Anyone knows of a tool like GameSalad for PC in which you don't have to write scripts or anything but just use the existing behaviors and events to create custom game logic?
Thanks
If you are looking for a cross platform game constructor you might want to try Flowlab, which runs in a web browser.
Construct from Scirra is a free, open-source, drag and drop, game engine. There is however talk of them making a paid version of Construct in the future.
I've only used Construct once, so I don't know that much about it, but i do know a lot about GameMaker.
As long as your not trying to do something complicated like a 3D or MMO game, (both of which GameMaker supports, but with major limitarions) I would recommend you use it, especially if your just starting out. GameMaker is one of the easiest if not the easiest programming language to learn. It also teaches good programming skills. As I mentioned before GameMaker uses drag and drop so you can easily transition from the D&D to the progeamming aspect of GameMaker.
As mentioned in the above posts RPG Maker is another popular tool , but it's limited to RPG games, and doesn't allow you to easily transition to an actual programming language. It's also very restrictive in what you can do.
When you feel like getting into some more advanced gaming engines, Blender is a great tool to use for creating 3D games. It can also be used to create 3D modules and has the ability to create animated movies.
I've never used PyGames before, but Python is a easy language to learn, and would probably be the best way to transition from a D&D program to a programming language.
*GameMaker can be extended in functionality with DLLs and Blender can be extended with Python.
So to summarize, GameMaker is a great tool for creating Games. RPG Maker and Construct are other possibilities, but from my view there not as good as GameMaker. when your ready to get out of Drag&Drop gaming engines Blender, PyGames, and GML(Game Maker Language - the advanced part of the GameMaker product) are all great resources.
PlayBits has an interface similar to GameSalad and makes games for Windows Phone 7, using your PC. Here's the link: http://www.playbits.com/?page_id=171
RPG maker here you can find it is a light weight game engine but if you are clever you can make really good apps
In terms of game development for iOS and Mobile development using the Windows platforms you might want to have a look at these two:
http://www.giderosmobile.com
and
http://www.stencyl.com/
Although I haven't, yet, used the Gideros solution, it's targeted specifically for Mobile platform development and has what looks to be a tidy UI with code folding and syntax coloring if you're comfortable with a traditional coding approach.
Stencyl is an interesting product, it sits beyond the capabilities of Gamesalad and uses a blocks metaphor for programming which works well.
Personally, I wouldn't use any tool that has a single platform for output, which is why I stopped using Gamemaker (I'm aware it now has a Macintosh client, but the quality of the application has been terrible and their player isn't much good either.)
If you're looking for GameSalad for Windows you might want to check out our HTML5 game engine Construct 2 which functions in a similar way.
It's also got an event based system with no programming required, and there's an extensive free edition available for you to try out as well.
You can use Yoyo Game's GameMaker:Studio also.
GameMaker is one such tool.
There is also The 3d Gamemaker, by the same people who make other rapid-game-development tools like DarkBasic.
Related
My company is planning to build a simulation tool for processing (beverage) and we're currently looking at a half-baked system written in Xojo. I had personally never heard of this language and would appreciate it if anyone could give a quick assessment.
We have no in-house Xojo competence at all and are of course reluctant to bring in a system that would require a big investment in know-how for just one system.
So, we're now looking at our options: Port it to a language we're good at (C# or Java) or continue development in Xojo while building internal skills for the language.
So, what are the big pro's and con's with Xojo?
Cheers
Xojo has been around since the late 1990s, then named RealBasic. Its strength lies in its ability to make native looking and behaving apps for many platforms, mainly OS X but also Win and even Linux. The dev community is fairly small, though. But the company managed to stay in business all this time and isn't looking to end it any time soon.
The language is fairly simple and easy to learn, using long known concepts (its design was based on Visual Basic).
Knowing Java, it should be easy to grasp the language. The bigger hurdle is probably getting familiar with its libary. Many things are much simpler to accomplish in Xojo vs Java, though.
Call me lazy, but that's what I like about Xojo. I also program ObjC in Xcode, but for those little tools that just need to work quickly, Xojo is superior for whipping out a program quickly that that has a decent UI and works on many platforms with little to no tweaks.
If you need x-platform support, give it a try, for sure. If you only need the app to run on a single platform, and if you have skills with other dev systems, I'd advise against starting out with Xojo, to avoid the risks you get when going with such a small company that's offering closed-source software.
In your particular case where you have already a half-working solution, I suggest you take a few days to familiarize yourself to get a feeling for it (you can use Xojo for free as long as you don't build standalone apps with it). It's overall fairly stable and I'm still using a 3-year old version most of the time to develop and build my apps. So, even if Xojo should go out of business suddenly, I'd not be too worried. As long as you stick with the simple functionality (e.g. not use unique features such as XojoScript), you can still convert the app to another language later, but there's also a fair chance you never have to.
If you are looking for someone to take a look at your Xojo project I'd recommend posting on the Xojo Find A Developer page at http://www.xojo.com/support/consultants.php where all Pro developers get it. The consultants that want to talk to you about it will then contact you. (Full disclosure: we, BKeeney Software, are on the list and would be happy to help you figure it all out).
I want to do my final year project on augmented reality geo-localization,
Please tell me, from where to start ?
what technology to learn ?
what are recruitments to development this kind of application ?
If you want to perform Geo-Localisation and use GPS, I wouldn't recommend using Unity. It's arbitrary coordinate system can be a bit confusing and difficult to make an app using GPS that's reliable enough.
For Augmented Reality, you can't use anything like Oculus Rift or Google Cardboard, because those are Virtual Reality headsets and have no way of allowing the user to see the real world. Augmented Reality peripherals are things like Microsoft Hololens or Google Glass, neither of which are commercially available but there are cheap knock offs that are. AR can also of course be used on any mobile device, since they all have a camera built-in and chips powerful enough to process all the tracking data.
As for making an actual app, the best thing you can do is have a go. Analyse your market, see where the gaps are. If you want to make an app for a specific OS that isn't cross-platform, I would recommend learning some Objbective-C (for iOS) or Java (for Android), if you don't know any already.
For cross-platform, I would say something like Xamarin would be useful for making an app on both the major OSes, it was recently made free by Microsoft and you can essentially make one app in C# that works across all devices.
For the Augmented Reality itself, there are frameworks out there that can be used for your purposes. Things like Kudan, Vuforia, Wikitude, etc. Some of them offer free versions of their software. You can use these to deal with all the tracking and projection side of things so you don't have to go about creating your own AR engine.
The best thing to do is probably to sit down for a few minutes, or hours, and think about what you're going to do. Figure out what you want the end result to look like, then work backwards and think about the best way to achieve that goal. Eventually you will arrive at the language and engine you want to use to make your life as easy as possible and then you can get started learning from tutorials online and getting your app out into the world.
you can check my tutorial about geo-based augmented reality solution on Android: https://www.netguru.co/blog/augmented-reality-mobile-android
I have presented there the basics and how to start with simple implementation.
Well a good starting point would be to ask yourself few questions:
What type of devices, you plan to work on(oculus rift, google cardboard, Microsoft Hololens, web etc)?
Augmented Reality is achievable in both Web-Context and Application-context. Which route do you want to go for?
Depending on these questions, if you choose to do a normal application based on a device, then depending on the device(Oculus Rift, Google Cardboard, Microsoft Hololens), you would need to grab their specific developer kits and learn how to develop apps using the documentation. For Oculus rift and Microsoft Hololens, you would need the respective Headsets inorder to make an app in that, but If it comes to google cardboard, all you need is you mobile phone with a good processing power.
There is another way to work on augmented reality applications, that is by doing a Web Application using some amazing javascript libraries like Awe.js, Three.js and JSARToolkit.
You can google about them and find out more.
One of the more accessible ways to learn Augmented reality is Project Tango.
Devices are around $500 last I checked and you can use a free version of Unity + Project Tango's free plugin:
https://developers.google.com/project-tango/
Which ever hardware you pick I'd recommend checking out Unity3D as it seems to be the platform of choice for AR/VR at the moment. There are other options... this just provides the most flexibility based on all of the platforms it supports.
Side note: I have no affiliation with Project Tango and am in fact working on another platform... but it isn't as accessible at the moment.
I wanted to start working on a simple game concept I have, just as a side project/hobby/learning experience.
Pygames or Pyglet came immediately to mind, but it looks like they aren't being actively developed. Or perhaps they are, but extreeemely slowly.
I want a high-level programming language, multi-OS support, 2D focus (or suitable for 2D stuff, anyway), and active development. What are my options?
I use Pygame and think it is a great option. The community is fairly active, I see a new or updated project posted about every other day on Pygame's homepage.
Another good option would be the Love2d framework, which you can find here: http://love2d.org/. Love2d uses the language Lua, which is a high level, beginner-friendly language like Python.
Pygame and Pyglet are indeed excellent choices. If the level of activity concerns you, just take a look at the Google Code page for Pyglet, seems it's fairly active to me.
If you prefer more actively developed engine (less documentation, but more up-to-date approaches), check out the Monacle Engine:
http://monoclepowered.org/
If want to get your hands dirty and take a more Do-It-Yourself approach, projects like
SDL, SFML and Allegro may provide a good foundation for a cross-platform 2D engine.
Another, more recent project that provides a very useful set of 2D primitives is the Clutter framework:
http://www.clutter-project.org/
Add a sound library like FMOD or BASS and physics engine like Box2D or Chipmunk and you may build pretty much everything.
The PopCap (a.k.a. SexyApp) engine was a popular choice in the past.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/popcapframework/
For real-world example, check out the acclaimed indie game World of Goo, which is using it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_Goo
If python API is preferred, there seems to be an effort to provide one here:
http://www.farbs.org/pycap.html
For something like this app http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=323242790&mt=8, what sort of game framework is needed? It's all 2D and I've read how popular Cocos is. The problem is I'm not a game programmer and there aren't any good Cocos tutorials out there. Would Cocos be able to create a game like the one linked above?
If someone uses CoreAnimation (Quartz 2D), do they have to create the physics from scratch?
I don't see any games with the Unity 3D logo on startup, which must display if you use the Indie license. What is the style of game Unity works best with?
For a beginner, should they start with Cocos or something such as Unity, which has lots of free resources (images, sounds, etc).
I'm no expert in iPhone development but have been studying it, and will try to chip in my 2 cents.
Yes, it seems that Cocos would be very suitable for what you are planning to do, and it would most definitely be able to make something like that Cartoon Wars. Plus it also gives you two choices of integrated physics engines to choose from. Streaming Colour's Owen Goss is developing a game using Cocos and vlogging the experience, he occasionally comments about physics-engine related issues http://www.streamingcolour.com/blog/ .
You can also pick CoreAnimation, but then you are on your own to do the physics. If I'm not mistaken, the NimbleBit http://www.nimblebit.com/ guys developed their games (Scoops, Moon Drop) directly in Quartz.
Unity, despite being a 3D engine, is also suitable for the job. Zombieville USA was developed using it (more details here http://www.thecareergamer.com/?p=513 ) and has a cutout animated feel that resembles the link you shared. I guess all those games that don't display the indie Unity logo simply were made using the full version. It seems that using Unity allowed them to develop Zombieville in a very small amount of time. Also, in Unity you are not stuck with Objective C and allowed to use C# as well.
Good luck!
Don't code it from scatch. Use Unity.
Depending on which version of Unity you buy you can exclude the Unity logo on startup.
http://unity3d.com/unity/licenses
Start with Unity. It's a solution that can target users of all levels since it supports very advanced enhancements.
My impression of the games I've seen with Unity is that they are slow to start. That's OK if there's a big game experience but not for something I want to play within a few seconds.
Based on my research, I've decided to use Cocos for simple 2D games. There are a lot of good postings in the forum, even though there are no explicit tutorials
I also asked a question a while back about 3D engines - Oolong vs SIO2, got some useful answers and when I get time will be trying SIO2, although that won't be until next year at this rate (non-gaming projects in the way and I'm going to walk with 2D before flying in 3D).
I am in the process of designing/building a cross-platform game engine in C++. I would like to use an game API that has 2D/3D graphics, input, networking, audio, etc. One API I found that meets many of these requirements except for Audio is Amaltheia. Can anyone suggest an API that meets all my requirements or one that meets most of the requirements that is better than Amaltheia.
You could look at SDL, it's a popular cross-platform multimedia library used in many games.
Also the Game Programming Wiki is a good source for lists of game programming libraries and engines
Lots of people are using SFML these days, which is a bit more up to date than SDL.
(Answer edited as SDL finally saw an update since I originally posted this! SFML is still a worthy choice, however.)
Allegro is very popular. There is also a big community site for it here.
In case you get tired of C++, there's also something simpler: BlitzBasic
http://www.blitzbasic.com/
Check out Unity Engine if your authoring is done in OSX
Ideaworks 3D has a great API that works on more systems than you could shake a stick at (including windows and linux), does networking, sound and 3d. It's a bit expensive though...