©2000-2008 by Benjamin Marty

Introduction

This is the official homepage for version 2 of the Scrolling Game Development Kit (SGDK2).  The homepage for version 1 can be found at http://gamedev.sf.net/.

SGDK2 has been officially released and is considered stable. If you find problems, please discuss them on the forums (in the SGDK2 area). Development will continue, but a stable version of SGDK2 will continue to be available as new development moves forward.

Important Information

Requirements

SGDK2 is written in C# and utilizes Managed DirectX 9.0. I know you will at least need the following software installed in order to run SGDK2 and the games created by it:

• Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 (Note: most Vista users will have to download and install this because Vista comes with .NET Framework 2.0. Installing version 1.1 has been tested and works with SGDK2 on Vista. Different versions of the framework live happily side-by-side.)
  • Via Windows Update
  • Via Microsoft.com/Downloads
  • SGDK2 hosted download
• Microsoft DirectX 9.0
  • Via Microsoft.com/Downloads
  • SGDK2 hosted download

SGDK2 has been tested on the following video hardware. Please help expand this list by reporting your own results in the forums:

• Supported Video Cards
  • ATI Radeon Xpress
  • Intel(R) 82945G Express Chipset Family (Intel driver version 6.14.10.4410)
  • NVIDIA GeForce 5900
  • NVIDIA GeForce 6200
  • NVIDIA Geforce 6610 XL
  • NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS
  • NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT
  • NVIDIA GeForce 8800
  • NVIDIA Geforce FX 5200 (NVIDIA Driver version 5.2.1.6 - nv4_mini.sys version 6.14.10.5216)
  • NVIDIA MX440
  • Radeon X800 Series
• Unsupported Video Cards
  • Intel 80810e
  • Intel 810e
  • RIVA TNT2
  • SiS 630/730

If anyone has more information about requirements, please let me know. I think some of the above software requirements might even be automatically checked and downloaded/installed if you need them during the install, but I'm not sure at this point.

Seeking Assistance

Although SGDK2 is an open source, I tend to work on the core code alone.  That being said, there are a number of possible projects related to SGDK2 that aren't part of the core code where I could use a lot of help.  If you'd like to participate, post a message on the forums, or email me.

• This Web Site - Think you can make it better? Let me know. I'll take a look at your work, and maybe we can work something out.
• Library Content - Always looking for some spectacular graphics, music or other importable objects to include in an SGDK2 library.
• Documentation / Tutorials
• Portability - Do you know how to develop for Linux or embedded systems? I'm interested in making it possible to compile SGDK2 games for systems like Nintendo DS, and interested in making SGDK2 run natively under Linux if anyone is interested and capable of working on these projects (I know very little about them myself).

News

October 19, 2008

Version 2.1 Beta 1 Released. The first beta release of version 2.1 is now available for download for anyone willing to test the beta version of 2.1. The default download package will continue to refer to version 2.0 until a certain level of reliability in version 2.1 can be confirmed. The major updates in version 2.1 are an upgrade to .NET Framework 2.0 and to OpenGL instead of DirectX. This means the video card support requirements are probably somewhat different for 2.1. Help me create a new list of supported video cards by participating in the forum discussion. There is no setup program for this package, just extract the files and run the EXE.

April 2, 2008

April Fools. The joke's over so I guess I should tell everyone not to waste time downloading .NET 2.0 just to see the demo posted yesterday if you're hoping for something spectacular. The graphic is from the POV Ray Hall of Fame. SGDK2 is about scrolling games, remember, not 3D games :).

April 1, 2008

SGDK 2.1 Introduces Groundbreaking 3D Support. Well, it's finally happened. In the months of silence from the end of last year through the end of March, the secret project to dazzle everyone has finally demonstrated some real promise. Not only does it break new ground for SGDK, but achieves some pretty spectacular results within the entire 3D gaming industry. Real time 3D graphics at ray traced quality is a relatively new concept in the industry and many believe it can't be done effectively to compete with exiting 3D rendering models. But SGDK2 is here to prove that's it's not only possible, but can even cater to the masses, bringing 3D game development within the grasp of many newcomers to game development. Because you no longer have to worry about converting all your models to polygons and aligning textures and such, 3D game development becomes so much simpler from the developer perspective when using model definitions such as those provided to ray tracers. And combined with the technology being introduced in SGDK 2.1, the ease of development and the spectacular performance without relying on 3D hardware are sure to launch this technology (and SGDK2) to the front of the industry. Download the demo and see for yourself. Then come comment on the forums. (The demo does require .NET Framework 2.0.)

March 31, 2008

Version 2.1 To Be OpenGL-Based. For those who have not been participating in the SGDK2 forums, it may interest you to know that SGDK version 2.1 is well underway and will completely convert over to OpenGL using the open source OpenTK library which is also currently under development. There are still some fine points to iron out, but most of the work is actually done and working, and has shown a significant performance improvement over the DirectX implementation. SGDK version 2.1 is actually compiling and running OpenGL-based games in a test environment already. There are just a few OpenTK features that aren't done yet that will be necessary before the conversion can be considered complete. Namely, The full screen support and the text drawing implementation in OpenTK need to be fine tuned to expose some functionality that SGDK 2.1 will need. (Right now, all SGDK 2.1 games are running in windows, and messages are not formatted to a proper rectangle -- no word wrap).

December 27, 2007

2.0.0 Released. SGDK2 is finally officially released. See the release page for the full article describing the release.

December 13, 2007

Release Candidate 1. The product is nearing release. This package may represent the functionality of the actual release if all goes well. Fixes included since the last beta:

1. When importing a source code object, make sure that any existing window containing source by the same name is closed before importing so that further editing in that window does not cause the import operation to be effectively undone.
2. In the plan editor and sprite rule editors, display the status and type of each rule with an icon in front of the tree item in order to more clearly distinguish the types of rules and whether or not they are suspended.
3. Add a command to the plan and sprite rule editors to suspend the selected rule as well as all of its children.
4. Fix the layout of the sound preview window launched from the Source Code editor so that the volume slider does not overlap the buttons.
5. Fix an error in resizing the map editor.
6. Implement command in code editor to export embedded data to a file.
7. Document "Export to File" command in source code editor.
8. Document "Toggle Suspend for This and Child Rules" command in plan and sprite rule editors.
9. Add tutorial for importing sprites.
10. Fix bug in frame remapping wizard that caused an error when appending frames to an empty frameset.
11. Change about dialog to indicate "Release Candidate 1"

December 2, 2007

Second Beta Released. A number of issues have been found in the initial beta and have been fixed in this second beta release. Some of the more significant fixes include:

1. Some fixes to the way sprites react to solids under certain conditions
2. Sizing of the player options dialog for 1-player games
3. Probems with frame tweening wizard
4. Problems with the Layer Wizard
5. Improvement in the way the map editor previews the effect of placing a tile
6. Improve the tile animation preview window
7. Fix a problem that caused games and the IDE's map editor to hang on exit under certain conditions
8. Improve the behavior of the dropdown list of tiles in the tileset editor
9. Fix the alpha mask preview in the sprite definition editor when viewing rectangular masks (alpha=0) on frames that are offset
10. Improved support for accessing the last created sprite
11. New tutorial for working with sounds and music

September 9, 2007

First Beta Released. I've finally put everything that I intend to include in the initial release into the package and am ready to call this the first beta release. Some of the main changes that have gone in since the last alpha include:

1. Update main program icon and define icons for projects.
2. Additional tutorials.
3. Imporoved functionality of the Options dialog available at runtime (to re-map controls).
4. Add the ability to display a "Background Frame" in the frameset editor as a reference when editing a frame.
5. Additional sprite templates and graphic sheet templates added to the template library.
6. Improved main window toolbar.
7. Remember sprite properties in the map editor, so subsequent sprites of the same type will default to the same values.

Now it's up to the rest of you to continue providing feedback during the beta period and make sure the final release of SGDK2 will be the best it can be. Speak up in the forums if you see problems or shortcomings you think could be addressed for the initial release.

Get SGDK2 Beta Release 1
Notice the new Download page (link in the navigation bar) with additional downloads for a music and sound effects library, as well as additional sample projects.

July 14, 2007

Sixth Alpha Released. Alpha six includes many small fixes and a few larger features:

• Ability to see the edges of frames in the frameset editor and tileset editor, when the option is turned on.
• Ability to see the edges of layers in the map editor.
• Improved (more visual) tile dropdown list in the Tileset editor.
• Right-mouse in the map editor will now select the tile under the mouse as the current tile.
• New source code object in the Source Code template folder to support playing videos streamed from a file.
• Support for copying and pasting plan rules and sprite definition rules.
• Support for a Pause function among the other sound-related functions.
• Frameset tweening wizard in frameset editor creates series of frame transformations based on starting and ending parameters and frame count.

Get SGDK2 alpha 6 release

June 20, 2007

SourceForge.net 2007 Community Choice Awards Nominations Open. If you admire Scrolling Game Development Kit, and think this project deserves recognition, please consider nominating it for the SourceForge.net 2007 Community Choice Awards. You can find a clickable logo to nominate SGDK2 for this recognition on the SourceForge project page: http://sourceforge.net/projects/sgdk2. Note that you can nominate a project in more than one category, and you can nominate multiple projects in the same category if you think multiple projects are worthy of consideration for the same recognition.

May 31, 2007

Fifth alpha released. The main feature of this release is a coding reference. It seems I neglected to include links in the help menu, but just press the F1 key from and screen, and you will see a coding reference at the bottom of the table of contents. There are also links to the coding reference in the help pages that describe plan rules and sprite definition rules. That is the main use of the coding reference: looking up detailed information about functions that can be used in rules. A few new functions have also been added since the last release. Many minor new features have been implemented too, such as the ability to create a new project from a template directly from a pop-up menu on the "New" menu.
Get SGDK2 alpha release 5.

April 22, 2007

Fourth alpha released. Most significantly this release includes a help page hooked up to each main UI. There's much more documentation to come, but the basic UI help files are all in place. They still need proofreading. This release also supports dynamically added sprites and a form of "wrapped" layers (scrolling back to the beginning when reaching the end of a layer... kind of) via a "Virtual Size" that can be larger than the actual data size for the layer.
Get SGDK2 alpha release 4.

March 27, 2007

Third alpha released. Following quickly on the tail of the second alpha release, the third alpha release is now available and the hope is that this solves the installation and project building issues, in addition to enhancing a number of other features.
(SGDK2 alpha release 3 is no longer available).

March 5, 2007

Second alpha released. Numerous small improvements and fixes including a new design for the frameset editor UI, a new code object for displaying messages, and a recent file list. Still no documentation, though.
(Second alpha release is no longer available.)

January 20, 2007

First alpha released.  The web site has been redesigned, and the first alpha is going out today.  Here's a full installer.

(First alpha release is no longer available)

I suggest you try first loading and running the sample project from the Library\Projects folder created by the install.

November 23, 2006

(Pre-alpha Demo Release 8 is no longer available)

Release 8 is a set of binary files including Managed DirectX 9 files that SGDK2 requires. This release includes everything in the previous release plus a new reflect.dll which I found to be necessary in order to prevent namespace collisions in FMOD when both SGDK2IDE.exe and the generated project were loaded in the same domain in order to examine the project for information about its runtime properties. Major enhancements in this release include:

• "Add Noise" and "Remap Hues" commands in the graphics editor.
• Support for dynamically affecting color channels and alpha channel at runtime.
• Graphic sheet, Tileset and Frameset import wizards.

October 15, 2006

(Pre-alpha Demo Release 7 is no longer available.)

Release 7 is a set of binary files including managed DirectX 9 files that SGDK2 requires. This release also includes fmodex.dll for sound/music support and an updated demo project demonstrating sound features.

August 27, 2006

Pre-alpha Demo Release 6 is no longer available.

Release 6 is a set of binary files including managed Direct 9 files that SGDK2 requires. An updated test project is included.

June 29, 2006

Pre-alpha Demo Release 5 is no longer available.

Release 5 is a set of binary files including the managed DirectX 9 files that SGDK2 requires. Hopefully a setup program is not required to run this pre-alpha demo of SGDK2. This release can actually create, compile and run projects with functional solidity handling. A demo project is included.

April 19, 2006

Release 4 (no longer available for download) is soure code and exe file for the latest SGDK2 IDE package. There is no installer in this one so you might need to install pre-alpha 3 if you don't have all the managed DirectX pre-requisites you might need. This package also includes a sample SG2 project file.

Jan 17, 2006

Release 3 (no longer available for download) does not include source code. Its purpose is to provide an installer instead of just the source code and binaries. The hope is that this will allow people who have trouble getting the map editor to run (due to managed DirectX installation problems) to run the map editor successfully.

Jan 9, 2006

(Pre-alpha Demo Release 2 is no longer available)

Nov 3, 2005

(Pre-alpha Demo Release 1 is no longer available)