[casual_games] 3rd party engines/frameworks

[Dennis Harrington]

Adam,
 
That's a very good point. If you're trying to create a truly mass-market
casual game that's playable on machines without any graphic acceleration
then Torque 2D is probably not the best choice.
 
Dennis
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Adam Johnston [mailto:adam at bamtang.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2006 9:41 PM
To: dennis at disposabledna.com; 'IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List'
Subject: RE: [casual_games] 3rd party engines/frameworks
 
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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