Unity is Now Free!

Do you want to program games in 3D? There is no better (and easier!) program than Unity. The problem until now has been the $100 price tag. That has changed now, however, as the indie version of Unity is now free! There is still a more expensive "Pro" version, but the indie version is a great tool in its own right. You can read the press release here, or just go download Unity!

Virii - The Game

Every month a website called the Experimental Gameplay Project issues a challenge to create a game based on a theme in seven days or less. This month's theme is "numbers" and I decided that I would submit an entry. Here is some more information about the game as I posted on the Experimental Gameplay website:

Okay, I have an entry. As much as anything this was an opportunity to learn how to do Object Oriented Programming in Lua and also to actually finish a game for once (yes, I do have that awful habit of starting something and not completing it).

*Gameplay*
Computers, at the most basic level, run on a code of 1s and 0s, known as binary code. Several virii (aka viruses) have attacked your computer by changing some of these 1s and 0s into… 2s! Use the + and – keys to add or subtract from any number on your screen, but be warned: every time you change a number the virus will attempt to spread. Surround a virus with either all 1s or all 0s and it will be neutralized. Press ‘r’ on your keyboard to reset the puzzle.

*Download*
http://www.mediafire.com/file/fiw02gtml4n/virii.love
The game is made available as a love file and requires the LOVE “game engine” to run. You can download it at:
http://love2d.org/download

Love, Time Travel, and a Lost Garden

I've been tinkering around with LÖVE some more and I'm impressed by how easy it is to get a simple 2D game running. My problem now is that I don't know what game to make. As a kid I was always coming up with ideas for the latest and greatest game. Now that I can actually make them, I can't seem to recall any of these ideas. I think I'm going to make some sort of game where you manage planets and go out into space exploring new ones. Since this is mostly just for test purposes anyway I'm not to worried if the game play is sub par. In the meantime I'll be trying to think of game ideas (feel free to comment on this post if you have recommendations!). I'll try to post the completed game here when I'm finished.

On a similar note I just got Buried in Time running on my Ubunutu laptop using SheepShaver. For those who never played any of the games in the Journeyman Project trilogy, Buried in Time was the second instalment in the series. It's probably one of the best games I've ever played despite being over 10 years old. The focus is on solving puzzles and exploring new worlds (via time travel). If I ever make a major video game I think I'd like to make something in the same genre. Also, if I were reading this blog right now I'd probably go over to ebay and buy a copy. I've seen Buried in Time on there for as little as $0.99.

One last thing. I'm pretty sure I discovered the greatest blog ever last night: Lost Garden. It contains free graphics and tons of articles about making computer games. I highly recommend that you go check it out!

In Love?

I finished my last exam for the year yesterday and so today I was ready to get programming again. I had thought I would probably play around with pyglet for a while, but as I was exploring the various options I ran into something called LÖVE. From the LÖVE website:

What is LÖVE?

LÖVE is a 2D game engine in which games can be made by using Lua scripts. Actually, it's more like a framework or library, but "engine" sells much better. So we lie.

What makes LÖVE different?

LÖVE aims to be as easy to use as possible, but without the use of any graphical "game maker". It has been compared with PyGame, but for Lua, and (hopefully) with a better distribution scheme.

So I've spent the better part of the day in LÖVE and I must say its been a rather enjoyable experience. It seems to have some very nice libraries to get game development done very quickly and the tutorials on the website have been very useful. Go to http://love2d.org/ for more info and to download. While you're at it check out Geany as a great option for a Lua IDE.

Pythons

I just wanted to mention two interesting python libraries I have recently discovered:
1. Pyglet
This seems to be replacing pygame as the best choice for making games in python. It uses OpenGL instead of SDL, which means faster games!

2. Pymunk
A port of the Chipmunk 2d physics engine to python. A recent PyWeek contest was based on the use of Chipmunk in python games.

I haven't yet tried either of these myself, but they look very useful. I'll keep you posted.

uDevGames

My favourite game development community, http://www.idevgames.com/, is going to be running a contest. In the past they ran a competition known as uDevGames which was probably the biggest contest in the OS X development community. It's been a few years since it has run, but it's looking to make a strong return in the near future! Check out this thread for more info.

Jumping in Head First - Making Your Own Computer Games

In my last post I suggested that web design is the ideal way to get your feet wet in the ocean of computer programming. Some of you have been there and done that. Others just want to dive right into the world of game making. One of my favourite game creation tools is Game Maker. I love it because it is fairly simple to use if you are new to this type of thing. It has a drag and drop interface that doesn't require you to type a single line of code. Once you master that you can begin to use the advanced features including coding with the well documented GML (Game Maker Language).