Slashdot Mirror
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
*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.
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?
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)
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
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.
"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!
Sometimes my arms bend back.
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.