helpers run (the stateno of
  each Helper and the states they change to), whatever their number; states the character also
  goes to stay with the character.

• Sprite editor, Palettes panel: picking a palette shows the sprite with it (it used to jump back
  to the sprite's palette), and a sprite with its own palette (like 3,0 of an effect) shows and
  edits that one, with a note when the character palettes do not change it.

Fixed

...

Char Factory 0.2.5: run in Ikemen GO

Characters now run in Ikemen GO as well as MUGEN: pick the engine in Options, or use Debug → Run in MUGEN / Run in Ikemen GO to test the same character in both.

Added

• Run in Ikemen GO: Debug → Run in MUGEN / Run in Ikemen GO, an Ikemen GO folder and an engine
  choice in Tools → Options (Automatic runs in the engine of the folder the character is in;
  outside one, ZSS characters go to Ikemen GO), and charfactory run --engine ikemen. Ikemen GO
  loads a character outside its chars/ by its full path, no copy needed; its console output
  (warnings about the character) and crash log show in the Engine output panel, and a Motif in
  save/config.ini that does not exist is reported before the match closes on it.

Fixed

• Command tester (test_command): the b button was read as back, and 6 6 / 4 4 did not
  count as a dash.
• Validator: ModifyExplod and AppendToClipboard take the parameters of Explod and
  DisplayToClipboard, as the MUGEN documentation says, instead of reporting each as unknown.

Char Factory 0.2.0: AI agents through MCP

AI agents arrive: Claude Code, Codex, Claude Desktop, Gemini CLI and Cursor can create and edit moves in the open character through MCP, and a built-in assistant does the same with an API key. See AI agents and MCP for the setup.

Added

• MCP server built into the editor: Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex, Gemini CLI, Cursor and other
  MCP clients can read and edit the open character (states, commands, animations, constants,
  sprites, simulator frame data), with every change undoable. Local only (127.0.0.1) and
  protected by a token; set up in AI → Connect an agent (MCP). Agents get a guide to how
  MUGEN works (physics, sides, HitDef, projectiles, throws, commands) so they can write any move,
  a one-call starting point for a new attack, animations with boxes fitted to each sprite, a
  contact sheet and names for every animation, the simulator's path (where the character goes and
  from which side a move hits), a test of which state an input reaches, the controller reference,
  and checks that refuse AIR boxes the parser would drop, inputs another move already uses and
  overwriting an existing move by accident. get_move shows a move's statedef, animations, input
  and the states that chain into it in one call; edit_state and edit_animation change single
  parameters, frames, timing or boxes in place instead of rewriting the whole block. State and
  animation lists are one line each with filters, and repeated problems come grouped, so a large
  character costs a fraction of the tokens.
• AI assistant panel (Ctrl+Shift+A) with the same tools, using an Anthropic, OpenAI or Google
  Gemini API key, or a local model through an OpenAI-compatible endpoint (Ollama, LM Studio,
  OpenRouter). API keys are stored in the Windows Credential Manager. Each message tells the model
  what you are looking at (the statedef under the cursor, the animation and frame, the sprite or
  the simulated state), and Claude runs with prompt caching and adaptive thinking. The panel shows
  each step in plain words (click one for what was sent and returned), images you can enlarge, what
  the AI changed at the end of each answer, and errors that say what to do, with Try again.
• charfactory mcp [char.def]: the MCP server over stdio, connected to the open window when its
  server is on; the executable accepts --mcp for the same.

Fixed

• A move made in the Move Wizard went to the end of [Statedef -1], where a normal attack on the
  same button took the input first and the move never came out; it now goes right before that
  entry. Its controllers are also numbered after the statedef instead of [State 0, …].
• The move transplant summary showed "comandos" untranslated in every language.
• The simulator's problem list showed internal Portuguese codes ("sem-acerto: …") before each
  message; it now shows only the translated message, and the codes in the JSON output are English
  (no-hit, below-ground, huge-effect, dark-halo, reversed-push).
• The Simulator page started a jumping attack entered from the ground at the top of a jump, so it
  missed there; it now starts on the ground, like the AI tools' simulation.

Download: Char-Factory-v0.2.0-windows.zip below. Extract it and open Char Factory.exe.

Full Changelog: v0.1.0...v0.2.0

v0.1.0

Full Changelog: https://github.com/eduardovbe/CharFactory/commits/v0.1.0