Editorial - January 2011
The passing of another year always persuades us to reflect on what has gone by, and what we have achieved. In the world of TGC it amounts to numerous updates to products, a wealth of models and media, countless new plugins for DarkBASIC Professional, some great games from the users of FPSC and the various programming languages, giant leaps into the Netbook and mobile markets, and a whole lot more.
If we look back a whole decade for just a moment, there was a very exciting and pivotal moment for budding game creators everywhere. The games industry was exploding with 3D titles, getting bigger, better and more innovative with every release. DarkBASIC Professional opened the door to anyone who wanted to taste the excitement of joining that world, not just as a player but as a creator. 2011 looks set to recreate the dawn of a new era of development with AGK. Mobile devices, portable netbooks and high-powered PCs are already out there, and AGK will transform the complex world of multi-platform development into something that is achievable by anyone who wants to be part of it.
If you're still looking for a new year's resolution, why not pledge to make it your year for success? You can get started by joining NaGaCreMo, the details of which you'll find in this edition. You can reflect on the success of the Very Best of the Best in FPS Creator which you'll also find announced this month, along with Lee's tutorial on taming MeeGo development and much more. Enjoy the newsletter, and we wish you every success for 2011!
Until next time,
contents
(1) App Game Kit (2) DarkBASIC Pro (3) TGC Store (4) MP51 (5) Games (6) VBOTB (7) Lee's Blog (8) From the Forums (9) Winner
Free Your Apps With the App Game Kit
App Game Kit (AGK) primary aim is to take away the pain of cross-platform development and let you focus on what matters, your games! Using powerful and simple to learn commands like LoadImage, Sprite, and PlaySound, developers can quickly code their games and have them running on multiple devices in no time. Games can be made to scale to different screen sizes, so you'll be sure your game will work on any size of device.
Development of apps across different platforms is complex and time consuming. The Game Creators will be releasing the App Game Kit in early 2011 to provide a truly frictionless cross platform solution.
At launch AGK will support iOS, Samsung Bada, Windows and Symbian^3, allowing developers to deploy games instantly for the Apple App Store, Samsung Apps, Ovi Store and Intel's AppUp store.
Later in 2011 Phase 2 will see extra platforms added, including Android, Windows Mobile 7, Blackberry and MeeGo. No changes to the games will be required, just select a new platform and the games can be deployed to these devices.
The Game Creators' CEO, Lee Bamber said "AGK is a tool we needed at TGC, it's already saving us
time and money developing new apps. We're sure other developers will find it invaluable and it's also easy for hobbyist and indie developers to get started making games."
Main Features
- Write once, deploy everywhere architecture
- Powerful and easy to use commands
- Fast 2D game engine native to each platform
- Screen resolution independent
- Built-in physics for the best in game dynamics
- Input device agnostic
- Extensive on-line documentation
- Free to try
With AGK, you can test your game on multiple platforms...all at the same time! See how your game plays on your Netbook, Symbian phone, and your friend's iPhone alongside one another. The deployment methodology allows you to continually distribute your development version as and when you need it, to whichever device you choose, or all of them at once.
App Game Kit Chatter
AGK is finding it's way onto many developer and blogging sites, despite being announced just a month ago. You'll find it mentioned on Develop, Pocket Gamer and GameDev to name but a few.
To be the first to hear about 
TGC at Apps World
TGC attend the majority of the big conferences and events to ensure we are always up to date with the latest technological advances and ready to embed them in our products, often before the technology comes to market.
DarkBASIC Professional News
Start following Lee now to get the latest news about your favourite development tools as it happens.
Random Realms for Roguelike Fans
One unique feature of Random Realms is that with each new game, an entirely new host of creatures is generated. Animals, undead, golems, oozes, plant-creatures, and intelligent monsters, with many power combinations, are created for each game. All dungeon levels are randomly generated, and there are many types.
- Full Documentation Included
- Variable Game Length and Difficulty
- Set Perma-Death On or Off at Game Start
- Full Magic System
- Simple Controls and Interface
- Many Automatic Gameplay Features
- Online High Score Tracking
- Over 1 Million Possible Weapons!
- Over 10 Million Possible Monsters!
Box2D is receiving some additional features as requested by the community. The enhancements are already in place, and will be available in the next update. Existing users can get the update for free when it becomes available, via their Order History. New users will get the improved version on ordering.
Bug fixes and functional updates
The following bugs and coding updates have been implemented:
- Current scale was not applied to parameters to callbacks.
- Added command to get number of vertices on a polygon shape which was missing.
- Added some missing 'GetXXX' commands.
- Properly fixed help file file names for commands with an underscore.
- Added line number to error messages
What's new?
The following features have been added, and as you will see these add substantial capabilities to the command set:
- Attractors and Deflectors. These affect other entities in the scene by either attracting them towards a point, or deflecting them away. They can be switched on and off; the strength can be set; effective falloff can be linear, cubic or quadratic; inner and outer radius limits can be used to implement explosion effects; and finally raycasting allows static barriers to be taken account of.
- Added commands for altering a shape after it has been created, and some additional helper functions.
- Added the ability to store a piece of data with an object.
These new commands take the total to 310, and the abilities endless!
NaGaCreMo 2011 - Have you Signed Up?
by Jeremy Gardner
It's that time of year again! NaGaCreMo: interNational Game Creation Month was started back in 2008, and returns again to generate more applications than ever before. The goal is to motivate programmers of all skill levels to complete a programming project before January 31st, 2011. There are no monetary rewards, this event is purely about personal accomplishment and a great way to start the new year.
Any programming project is accepted as well as any language and game making tool, but there are a couple of guidelines:
[1]-If you're programming/making a game with anything besides a TGC product you won't be able to start a WIP thread, although you can still add the project to the NaGaCreMo thread.
[2]-Make sure you're programming something that will run on Windows.
[3]-You can use your own hand-crafted media (music, graphics, textures, anything) or royalty-free media. The choice is up to you, as long as you don't infringe any copyright.
There are already over 20 people signed up, all of whom have pledged the following:
I, ____________, pledge to complete a working game/game demo/general
project before January 31st, 2011
There are already a number of WIP threads appearing in the forums, including:
- Drive - A racing game by eminent
- Menu Maker - a self-explanatory entry by pictionaryjr
- Doodle Race - a computerised version of a paper-based racing game
Daniel Foreman's Tutorials
Daniel has a range of tutorials in video format to speed up your DarkBASIC Professional learning curve, and allow you more time to focus on your game. This month we're featuring his publication on building an art program from nothing, to a fully fledged program. Part 1 is featured here, the full tutorial can be found on Daniel's website.
Daniel has 3 full volumes of tutorials on DVD, available from the Amazon store. The DarkPRINCIPLES DVD Multidisk set is also now out on Amazon, saving you 20% on the whole collection.
You can buy the multidisk set directly and save 30% by using the exclusive discount code MWWC69T5 at the checkout.
Dark Game Studio Bonanza
Special offer while stocks last: Dark Game Studio, Dark Physics, Dark Lights, Dark AI and Extends for an incredibly low price of $49.99. Save over $170!
Creating your own PC games is now easier than ever with this special compilation of game making tools:
- DarkBASIC Professional
- DarkBASIC Classic
- DarkGDK
- Dark Edit
- DarkMATTER
- DarkVOICES
- DarkSHADER
Game Creator Store
- FPS Creator FREE
- Tree Magik
- Plant Life
- Cartography Shop
- Dark Physics
- Dark Lights
- Dark AI
- Extends
- Demo Games
- Physics Demos
Order Now
FPS Creator - DarkBASIC - 2000 Store Points
The Game Creator Store - Updates and New Additions
New Store Additions
Cowboy
This specifically themed character will make western-styled games easy to create. Alongside the numerous entities and segments already in the store along the same theme, you can mix and match the various items to make your game unique.
Shark
Tome
This medieval tome is an ideal pickup in your games for triggering scripts and features. It can also just add simple decor to your level due to the low poly count. The store has many low cost items such as this to make populating your game affordable and easy.
Desert Storm
Artist BeFun has created numerous items to create the Desert Storm War camp. There are 20 wall segments and intersections in various states of destruction to form your camp, allowing a huge scenario to be constructed with no chance of any particular section being repeated.
All of the above models are available to purchase and download through the inbuilt Game Creator Store in FPS Creator and DBPro, and also using the standalone store for other game-making tools.
Pick up free Store Points
The Game Creators have teamed up with the leading providers of virtual currency; perform a few simple tasks and top up your Store points. As well as being able to take up exciting offers and receiving potentially thousands of points, there are a host of other tasks to earn rewards. Watch a movie trailer, rate search results, answer questions, tag photos or choose from a host of activities that will ultimately earn you any of the high quality models and resources to make your game shine.
Open the Store, through FPS Creator, DBPro or the standalone version. Log in to your account and select the Buy Points option. Below the regular payment options you'll find links to gWallet, Offerpal, DoubleDing and TrialPay. You'll immediately find yourself in amongst the tasks and offers available, and can start earning immediately by watching a movie trailer or two!
Upload Your Assets to The Game Creator Store
Did you know you can sell your models, segments, music and sky boxes in the Game Creator Store? We already have dozens of artists selling their media, and we welcome anyone with the talent to provide our community with quality assets to do the same. If you are interested in becoming a store seller, please contact Janet, our Store Administrator directly.
Model Pack 52 - Viral Outbreak
New fully scripted and animated characters for FPS Creator X9, inspired by popular games
- Uses new "planar projected shadows" on all characters for enhanced realism
- Shader effects used to dynamically alter gameplay and appearance in real-time
- Requires "full shader effects" enabled within FPS Creator
The pack includes 15 characters, many of which have been inspired by characters from various games and films, and then had an extra layer of eye candy applied. From the glaring eyes of Grendel to the flickering motions of Twitcher, there is plenty of scope to put fear into your players from the darkness of every corner. You'll even have to expand your dungeons to fit in Medusa who stands two levels high!
Ragdoll physics add the ultimate layer of realism to the final throes of each enemy as they are defeated, including the fiery death of Medusa.
Using the Shadow Shader
Games at The Game Creators
The Game Creators have a number of games to download and enjoy, including titles from a number of independent developers. Over the past few months we've given you a look at each and every one, so to start the new year, here is the full list of all of the games available to buy and play now.
The game stars Leon the Chamelon who must eat his way through fruity, fiendish puzzles, licking fruit to change colour and choosing the right combinations of fruit to finish each level. Leon must also rescue his babies along the way. Click here for details.
Ongaku is a 2D rhythm action game infusing original music and stylized artwork. Progress through the fantasy kingdom of Melody, paint the worlds by popping paint bubbles in time to music. Click here for details.
Project Aftermath is an Arcade RTS game where you command up to four squads of soldiers in exciting battles in a retro-futuristic world. Equip your squads to suit your playing style, researching new items using the spoils of war; choosing from over 100 different weapons, armour, power-up augmentations and spell-like special attacks. Click here for details.
The Golden Buccaneers are in deep peril. Their ships are sunk, their territory lost and their chests contain barely enough gold to stave off a mutiny! Do you have what it takes to turn their fortunes around? Take command of your first ship and pillage your way into the Pirate Hall of Infamy, where your name can stand with the likes of Edward 'Blackbeard' Teach. Click here for details.
Experience great soccer game play in this enjoyable football game. You're at the heart of the action as you direct your players with the keyboard. Pass between team members and then shoot at goal to score! You can even add swerve to the ball as it leaves the foot of the player, bending it beyond the reach of the keeper. You can play out your own world cup fantasies with Goals! Click here for details.
Lost in a world of school paperwork is 'Mr Dork' your doodled stick man who needs help to escape the reams of homework sheets that are his prison. Mr Dork is very sensitive and has to avoid many dangers across 63 levels of play. You draw lines for him to walk and jump across so he can reach the rip in the paper where he can make his escape. Click here for details.
Clover: A Curious Tale is a new and enhanced version of the political platform puzzler. Rendered in hand-crafted watercolour, featuring a remastered piano score and laced with political themes, Clover: A Curious Tale sees players solve mysteries through both exploration and talking to a range of fully voice-acted characters. Click here for details.
Immerse yourself in this addictive puzzler that's all about strategically twisting and connecting mismatched dials to save precious droplitz. Just making a single junction is child's play; can you master the art of the combo or will you let your pipes runneth over? Be warned: losing too many droplitz can be hazardous to your ability to win. With four unique play modes, a variety of board sizes, and infinite replayability, Droplitz promises to drain all your time away. Click here for details.
The aim of the game is to help as many butterflies to freedom as possible. You achieve this by creating matches of four or more butterflies of the same colour. A great game for young kids. Click here for details.
KrissX is a captivating and relaxing mix of puzzle game and word game. Swap letters and decipher clues to solve a series of clever puzzles. Click here for details.
Mole Control! The ultimate test of brains and bravery! The people of Molar Creek have lived alongside the region's infamous exploding moles for hundreds of years but the night before the village's annual Mole Control competition and a mystery villain has set the exploding moles loose within the town itself. It's now down to you and local inventor Dr Kraft to find the moles and reclaim Molar Creek. Click here for details.
Over-the-top arcade soccer action! Bicycle kicks, headers, one-touch passes, slide-tackles, instant replays, it's all here. New enhancements include mouse controls, and a two-button 'Casual Mode' for more laid back gamers. An RPG-style leveling system is used for the multi-season Career Mode featuring 64 teams from around the world. Play co-op or solo as you lead your team all the way up to the Division 1 Championship Game! Click here for details.
Very Best of the Best - The Results
by Keith Caldwell
We've really seen FPSC grow in scope and ability over the course of 2010. Version 1.18 is shaping up to be quite the package, and a few Mods have added much needed abilities and stability to FPSCreator. The entries this year were all excellent, and really showed how much both FPSC and FPSC Developers have come. I'd like to give a big thumbs up and thanks to both the BOTB Developers as well as all of you out there who have supported them throughout the year! Again...without further ado; here is the Winner of the VBOTB: 2010
The following is a breakdown of the results; Judge's Results, followed by the Community Vote.
- Euthanasia - Wolf = 213 points.
- Alpha Project - Lewis = 213 points
- Deprivation: Direct Action - Wolf = 198 points
- Virus 2: The Breakout - Mark de Boer (mgarand) = 195 points
As you can see Alpha Project and Euthanasia tied. Deprivation: DA, though well done and well presented, played like many of the other "run and gun" shooters out there. Virus 2 was similar to many other shooters done with FPSC; however it had some newer elements, such as the compass and the voice-overs...which were very well done. It suffered from lack of Custom items, such as a custom HUD.
Wolf has to be given credit though; he chose to submit a second title into the BOTB (which I readily accepted), and in doing so he split up his Community Vote. Because a developer cannot combine his scores from multiple BOTB titles, he received a lower score overall. But we all know what Wolf is capable of, and I'm sure he'll be back to wow us (and perhaps take the title) next year...if his recent threads are any indicator!
All around, every one of the BOTB holders competing this year did an outstanding job; not only in showing what they could do...but also in showcasing how far FPSC has come as an Engine.
Community Vote and Final Scores
- Alpha Project - Lewis = 264.1 pts.
- Euthanasia - Wolf = 232.1 pts.
- Virus 2: The Breakout - Mark de Boer (mgarand) = 218.4 pts.
- Deprivation: Direct Action - Wolf = 204.4 pts.
With a 32 point lead, Alpha Project beats out Euthanasia for the Title of Very Best of the Best: 2010! Yet again, the community vote made all the difference this year!
Thanks again for all who voted, and all those who showed support; and a big thanks to TGC for supplying the generous prize of a $250 Voucher and 4,000 Store points!
With Bond's continuing work on Shaders and the new V.1.18 coming out shortly, as well as all the great media out there and continuing work on Engine Mods (such as Project Blue and RPG Mod), 2011 should be another exciting year for the Best of the Best...as well as the Very Best of the Best: 2011!
Lee Bamber's Blog of the Month - MeeGo In Dublin
Intel kindly invited TGC to the MeeGo conference in Dublin having appreciated the speed with which we ported our game 'Goals' to the MeeGo operating system. Your intrepid representitive, Lee, went along to show off Goals and learn more about MeeGo. Far from being a seasoned conference go-er, Lee found the message coming from the presentations quite different from the Windows centric fair he was used to. An emphasis on dealing with multiple platforms, about open sourcing projects to allow collaboration and re-enforcing the importance of an 'upstream' approach to development. Given that MeeGo is still a relatively early platform, the turnout for the event was overwhelming and there was no denying the momentum behind the technology.
Rather than expound on the merits of this emerging platform, we felt it much better to write a video tutorial on the subject of getting started with MeeGo so you can find out for yourself. We find the largest hurdle when investigating a new technology is the setup work. Once you are setup and configured, code will flow thick and fast, shaping your application around the idea and the technology in front of you. It's usually the first few days that stop you, sometimes faced with incomplete hardware, drivers, documentation, support materials and a myriad of other elements you need for effortless development. To conclude, here is a video which might smooth the road into the world of MeeGo should you choose to try this route:
From the Forums
This issue we highlight the section on Community Events, which you'll find in the thread.
From time to time, you will spot a community sponsored competition or event in the Forums. These are started and maintained by one or more Forum Members, and the prizes for each one usually come from the Community as well. Some of the more well-received Community Competitions in the past, have been: Screenshot Competitions, Level Design Competitions, Media Creation Competitions, etc.
Though TGC holds no liability to any of the Community Competitions, it will occasionally post about them in the Official TGC Newsletter. The TGC Newsletters (old and new) can be found here.
So who can start a Community Competition or Event? Well, any TGC Forum Member can do so; however there are some things to think about, before jumping in.
- Do you have a well laid-out plan for the Competition, from start to finish? Are you articulating it to the audience, from the moment you post it?
- If there are prizes, are they already lined up? Do you have them on-hand, or are you hoping the donors will come through in the end (not always a wise idea)?
- Do your prizes balance with all the work you are asking contestants to do (are they worth their time)?
- Do you have contingency plans, in case you don't get the turn-out you were hoping for? What if only one Member follows through?
- Do you have firm dates set, to which the Competition starts and ends? Are you prepared to give extensions? Should extensions be given?
- Is everything spelled out CLEARLY? There should be no doubt as to what is required, what can be accepted and what cannot.
- Creating a "competition" in the hopes that you can get developers/artists to create free media for you, rarely works and could result in your competition and any subsequent competitions you create being closed down.
- Do you have the time set aside to follow through with this? Nothing is worse for the Community, then a Competition Starter....who quits before it's over.
These are just a few things to think about, before starting up a Community Competition. A good competition takes time to prepare, administer and follow-through with. All this being said; if a Moderator feels like you aren't really prepared to administer a community competition, they can (and will) shut you down...via a thread lock.
3D Modeling Competition
3D Master
Poloflece Games: Cucumber. This is a simple, clean, low poly, with both model and texture available for viewing. Nice job.
3D Best Model
fancy music: Icecream cone. The model has lots of detail and is obviously quite involved. Unfortunately the texture wasn't included which excludes the model from being the 3D Master, but fancy music is to be congratulated for his modeling skills.
Seamless Hex Tile Generator
For anyone who wants to create a hex-based strategy game, creating seamless tiles can be a pain. This tool lets you specify a seamless image, and it creates a seamless hex tile that you can save.
2D Line of Sight
This code works well for tile based maps or rogue-like rpg text adventures. You simply pick one point of the map and then a second point of the map to see if there is anything blocking the view in between the two points.
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Monthly Newsletter Winner - $100 voucher up for grabs every month!
Cheers to a New Year and another chance for us to get it right.
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