Popfly Game Creator
According to the [official blog] Popfly has added a new 2D game creation system to the website. I think I’ll need to check this out. =)
ARM Leads The Mobile Market Into Console-Quality 3D Gaming
Story by Farid - Friday 22nd February 2008, 07:07:30 AM
ARM expands its graphics stack with Mali-JSR297 software for graphics acceleration on a wide range of next-generation mobile devices
CAMBRIDGE, UK – Feb. 20, 2008 – ARM [(LSE:ARM)]; (Nasdaq:ARMHY)] today announced at the Game Developers’ Conference, San Francisco, Calif., the ARM® Mali-JSR297™ software for 3D graphics, the first product to enable developers of Java applications to take advantage of the latest hardware graphics features found in OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics processing units (GPUs), such as the ARM Mali200™ GPU. With the established Mali-JSR184 software (formerly Swerve Client), ARM is uniquely positioned to offer a complete software and hardware graphics stack and is one of the leading suppliers of middleware that enable 3D graphics to be used in Java games. Ericsson Mobile Platforms are the lead Partner for the Mali-JSR297 software, complementing the Mali200 GPU and ARM graphics middleware in the groundbreaking HSPA-enabled mobile platform, U500, bringing console class gaming to 2009 feature phones.
With the ARM Mali-JSR297 software, game developers now have complete control over the visual appearance of their games, enabling the creation of graphics displays on mobile phones that are similar to those seen on high-end gaming consoles and PCs. The Mali-JSR297 software demonstrates a leap in graphics quality that meets consumer demands for advanced-content entertainment on mobile phones.
“The expectations of the gaming community continue to increase, which is driving demand for device manufacturers to deliver the next wave of user experience in mobile gaming. The Mali-JSR297 software will provide game developers with the resources they need to bridge the graphics divide among various gaming platforms,” said Dr. Jon Peddie, president of Jon Peddie Research, a leading multimedia and graphics market research firm. “Historically, graphics quality on mobile phones has lagged in comparison to those displayed on a gaming console or computer screens. The software and hardware products that ARM is now offering mean that mobile graphics will now quickly approach the quality of a dedicated games device.”
In order for Java applications to make use of the graphics hardware, handset manufacturers require an efficient software engine that minimizes the number of calculations that Java games need to perform in order to display the graphics. The Mali-JSR297 software builds on ARM’s legacy in graphics solutions and eliminates the risk of integration issues. Furthermore, the new features in the Mali-JSR297 software reside beneath the gaming applications that users download to their phones and open up the full power of OpenGL ES 2.0, the API used in leading games consoles such as the Sony PlayStation 3 and which is supported by the Mali200 GPU. The ARM Mali-JSR297 software empowers developers with the artistic freedom to produce games with more personality, despite limited display size, which previously had not been possible for mobile Java applications.
“One of the biggest challenges facing game developers today is the lack of tools that allow programmers to capitalize on the most powerful graphics hardware in mobile phones,” said David Brittain, vice president of technology, Superscape. “ARM’s graphics portfolio provides optimal compatibility and enables us to speed time-to-market with the games we develop.”
“The majority of today’s mobile phones are using Java technology to enable additional applications and games to be downloaded to the phone after it is sold. ARM is committed to providing solutions for the gaming community that deliver dramatic improvements in the quality of graphics displayed on these applications,” said Gareth Vaughan, graphics product manager, ARM. “ARM’s support for the Java community and graphics ecosystem with products such as the Mali-JSR297 software enables game developers to harness new hardware capabilities, producing 3D graphics that are markedly superior in quality and performance.”
The Mali-JSR297 software is the latest addition to the Mali™ graphics stack, a fully integrated set of hardware and software IP that supports all the graphics standards a device manufacturer needs. ARM has further expanded this stack with the recent launch of the Mali-JSR226™, Mali-JSR287™ and Mali-SVG-t™ products for the 2D graphics market at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. Please visit http://www.arm.com/news/19869.html for more details.
Availability
The ARM Mali-JSR297 software will be released immediately following ratification of the JSR297 standard, with pre-release versions available from ARM in Q3 2008. For more information about the ARM graphics stack, please visit: http://www.arm.com/products/esd/multimediagraphics_home.html.
About ARM
ARM designs the technology that lies at the heart of advanced digital products, from wireless, networking and consumer entertainment solutions to imaging, automotive, security and storage devices. ARM’s comprehensive product offering includes 16/32-bit RISC microprocessors, data engines, graphics processors, digital libraries, embedded memories, peripherals, software and development tools, as well as analog functions and high-speed connectivity products. Combined with the company’s broad Partner community, they provide a total system solution that offers a fast, reliable path to market for leading electronics companies. More information on ARM is available at http://www.arm.com.
ENDS
ARM is a registered trademark of ARM Limited. Mali, Mali200, Mali55, Mali-JSR184, Mali-JSR226, Mali-JSR287, Mali-JSR297 and Mali-SVG-t are trademarks of ARM Limited. All other brands or product names are the property of their respective holders. “ARM” is used to represent ARM Holdings plc; its operating company ARM Limited; and the regional subsidiaries: ARM, Inc.; ARM KK; ARM Korea Ltd.; ARM Taiwan Limited; ARM France SAS; ARM Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.; ARM Belgium N.V.; AXYS Design Automation Inc.; ARM Germany GmbH; ARM Embedded Technologies Pvt. Ltd.; and ARM Norway, AS.
Microsoft Opens Game Development
Microsoft Corp. says it will make Xbox 360 video games developed by players available for download through the console’s online service.
Microsoft said Wednesday that the new games will double the size of the Xbox 360 game library, to 1,000 games. The new service is expected to launch by the end of the year.
To distribute a game on the Xbox Live service, game creators must use Microsoft’s XNA Game Studio software or be an XNA Creators Club member. Each game will be vetted for quality and appropriateness.
Microsoft also announced that game developers also will be able to build games for Microsoft’s Zune digital media players.
Havok Complete - Free!
San Francisco (February 20, 200 
– Havok™, the premier provider of interactive software and services to digital creators in the games and movie industries, today announced that the company will offer the PC version of its award-winning physics and animation software product – Havok Complete – for download free of charge.
Available for non-commercial use, Havok Complete for the PC will be freely downloadable in May 2008.
Havok’s core platform, Havok Complete combines the industry-leading Havok Physics engine and Havok Animation, the company’s premier character animation solution. Havok Complete is already the most popular solution in the cross-platform AAA games market, featuring technology used in over 200 games. By making Havok Complete for the PC freely downloadable, Havok will further build on its leading position by completely removing the barriers to entry for the large number of independent developers, academic institutions and enthusiasts in the PC space.
“Havok has an excellent revenue base generated by sales of our three products across multiple platforms and into multiple industries,” said David O’Meara, Managing Director at Havok. “This enables us to make an industry-changing move and opens up a much broader market for products such as Havok Behavior – and our new products Havok Cloth and Havok Destruction – that really come alive when adopted on top of our core platform, Havok Complete.”
Havok has entered into an agreement with Intel, Havok’s parent company, under which approved game developers on the PC platform can execute a commercial distribution license with Havok for free.
“Intel is very pleased to be sponsoring this direction in the PC market. This aligns well with our ongoing strategy of putting the best software tools in the hands of PC games developers,” said Renee J. James, Corporate Vice President and General Manager, Software and Solutions Group, Intel Corporation.
With the free PC download of Havok Complete, Havok enables broad non-commercial development use for artists and engineers around the world, which Havok believes will boost creative game development throughout the industry.
“This is fantastic news for commercial PC game developers as well as the independent game development community, who will really benefit from this move,” said Mark DeLoura, creator of the Game Programming Gems series. “It’s great to see a leading middleware company like Havok show such support for PC game developers by making its physics and animation system freely available.”
Havok’s overall focus remains cross-platform and Havok will continue commercial licensing of Havok Complete for other platforms and in other industries such as movies and serious gaming. This initiative does not apply to license fees that may be payable to Havok for console versions of Havok Complete or to applications developed for other purposes such as game engines for redistribution, other middleware, movies, training, military or industrial simulation.
Havok’s physics software is featured in over 200 AAA games available on stores shelves today. With well over 90 games currently in development to be released this year, use of Havok’s ubiquitous software is up 100% over last year at the same time. Best-selling titles featuring Havok physics include: Halo 3, Assassin’s Creed, Guitar Hero III, BioShock, World in Conflict, Half Life 2: The Orange Box, and Heavenly Sword. Havok’s software will also be featured in the highly-anticipated upcoming games Alan Wake, Indiana Jones, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and Starcraft II.
With a broad and deep range of tech partners including AMD, Intel, Nvidia, Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft as well as a host of world-class publishers and developers, Havok is well known industry-wide for its excellent customer service.
In addition to the PC software download, Havok also unveiled two new software products, Havok Cloth™ and Havok Destruction™ at this year’s Game Developers Conference. Havok Cloth and Destruction provide artists with dramatically increased control over interactive cloth and destructible objects within games. The company also announced several new features and enhancements across its award winning modular suite of run-time technology and artist tools.
Havok also celebrated a number of key entertainment and technology awards in 2007, including a National Academy of Television, Arts & Sciences Award, Game Developer Frontline Award, and a Develop Industry Excellence Award.
About Havok
Havok, an Intel company, was founded in Dublin, Ireland in 1998, and is the premier provider of interactive software and services for digital media creators in the games and movie industries. With world leading expertise in physics, animation and tools, Havok’s business is to turn our customers’ creative aspirations into technical realities. Havok’s modular suite of tools gives power to the creator, making sure that our clients can reach new standards of realism and interactivity, while mitigating the overall cost and risks associated with creating today’s leading video games and movies.
Havok works in partnership with the world’s best known game developers - including Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft and Pandemic Studios. Havok’s cross-platform, professionally supported technology is available for the PlayStation®2, PLAYSTATION®3, PSP™, Xbox™, Xbox360™, Wii™, GameCube™, and the PC. Havok’s combination of superior technology and dedication to delivering for our customers every time has led to our technology being used in more than 150 of the world’s best known game titles, including BioShock, Halo 3, MotorStorm, Stranglehold, Crackdown, Age of Empires III and Cars.
Havok products have been used to drive special effects in movies such as Poseidon, The Matrix, Troy, Kingdom of Heaven and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Havok has offices in Dublin, San Francisco, San Antonio, Calcutta, Munich, and Tokyo.
Havok.com, the Havok logo and the buzz-saw logo are trademarks of Havok.com Inc (or its licensors), in the United States and other countries. All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders.
Adobe takes aim at video game market
The firm that set the standard for digital photo editing intends to do the same for video game making with the Tuesday release of Adobe Director 11 upgraded multimedia software.
Director 11 made its public debut at the annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco and will begin an international roll-out in March.
The software is designed to make it simple for people to manipulate video and audio and create three-dimensional graphics for video games, virtual worlds, and even interactive store kiosks.
“It really is about digital literacy,” Adobe senior product manager Rick Jones told AFP.
“In the growing world of user-generated content, more and more people trying to take control of their video. We are giving those creators the same kind of tool Adobe Photoshop gave picture takers.”
Photoshop software became the premier tool for editing photographs after the California company released the first version in 1990.
Adobe Director is the descendent of multimedia software released 20 years ago and was last updated in 2004.
Director 11 is revamped to let programmers write code any language and customize video creations by simply “dragging and dropping” icons.
“Publishing is really a matter of one button click and away you go,” Adobe Director “evangelist” Allen Partridge told AFP.
“From greeting cards or wedding albums to corporate presentations or folks that want to make interactive media or go all the way deep into it and create video games.”
Ageia PhysX software engine gives video three-dimensional playback and lets characters or vehicles in games move realistically, a demonstration showed.
“In the gaming world, if you create a race car that careens off a wall it will look like the real world,” Jones said. “It’s an opportunity for people to take their games to the next level.”
Jones added that Adobe wants to make inroads with makers of serious games, those designed to improve health or for training or education.
Game makers can combine Director 11 with Adobe Flash software to craft online games.
“Director takes advantage of the vast group of Flash users that may not have development skills,” Jones said. “Entry-level users can create content of their choice and it is natively 3-D.”
The price of Director 11 will be 999 dollars (US), a drop from the previous generation. There will be a 99-dollar version for classroom use.
[Via Physorg]
MeezOpens Gaming Platform with 50+ Titles
With the success that Facebook found in opening up its API to developers, more and more platforms followed suit. Today Meez, a social network that blends avatars and casual games with a virtual world-style environment, announced the gold launch of its gaming service and the accompanying API. Over 50 third-party games have already been integrated, with more than 50 still in the pipes for later this quarter.
Games like Cake Mania, Jewel Quest, Virtual Villagers, Bloons, and Star Shine have found some success on their own in the broader Web, and it seems like Meez is hoping they’ll
bring along some of that audience while increasing the stickiness factor for Meez existing members. Since the API allows developers to integrate personal Meez into the game, the casual experience becomes personal.
Along with including the Meez in the games (see an example through Facebook here), developers can more communication to the game, emoting through the Meez to make a more social experience. Games can also be tied to the larger community and its virtual economy, making wins and losses more significant, or at least worth a virtual t-shirt or two, and relevant to status with badges and connected social profiles.
“Meez is giving game publishers access to some of the largest social networking communities on the Internet,” Sean Ryan, Meez CEO, said in a statement. “More importantly, we’re providing unique hooks into the social fabric of these communities, so that game publishers can form long-term, monetizable relationships with users, driving revenue through the Meez advertising engine and through virtual item commerce.”
[Via Virtual World News]
Futuremark’s next goal: PC Game Development
They’re the leading figure in PC benchmark programs, technology showcases and cutting edge demos. You’d be forgiven if you thought there was nothing else that Futuremark Corporation could do but amazingly there is, and today they’ve proudly announced just what that is. Say hello to the new Futuremark Games Studio!
Yes, you read that correctly - the developers of
3DMark, PCMark, mobile technology and numerous demos have taken a big step forward and entered the world of PC game making. Scary stuff in this day and age, but it’s not as if they’re complete newbies at the whole thing; after all, 3DMark has always been developed with the knowledge of where game technology is heading for, and they’ve been able to code for all kinds of different hardware configurations. Here’s the official word:
With its first game already in development, Futuremark Games Studio was created to produce original world class games
Espoo, Finland - January 29th, 2008 - Futuremark (www.futuremark.com) is proud to announce the formation of a group named the Futuremark Games Studio. For the past 10 years, Futuremark has been pushing the boundaries of PC 3D graphics performance with its 3DMark® series, which has become by far the world’s most popular benchmarking software. 3DMark series combine stunning 3D art with world class engines from Direct3D 6 up to Direct3D 10. “Futuremark Games Studio is committed to developing original IP games with the highest quality gameplay combined with our established track record of creating blow-your-socks-off visuals,” said Tero Sarkkinen, CEO of Futuremark Corporation. “For years, our fans have been asking us when will we start making games. Very soon they are going to get it - and then some!”
Over the past 10 years Futuremark’s team of brilliant artists and engineers have created remarkably beautiful demos and benchmarks for a variety of clients to show off the abilities of their platforms. Although the new studio will demonstrate its ability to seamlessly integrate the latest technologies into its engines, its mission is to build world class games that bring new and entertaining game play to gamers. This includes games and their engines that deliver stellar performance even on modest platforms right up to the most enthusiastic levels of performance hardware.
For more information about Futuremark Games Studios, please contact Tero Sarkkinen in Finland or Oliver Baltuch in California. Futuremark Games Studio personnel will also be attending GDC 2008 in San Francisco where they can be found at the Nordic Games Studios Pavillion.
Okay, so that’s all they’ve said and yes, I know we’re a Futuremark publication, but I can assure you - this is as much as we know too! We can have some fun in trying to guess what the first title is going to be though; over the years every 3DMark, bar one (3DMark2000) has offered a graphics test representing a first-person shooter game, and given the popularity of the genre, it’s a good bet that this is what FM’s first game might turn out to be.
Then again, they’ve also done a couple of adventure-style and racing tests too… anyway, the official site for the Futuremark Games Studio is here. Not much to look at yet!
Valve Software has unveiled Steamworks
Valve Software has unveiled Steamworks, a free suite of tools ranging from copy protection to social networking tools designed to simplify the development and publishing process for new videogames.
The software suite is available for all PC games released via retail and digital distribution platforms such as Steam. The included programs are the same as those used in Valve’s hit releases Half-Life 2 and The Orange Box, and include real-time statistics on sales, gameplay and product activation, anti-piracy encryption systems, version control, automatic updating, matchmaking functionality, development tools, and much more.
“As more developers and publishers have embraced Steam as a leading digital distribution channel, we’ve heard a growing number of inquiries regarding the availability of the platform’s services and tools,”said Valve Director of Business Development Jason Holtman. “Offering Steamworks is part of our ongoing efforts to support the needs of game developers and our publishing partners.”
Gabe Newell, president of Valve, added, “Developers and publishers are spending more and more time and money cobbling together all the tools and backend systems needed to build and launch a successful title in today’s market. Steamworks puts all those tools and systems together in one free package, liberating publishers and developers to concentrate on the game instead of the plumbing.”
Steam is one of the world’s foremost digital distribution platforms, currently offering over 250 games to a membership of more than 13 million. More information about the Steamworks suite is available at www.steamgames.com.
[Via Escapist Magazine]
World of Warcraft, Visual AddOn Studio
This demo from the Microsoft TechEd Europe keynote shows how to build Warcraft add-ons like one that can add Halo 3 sounds (like UT’s Multikill.. or Holy $HIT) or an RSS reader using AddOn Studio.
Basically, MS has added an add in to allow Visual Studio to create LUA projects. No more notepad!!!
Microsoft reveals XNA Game Studio 2.0
Microsoft reveals XNA Game Studio 2.0
Ed Fear August 13, 5:42pm
GAMEFEST: Xbox Live support to be available for both pro and amateur developers
In his keynote at Microsoft’s Gamefest event, XNA general manager Chris Satchell unveiled the latest version of XNA Game Studio - and announced a new strategy for the product.
Previously planned to be split into two packages - Game Studio Express for hobbyist users and Game Studio Professional for licenced Xbox 360 developers - Microsoft has decided to merge the two apps into one fully-featured package, XNA Game Studio 2.0, due to launch later this year.
Developers who wish to make Xbox Live Arcade titles and who are licenced XNA developers will have access to extra libraries that will plug into the Game Studio 2.0 software.
“We made the decision to make one Game Studio. We think everyone should have access to the same tool. There should be no friction as you move from accessible development to professional development,” said Satchell.
Most impressive of the new features in 2.0 is the ability for all developers making titles for 360 to gain access Xbox Live, complete with support for the matchmaking and voice-chat facilities that such access provides.
Alongside an increase in performance, version 2.0 will no longer be limited to the free Visual C# Express software and will instead work with every version of Visual Studio, enabling developers to use time-saving VS plug-ins with XNA.
The content pipeline will also be upgraded for version 2.0, with a focus on compressed resources, allowing users to minimise the download size of their games, something that’s vital for Xbox Live Arcade.
Also announced in the keynote was a partnership with Softimage and its free XSI Mod Tool, support for which is now integrated into the content pipeline.
