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Programming Technology Entertainment Games

PopCap Games Releases Open Source Framework 50

Posted by Zonk from the i-love-syndicate! dept.
2d is the new 3d writes "PopCap Games has Open Sourced the framework used to make their hit downloadable web games. From the press release: 'The PopCap Games Framework provides developers a quick and easy way to get their projects off the ground, allowing more time to be spent on game design instead of compatibility bugs and multimedia programming issues. For the first time, casual game developers will have access to a refined, reliable framework that has been tested in dozens of games played by millions of customers. ...The PopCap Games Framework is available now at developer.popcap.com. It currently supports Windows 98, ME, 2000, and XP operating systems."
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PopCap Games Releases Open Source Framework More

PopCap Games Releases Open Source Framework

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  • Cynical (Score:5, Informative)

    by Aggrazel ( 13616 ) <aggrazel@gmail.com> on Monday March 07, 2005 @02:31PM (#11868309) Journal
    The cynic in me wants to find "the catch", so I looked up the license agreement and its the shortest, easiest to read most legitimate license agreement I've seen for something like this.

    Basically you can do whatever you want with their toolset and even charge money for the games you make, as long as you say it was made with their toolset. They're up front in saying that while they would encourage you to publish your game through them, it isn't necesary.

    Hopefully we'll see some good independant games come from this.
  • I can't wait to get off work now so I can go home and investigate this further... and from the looks of it, they aren't requiring anything outrageous to use it either.

  • Good. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    May I be the first poster to say thanks to PopCap for their contribution.
  • Pop-Cap's web based games run just fine on OS X, or is this source for the "enhanced" engine that runs outside of a web browser? (Though, the Omni Group also made that engine work on OS X, as well...)
  • Java, Flash, ActiveX... ?

  • It's based on MS Visual C++ (Score:5, Informative)

    by kirkb ( 158552 ) on Monday March 07, 2005 @03:50PM (#11869316) Homepage
    The docs specify that it's a C++ framework targeting VC++6 and VC++.NET. DirectX 6 is used for graphics, and the BASS library is used for music and sound.

  • For the first time, casual game developers will have access to a refined, reliable framework that has been tested in dozens of games played by millions of customers.

    So since it's not the framework, who is responsible for making popcap games do stupid shit like end your game right after you popped some huge cascade of gems or eggs or whatever it is you're blowing up, as the timer runs out in the middle of your action? They can't seem to make their games end as soon as the timer runs out, you have to wa

  • Where's the Java toolkit?!? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by SilentJ_PDX ( 559136 ) on Monday March 07, 2005 @06:20PM (#11871317) Homepage
    Since PopCap got their start with a great bunch of Java games, I went to PopCap's site hoping for a Java toolkit. I was disappointed to see it's the Windows-only C toolkit.

    Hats off to PopCap for giving something to the budding game developers out there. The industry is so cutthroat (especially the segment that PopCap's in) that you don't see things like this often enough.
    • They said on the website (either in the FAQ or in the forums) that they're not using Java because of MS's decision to not ship their JVM anymore. I guess they don't want anyone having to download anything additional just to play their games (beyond the game itself, of course).

      Having to open your system to ActiveX controls that can sneak in via the browser is a pretty high price to pay just to play games.

  • Popcap (Score:3, Informative)

    by Mukaikubo ( 724906 ) <[ude.hcetag.msirp] [ta] [b034gtg]> on Tuesday March 08, 2005 @08:30AM (#11876101) Journal
    Man, I remember Popcap's really, really old days. Before there was such a thing as "Popcap". Two of the main programmers had formed Hoopy software, IIRC, which made a free top-down shooting online game named ARC. Fun times, and I've been nothing but gratified to see them become the Internet Puzzle Game Superstars.
    • ARC (http://www.arc-hq.net/) was originally made by the Popcap guys? That's really awesome. That game was so fun back in the day as a quick pickup multiplayer game. Now it seems its last owner (Sierra) has abandoned it but of course, kept the source hostage.
      • Actually, as of a month ago Sierra put it back up and allowed people to register to play and, shock, actually play. There was just a year+ long stretch where the servers were still running but new people couldn't sign up to play.

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