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PopCap Games Releases Open Source Framework

Posted by Zonk on from the i-love-syndicate! dept.

2d is the new 3d writes "PopCap Games has Open Sourced the framework used to make their hit downloadable web games. From the press release: 'The PopCap Games Framework provides developers a quick and easy way to get their projects off the ground, allowing more time to be spent on game design instead of compatibility bugs and multimedia programming issues. For the first time, casual game developers will have access to a refined, reliable framework that has been tested in dozens of games played by millions of customers. ...The PopCap Games Framework is available now at developer.popcap.com. It currently supports Windows 98, ME, 2000, and XP operating systems."

50 comments

  1. Cynical by Aggrazel · · Score: 5, Informative

    The cynic in me wants to find "the catch", so I looked up the license agreement and its the shortest, easiest to read most legitimate license agreement I've seen for something like this.

    Basically you can do whatever you want with their toolset and even charge money for the games you make, as long as you say it was made with their toolset. They're up front in saying that while they would encourage you to publish your game through them, it isn't necesary.

    Hopefully we'll see some good independant games come from this.

    1. Re:Cynical by CableModemSniper · · Score: 1

      Sounds like the original BSD license in a sense (with the advertising clause).

      --
      Why not fork?
    2. Re:Cynical by supabeast! · · Score: 1, Funny

      The catch is pretty obvious - keeping budding game developers on Windows.

  2. OMFG! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    The engine for a Jewelbox knockoff?!? At last, Linux will be ready for the desktop!

    Errr, at least it will be as soon as this thing is ported to Linux...

  3. Good deal by kniLnamiJ-neB · · Score: 1

    I can't wait to get off work now so I can go home and investigate this further... and from the looks of it, they aren't requiring anything outrageous to use it either.

    --
    Windows isn't the answer... it's the question. NO is the answer!
  4. Huzzah! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yet another piece of software written only to work on Windows.

    In this day and age, there is no fraking excuse for such moronic single-platform development.

    Too many idiots.

    1. Re:Huzzah! by thundar2000 · · Score: 5, Informative


      Yeah, there is an excuse.

      Downloadable games are a business. There is no market for game on linux, or even the mac right now (this may change)

      So if you are running a business, and need to make money to keep said business alive, there is no reason to develop on anything else but Windows, and waste money on linux or mac.

      Sorry, the world would be better with more platforms, but in the PC game world, only one exists right now, the one the vast majority uses.

    2. Re:Huzzah! by meanfriend · · Score: 4, Insightful

      *There is no market for game on linux, or even the mac right now (this may change)*

      I dont know about that, there is definitely a market for Linux games. Cedega survives through a subscription model ($5/mnth) selling a compatibility layer that enables some Windows games to run on Linux. It's a niche product, but there are obviously people who want to play games on linux, and are even willing to fight through all sorts of technical issues to do it.

      The question isnt whether the market is there, but whether it's big enough to sustain a business. Could you develop a AAA title and survive only on Linux sales? No, not likely. Could you develop a cross-platform version (ie use OpenGL instead of DX) and have the Linux sales cover the porting costs and even turn a small profit? Quite possibly...

      Linux and Mac have something Windows doesnt; a captive audience. When you release a Windows game, you are competing with hundreds of releases a year. With the dearth of high quality commercial linux and mac games, you arent fighting for the attention of your market. If you release a high quality game (like NWN, for example), then anyone using that platform who is interested in that type of game is much more likely to buy it.

    3. Re:Huzzah! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      If you release a high quality game (like NWN, for example), then anyone using that platform who is interested in that type of game is much more likely to buy it.

      Do PopCap's games look like NWN?

    4. Re:Huzzah! by Tim_F · · Score: 1

      Except that Wine (Cedega) serves to insure that any Linux game (whether a port or one released natively) is competing directly against every other Windows game released.

      Wine is killing any chance for (native or ported) Linux games.

    5. Re:Huzzah! by DrJonesAC2 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      If it's open source (as in you can look at the source code) then why couldn't it be proted to Linux? Or are they just giving away a free IDE?

    6. Re:Huzzah! by American+AC+in+Paris · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Linux and Mac have something Windows doesnt; a captive audience.

      Bingo.

      For supporting evidence, I invite you to compare the PC and Mac top 25 weekly downloads sections at Download.com.

      Pay particular attention to the "Number of weeks on chart" statistic--nealy half of the titles for the Mac have been on the "top downloads" list for over two years, whereas nearly half of the titles for the PC have spent under three months on the list.

      The Mac is gaining ground in the gaming department, but there are still pretty hefty opportunities there. If you make a Pretty Good game for PC, odds are it'll disappear beneath Even Better games; with the Mac, you've got a lot better chance of getting some traction...

      --

      Obliteracy: Words with explosions

    7. Re:Huzzah! by joeljkp · · Score: 1

      "is killing"?

      Do you have evidence of a company considering a Linux port, but opting not to because of the existance of Wine?

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      WeRelate.org - wiki-based genealogy
    8. Re:Huzzah! by Tim_F · · Score: 1

      Do you have any evidence for the number of games being ported to/being released for Linux increasing despite Wine?

    9. Re:Huzzah! by dustman · · Score: 1

      Valve explicitly stated that they did not consider making Half-Life 2 for Linux, because of Wine.

    10. Re:Huzzah! by joeljkp · · Score: 1

      Source?

      --
      WeRelate.org - wiki-based genealogy
    11. Re:Huzzah! by snuf23 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "If you make a Pretty Good game for PC, odds are it'll disappear beneath Even Better games; with the Mac, you've got a lot better chance of getting some traction..."

      Wow! So if even if your games suck more than the top tier PC games, the Mac users will love it!
      Sounds like an excellent benefit to being a Mac gamer. You get to be all excited about less than stellar games everyone ignored on the PC platform since the PC had better games to play!

      --
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    12. Re:Huzzah! by Jonny_eh · · Score: 1

      Anything is possible, but what's the point? It probably heavily relies on directx, you might as well rewrite the thing. then again I haven't looked at it, so maybe it is worthwhile. Are there any other comparable kits available for Linux? I know there are 3d engines, but what about a simple 2D game framework?

    13. Re:Huzzah! by DavidLudwig · · Score: 1

      The point would be to encourage developers to port their games to Linux, BSD, OSX, etc. Writing a good game framework, even a 2d one, takes an awful lot of work. Take window management under the Windows API as an example. Publishing a downloadable game on the major shareware sites (Real.com, Yahoo, etc.) typically requires that the game's main window be full-screenable upon double clicking on the title bar, that desktop resolution changes not crash the game, that right clicking on the app's button in the taskbar and selecting Maximize will full screen the game without showing corrupted video memory. It's stuff like this, and there's a lot of it, that game developers try to avoid, especially when they're trying to make a living.

      Porting PopCap's framework would undoubtedly take a fair amount of engineering work, however their design and implementation do appear to abstract almost all of the platform-dependent calls from gameplay code. DirectDraw code is hidden away behind an abstract Image class, DirectSound code in a series of Sound* classes, etc. Still, this doesn't mean that porting would be an overnight task, at least not likely, but it gets things a good percentage of the way there, arguably less time than it would take to design and implement a stable framework from the ground up.

    14. Re:Huzzah! by DavidLudwig · · Score: 2, Informative

      Unfortunately, it is quite risky to develop and market a downloadable (under 15mb or so) Windows game using OpenGL, at least for the time being. A significant portion of the marketplace has computers that do not have working, hardware-accelerated OpenGL drivers. [1] They have decent enough video cards, ones that have reasonable OpenGL drivers written for them, however they haven't been installed. Furthermore, Windows Update does not seem to update one's OpenGL stack. This has caused a lot of downloadable developers to either use the better supported Direct3D API, or stick to software rendering (with DirectDraw, and more increasingly, with SDL.) [2]

      [1] Reflexive attempted to use hardware-accelerated OpenGL in their downloadable game, "Wik: Fable of Souls", however they switched over to full software rendering after encountering numerous driver issues. More information on this can be found in the game's postmortem, available at: http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20050214/hallam_ 02.shtml . More info on using OpenGL in downloadable games can also be found on the http://indiegamer.com/ message board.

      [2] PopCap's framework uses both Direct3D and DirectDraw-based software rendering.

    15. Re:Huzzah! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, Half-Life 2 runs on the Source engine.

    16. Re:Huzzah! by deanj · · Score: 1

      Wait a second.

      I like Linux and the Mac as much as the next guy, but they're just developing to the biggest market, and the biggest market that will actually PAY for the games.

      I'm not saying that some Linux users would pay, but I am saying that the number of Windows users in their market that will pay are significantly higher.

      The thing is, if people think there's a big market for Linux games like Popcap makes, they should create a website like Popcaps and try it out. For all I know, someone's done it already.

      Popcap's made their decision on this by doing this all via ActiveX though; they used to use Java, but since MS dropped their JVM (that's what Popcap said on their website), they only support ActiveX now. Damn shame.

    17. Re:Huzzah! by joeljkp · · Score: 1

      You've given no source for your statement, and I've looked around and asked elsewhere, and I can't seem to find the statement you're referring to.

      In fact, it seems quite unlikely that Valve ever seriously considered porting to Linux, since the basis of their engine is DirectX 9. I'd say it's more likely that they saw the Linux market as too small to justify writing an OpenGL rendering option.

      Wine may have added a small tidbit of justification in hindsight (Cedega wasn't a viable option until only very recently), but I doubt anything that made them change their mind.

      Of course, if you actually have a source stating that Wine was the major reasoning behind some decision to go Windows-only, please share.

      --
      WeRelate.org - wiki-based genealogy
  5. Good. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    May I be the first poster to say thanks to PopCap for their contribution.

  6. Shouldn't this work with OS X and/or Linux? by DLWormwood · · Score: 2, Informative

    Pop-Cap's web based games run just fine on OS X, or is this source for the "enhanced" engine that runs outside of a web browser? (Though, the Omni Group also made that engine work on OS X, as well...)

    --
    Those who complain about affect & effect on /. should be disemvoweled
    1. Re:Shouldn't this work with OS X and/or Linux? by FesterDaFelcher · · Score: 1

      I read it that the SDK only runs on Windows, not the games.

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      My user number is prime. Is yours?
    2. Re:Shouldn't this work with OS X and/or Linux? by DavidLeblond · · Score: 2, Informative

      Pop-Cap's web based games run fine under OS X? Go play the Bejeweled 2 and Insaniquarium web versions on OS X and get back to me after you find out how it install the ActiveX plugin they require to run.

      Virtual PC doesn't count, BTW.

    3. Re:Shouldn't this work with OS X and/or Linux? by DLWormwood · · Score: 1
      Go play the Bejeweled 2 and Insaniquarium web versions on OS X and get back to me after you find out how it install the ActiveX plugin they require to run.

      Well, that's unfortunate. I hadn't visited PopCap for a couple months, and all of the new games are ActiveX, instead of Java. A pity. I used to play Lucky Penny Poker alot, and I got Alchemy when I was a .Mac subscriber...

      Blast it... another candidate for MacInTouch's "Mac Marginalization" page!

      --
      Those who complain about affect & effect on /. should be disemvoweled
    4. Re:Shouldn't this work with OS X and/or Linux? by DavidLeblond · · Score: 1

      Yeah that Active X plugin pisses me off. I want my Insaniquarium dammit.

      But Bookworm still works with Mac OS X (even though the page says otherwise) so I'm ok.

    5. Re:Shouldn't this work with OS X and/or Linux? by GuruJ · · Score: 1

      You can also play the games using the Mozilla PopCap Loader plugin, although it is still, sadly, Windows-only.

      --
      -- Askari: Give JavaScript the bird.
    6. Re:Shouldn't this work with OS X and/or Linux? by Yer+Mom · · Score: 1
      In that case, as far as I'm concerned, they won't run under Windows either. Damned if I'm installing ActiveX controls from websites.

      (And anyway, my Mac Mini just shipped. w00t! :)

      --
      Never mind Spamassassin. When's Spammerassassin coming out?
    7. Re:Shouldn't this work with OS X and/or Linux? by mwvdlee · · Score: 1

      Perhaps that is the real purpose of releasing the engine; have some hackers convert the engine to Mac OS-X, Linux and everything else (Mac classic, PPC, Palm, Symbian, Java, etc).
      It would instantly give them a new audience.

      Either way, no matter how much some people will undoubtedly bad-mouth the license, it's always more than not releasing it at all. The benefit of all those OSS licenses is; if you don't like it, ignore the release and you're no worse off than without the product.

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    8. Re:Shouldn't this work with OS X and/or Linux? by DavidLeblond · · Score: 1

      Someone needs to download the framework and port it to something like SDL.

  7. What technology by Hard_Code · · Score: 1

    Java, Flash, ActiveX... ?

    --

    It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
    1. Re:What technology by kirkb · · Score: 1

      Exactly. I can't seem to find this info anywhere. What programming language/environment do I use?

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    2. Re:What technology by DavidLeblond · · Score: 2, Informative

      I believe someone else has posted that its VC++ (using DirectX)

    3. Re:What technology by deanj · · Score: 1

      It's ActiveX.

    4. Re:What technology by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's C++ using Visual Studio 6 or .net. It is NOT ActiveX. If you even bothered to download the code and read the documentation you'd have realized that.

  8. It's based on MS Visual C++ by kirkb · · Score: 5, Informative

    The docs specify that it's a C++ framework targeting VC++6 and VC++.NET. DirectX 6 is used for graphics, and the BASS library is used for music and sound.

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    1. Re:It's based on MS Visual C++ by Bobtree · · Score: 1

      so obviously now that it's Open, someone should port it to gcc/SDL/OpenGL.

  9. Hmm... by drinkypoo · · Score: 0

    For the first time, casual game developers will have access to a refined, reliable framework that has been tested in dozens of games played by millions of customers.

    So since it's not the framework, who is responsible for making popcap games do stupid shit like end your game right after you popped some huge cascade of gems or eggs or whatever it is you're blowing up, as the timer runs out in the middle of your action? They can't seem to make their games end as soon as the timer runs out, you have to watch this big cascade before you get shat upon.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  10. Re: charts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Wow. All of the top 50 for Windows have more downloads this week than the #1 for Mac, and it looks like PCs have about 8x the market of Mac.

    An example:
    Snood for PC (#2): 228 weeks, 20,729 this week, 2,575,891 total.
    Snood for Mac (#1): 88 weeks, 2,584 this week, 292,788 total.

    p.s. I have a Mac and a PC, so this is just an observation of facts.

  11. Where's the Java toolkit?!? by SilentJ_PDX · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Since PopCap got their start with a great bunch of Java games, I went to PopCap's site hoping for a Java toolkit. I was disappointed to see it's the Windows-only C toolkit.

    Hats off to PopCap for giving something to the budding game developers out there. The industry is so cutthroat (especially the segment that PopCap's in) that you don't see things like this often enough.

    1. Re:Where's the Java toolkit?!? by deanj · · Score: 1

      They said on the website (either in the FAQ or in the forums) that they're not using Java because of MS's decision to not ship their JVM anymore. I guess they don't want anyone having to download anything additional just to play their games (beyond the game itself, of course).

      Having to open your system to ActiveX controls that can sneak in via the browser is a pretty high price to pay just to play games.

  12. I Found the CATCH by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I found the catch. It's in their Framework License when you register. Particularly, pay attention to section 2 which says:

    ----
    2. The end-user documentation included with a work which contains any portion of the PopCap Games Framework must include the following acknowledgment:

    "This product includes portions of the PopCap Games Framework (http://developer.popcap.com/)."
    ----

    THEN Section 3 says:

    ----
    3. The names "PopCap" and "PopCap Games" must not be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without prior written permission. For written permission, please contact bizdev@popcap.com.
    ----

    So the catch here is that they basically get the right to veto your creation ever being published. #2 you have to state a phrase that contains the words "Popcap Games", but then section #3 says you are NOT allowed to use their name without permission. See the catch? That means that ALL games created with this framework have to be submitted to them at least for approval of use of the name. This means they can VETO the use of the name, making your game unpublishable without breaking their license!

    1. Re:I Found the CATCH by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Your mistaken,

      Section 2 is referring to "end-user documentation" whereas section 3 refers to "promotional material"

  13. Popcap by Mukaikubo · · Score: 2, Informative

    Man, I remember Popcap's really, really old days. Before there was such a thing as "Popcap". Two of the main programmers had formed Hoopy software, IIRC, which made a free top-down shooting online game named ARC. Fun times, and I've been nothing but gratified to see them become the Internet Puzzle Game Superstars.

    1. Re:Popcap by iammaxus · · Score: 1

      ARC (http://www.arc-hq.net/) was originally made by the Popcap guys? That's really awesome. That game was so fun back in the day as a quick pickup multiplayer game. Now it seems its last owner (Sierra) has abandoned it but of course, kept the source hostage.

    2. Re:Popcap by Mukaikubo · · Score: 1

      Actually, as of a month ago Sierra put it back up and allowed people to register to play and, shock, actually play. There was just a year+ long stretch where the servers were still running but new people couldn't sign up to play.