iDevGames

REAL Software Introduces REALbasic Forums, a New Online Community for REALbasic

REAL Software, Inc., providers of REALbasic, cross-platform that really works, announced today the launch of REALbasic Forums. REALbasic Forums is a REAL Software-sponsored and hosted community for REALbasic users. REALbasic Forums is an ideal venue for both experts and those new to REALbasic, and even those new to software programming, to share information about REALbasic.

REALbasic Forums is not intended to replace the REALbasic NUG, a popular mailing list for REALbasic users that generates over 9 million messages per month. Users have expressed different requirements, some prefer mailing lists, while others prefer a forum or message board environment. REALbasic users around the internet expressed their enthusiasm for the new forum with comments such as, “a REALbasic forum is something that is greatly needed and will be much appreciated by the REALbasic community!” REALbasic Forums is a moderated online community. While anyone can read posts and comments online, contributors will need to create an account to be able to post messages or comments. Once an account is created, private messages and contact information such as email or instant-messaging (IM) addresses can be shared among members. REALbasic is a full-featured software design environment easily suited to creating all kinds of applications, from utilities to enterprise-class applications. REALbasic is available now starting at $99.95 direct from REAL Software. REALbasic Professional Edition, required for cross-platform compilation, starts at $399.95 and includes extended functionality for database and team development. Download a free trial of REALbasic at http://www.realsoftware.com/demo.

REAL Software

http://www.realsoftware.com/

REALbasic Forums

http://forums.realbasic.com

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real,software,introduces,realbasic,forums

DreamSpace has notified iDevGames that they are bringing their 360 Game Creator to Mac OS X. This reasonably priced 3D game engine has a number of demonstration games available on the Dreamspaced website, but unfortunately they are all for Windows at the moment. Let the company know you’re interested in their $40 game engine to move the Mac OS X port along quicker.

• Dreamspaced——-

dreamspaced,360,game,creator,coming,to,mac,os,x

Alice is a 3D authoring system from Carnegie Mellon University geared towards teaching programming to children.

Alice address both the mechanical and sociological barriers that currently prevent many students from successfully learning to program a computer. Alice addresses the mechanical barriers to programming by making it much easier for students to create programs. Rather than having to correctly type commands according to obscure rules of syntax, students drag-and-drop words in a direct manipulation interface. This user interface ensures that programs are always well-formed. In addition, Alice reifies object-based programming by providing animated, on-screen 3D virtual objects.

Alice comes with hundreds of pre-made objects, and you can also make your own objects in other modeling packages and then import them into Alice. The package is released as open source and the source is included in the install of Alice.

Alice.org

http://www.alice.org/

Download for OS X (136 MB)

http://www.alice.org/downloads/authoringtool/mac/Alice-2.0.5.dmg

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3d,authoring,tool,alice,now,available,for,mac,2

FontForge is an outline font editor that lets you create your own Postscript, TrueType, OpenType, cid-keyed, multi-master, cff, svg and bitmap (bdf) fonts, or edit existing ones. The application also lets you convert one font format to another. (FontForge has support for many Macintosh font formats.) This handy application, is released as open source and available under a revised BSD license. The current downside is that running FontForge requires X windows (Included with Mac OS X.) Hopefully a developer in the community will port it to run under Aqua.

FontForge

http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/

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free,solution,for,font,creation,on,mac,os,x,2

flipCode, a popular resource for game development news, articles, and discussion on the Web, quietly closed down last month after over six years of service. All article and forum archives will stay available (though they are temporarily not available now), but no new submissions of any kind will be accepted.

Kurt, flipCode’s primary editor, left this message on the site’s front page:

As the site’s primary editor, I would personally and sincerely like to thank everyone who’s contributed positively to the site and surrounding community. This site couldn’t possibly have grown to what it was in its prime without your help. I realize this announcement may be a disappointment to many, but I feel I’ve done all I can with this site to serve the game development community over the years. The industry is changing rapidly, as is the face of the web. There are plenty of other game development resources out there (of all shapes and sizes), and more are sure to pop up. I genuinely hope you enjoyed your stay at flipCode, and wish you the best of luck with your future adventures.

Here’s to game development harmony. tips glass

Many former regulars of flipCode have migrated over to DevMasters.net. DevMasters features a game development wiki, forums, articles and tutorials, news, and looks like a great community.

Best of wishes to Kurt, and everybody who made flipCode what it was for the past six years.

flipCode

http://flipcode.net/

DevMasters

http://www.devmaster.net/

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flipcode,closes,its,doors,2

Potrace is a simple to use utility for tracing low-rez bitmap images into high detailed vector graphics which can be resized to any resolution. Whether you wish to create scalable sprites for you games, or merely pump up your 32×32 logo to a more 2005 appropriate 128×128, there are plenty of uses. It is not completely all powerful—it is only limited to two color images. However, the source code is freely available for those wishing to not only see how it works, but perhaps expand on the author’s original idea.

Potrace

http://potrace.sourceforge.net/

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easy,to,use,bitmap,tracing,tool,2

The JME Physics System provides an interface between the Java Monkey Engine and ODE (ODE is an open source, high performance library for simulating rigid body dynamics). It is completely open source and looks to be a simple solution to the complex problem of adding realistic physics to your Java applications and games.

JME Physics System

http://jme-physics.sourceforge.net/index.php?page=download

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java,jme,physics,system,2

On the September 26th broadcast of iGame Radio, the Mac gaming radio program, host Omaha Sternberg talks with Carlos Camacho, Editor-in-Chief of iDevGames. Recently, iDevGames.com has undergone a redesign. Questions about the new site, uDevGames, a new Autumn game programming challenge, the future of iDevGames, and more will be discussed. Also, a review of Dr. Germ by Game Savant. Carlos Camacho is also the founder of the iDevGames website, a site dedicated to independent Mac game development. Dr. Germ is really four games in one. A quartet of puzzle games developed and drafted by Game Savant, Omaha will review this recently released game as part of her series focusing on small independent developers. Omaha will also offer Mac gaming news and commentary, and together with her guest will take questions live from listeners in the iGame Radio chat room (AIM/iChat room name “iGameRadio”). iGame Radio can be heard live on MacRadio from 6 to 7:30 pm Pacific Time, 9 to 10:30 pm Eastern (Tuesday from 0200 to 0330 UTC), and on demand thereafter. Listeners can tune in at iGame Radio web page, where they’ll also find archives of past broadcasts. QuickTime 5 or 6 and a 28 kbps or faster Internet connection are required.

• iGame Radio

igame,radio,carlos,camacho

Chronic Logic has released a patch to bring their blockbuster action game Gish up to version 1.43. Gish is a highly unlikely hero-a 12 pound ball of tar. Save your friend Brea from the horrors below through the powers of… tar. Gish has been showered with awards-among others the Seamus McNally Grand Prize 2005 at the Independent Game Festival. Try it out if you haven’t!

Chronic Logic

http://www.chroniclogic.com

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chronic,logic,updates,gish,2

Ambrosia recently released The Adventures of El Ballo by community members Casey Gatti and Ivan Milles. El Ballo is a classical platform game that dances to the beat of a different drummer: el Ballo. This soon-to-be-hero jumps on the scene with glorious graphics, superb sound and retro gameplay — give it a spin!

The Adventures of El Ballo

http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/elballo/

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ambrosia,software,releases,el,ballo,2