Game creation tools. New domain, same conversation.

Some gaming on the side.....

Yeap.  For the 2E and Plexers out there I am afraid I am between opportunities at the moment so am not using the tools on a daily basis.  In the meantime I have turned my hand to a second love of mine.

Making computer games.  

Some of you may know that I have written games in the past.  I remember demonstrating/hassling my colleagues way back when I was working in London as I was creating a game.  6 months of sweat (some tears) later...... I published a shoot em up (Galaxian style) in 1999 for my cousin who was 13 and totally chuffed when he realised that he could blow up his parents on Level 5 (Phase III).

I am pleased to say that some years later he turned out to be of sound character so killing his virtual parents never crossed contaminated his real word views. :-)

At the time I used a tool called "The Games Factory".  This was a IDE and engine rolled into one and it allowed you to create a game (at that time it targeted windows).  This tool has had a second version and updates ever since and has also been superseded by a tool called "Multimedia Fusion 2".

Nowadays, this tool can create games for Web, Android, iOS (iPad and iPhone) as well as XNA for windows devices.

I decide to blog a little about this as the concept of these types of tools is not too far removed from the ideals behind the 2E and Plex tools (technology insulation, templates, productivity) to name a few of the key features over raw coding.  I am currently using two additional tools from www.gamesalad.com and www.stencyl.com.  Both tools are aimed for lowering the threshold to get into games creation for your favourite devices.

The irony for me is the forums I take part in have the same debates that defenders of 2E and Plex have endured over the years.  i.e. 3GL coding versus 4GL code generation.  Numerous times I have had to draw the comparisons for this generation Y or whatever we are calling youth now.

In one camp is the (take Apple) XCode only guys who have hand crafted every element of the game engine and experience, whereas, on the other side are Stencylites or Saladers who believe in gameplay and quality graphics etc etc.

As always it depends on the project, timescale, developer capability and you guessed it, no one solution to fit all scenarios or game types, they all have there limits, learning curves and price point.

The grand daddy of 3d games in this space (hobby, Independent to Studio) is Unity but that also comes with a price tag to match.  Still all of these are cheaper than licensing a 3rd party engine like Unreal.

On the gaming side of my life at the moment I hit issues with game performance that require tuning, features that are not yet in the tools but on the roadmap and eagerly awaiting updates, 3GL vs 4GL debates within forums etc etc.    In a way a parallel universe to my professional life using 2E and Plex.

If any of you 2E and Plex guru's out there fancy doing something a little different you'd not do much better than the tools I have mentioned.  Unless you are a coder coder and therefore you can utilise some of the SDK's and chose your relevant physics engine for example :-)

Now I just need an excuse to integrate a Plex or 2E server application within a game and be the first person to integrate these technologies......

When the game I am building hits the stores I'll be sure to let you know.

Thanks for reading.
Lee.

Edit 1 - Fixed up a few typo's
Edit 2 - There is also another SDK of interest called CoronaSDK which bridges the gap between the 3GL approach and the 4GL approach.  It's effectively uses and intermediate language that then compiles and uses runtimes for the relevant devices, all packaged neatly and available to download from an app store near you.  Check it out www.coronalabs.com