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New Engine Promises Net-Based Multiplayer Gaming
Who you callin' a Punk?
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by Scott Raulinaitis, Editor - 9/17/2004 - 11:52am EST
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There certainly doesn't seem to be any shortage of handheld gaming engines these days and now you can add another one to the list. Extreme AI's recently announced Punk mobile game engine is aiming high not only by promising various sophisticated rendering features, but also by including support for multiplayer gaming over the internet. Interested developers are asked to contact Extreme AI directly, so it's difficult to say whether or not a package priced friendly for hobbyists exists. We've contacted Extreme AI about this and will keep you updated.
Rather than try to interpret and summarize all of what this development platform/engine has to offer, I'll just shamelessly cut and paste the details as they appear on the Extreme AI's Punk web page...
Introducing Punk™, the Industry's first complete mobile game development solution. Based on the Torque Game Engine from GarageGames, the Punk Mobile Game Engine is a fully featured AAA game engine with award winning multi-player network code, seamless indoor/outdoor rendering engines, state of the art skeletal animation, drag and drop GUI creation, a built in world editor, and a C-like scripting language.
Punk is a complete cross platform gaming solution targeting high-end mobile entertainment consoles. Create your product on the PC, then instantly port to Sony PSP, Nintendo DS, and Tapwave Zodiac. Punk is compatible with most common development toolchains, including 3DS Max, Maya, and Quark.
Punk also features cross-platform compatibility with the PC and console versions of Torque. By using Punk, developers can easily support mobile vs. mobile, mobile vs. PC, and mobile vs. console gameplay. Punk even supports internet gameplay between devices or through dedicated Punk servers.
Development Tools
· Punk Mobile supports many industry standard content creation tools for 3D modeling and animation, and comes standard with exporters for 3D Studio Max, Maya, and Milkshape.
· Buildings and levels are created with the industry standard free program Quark.
· Punk Edit is a powerful terrain generation and object placement toolkit for easily building game scenes and structure. This editor gives you control over all elements in your game from a graphical viewpoint. Mission layout and landscape editing can be done from within the game while the game is running.
· Punk GUI is an easy to use, drag and drop graphical user interface creator. User interface elements can be added and modified through the development environment while the game is running.
· Punk Script, an extension of TorqueScript, is an easy to use C++ like scripting language that ties all of the various elements of your game together. Most of your game can be programmed in Punk Script, with engine additions such as physics or intense AI coded in C++ to be called from script.
· No compiler is necessary. An entire game can be created within the Punk environment. Punk includes an engine runtime for each supported platform. Script code is compiled by Punk for the target platform.
· Simulation support on PC. Games can be developed for all target platforms from within the PC environment. Platform simulators match speed and features of targets for realistic modeling of platform performance.
Update:
I requested some additional clarification from Extreme AI and President Bill Klein kindly obliged. First, Punk requires 3D hardware acceleration, which means that current generation Zodiacs will not be able to make use of this gaming engine. So, why is the Zodiac listed as a compatible device? Well, either they know something that we don't or they're just being hopeful that a next-gen Zodiac will feature 3D hardware acceleration.
Bill also informs me that the mobile gaming engine is still in development, but that early adopters can start using the desktop development today.
Pricing details are still being worked out as well, but the full platform which would allow for Nintendo DS and Sony PSP development will not be cheap (possibly upwards of $50,000). They are, however, working on an "Indie" license for hobbyists and small developers. Note that the "Indie" license will only be compatible with open platforms (e.g., Palm OS and Pocket PC platforms).
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