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PopCap Games Releases Open Source Framework
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."
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.
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.
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
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.
Slashdot: come for the pedantry, stay for the condescension.
I believe someone else has posted that its VC++ (using DirectX)
Your mistaken,
Section 2 is referring to "end-user documentation" whereas section 3 refers to "promotional material"
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]
_ 02.shtml . More info on using OpenGL in downloadable games can also be found on the http://indiegamer.com/ message board.
[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
[2] PopCap's framework uses both Direct3D and DirectDraw-based software rendering.
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.