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GameDev Documentation Forums |
Copyright
©2000-2005 Benjamin
Marty Introduction
The Scrolling Game Development Kit ("GameDev") is a free open source tool for 2-D game development. It is designed for the Windows 9x/DirectX platform, and targeted at people spanning a range of skill levels. It can be used by the beginner to become familiar with the structure of computer games and to create complete games that don't require any coding. It also has applications for the experienced developer who perhaps simply wants to use the program to draw the graphics or define maps. And in the middle there's applications for creating a game and controlling it through scripting. GameDev features a graphics editor with smoothing and anti-aliased rotation abilities. The graphics editor is used to edit graphics for tiles and sprites. GameDev has a tile matching editor which allows you to define how tiles fit together, which makes drawing coherent maps much easier. The map editor has a built in maze generator which can create mazes based on tile matching definitions or on a single tile against the background. It supports scripting which allows you to customize how the map and graphics editors work, even without recompiling the program. Scripting can also be used at game runtime to control details of the gameplay. Paths can be defined in the map editor, and various types of sprites can be defined based on the graphics and the paths contained in the project. Animated tiles are also supported. There's much more than this to GameDev; for detailed information, see the documentation. Requirements: DirectX 5.0 or
later. Video card supporting mode 640x480 in 16-bit, 24-bit or 32-bit
color. Sound card supported by Windows Media Player
(GameDev uses DirectShow/ActiveMovie). The Scrolling Game Development
Kit has been verified to function under Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows
2000, Windows ME, Windows XP, and to some extent, Windows XP 64-bit.
NewsJanyary 21, 2007Scrolling Game Development Kit 2 Alpha Released. For anyone who may still be unaware, SGDK2 has been in the works for the past couple years, and I finally released an alpha (test) version of it yesterday. With SGDK2 being my primary project these days, don't expect too much news on this site any more. Head over to the Scrolling Game Development Kit 2 homepage. June 15, 2006
December 13, 2005Forums fixed. Pr0c returned from his trip and renewed the comdel.net domain. The forums are once again accessible via the comdel.net domain. December 8, 2005Forums unavailable. The comdel.net domain appears to have disappeared. This is where the forums are hosted. Until I determine what is going on I would encourage anyone wishing to discuss the current state of things to use the older forums at EZBoard. Hopefully this situation is temporary. Forum update: I discovered that the server is still running at its old IP address. I think the comdel.net domain name is just in the process of expiring. However, it appears that you can access the forums via http://gamedev.komdel.net/, strangely enough. That will be the temporary solution until we figure out what's going on and get it fixed, I guess. June 12, 2005Version 1.4.6 Released. A few minor bugs have collected over the past year or so that I figured would be worthwhile fixing since progress on GameDev 2.0 has been so slow with other things going on. So I'm releasing this version to keep up interest and support of the kit while I work on 2.0. This release is really just a few bug fixes, and me updating my email address wherever it occurred in the code and documentation. There's also a new function (kind of) available to save pictures from VB script, but fortunately I had planned for such an eventuality without having to change the COM interface. The DoCommand method on the ScriptHost object was finally put to good use. See What's New for details on everything was fixed. March 14, 2005New Forums. New forums are now being hosted at http://gamedev.comdel.net. The ad-free subscription to EZBoard is about to expire, and I think phpBB on a somewhat more dedicated server (to which I have FTP access) will serve us better. See the announcements section of the new forums for details. February 21, 2005Scripting Wizard 1.2.0.
The new version of the scripting wizard features a Radar wizard,
which helps you create a radar that shows the position of enemy
sprites as colored dots. Also included in the archive is a script
called EditorAssist.vbs, which will help you while using the full
screen map editor by displaying which layer is being edited, and
allowing you to easily cycle through the layers and toggle the
exclusive display of only the current layer without leaving the
editor. Get the new scripting wizard archive
here.
New Project. It's been quite
a while since there was any news to report, but the EZBoard forums
have been busy. If you're looking for the latest, you can always head
over to the forums to see what's new. The latest is a new game called
Haunted Childhood II. Read all about it in the Project Listing. This looks like it
could become the longest playing project yet if the author finishes
the 25-level full version. Even the 4 level demo is quite a challenge
and I haven't been able to play all the way through it in the time I've
had available so far.
200,000 Hits.
The hit counter on this page rolled over to 200,000 at about 11:00 am
this morning (Central time). (I refreshed at 11:20 and got 200,001.)
It doesn't mean a whole lot, but it's kinda cool to see that roll over.
SpriteLib GPL.
I received an email from Ari Feldman himself, whose name some of you
may recognize as the creator of the famous SpriteLib, a free collection
of graphics for use in games. It appears he has an updated version of
his library which is now released under the terms of an Open Source
license.
A link to
SpriteLib GPL has been added to the
download page.
Version 1.4.5 Released.
The new version fixes some minor bugs. You can see the details
in the Release Notes
and download the new package without VB runtime files or with VB runtime files (runtime files not recommended for Windows ME and
Windows XP or later). An updated scripting wizard is included in
both packages.
New Graphics Available.
From the creator of the forest graphics comes a completely
different library of graphics. This set it simple but clean
and complete. It's very bubbly and colorful as you can see
from the screenshot. The new
Super Happy Fun Land graphics (99 KB) can be downloaded
from the Downloads page. Be aware
that no project is included with this library, just graphics.
Version 1.4.4 Released.
The biggest two noteworthy changes are the improvement of error
handling, messages and validation and the inclusion of the current
version of the scripting wiard instead of one from two years ago.
(The scripting wizard was getting lots of new fixes and features
which many never saw because it didn't make it into the installer.)
For a complete list of what's new / fixed in 1.4.4, see What's New from GameDev's documentation.
Note that the download's page now lists (by default) the installer
without VB runtime files. I figured it was high time I
make that switch because I think the majority of people already have
VB runtime files installed now, and I think trying to install them
interferes with some people's success on later versions of Windows.
If you don't know whether or not you have VB runtime files, look for
the file MSVBVM60.dll in your windows system directory (System32 on
Windows XP and Windows 2000). And make
sure you have the ability to see system files turned on or you won't
see it. People Like GameDev, Google Says.
Try this. Go to Google and type in
Scrolling. Then hit "I'm feeling lucky". As of today you'll end up
right back here!
New Graphics Library.
Don't miss out on a great new graphics library from "Pax" (Jeff C). Jeff has developed some
great graphics specifically for the Scrolling Game Development Kit.
They are the best GameDev graphics yet and I look forward to whatever
future contributions Jeff may have to the project. Right now, the new
graphics library is available as part of a demo project listed in
the projects listing. But
the intent is for people to use the graphics in their own projects, so
please, make use of them (see the included readme for information and
license/distribution information).
Version 1.4.3 Released. Was this the proverbial "Last
Bug"? Only time will tell, but there was only one thing... OK
two things to fix in this update. One was removing Quartz.dll from
the main GameDev installation and the install packager. The other
was a typo on the Player Settings screen. In the process of updating
the install packager, I also upgraded it to use (and require) the
latest version of NSIS (version 2.0). This version has a fancy new
modern UI so all your GameDev project installers can look
extra-professional now. Of course it requires that you have NSIS
version 2.0, which hasn't officially been released yet, but the scripts
also work with the currently available "2.0 Release Candidate 2" of
NSIS. NOTE: If you have installed version 1.4.2 and are
experiencing errors concerning quartz.dll (if the installation
process had an error while trying to install that file and now you
can't use any GameDev project that uses multimedia clips) you should
know that installing version 1.4.2 will not fix the problem.
To fix the problem, you have to do one of 3 things:
Anyway, if you want the latest version
so you can use the latest Install Packager, or just want to read the
details of this release, visit the
download page or the Release
Notes page.
Version 1.4.2 Released. Just bug fixes were performed in
this release. Some issues with error handling, sprite motion,
and sprite solidity definition were dealt with. Get the latest from
the Downloads
page. For a complete list of changes see the What's New page from the online documentation.
Version 1.4.1 Released. Some minor improvements and bug fixes
were necessary and are available in the latest release, which
is currently available on the Downloads
page. For a complete list of changes see the What's New page from the online documentation.
New Scripting Wizard.
Version 1.1.0 of the scripting wizard makes it easy to record
sequences of moves to play back later. This can be a great way to make
demos and cut scenes or simply demonstrate how to play your game all
the way through. Similar code was used to generate the playback script for Rolly the Purple Ball, which plays Rolly all
the way through to the end. Now you too can easily generate these
scripts (if you didn't know about the old VBS method
of recording playback scripts). The new version also allows you
to load GDP files so you no longer have to export to XML before using
the scripting wizard. Thanks to my younger brother Seth for conceiving of the Record and
Playback idea for the scripting wizard and even handling most of the
implementation.
Two games published.
Ethereal Peace and Rolly the Purple Ball have been
published on Activision Value's 2003 Game Pack of the Year
CD. I received my complimentary copy today. Click on the image at
the right for more detailed scans of the packaging if you want to look
for it at your local software retailer.
Version 1.4.0 Released. The day has finally come. Version
1.4.0 of the Scrolling Game Development Kit has finally been released
and is currently available on the Downloads
page. For a complete list of changes see the What's New page from the online documentation.
New Projects Listing. A big thanks to aftermath for implementing a new project
listing system for me that supports user ratings and comments as well
as sorting capability, paging and more! Check it out at the new look
and features at the Projects
Listing. New pop-up-free forums. I want the
features of ezboard and the pop-up-free nature of the SourceForge
forums, how about you? But for this to happen we need at least 5 people
to go and speak up for the desire to have these forums created, or it
won't happen. So speak up here
and indicate your interest in having new Scrolling Game Development Kit
forums on GameHippo.com. Just add a reply to that message thread
saying something like "Count me in for Scrolling Game Development Kit
forums on GameHippo". If this works out, I will make the GameHippo
forum the primary forum (list it first under Forums and make it the
default target for the forums link). GameDev 1.4.0 Open for Comments.
All the features planned for version 1.4.0 are in, but before I even
think about releasing this, I'm inviting any final comments, questions
or suggestions about the new version to give you one final chance to
get your requests addressed in this latest version. Take a look at
the list of changes and
then make your voice heard by emailing me or posting in one of the
forums.
100,000 hits. Yesterday morning the
hit counter at the bottom of this page was less than 100 away from
hitting the
100,000 mark. This morning, it is at 100,089. So we've crossed the
100,000 hit mark on views of the GameDev homepage since its opening in
September of 2000. Some of you might be interested to take a look at
the old news page for a review of the
history that has led up to this point. Nederlandse Vertaling / Dutch
Translation. Are you interested in seeing GameDev translated into
Dutch? Voice your opinion in the
poll!
Ben je geintereseerd om gamdev in het nederlands te zien? Laat dan
wat van je horen in de
poll! New Graphics Library. There is
finally a significant collection of graphics that I have managed to
pull together from a few GameDev authors (myself included) to form
the
first real graphics library. Take your pick of tiles and sprites
and whatever from this archive of graphics to make your own project.
No more tedious graphic design if you just want to create a simple
quickie game!
The other new long awaited feature is a minor adjustment to the side-bar
navigaton menu. You'll now see that the discussion forum link allows
you to also directly jump to the forums you want.
Thanks to
Seth Marty for
feedback during alpha testing. Thanks to
David Royer for
recommending open source and SourceForge.net, and for help
with interpretation of the General Public License. Thanks to
Nathan Shores for
hand-drawn images of a wizard to scan and use for the sample game,
and for the narration in the sample game. Thanks to
Michael Miller for
contributing a set of castle graphics. Thanks to Kevin Gadd for suggesting NSIS
as the installer to be used for the EXE-Install-Packager (and for
suggesting the word "Engine" as the one externally creatable COM
object way back when). Thanks to
"TigerForce"
for finally pushing me in the right direction to
research and develop the packager, and for testing my solution.
Also thanks to the makers of NSIS for making this little
wonder, and making it GPL!
Thanks to Mark Ribau for performing some serious
script testing, reporting bugs in the scripting wizard, and providing
other helpful suggestions for GameDev enhancement.
Thanks to aftermath for designing and developing
the new project listing with paging, user comments, user ratings and
sorting features! Thanks to "Pax" (Jeff C) for his wonderful graphics
contributed to the project, first seen in the projects listing in
early 2004.
Title image created with The GIMP
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![[Graphics Lirary Screenshot]](Images/SHFL.png)
![[Graphics Lirary Screenshot]](http://gamedevprj.sf.net/Images/Forest.png)
