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Introducing the Properties Panel

In today’s devlog, we’re unveiling the Properties Panel, a core feature of the Pard Engine scene editor. This panel allows developers to inspect, edit, and manage the properties of any selected element in the Scene Inspector. You can tweak settings for Scenes, Layers, and Items all in one place.

Today, we’ll focus on Items and the components that make them up.

What Are Items?

In Pard Engine, Items are the fundamental building blocks of every scene. They represent in-world objects and are built from a flexible hierarchy of:

• Components

• Scripts

• Optional child Items

Components: Modular & Hierarchical

Components define an Item’s functional capabilities. Think of them as lightweight, reusable feature modules that can be combined to create anything from simple props to complex archetypes.

• Root Component: Every Item starts with a root component that defines its primary purpose. In the example above, it’s a Physics Character component, which provides a ready-to-use physics-driven character controller.

• Child Components: Additional functionality can be added hierarchically. For example, you can attach a Camera, Skinned Mesh, Audio Listener, or Audio Emitter as child components.

Example: The image above shows an animated character Item configured with:

• A Physics Character root for movement & collision

• A follow-camera component that tracks the character’s position

• An Audio Listener to hear environmental sounds

• An Audio Emitter to generate character-specific sounds like footsteps and voice

Scripts: Custom Logic Made Simple

Scripts in Pard Engine are lightweight, runtime-executable modules that attach to Items to add custom behavior. They’re designed to be:

• Modular & reusable

• Dynamically loaded/unloaded at runtime

• Cleanly decoupled from Item data structures

Currently, scripts can be written in C++ for native performance, with plans to support additional languages in the future. We’re already supporting several distinct script types tailored to specific gameplay and engine needs.

What’s Next?

In our next devlog, we’ll dive deep into Pard Engine’s scripting system. We’ll introduce Item Scripts and Service Scripts, explaining how they work, when to use them, and how they integrate with the component architecture.

Thank you for being part of the Pard Engine journey!

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We can’t wait to dive into the next devlog with you!