If I remember correctly I promised a while back that I was going to open up the source to the AppEasy Core SDK. if you don’t know what that is then its a FREE open source cross platform game and app engine for mobiles and desktop that can be re targeted to work on anything you like as long as you implement the platform abstraction layer. At the moment, a Marmalade SDK layer is implemented so you can use it right out of the box. You will however need a Marmalade license to use it, although having a Marmalade license will give you deployment access to a vast range of platforms so its well worth it. if not then simply implement the platform layer for whatever platform(s) you desire. If you dont fancy any of that and just want to use Lua and XOML then you can always give the AppEasy service a try, which lets you deploy apps to iOS / Android and Windows desktop without the need to compile and re-write code etc..
AppEasy Core SDK is basically the big professional and powerful child of the old IwGame Engine. The IwGame Engine started as a tutorial project that I started a few years ago that was meant to teach developers how to use the Marmalade SDK. However, Marmalade has no out of the box game engine so IwGame evolved into a fully fledged game / app engine to fill that gap, although it was hastily developed and built directly on the Marmalade platform. I’m very much a recycler, so that’s not how I generally like to write an engine, I like to have a clear separation between engine and platform so it can be re-targeted at different platforms quite easily. I also wanted to get rid of the obscenely long names and add some proper structure / documentation to make the whole thing more easily understandable.
Well I think I accomplished all that and more, I also added many new features and fixed a mass of bugs along the way. When I get the time I will be replacing the old IwGame Engine page with an AppEasy Core SDK page, for me IwGame needs to be buried now I think.
I also developed a game / app editor called Goji Editor that lets you develop full on games and apps within the editor and export to AppEasy, Marmalade Quick and other engines coming soon, including HTML 5.
AppEasy Core SDK has the following core features:
General Features
– FREE and open source! (MIT)
– Can directly use data exported from the Goji Editor (http://www.gojieditor.com)
– Can be targeted at any development system / SDK by implementing the platform layer
– Marmalade SDK platform already implemented, giving you access to many platforms out of the box
– Develop using XML, Lua and / or C++
– Easy to learn mark-up driven language called XOML that enables rapid development
– Support for Lua scripting
– Styles and Templates
– Local and web based assets
– Proportional sizing and positioning
– Auto screen sizing and device orientation lock
– Local storage access
– Multi-touch input
– Accelerometer and compass support
– Smooth sub-pixel rendering and batch rendering for speed
– Touch panning and pinch zoom
– Persistent data
– HTTP POST / GET defined declaratively
– Access to video camera streaming
– Define actions that can be carried out when events occur
Game Features
– Polygonal based sprites and sprite depth
– texture atlases and batching
– Support for Scenes (game world / app canvas) and Actors (game / app objects)
– Images, fonts, compressed WAV sound effects and and MP3 music
– Animation
– Box2D Physics (fixtures, shapes, materials, collisions and joints)
– Video Playback
App Features
– Create simple or complex user interfaces
– Full support for simple and complex data bindings
– Data definition and organisation
– Access to local and remote data
– Support for SQLite
User Interface Features
– Text input boxes
– Buttons / Check boxes
– Labels
– Icons
– Sliders
– Panels (StackPanel, WrapPanel, Canvas)
– Grids
– Image / Text View – Support for pinch zoom and pan
– Web View (display web content)
– Tab Bars
– Video Overlays
– Sliders
– XML data bindings
– Multi-touch based user interface (up to 5 simultaneous touches)
Monetisation Features
– Ad integration
– In-app purchases
Advanced Features
– XOML Variables
– Modifiers
– XOML Programs and commands
– Inline scripts
Social Features
– Facebook API support
API documentation
API documentation is located at http://www.appeasymobile.com/appeasy-api/
The AppEasy Core SDK comes complete with:
– PDF documentation located in the Docs sub folder
– Extensive doxygen code documentation
– An example app that contains 70 examples demonstrating many parts of the SDK
– An example game
– XML schema for XOML
Whilst free support is not provided, a community support forum is available at AppEasy Community
You can download AppEasy Core SDk from Github