Category: Game Releases

The NeoAxis Engine just released the source code, although it’s technically not “open source” according to OSI compliant licenses.  You can now access the source code on GitHub.

Here is the license:

• 1. When publishing your product, you must add “Made with NeoAxis Engine (www.neoaxis.com)” with the product information and in its credits.
• 2. You can distribute the NeoAxis editor with your product. When you do it the window title of the editor must be:

  “Your project name – NeoAxis Engine 2020.3 (www.neoaxis.com)”.

  Or if you made engine modification:

  “Your project name – Modified version of NeoAxis Engine 2020.3 (www.neoaxis.com)”

  This can be done by changing the value of the ModifiedVersionOfNeoAxisEngine field in the Sources\Engine\NeoAxis.Core\Utility\EngineInfo.cs file.

• 3. You can distribute the source code of the NeoAxis Engine. In the case of publishing any part of the modified source code, for example, by means of creating a fork or other distribution method, you automatically become the contributor of the NeoAxis Engine. This means that the NeoAxis Group Ltd reserves the right to use your modified source code at its discretion, for example, to improve the original version of the NeoAxis Engine. Copyright for modified code is saved to you.

To me that certainly sounds like something an existing OSI license should cover.  You can learn more about NeoAxis making the source available in the video below.

GameDev News C# Engine

The Godot open source game engine just released version 3.2.2.  While primarily a maintenance release, there are several great new features including:

• C# support for the iOS platform
• 2D batching for the GLES2 renderer
• re-architected Android plugin system
• DTLS and ENET integration
• Updated and localized documentation
• Hundreds of bug fixes and improvements

You can read complete details of the update here, and you can download Godot 3.2.2 here (or on Steam).  If you want to learn Godot, you can check out our tutorial series available here.  You can learn more about the Godot 3.2.2 release in the video below.

GameDev News Godot

CocosCreator, a free Cocos2d-x powered cross platform game engine, just released a version 2.4.0.  If you are interested in learning more about Cocos Creator, check out our complete Cocos Creator tutorial series available here.

Details of Cocos Creator 2.4.0:

This update brings more new features, optimizes performance and improves stability. Efficiency is everything! This version contains many new features and updates, such as resource management system refactoring, asset bundles, optimized the performance of graphic rendering.

The key new feature being the new asset manager with the following features:

• Supports loading and pre-loading of all resources, pre-loading can run silently in a lighter way, without affecting operation efficiency.
• Supports Asset Bundles.
• Supports a more secure automatic release mechanism, no need to consider its reference when releasing resources, to avoid mistaken release of resources.
• Support download failure retry, download priority, download concurrent number and other settings, which can be adjusted according to various situations.
• Support more convenient custom loading process to achieve special effects.

More details of the Cocos 2.4.0 release is available on the blog here.  You can learn more about Cocos Creator and this release in the video below.

GameDev News Cocos2D

The Defold Game Engine (complete tutorial available here), recently transferred to the Defold Foundation, just announced support for the Nintendo Switch platform.

Details from the Defold website:

The Defold Foundation today announced the immediate availability of Nintendo Switch support for the Defold game engine. Nintendo Switch is the first console supported by Defold. Approved Nintendo Switch developers can request access to Defold through the Nintendo Developer Portal. Access will be granted to Defold community members with Nintendo Switch included in their membership tier. Source code access is available as a separate membership tier.

“When the decision was made to work on console support for Defold it was an absolute no-brainer to start with Nintendo Switch. Not only had our community asked for Nintendo Switch support for quite some time but the capabilities of Defold also seemed perfectly suited for the Nintendo Switch. It also turned out to be very easy to port to the platform and it was a real pleasure to work with the Nintendo Switch SDK. We can’t wait to play some great Defold games on Nintendo Switch!””, said Defold Product Owner Björn Ritzl.

Nintendo Switch support is available to Defold backers, although it also requires a Nintendo developer account.  You can learn more details about Nintendo Switch support here and by watching the video below.

GameDev News Defold

Late last week CryTek released their development roadmap for the future of the CryEngine game engine.  Sadly it seems the next major release has been pushed back into 2021, although the feature list in the next version is pretty impressive.

Details from the CryEngine blog:

Mobile Support and Next-Generation Hardware: We’re working with Google and ARM to bring CRYENGINE to mobile and, of course, we‘re preparing CRYENGINE for upcoming hardware releases. We can’t wait to see what you can do with CRYENGINE on mobile, and, of course, we’re excited about seeing your CRYENGINE games running on more powerful consoles. Find out more about our mobile plan and register for our beta.

Scaleform 4 Update: CRYENGINE was previously limited to Scaleform 3, which meant that only older software and ActionScript 2 were viable methods for creating engaging UI. In the future, we are including Scaleform 4, which means you’ll be able to use both Adobe Animate and ActionScript 3.

Visual Scripting System: We’re as excited about this as you are. Almost all of our teams are working on and integrating with this new feature at the moment. As part of this process, we’re also undertaking a clean-up and separation of other systems, such as the Generic Reflection and Messaging systems.

Razer Chroma RGB Support: We’ve partnered with Razer to enable the Razer Chroma RGB effects API in CRYENGINE. This allows you to enhance the atmosphere and ambiance of your player’s experience by lighting up Razer Chroma-enabled hardware devices as the game is played.

More details, as well as future release features are available on the roadmap here.  They are running an early private beta available here.

GameDev News CryEngine

There have been a lot of changes at Quixel since being acquired by Epic Games in late 2019, almost all for the better for developers.  Quixel Mixer 2020.1.2 is another example of that, with the texture generation tool getting a huge number of completely free smart materials, along side a new installer and resource manager.

Details of the release from the Quixel blog:

Earlier this year we introduced 3D texturing and Smart Materials support in the first Mixer 2020 release. This release comes with 50 new Smart Materials, a handy new Asset Manager and a new installer that lays the groundwork for regular releases of Smart Material packs. We are also working on new feature updates including Multiple Texture Set Support, slated for later this year.

50 premium scan based Smart Materials have been added to Mixer’s expanding collection of free top-quality assets. Mixer’s Smart Materials are crafted based on your requests by Quixel’s art team, using Megascans to ensure a world-class look and feel to your assets, instantly.

The new release includes Metals such as aluminum, oxidized iron and gold, Fabrics such as denim, linen and camo gear, and a plethora of Plastics, Rocks, Woods and Leathers. All these are ready to go and are completely free to use.

Quixel Miser is a completely free download, as are the new Smart Material packs, while the MegaScans library is available for free to Unreal Engine users.  You can learn more about the release in the video below.

GameDev News 3D Applications Unreal