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Compiling framework
To build the gameplay library, tools, and samples as well as write your own games, you will have to install and use the platform specific tools listed below. These are the supported development environments for each specific operating system as a target platform.
| Desktop OS | Tool | Development environment |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Windows 7 | Visual Studio 2010 | Windows 7 |
| Apple MacOS X | Xcode 4 | MacOS X |
| Linux Ubuntu 12 | CMake | Linux Ubuntu 12 |
| Mobile OS | Tool | Development environment |
|---|---|---|
| BlackBerry 10 and PlayBook | BlackBerry Native SDK | Windows 7, MacOS X, Linux Ubuntu 12 |
| Android 2.3+ | Android NDK 8 | Windows 7, MacOS X |
| iOS 5+ | Xcode 4 | MacOS X |
Included in the project repository are the following notable folder and files:
| Folder/Files | Description |
|---|---|
| /bin | Precompiled binary tools |
| /external-deps | External dependency libraries |
| /gameplay | The gameplay library |
| /gameplay-api | Doxygen API Reference |
| /gameplay-encoder | Game asset/content encoding tool |
| /gameplay-luagen | Lua script bindings generator tool |
| /gameplay-samples | Game samples |
| /gameplay-tests | Framework tests |
| /gameplay-template | Game samples template project files |
| gameplay.xcworkspace | Xcode workspace |
| gameplay.sln | Microsoft Visual Studio solution |
| gameplay-newproject.bat/.sh | New cross-platform project script |
The quickest way to get started using the gameplay framework and tools is to simply start working in one of the desktop environments.
You could use:
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express or Professional on a Windows 7
- Xcode on Apple MacOS X
Just open either gameplay.sln or gameplay.xcworkspace.These solutions/workspaces are set up by default to build all the projects needed and to run the samples you have selected as active.
The gameplay-docs folder contains additional tutorial documentation for our gameplay-samples. These are intended to go into more detail for designing and coding games written using the framework. They all have a good starting point but have intentionally been left incomplete. This gives you the opportunity to change the samples, and complete them to make them more fun to interact and play with. They provide good building blocks and are a basis for you to explore various features in the framework. You can utilize code snippets from the samples to help speed up the development cycle in your own games.
We firmly believe in making a very intuitive set of APIs that are as straight-forward and as consistent as possible. However, all of the classes in the framework have been well documented with Doxygen formatting. The classes will be updated and improved iteratively throughout each release. This is to help you learn about what classes or sets of functions can be used and the recommended practices in using them.
You should consider reading the latest versions of the API reference from the pre-generated HTML Doxygen API documentation in the gameplay-api folder. This will give you a deeper understanding of the C++ gameplay framework.
Now that you are up and running on one of the desktop environments, we recommend you take this seriously and go mobile! In today's mobile game market, cross-platform development is a reality. It is quite simple and easy to use the gameplay framework to target a wider device audience. Start by downloading the native development kit for one of the various supported mobile operating system targets or set them all up.
Listed below are the basic setup instructions for downloading and installing the supported platform and development environments for gameplay.
- BlackBerry Native SDK (BlackBerry 10 and PlayBook)
- Visual Studio 2010 (Windows 7)
- Apple Xcode 4 (MacOS X, iOS)
- Android NDK (Android)
- Linux (Ubuntu 12)
Ensure that you test early on the physical devices. Depending on the type of game you want to write and on your design ideas, you'll want to get some idea of what type of performance you'll get with the game plan and prototypes you are working towards. Be careful and do not to rely on desktop and mobile simulators as an indicator of performance or mobile device capabilities.