[casual_games] 3rd party engines/frameworks

[Adam Johnston]

I guess that the main comment that I would add to yours is that Torque 2D
(Game Builder) does need some fairly good 3D cards with up to date drivers
to run.
If your market includes older home computers, laptops etc. then you might
have trouble.  In these cases we stick with SDL, but otherwise we've enjoyed
working with T2D.
Good luck,
Adam

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De: casual_games-bounces at igda.org [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org] En
nombre de dennis at disposabledna.com
Enviado el: Viernes, 21 de Abril de 2006 06:25 p.m.
Para: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List
Asunto: Re: [casual_games] 3rd party engines/frameworks



Christian -

 

As I've stated on this list before, I use the Torque 2D engine for game
development and I'm extremely impressed with it. There are many very high
quality engines out there so I'm sure there are others that are as good (or
better) than Torque but it suits my needs and skill set perfectly and that's
why I chose it.


Regarding your questions as related to my experience with Torque:

 

"Is the development process radically different?" It's very different in
that you're using editors and visual tools in combination with code. In a
way, it's similiar to working in Flash but not quite that user friendly, of
course. You'll still spend most of your time looking at code except when
creating tile maps or laying out a level.

 

"Is it faster?" I can't even begin to tell you how much faster it is to make
games than if you were creating everything from scratch or even recycling
your own code. I can put together a simple prototype within a couple of
hours, usually much less. I was working on a very basic prototype this week
that took me about 30 minutes to build. Obviously, adding deeper gameplay
and polish will add dozens if not hundreds of hours to that but even for the
nitty gritty development tasks it's more efficient.

 

"Or are these tools really only good for prototyping?" Definitely not. The
engine is written in C++ and is extremely fast, plus, the physics and
collision system is much better than I could create myself resulting in a
much more "professional" feel.

 

"What kind of executables do they generate in size?" Of course it depends on
your game and the amount and quality of artwork and music/sound but in
general, hitting the 10-20MB download range that most casual games occupy
would be easy to achieve.

 

"Do additional libraries need to be installed as part of the final product?
Are these considerable in size?" Torque primarily uses OpenGL and also
DirectX and it uses OpenAL for audio so there are no additional downloads
necessary for the vast majority of users. Check out Fortune Tiles Gold. It
was made with Torque 2D. The demo is about 10MB and you can see for yourself
how it installs. Here's a link:
http://www.gamehouse.com/gamedetails/?game=fortunetil
<http://www.gamehouse.com/gamedetails/?game=fortunetil&AID=4060> &AID=4060

 

Here's a great resource for exploring game engines:
http://www.devmaster.net/engines/ These are primarily 3D engines but it's
still a great resource.

 

This is just my experience but let me know if you have any other questions
and I'd be happy to answer them.

 

Dennis


On Fri Apr 21 14:19 , 'Christian Belmont' <christian_belmont at hotmail.com>
sent:



Hello all.

 

This is my first post to the list, although I've been reading submissions
for a few weeks.

 

I was wondering if someone out there could relay any experiences with 3rd
party engines such as:

 

Torque 2D Game Builder and Engine - GarageGames

PopCap Framework

 

I come from a C++ background and am really interested in the types of
products that can be delivered from these tools. It should be evident that I
haven't researched them yet, but I thought I'd gather some initial opinions.


 

Is the development process radically different? Is it faster? Or are these
tools really only good for prototyping? What kind of executables do they
generate in size? Do additional libraries need to be installed as part of
the final product? Are these considerable in size?

 

Also, what other 3rd party engines/frameworks do developers feel are
relevant to casual game development?

 

Any comments will be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Christian


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