OPEN GAME STUDIO

Hi!

I'd like to introduce a new game development environment. The Open Game Studio is currently advanced enough to create games with it, so I think it's ready to get posted here.

The Open Game Studio is a development environment that differs from many others by supporting many low level functions which give the game creator extremely powerful tools. These are used to write all of the high level functions that other game development environments often have. For example, making a character walk on a map is completely scripted. Such a script exists and some others also (a simple Battle System for example), but not as many as other game development environments.



The Open Game Studio works with "plugins". They're not really plugins, currently they're integrated in the studio. We focused on developing first, they'll be put in plugins later (we don't even have a plugin system right now). The most important "plugin" right now is the mapping. It works like any other tiled map system. You create the maps using our studio, and then you can load them into the studio. The mapping is currently working well, but not as well as on other map editors. Of course we're working on this.



We use lua as the scripting language. I think most of you know that lua is a fast and simple scripting language, and is used very often for games. We wrote some functions that you can use to interact with the rest of the engine. These are mostly low level, so you'll use them to write your own functions that you'll then use in the game.



In parallel, we're working on a testgame. The testgame is for producing scripts/graphics, but it also shows us what critical functions are still missing. This game already produced the movement script and the textbox script for example.



Currently, the Open Game Studio 0.0.8.8 is the most recent version. This is close to the end of the alpha stage. The beta stage will be started with the 0.0.9 release. We need some feedback right now because although we have most features implemented, which we think are essential, we may have forgotten something (this shouldn't happen because of our testgame, but your feedback can, of course, also help by fixing bugs and maybe even add features that save lots of time). After the beta stage is completed, we'll release the Open Game Studio 0.1, which is intended for developers with more in-depth knowledge. In the time between the 0.1 and the 0.2 release, we'll make it possible for everyone to create games using the Open Game Studio, and we'll also add all the missing features that are not essential but useful (and maybe essential for larger projects). But right now, what we really need is some feedback. The preferred way of giving us feedback is our forums. You can also post it here, but it's easier for us to answer on our forums and you'll get the reply faster.



You'll find all important links on our website, including a link to our wiki (that contains documentation), to our forums, etc. We're also having a so called "idea torrent", which lets you submit your ideas and lets others rate and comment them. If you've got an idea (maybe for later implementation), it would be nice if you'd submit it there. Of course, if you've simply got a very small idea, just tell me and I'll do it. Our community is currently very small, but it can't grow if no one joins ;)



The project is hosted on sourceforge.net, and thus 100% free software (GPL/LGPL licensed).



We also have an IRC channel called #opengamestudio on freenode. You can also join and give your feedback or ask questions there.



Our Website: http://darkas.cherrytree.at/