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Message Board > User News > GamePower Engine (DIV2 compatible!)

August 5, 2015, 17:25
DARKGuy
Back in black! xD
21 posts

Hey all! :)

It makes me very happy to announce the release of the first public version of a game development engine I've been working on in the last year and so. The game engine is HTML5, JavaScript-based and renders on HTML5 Canvas, but guess what, the language where you can develop your games is the same language DIV 2 has!.

Actually, it started as a kind of a self-made port. I figured out there was a way to translate such simple code routines to JavaScript thanks to its flexibility, and slowly but surely, I started to implement a translator between DIV2's instructions and HTML5 Canvas calls. In the end, GamePower was born, and right now it features a full-fledged IDE (which resembles the old DIV2 editor *winkwink*), GPK editor (GPKs are like FPGs and FNTs) and converters (yes, you can convert FPG and FNT to GPK and use them directly in your game).

The engine is to be used free-of-charge for open-source games. You can close-source your game, but that's up to you. No ads or making money off this though, if you want, there's the possibility to buy the paid version (subscription-based, since it'll be compiling online on my own server - keeping your code private of course) and support my hard work. Why, you say?

Well, this engine I've made is almost fully-compatible with DIV2 games (except Mode7, Mode8 and external DLLs like Antzrhere's ModeA and such... oh, such an awesome library back then), so much, that you can directly run the tutorial programs and they'll work without any issues, all you'll have to do is to convert the FPG and FNT files and change a few paths, nothing more!

It needs the .NET Framework 4 runtime for the compiler, IDE and such. If anybody wants to help in implementing some missing DIV2 functions (not all of them are implemented yet) the help is really welcome! it is all on GitHub and I'll try to be always online in case there's any doubt in my IRC channel in freenode.net #gamepower :).

Now, a small disclaimer though: I know someone out there is making a similar project but stopped it, a spanish guy, and there's someone else who seems to be trying to revive the project and get DIV2 back, but I know the origin of that source code and it's not fair at all, kind of claiming it's his own work when it is not, and while I know I risk that to happen to my project, I'll be watching very closely the scene when it comes to GamePower, so please, let's all play fair and enjoy making games (and porting our old DIV2 games to HTML5!) in the long run, shall we? ;)

Anyways, without further ado, here's the link :) have fun! :D

http://gamepower.no-ip.org
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August 7, 2015, 17:26
DTM
Earthling!
821 posts

hmm, interesting... HTML5 is where it's at, certainly.

Don't let strict adherence to the DIV langauge hold you back ;)

Only remnant of DIV's help I have left is:
http://xzist.org/temp/div_tutorial/
That tutorial always impressed me.

[Edited on August 7, 2015 by DTM]
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August 12, 2015, 13:58
(. )( .)
top pussy
447 posts

*.no-ip.org is not at all suspicious. No, no, it raises trust.

Why hasn't Square pointed out yet that this is just a scheme to steal our DIV games source code! :-----------Dddd

tldr; Everybody find your old harddrives or where ever your old DIV productions might be these days because DARKGuy is here!

...or am I wrong?
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August 12, 2015, 22:37
Transdiv
Whiskered
38 posts
Hi DARKGuy

There is an HTML5 Div compiler that is in active development, although probably is not 100% Div2 compatible; The name of the software is DivGO:

http://forum.bennugd.org/index.php?topic=3207.0

The forum is only in spanish (I think....), but the downloadable compiler is full in english.

By the way when I try to download the Windows GamePower Engine version, Antivirus Avast said it is infected with D-Rep. very probably a false-positive but scaring anyway.

[Edited on August 12, 2015 by Transdiv]
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August 16, 2015, 00:25
OScoder
None
1338 posts
Now, this is a genuinely brilliant idea!
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October 10, 2015, 04:17
DARKGuy
Back in black! xD
21 posts

Quoting DTM:
hmm, interesting... HTML5 is where it's at, certainly.

Don't let strict adherence to the DIV langauge hold you back ;)

Only remnant of DIV's help I have left is:
http://xzist.org/temp/div_tutorial/
That tutorial always impressed me.

Hello DTM!

Indeed, HTML5 seemed like the perfect platform to make a renderer with an easy language such as Javascript and without having to fight with the different issues you get with OpenGL and C++, binding only to a specific platform. You just render in HTML5 and it plays almost anywhere :P

Indeed! the commercial version will allow you to do some cooler stuff aswell, such as splitting the entire game into multiple PRG files, plugins and desktop app publishing, to name a few ;)

I just took a look at those files, thanks a lot! I never had the original manual with me, I used to work only with a demo version of DIV 2 which came bundled in a Spanish magazine... *shrug* back then, magazines were the only internet I had, haha. Thanks for the files, they are very useful! :)

Quoting (. )( .):
*.no-ip.org is not at all suspicious. No, no, it raises trust.

Why hasn't Square pointed out yet that this is just a scheme to steal our DIV games source code! :-----------Dddd

tldr; Everybody find your old harddrives or where ever your old DIV productions might be these days because DARKGuy is here!

...or am I wrong?

Well, if you would be kind enough to help me buy a domain (because in my country we have currency exchange and regulations and due to that I can't even pay for a beer online, let alone a domain) I'd greatly appreciate that. My judgment isn't biased to the domain name, because well, that's the most I can get. I could've gotten a .com.ve domain (only thing I can pay with my local currency), but that gives you even less trust than no-ip.org in my opinion XD and the only company who provides those domains have a sucky, HTML3 + ASP interface which is a PITA to maintain and the server where I'm hosting the site is bound to dynamic IPs. Too much hassle, no-ip gives you a client which auto-updates itself ;)

Well, it would be a good idea to rescue that stuff, better than having it laying around getting byte dust inside an old HDD. I don't care for the source code of anyone else's games, mainly because I don't have the time to read it, and the DIV language is pretty old. It's cool for making indie games, but my objectives are further ahead from indie game development.

The main reason why I'm encouraging other DIV users to do so is to also help me to test my engine and be sure it's compatible with something other than the tutorials and sample games bundled with it. In return, they get to show off their old games (where maybe they started in this programming journey) to the world in a better, compatible way. I used to see some really cool games back then in DIV-Arena, which, if improved a little bit, would be good candidates for a nice mobile game, for example ;).

Quoting Transdiv:
Hi DARKGuy

There is an HTML5 Div compiler that is in active development, although probably is not 100% Div2 compatible; The name of the software is DivGO:

http://forum.bennugd.org/index.php?topic=3207.0

The forum is only in spanish (I think....), but the downloadable compiler is full in english.

By the way when I try to download the Windows GamePower Engine version, Antivirus Avast said it is infected with D-Rep. very probably a false-positive but scaring anyway.

Hi Transdiv :) I did take a look at DivGo, it's kind of similar to my project even though its author has made more progress than me, and has even added 3D stuff and such, however, we seem to have different goals, though it is a cool project nonetheless! :)

About the Windows version of GP, according to this -> http://www.basicsimple.info/20 … g-download.html it seems it is a false positive with Avast! related to the domain trust level and number of downloads or application signing. I'm gonna look at it to see if I can sign the installer or the IDE files somehow. Thanks for the report and sorry for the inconvenience! :)

Quoting OScoder:
Now, this is a genuinely brilliant idea!


Why, thanks for the praise! :D

To all: Wow, I kind of forgot I had made this post here and now I see it has gotten some attention, that's good! :D if any of you ever manage to try to make something good with the engine or need some help, don't hesitate to ask :)

[Edited on October 10, 2015 by DARKGuy]
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Message Board > User News > GamePower Engine (DIV2 compatible!)

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