Game Develop : Free game development tool

[4ian]

Game Develop is a free game development tool allowing to create any kind of 2D games. No programming knowledge is required, as all the game logic is created using events, allowing to launch actions if some conditions are filled.  These events are compiled by Game Develop to machine code, as ordinary programming languages, making GD quite unique in the world of game development software.
Game Develop is based upon SFML, which is used as the main library for graphics and all multimedia related tasks.

Game Develop provides lots of features such as :
-Animated sprites
-Physics
-Dynamic lights
-Particles system
-3D box objects
-Text objects
-Support for joysticks
-Pathfinding
-Functions allowing to modify sprites during the game. ( Allowing map destruction for example )
-Support for multiple view inside a window
-Object allowing to draw directly shapes on screen.
-Ability to play sounds and music, and manipulate them.
-Networking
-Experimental C++ event since the latest version, allowing to add C++ code to events, even if these latter are powerful enough to create an entire game.

Theses features can be further enhanced with the extension system integrated to Game Develop. ( Thus, some features mentioned above are proposed as extensions directly supplied with the software. ).
Official extensions are open source ( You can download the Game Develop SDK to get the sources ) and some extensions created by external developers are also available like the Widgets extension based on SFGUI.

Moreover, the software is bundled with a help file, a step by step tutorial, some resources and a lot of examples.
You can see games created using Game Develop on this page : http://compilgames.net/jeuxEN.html

Game Develop can be freely downloaded on the official web site :
http://www.compilgames.net
The software is available on Windows and on Ubuntu 11.10 ( Some users reported it to be working on other Linux based distro too )
If you're using GD for the first time, take a look at the examples in the "Examples" directory.

Any feedback concerning the software is welcomed  

[Grimshaw]

Is this SFML ?

[Nexus]

Game Develop seems to be a huge project, I'm sure you've spent masses of time on it. Have you implemented everything (physics, particles, lights, pathfinding) on your own, or what other libraries do you use?

By the way, the link to your game Eternity Under Fire is broken. I've already played Bloody Zombies, it's very funny, but unfortunately "the application requested the runtime to terminate it in an unusual way" after some time...

DevilWithin, he wrote "Game Develop is based upon SFML", so yes

[4ian]

Yes, Game Develop uses SFML for graphics, sounds and everything related to multimedia. ( And games compiled with GD are so using mainly SFML. )  
The IDE user interface is based on wxWidgets.

Have you implemented everything (physics, particles, lights, pathfinding) on your own, or what other libraries do you use?

Particles are implemented using SPARK particle engine ( http://spark.developpez.com/index.php?page=home&lang=en ) and its OpenGL Renderer.
Physics is based on the well known Box2D library, and lights are based on the light manager which have been originally created by Gregouar for Holyspirit ( http://www.sfml-dev.org/forum-fr/viewtopic.php?t=400 ).

[Grimshaw]

Sorry, i absolutely overlooked the post

Your software is REALLY looking good! I like it very much !
The zombies game was really neat, actually looked as good as a coded game!

Funny that you use almost the same libraries i use

Please elaborate a bit more on the application history,how long did it take to make, major decisions, and a few curiosities!

Best of luck in distributing it to all kinds of people .

[4ian]

The first versions of GD were released in 2008. Features have been integrated over the different version : You can take a look at the version history in the help file for a quite comprehensive list of changes.
Notably the compilation of events to machine code was implemented in Game Develop 2. Events are internally translated to C++ and compiled using LLVM/Clang ( http://clang.llvm.org/ ). The latest version introduce C++ code events, so as to try to fill the gap between "game creation software" and "hardcore programmers", even if it remains quite experimental for now.
Compilation of events was a major decision to make as it took some time to implement it, but again, Game Develop is now may be the only game development software really compiling games to machine code. ( Moreover, as the events are for now compiled to C++, it could be extended later to target other platforms such as more web oriented technologies like HTML5/Javascript, if one day they prove to be able to handle "hardcore gamers" game. )

An article about game creation for newbies using Game Develop was also published in a French magazine some times ago.  

[Grimshaw]

Im pretty impressed!

I am making such a tool, but taking a different approach, I don't direct it at non-programmers at all.

It has an editor under development, but merely to create the initial state of the levels, then you can control its execution from C++ or Scripts.

I guess we can change impressions about this later, but I actually dropped my jaw when I saw some of your designs/decisions in making this tool!

I recommend to start training people to use it more intensively, once you get it on the road, you will get tons of support for sure!

[unranked86]

Well, this is something really nice and great project!

A few months ago I was looking for something like this, without any luck:(

I've tested it on Arch Linux, with wine (version 1.4-rc6). First when I tried to change the language to english it crashed. Other than that, seems to be working alright. Opening an example, and running it, works.

Then, I decided to give a try to the ubuntu version. Should anyone try to run it on Arch, you need libpng12, and libjpeg6. (they can be found in the archlinuxfr repo)

(Edit: Download the ubuntu package, and run:

Code: [Select]

$ lzma -d gdlinux.tar.lzma
You will get .tar file. Just extract it, and there you go.)

It starts, however it gives me this message:

Code: [Select]

Extension ./Extensions//Widgets.xgdle could not be loaded.
Contact the developer for more informations.

Detailed log:
./Extensions//Widgets.xgdle: undefined symbol: _ZNK12RuntimeScene8GetLayerESs
The file is there, so I don't know what's the problem...

Opening an example works, but when I try to run it, I get this:

Code: [Select]

Compilation of events failed, and scene cannot be previewed. Please report this problem to Game Develop's developer, joining this file:
/tmp/GDTemporaries/compilationErrors.txt

Contents of the file can be found here

Hope this helps you somehow.

edit2: It seems that this error has to do something with the libpthread. My glibc version is: 2.15-7

[4ian]

It starts, however it gives me this message:

Oops, I've forgotten to remove this file (Widgets.xgdle) from the Extensions directory.

Opening an example works, but when I try to run it, I get this:

Which version of Ubuntu are you using ?
Game Develop is embedding some of the standard headers so as to be sure that the code compiled from events is binary compatible with the extensions and the core engine of GD.
But some of these headers are referring to standard headers not include with GD and the one of your system seems to be incompatible.
( I've checked on my Ubuntu 11.10 system, the line 228 of pthread.h don't have the missing symbol __THROWNL but a slighty different symbol ).

I recommend to start training people to use it more intensively, once you get it on the road, you will get tons of support for sure!

I try to advertise about GD but it seems that a lot of people still prefer to stick with their traditional game making software, even if some of these software are often (far) more expensive and even not necessarily more powerful than GD.

[Grimshaw]

People want it easy, if you show a game being done really fast and without effort, people will start digging around

I think a video would help?

[4ian]

Some videos can be viewed here, even if they are pretty basic : http://www.youtube.com/user/FlorianRival/videos

I've added the last one few days ago :

[unranked86]

Which version of Ubuntu are you using ?

Like I said earlier, I'm using Arch Linux, and my glibc version is 2.15-7, which, I assume, is newer than the one GD is using.

[4ian]

I'm going to bundle more "include files" with GD in the next version so as ensure that all includes files used by GD are compatible.
Another user reported me that GD was working on his Arch Linux, but maybe the version he used is not the same or not up to date ( http://www.forum.compilgames.net/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=3425&p=33498#p33498 )

[4ian]

I've uploaded a fixed version of Game Develop: It should now contains all the files needed for games internal compilation instead of relying on the headers provided by the system.

You can download it here: http://www.compilgames.net/dl/gd2110682linuxpatched2.tar.lzma
Let me know if you are able to use Game Develop without errors with this version or if there are still some errors when trying to preview a scene.

[4ian]

I'm launching a crowdfunding campaign for Game Develop on Indiegogo!

The goals of this campaign are to:

* Bring GD to MacOS and improve Ubuntu support.
* Add an option to export HTML5 games created with GD to Android and iOS
* Accelerate the development of Game Develop!

If you never tried the software, Game Develop is a free and complete game creation software. It doesn't require any programming knowledge thanks to its innovative event system and its intuitive interface. GD can be used to create native games for Windows or Ubuntu or HTML5 games for the web! Many features are included like a physics engine, particles, engine for platformer games, pathfinding...
Game Develop relies on SFML for all the multimedia related task and the rendering of the native games.

You can visit the Indiegogo page here: http://igg.me/at/gdevelop/x/6586688
Download an test it on its official website: http://www.compilgames.net