Tools for Beginning Game Developers - More Advanced Game Creation Tools
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Nonetheless, Scratch is oriented toward the younger developer and those who are entirely new to the art; its limitations can quickly become restrictive. The development of more complex scenarios and graphics depends on a more sophisticated tool set, such as the one provided by Gamestar Mechanic. This MacArthur Foundation-funded project provides aspiring developers with virtual workshop space, tools and community support to build platform and adventure games from scratch.
The use of similar sprites and components mean that Game Mechanic games tend to share a broadly similar look and feel. But the games are distinguished both by the quality and difficulty of the gameplay and the imagination manifested in the scenarios on offer.
Scattered among the mundane and predictable space adventures, killing sprees and various types of war game are a surprising and welcome number of unusual and thoroughly thought-out themes. These include Marathon for Life, in which the hero finds himself in a foot race against time with death the price of failure, and The Great Robbery, which demands precise timing and accurate observation in a quest to recover the stolen loot.
Some of the games are fiendishly difficult, like the strangely compelling A Racer’s Life. With its haunting soundtrack and eerie interstellar atmosphere, this is a challenging game somewhat reminiscent of the original Prince of Persia.
Despite the bizarre scenario, A Racer’s Life presents an absorbing challenge
Intriguingly, the Gamestar Mechanic environment is itself set up in the form of a game, with the task of designing new games as its central objective. The goal is to help new designers learn the essential skills required to develop quality games. These include things like systems-based thinking, networking and productivity skills, and the rudiments of object-oriented development. Of equal importance is the Gamestar social network, which provides a source of encouragement, criticism and opportunities for collaboration.
The decision to structure Gamestar this way was a deliberate attempt to provide an alternative to conventional development environments. Existing development learning tools such as Stagecast Creator and Toontalk have tended to focus mainly on the programming aspects of the design process, at the expense of the principles at the heart of successful games. The crew behind Gamestar prefer to focus on these principles, with programming knowledge being acquired almost as a by-product.
Gamestar attempts to be a self-contained world where every object and task is related primarily to gaming. It is hoped that this will encourage Gamestar’s population to concentrate on the relationships between different game elements, with the emphasis strongly on a design-based rather than a development or programming-based approach. How successful this will be in the long term remains to be seen. But the evidence so far is positive. Of all the new game development environments, the games emerging from Gamestar Mechanic tend to be among the most clearly thought out, the most challenging, and in many cases the most original.
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