Wagenheimer's Game Development Blog
Casual Gaming Programming, News and Tutorials.
Phoenix Lib is now MAC OS Compatible
Sep 17th
With the invaluable help of Johannes Stein, finally, Phoenix Lib is now compiling both in MAC OS and Windoews through Lazarus.
Now we finally have a great engine based on Pascal to develop Multiplatform games. In the near future, I intend to also test it on Linux, and perhaps also in newly released version of Free Pascal for iPhone, where it will possibly work with very few modifications.
Also, I am helping Andreaz Lake in testing the new Build of Phoenix Lib, and it is adding many new features and news, and I can say, Phoenix Lib has everything to be the definitive engine for game development! I already started the conversion of Abra Academy – Returning Cast for this version of Phoenix, who will serve for the launch of its Japanese version and the MAC OS versions! My new games are also now being developed all this new version of Phoenix Lib!
Keep in touch… Soon we will have many more news!
Forum Online
Aug 17th
Wagenheimer’s Game Development Blog forum is now online!
There you can ask any question about the Asphyre, Phoenix Engine or about any of the Games done by me. Please make a visit and feel free to make any question!
http://www.wagenheimer.com/forum
Druids – Battle of Magic – New Version Available
Aug 14th
There is available a new version of Druids – Battle of Magic Game, with with several improvements :
- Totally new High Definition Music and Sfx.
- Improved Graphics, Visual Effects and Particles Effects.
- New Loading Screen.
- Many Bugs Fixed.
- Better Windows Vista/Windows 7 Support.
- Now you can change Music and Sfx Volume.
Who still does not know the game, it is worth taking a look. And for those who already know, new music and effects are the most attractive one to further improve the experience. Be sure to check it out!
Download the demo version of Druids – Battle of Magic.
Abra Academy hits Top 1 in Japan
Jul 24th
Abra Academy hits TOP 1 in Big Fish Games Japan.
Abra Academy – Returning Cast is also beeing converted, and will be ready very soon.
If do you want to see more info on the Japane Abra Academy, please visit it´s official website : Abra Academy Japan
Abra Academy Japanese Release
Mar 3rd
The Abra Academy Japanese version was released in Big Fish Games Japan Portal.
It is Top 3 most downloaded games in the portal.
The Japanese version of Abra Academy was my first game totally made using the new Asphyre Sphinx Engine, and shows the power of this incredible engine.
A demo version is available to download in it’s website.
A demo version is available to download in it’s website.
Download
Asphyre Sphinx has been released!
Feb 12th
The latest version of Asphyre Engine, now called Asphyre Sphinx, was finally officially released!
This release supersedes all previous Asphyre releases and is under continuous development.
Asphyre Sphinx main features :
2D Graphics Features
- Image transformation including rotation, skew, mirroring and so on.
- Alpha-blending with multiple effects such as add, subtract, multiply, shadow among others.
- Buffered drawing calls deliver extremely high rendering performance in real-time.
- Many different drawing primitives such as rectangles, ellipses, arcs, ribbons and holes.
- Multiple image pixel formats to maximize quality and minimize video memory consumption.
- Images can be loaded from compressed ASDb archives, external files and streams.
- Patterns (small sub-images) can be distributed among different textures to reduce memory footprint.
- Dynamic textures allow fast pixel access for effects such as plasma and destructible terrain.
- Rendering targets allow dazzling visual effects such as motion blur, glows and other effects.
- Proper handling of lost devices, surviving Alt+Tab, Win+L and other rare events.
- Bitmap text drawing with Unicode support, color gradient tags and alignment options.
- Integration with Vampyre Imaging Library for loading many different image formats.
3D Graphics Features
- Easy to use 3D mesh drawing even for inexperienced developers.
- Mesh instancing for improved performance when many small meshes are drawn.
- Illumination models including Phong, Blinn-Phong, Minneart, Cook-Torrance, Oren-Nayer, Isotropic and Anisotropic Ward.
- Optimized 3D pipeline with hidden surface removal and triangle sorting.
- Transparent support for DirectX 7, DirectX 9 and OpenGL providers.
- Billboard rendering for particle effects, explosions and smoke.
- Load meshes from 3D Studio Max using the conversion tool, which can read 3DS and ASE formats.
- Mesh generation code for 3D planes, spheres, round boxes, torus, torus knots and super ellipsoids.
Other Features
- Capture the state of all keyboard keys, read multiple joysticks and mouse displacement.
- Store all images, sounds and other files using LZ77 compression in a single ASDb archive for easier deployment.
- Set password for ASDb archive to encrypt the contents using XTEA 128-bit cipher so nobody else can open your media files.
- Complete set of mathematical types with operator overloading for 2D and 3D vectors and matrices.
- High-precision timer for independent graphics rendering and object movement.
Comments
The Japanese version of my Game Abra Academy that is in final stage of Beta Testing, is about to be released, and is being finalized using Asphyre Sphinx. The conversion was very smooth and easy.
Soon I will start here a series of lessons on Asphyre Sphinx, since from its installation to basic lessons and even more advanced lessons. Also I will release some tools developed by me to be used with this engine, including a PathEngine and a GuiEngine. Soon I will post further details and information about each of these tools. You don’t lose in wait!
Further Info and Download
- Further Info and Download of Asphyre Sphinx you can get in it’s official page http://afterwarp.net/products/asphyresphinx/
- Visit also the Afterwarp Interactive forum .
Phoenix 2.0 – Preview Version
Feb 12th
Andreaz Lago announced the launch of the preview version of Phoenix Engine version 2.0!
Here is the official release :
“Hello everyone.
As some of you have been aware i’ve worked silently on Phoenix since the last release. Researching alot on methods to make API independent renderer and other designs.
Now i feel i have the groundwork made of what will become the next version. The tight coupling to OpenGL is gone, a Direct3D renderer will be written in the future (I’m currently concentrating on getting the OpenGL one rock solid as well as adding more features).
All rendering is done via a common interface, and using vertex buffers, this will make the renderer interfaces alot easier (and hopefully encounter less driver hazzels as the older versions) and faster.
Currently its only tested on Turbo Delphi for Win32 but FreePascal and Delphi 7 support will come if it doesnt work as it is.
There’s also a prototype version of the new image editor, basically the same but better interface and, finally with source!
I’d love any feedback and idea’s on what you like and what you don’t like.”
It is worth taking a look at their new features and tools! Always remembering that he is always open to new suggestions for improvements in engine!
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Phoenix Lib
PascalGameDevelopment.net Phoenix
Asphyre Engine Framework
Nov 19th
Today I will start a series of lectures and articles about Asphyre Engine. In this first one, I will talk about the history of the main versions of Asphyre, and I will give a brief introduction on what are its resources.
Asphyre Framework is a powerful open-source framework primarily aimed at casual game developers. It provides a high-level layer over underlying 3D hardware to support hardware acceleration for 2D rendering.
Versions
- Asphyre 1.5.2
- Asphyre 3 (Asphyre eXtreme)
- Asphyre 4.1
- Asphyre Casual Framework
- Asphyre 5
Asphyre 5
Asphyre 5 was released in September 22, 2008, which includes the best of Asphyre eXtreme, Casual and 4.1. The release uses a provider system that allows its extension to support new resources and new graphics engines, without losing the compatibility with its current version.It’s already compatible with DirectX7, DirectX9, OpenGL and Software Rasterizer providers, that allows great compatibility with absolutely all Hardware today found on the market. It also does not require any external DLLs for the projects, unless you use shaders and 3D (which explicitly requires DX 9 provider) . Its main resources are:
- Extended 2D graphics primitives
- Advanced Bitmap Fonts with efficient letter packing
- Major compatibility with all existing hardware
- Dynamic textures and easy to use render targets
- Alpha-channel support with alpha-blending
- High performance rendering using multiple cache techniques
- High-definition timer supporting VCL, KOL and Lazarus
- Input controls for Keyboard, Mouse and Multiple Joysticks
- In 3D, we have support for Shaders, Bump Mapping, Shadow Mapping, Advanced Illumination and others.
The latest version still does not have official support for all providers, being only compatible with the DirectX7 and DirectX9. But myself I already tested these new providers and they are well stable. For soon, Yuriy Kotsarenko promises that will come out a new version which already have all these providers, Lazarus support and a lot of new resources. As soon as it comes out, I will post further details here.
Abra Academy and Abra Academy Returning Cast
Nov 11th
Features
Abra Academy was one of the first Hidden Objects Games in the market, and until today is great international success. It and his sequel Abra Academy – Returning Cast, were already played by hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world, and were highlight long in the majority of large portals existing casual games. Both, in addition to it’s English Version, it also gained versions in French, German, Spanish and the Japanese version is already in the testing phase.
In Abra Academy, you must help Wanda, a witch apprentice, to graduate in the school of magic Abra Academy. You must guide her through several rooms’ aid her in finding hidden objects and learn new magic. Each room will put her witching skills to the test.
- 24 scenarios to be explored.
- Helpful fairy guides to help you to find objects.
- Minigames will wise you new abilities and will give you more fairies to help your journey.
In Abra Academy – Returning Cast, unknown creatures have broken into the campus and are causing havoc! The children are frightened and the monsters are creating a huge mess.. Wanda and her friends have been called back to school, where should investigate these attacks and find a way to get rid of these mysterious creatures.
- 30 fully new scenarios to be explored.
- Use the Crystal Ball for help.
- New ways of finding objects.
- New and challenging Minigames.
History and Development
Few people know, but Abra Academy, had a not released version, where it still was named of Witch Scholl Graduation, and had other graphics, music and sound effects, another game interface, other minigames and completely different scenarios from the final version. This version used characters made in 3D, instead of graphs 2D Cartoon from the final version. This version was made using the Phoenix Lib engine, by Andreaz Lago. An excellent engine, the runs over OpenGL, and was the first game engine for Delphi, where there was the possibility to use images with no fixed patterns sizes, essential to store the large amount of objects existing in each game scenario into a single texture.
Before its official launch, Big Fish Studios acquired all rights over the Abra Academy Series and signed with us a partnership contract, where now like Game Producer, has decided on a complete reconstruction of the game, with new graphics, new scenarios and especially new music and sound effects, which now was done by Somatone Studios, a company which had already large experience with games sound effects and music and even in Hollywood´s movies.The team was kept, and with all the support from BigFish, Abra Academy reached a new level of quality, becoming a game of enormous worldwide success.
The final version was rebuilt using the Asphyre Engine, now in version 4.0. Mainly due to better compatibility of the Out-of-Box drivers for Windows XP and Windows Vista to DirectX over the OpenGL ones, that normally required the installation of new drivers in the machine to use all its features. But much of the work done in Phoenix Lib was not lost and was converted to Asphyre Engine.
For the Japanese’s versions, again, the engine was rebuilt from scratch, to include support to Unicode Strings, and to use the new and revolutionary version of Asphyre Engine, version 5.0, which now have support for Dirext9, Dirext7, OpenGL and Software Rasterizer, thus fully compatible with hardly any existing computers on the market, even old computers with out of date video card drivers. This conversion was also made thinking in a future support the Mac, where using the Provider for OpenGL and compiler FreePascal, will soon be possible to compile the Asphyre Engine for Mac, with practically no changes in the source code already done for the Windows version.
Abra Academy – Trailer
Abra Academy Returnign Cast – Trailer
Links
Abra Academy – Official Web Site
Abra Academy Returning Cast – Big Fish Games
Druids – Battle of Magic
Nov 6th
Today I will talk about my first published game, Druids – Battle of Magic.
Features
Druids – Battle of Magic was one of the first Match-3 game which did not use standard Square Boards, what the most of the Match-3 used up to his launch, thus enabling an infinity of different levels and challenges, having 110 challenging level on his launch, and also including an Level Editor, allowing players to create his owns custom levels. In addiction, it was one of the first games in category to allow accumulate mana and cast 4 different types of magic spells in the board, bringing a fun new to the game genre, and being a great diffential over the games available that time…
In 2007, Druids Battle of Magic wins the award Best Puzzle game of 2007, from the Bytten website.
Development
The game did use the Asphyre eXtreme 3.1 engine, and was compiled in Borland Delphi 7.
It also used the Sprite Engine from DraculaLin, and the Particle Engine from 2MorrowMan.
The graphic was created by Mario Russo, and the music composed by John Wattscrick.
Links
