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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."

4 of 50 comments (clear)

  1. 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?

  2. 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

  3. 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.

  4. 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.