Today we are very pleased to announce the launch of V1.132 update and most significantly, the new Expansion Pack DLC which contains over 2.8 GB of game making assets for you to enjoy. This DLC is completely free to GameGuru users and you can download it any time you like, bringing your tally of stock media to over 6000 megabytes of content.
MANCHESTER, 29th September 2016, music and sound design company GAS Music today announced they have re-mastered and produced well-known nursery rhymes for 4 educational apps created by NW-based The Game Creators. The Apps support the UK national curriculum and cover the key subjects of Maths, English, Art & Music and Science & Technology for 3-5 year olds. Music used in educational apps is crucial in maintaining the child’s interest and encouraging the repeat play that helps the learning process.
The Game Creators worked closely with UK teachers, nursery schools and parents to create EduGuru and launched the Maths app in September, which features 128 games that engage children with core curriculum subjects in a fun open-ended way. GAS Music’s nursery rhyme tracks set the scene and add drama to the games which feature cute animated characters that bring education to life outside the classroom.
The Game Creators today released EduGuru - the first in a series of Apps specifically aimed at the Educational Games market.
EduGuru is a series of educational apps, developed and built to fully support the UK National Curriculum. EduGuru Maths for 3-5 year olds was released today and EduGuru English, Science and Art Apps for 3-5 year olds will be available shortly.
It's been a longer road than I had planned or hoped, but I am now ready to release the EBE in a small way to our internal beta testing group who kindly offer a few hours of their time every now and again to hammer GameGuru builds to ensure they are ready for the public. They are under a gentle NDA for the most part, but I am happy for them to share what they think of the EBE system in the forums over the next two weeks (when I will be on holiday flush the microchips out of my head and finding new ways to recharge my old brain battery).
We are pleased to announce that the AppGameKit Official Tutorial Guide and Beginners Guide have been updated by the author Alistair Stewart and will be automatically updated on your system the next time you log into your Steam account. The revision is marked July 2016 in the revision notes for those who want to know which version of the book they own. The AppGameKit Tutorial Guide is crammed with everything you will need to learn AGK Tier 1 from scratch and is a valuable resource for the budding app developer.
The Game Creators today launched the AppGameKit Education Bundle. The special pack, specifically developed for the Education market, includes AppGameKit, Giant Asset Packs 1 & 2, Games Pack1 and a 3D Asset Pack.
You've been treated to many 2D asset packs, but we are pleased to bring you the first 3D Asset Pack for AppGameKit, which specifically targets the need for very low polygon and low memory textures for the widest device compatibility.
As a quick update on the development of the Easy Building Editor, I can report things are going very well and I am starting to get more familiar with the way this new editor module works, and I am looking forward to starting the beta process very soon. I will not bore you with the many minor steps through what's been coded, but I can show how the EBE entity is treated much like a regular entity, so you can use the TAB clip to chop the roof off for interior editing while using the shape painting tool. As you can see I got carried away with my quick test to add better stairs that the ones I created in my last Twitch Broadcast, created interior and exterior walls and a little hatch in the wooden room in the back (for no reason but to cut a hole in the wall).
Today we're releasing a new version of AppGameKit with a range of new features and fixes.
Breaking changes: this version cannot run previous bytecode, and old versions cannot run bytecode from this version
Updated AGK to use libPNG 1.5.27 due to a security vulnerability
Modified IDE export options to compile the project before exporting to make sure it is up to date
Fixed the stop broadcast button sometimes failing to stop the app on a device
IDE export settings are now stored inside the project file for each project
Fixed the debugger not being able to set a breakpoint on source files contained in folders in some cases
Added new compiler directive #company_name to create a more unique write folder for your apps on Windows and Linux, see the Language section of the help for more details
Significantly improved image loading times on all platforms
Removed 2048x2048 size limit on images, now only limited by device capabilities
Fixed LoadImage down sizing images above the size limit causing sub images to have their offset values corrupted
Be aware of GPU memory when using large images, a 4096x4096 image will use 64MB, regardless of its file size
Loading an image that is not a power of two in size will no longer pad it to the nearest power of two internally, unless SetGenerateMipmaps is set to 1
Using SetImageWrapU or SetImageWrapV with mode 1 (repeat) on an image that is not a power of two will now do nothing
Added OGG music commands that can play multiple music files at the same time, and allows seamless looping
OGG music commands will work the same on all platforms
Old music commands are now deprecated in favour of the OGG music commands
Fixed GetManagedSpriteCount always returning 0
CreateRenderImage can now use non-power of two sizes when the mipmap parameter is set to 0
Added SetTweenDuration() to change the duration of a tween after it has been created
Fixed FBX loader causing a crash on ARM devices
Fixed frustum culling not working correctly when using an orthographic camera
Fixed a crash in LoadObjectWithChildren when loading an object with a single bone
Fixed objects created with CreateObjectFromObjectMesh not being drawn properly
Fixed SetObjectCollisionMode() not creating collision data if used on an instance object when the parent has collision turned off and has no collision data of its own
Added ViewFile() command to open a specified file in an external app, usually the system default for that extension
Added ShareText() and ShareImage() commands to share text and images with external apps, asks the user to choose the app
Fixed local notifications not showing on Android if the app is closed when in the background
Added GetInAppPurchaseLocalPrice() command to get the item price in the local currency
Added GetInAppPurchaseDesciption() command to get the item description
Fixed iOS export causing an error when the app is submitted to Apple
Added option to iOS export to allow all orientations
Fixed a crash on Android when loading a 3D object that contains multiple primitive types (point, line, triangle, or polygon) in a single mesh
Fixed some Android devices not keeping the correct GetPointerX and GetPointerY values after a touch release
Added sharedUserID field to Android export dialog so shared variables can be used in Tier 1
Modified Android GetRawRotationVector commands to use the game rotation vector sensor where available, which isn't affected by magnets
Fixed SetErrorMode(2) not displaying error messages properly on Android
AGK will no longer add a default precision to shaders on mobile devices if it detects the string "#if", which implies you have added it yourself
Added joystick support to HTML5
Fixed SetVSync command on HTML5
Fixed SetClearColor not working on HTML5
Fixed joystick ranges for non-XInput devices on Windows, causing some devices to report incorrect values
Fixed a crash when trying to use joysticks on a Mac
Fixed Facebook warnings about Graph 2.0 calls
Added GetFacebookAccessToken to return the access token that can be used with graph API calls using the HTTP commands
Added the Euro currency symbol to the default font
Updated Mac apps to be 64-bit, if you are using Tier 2 be sure to set your valid architectures build setting to x86_64
Updated RunApp() to work on Linux, Mac, and Raspberry Pi
Fixed virtual buttons becoming distorted if broadcasting and app that uses a virtual resolution after an app that uses percentage coordinates
After the extra work created for V1.131 and the subsequent delayed release, we have charged into the V1.14 work in earnest to make sure we get closer to our desired internal release date as possible. I will keep this date dark so (a) you are not disappointed should we miss it, and (b) that we give ourselves the freedom to do more testing before we release to the public. We already have a handful of post V1.131 tweaks coded, but the major news is the progress of the Easy Building Editor module which has been a joy to work on. Now whatever I create will be subject to controversy, simply due to the number of ways the design could have gone, and that I am going up against the world of 3D modellers which have had two decades and a large team of coders to perfect. I have my, myself and a few weeks, in amongst my other duties of dev blog writer, twitch broadcaster, Steam and forum post replies, email responder, support mail replies and of course the regular duties of CEO and general project overlord.
Not that I am making excuses for my decisions, just putting this endeavour into context for you, and hopefully reduce the onslaught of abuse I am due on the release of a much anticipated EBE and the V1.14 monster update. The first decision was to make it easy for me to optimize the collision and rendering of the final building/structure and for that I needed blocks, lots of blocks. I also felt it was important to pay homage to the old segment editor from classic which was heralded as a very easy way to make rooms and corridors, but leave the door open for more ambitious creations. Before I dive into the particulars, here is a quick shot of a building that took me no more than 25 seconds to create from scratch with the current EBE:
It was meant to be a small tweak release, it turned into a monster. We have just released V1.131 which contains new features, fixes and tweaks to keep your game making universe alive and kicking, with a little something for everyone. Below is a full list of changes from the log.
It's been a busy time here at TGC HQ with a flurry of new releases, and to keep those new products in the headlines we paused the dev blog series. Not normally an issue, but with the launch of our Raspberry Pi and HTML5 versions of AGK, new books and bundles we wanted everyone to see these amazing additions before being swallowed up by daily blasts of my dev blog rants. In order to create a compromise then, we've decided to make the dev blogs weekly, cherry picking the most exciting and revealing items of the week to share.
Even though the dev blog stopped, the development did not, and after the release of V1.13 we spring-boarded into the task of fixing smaller issues that had surfaced during the previous few months before starting on the major update which would release the Easy Building Editor into the world. This minor update actually turned out to be a huge undertaking as small fixes turned into larger feature requests from the community, and the nature of the time required to add them meant we could add many requests in quite quickly, but this also means more testing time which is why the planned release has been delayed. Fortunately, we did not build up your hopes on a release date so no harm no foul.
Today we released Games Pack 1 for AppGameKit which includes ten full games spanning multiple genres that show the diversity you can achieve and demonstrates the kind of games you can make with AppGameKit. In AppGameKit Games Pack 1 you will find everything you might expect from a games compendium, including puzzles, action games and even an excellent tower defence game that will keep you playing for hours.
