mvBarracuda
Augur
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2006
- Messages
- 478
This is my first post here so I hope this is the right part of the forums for this kind of discussion.
Fact sheet:
License: Open source GPL 2.0
Platforms: Win32, Linux, Mac
Libs: SDL, OpenGL, boost (and some more)
Suited for: all kind of isometric 2D games
Costs: Free
About FIFE:
FIFE stands for Flexible Isometric Fallout-like Engine. Just like the name of our project suggests we work on a new open source engine for all kinds of isometric games. The people working on it got a RPG background but it should be possible to customize the engine so it even works for other ISO games like RTS. The engine started as a Fallout-only project but we recognized very fast that it offers the potential to be used as a general 2d ISO engine for the development of cross platform RPGs.
Why FIFE?
Half-life 1 revolutionized PC gaming back in 1998. The most important part of Half-life wasn't the great game with the story but the engine behind it IMHO. HL1 was the first game that offered good modding support combined with a company that provided useful tools to support the new growing modding community. Today there are a bunch of good open source 3D engines out there like Ogre or Irrlicht. However there are several problems:
1. These are mostly GFX engines. That means they focus on gfx code while they provide just few code that is needed to make a fully working game with them.
2. More important: they've been made for the creation of 3D applications. But unfortunately there is no flexible 2D ISO engine (that I know) that is comparable to what Ogre and Irrlicht are for 3D games.
So our aim is to "revolutionize" 2D ISO games as HL1 did it with 3D games quite some years ago. We want to create a platform for the creation of isometric games that all indie developers can use for their games so they don't need to create something from scratch. We focus on good modding abilities so we'll bundle the engine with an easy to use and full featured editor tool called FIFEdit.
The advantage over other engines is that FIFE is meant to become a full game engine. So we don't only provide 2d gfx code for the rendering but also feature code that allows the modders to easily script game logic. FIFE supports SDL & OpenGL rendering modes and is uses different open source cross platform libraries. This way the engine and the editor (that uses Qt4) will run on Win32, Linux and Macintosh. So we can ensure that game developers can easily provide their games as FIFE mods that run all kind of platforms without needing to care about writing cross platform code themselves.
Our editor will support a plugin system so you can easily add new features that are needed for specific kind of games; e.g. RPGs or RTS games.
The current status of the project:
The FIFE project is about 9 months in development now and we have released three public pre-alpha versions of the engine on sourceforge / freshmeat in January and May 2006.
The gfx part of the engine is the most "mature" one at the moment. The rendering code is encapsulated well with a "renderbackend" approach; so you can easily work on the OpenGL part of the renderer without being afraid of breaking something on the SDL side. Our coders are currently working on the map model to be able to integrate some first game logic code later. You can already script a GUI using lua code; lua will be used as scripting language for all game logic too.
The second part of the team is working on the new FIFE editor FIFEdit. The design phase has been just completed and the work on the code started. You can view the design document with all planned features for FIFEdit here:
<a href="http://wiki.fifengine.de/index.php?title=FIFEdit_Design_Document">FIFEdit design document</a>
You can also already access Fallout 1 / 2 .dat archives and display maps, view animations and listen to the original .acm sound files. But I guess this information is just important for the Fallout fans here. The Fallout maps just serve as example implementation to show what's already possible.
Intention of this post:
We would like to know what you think about our idea of a flexible isometric engine that focuses on modding abilities. Do you think this concept will work out or isn't it worth the hassle? Are there other projects that want to achieve something similar? Do you think that our engine is worth being used later or is it easier to create an engine from scratch for indie teams that plan to create ISO games?
Are there ISO fans out here that really like the idea and want to support us working on the engine? What kind of features would be really needed to make this engine attractive? Which parts of our design documents are well worked out and what's missing? Feedback is really appreciated
<a href="http://wiki.fifengine.de/index.php?title=Category:Design_Documents">FIFE design documents</a>
More information:
<a href="http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=385950">FIFE help wanted thread @ Gamedev</a>
<a href="http://www.fifengine.de">FIFE homepage</a>
<a href="http://wiki.fifengine.de/index.php?title=Main_Page">FIFE development wiki</a>
<a href="http://www.fifengine.de/index.php?module=pagesetter&tid=5">FIFE screenshot section</a>
Screenshots:
These screenshots were taken using FIFE with the original maps from Fallout 1 / 2. You'll need a valid copy of the Fallout games to load and display these maps; FIFE doesn't come bundled with copyrighted material! Additionally we do now feature screenshots of our custom maps too.
Official 2007.1 demo map: official_map.xml:
New map with buildings created by wulax:
FIFE with real square tiles. Useful for the creation of classical non-ISO 2D games like jRPGs:
Split personality. The new multiple cameras feature:
Welcome to the New California Republic:
FIFE offers a console interface to debug your games with:
One of our first custom XML maps with placeholder graphics:
Transparency for roof tiles:
Fact sheet:
License: Open source GPL 2.0
Platforms: Win32, Linux, Mac
Libs: SDL, OpenGL, boost (and some more)
Suited for: all kind of isometric 2D games
Costs: Free
About FIFE:
FIFE stands for Flexible Isometric Fallout-like Engine. Just like the name of our project suggests we work on a new open source engine for all kinds of isometric games. The people working on it got a RPG background but it should be possible to customize the engine so it even works for other ISO games like RTS. The engine started as a Fallout-only project but we recognized very fast that it offers the potential to be used as a general 2d ISO engine for the development of cross platform RPGs.
Why FIFE?
Half-life 1 revolutionized PC gaming back in 1998. The most important part of Half-life wasn't the great game with the story but the engine behind it IMHO. HL1 was the first game that offered good modding support combined with a company that provided useful tools to support the new growing modding community. Today there are a bunch of good open source 3D engines out there like Ogre or Irrlicht. However there are several problems:
1. These are mostly GFX engines. That means they focus on gfx code while they provide just few code that is needed to make a fully working game with them.
2. More important: they've been made for the creation of 3D applications. But unfortunately there is no flexible 2D ISO engine (that I know) that is comparable to what Ogre and Irrlicht are for 3D games.
So our aim is to "revolutionize" 2D ISO games as HL1 did it with 3D games quite some years ago. We want to create a platform for the creation of isometric games that all indie developers can use for their games so they don't need to create something from scratch. We focus on good modding abilities so we'll bundle the engine with an easy to use and full featured editor tool called FIFEdit.
The advantage over other engines is that FIFE is meant to become a full game engine. So we don't only provide 2d gfx code for the rendering but also feature code that allows the modders to easily script game logic. FIFE supports SDL & OpenGL rendering modes and is uses different open source cross platform libraries. This way the engine and the editor (that uses Qt4) will run on Win32, Linux and Macintosh. So we can ensure that game developers can easily provide their games as FIFE mods that run all kind of platforms without needing to care about writing cross platform code themselves.
Our editor will support a plugin system so you can easily add new features that are needed for specific kind of games; e.g. RPGs or RTS games.
The current status of the project:
The FIFE project is about 9 months in development now and we have released three public pre-alpha versions of the engine on sourceforge / freshmeat in January and May 2006.
The gfx part of the engine is the most "mature" one at the moment. The rendering code is encapsulated well with a "renderbackend" approach; so you can easily work on the OpenGL part of the renderer without being afraid of breaking something on the SDL side. Our coders are currently working on the map model to be able to integrate some first game logic code later. You can already script a GUI using lua code; lua will be used as scripting language for all game logic too.
The second part of the team is working on the new FIFE editor FIFEdit. The design phase has been just completed and the work on the code started. You can view the design document with all planned features for FIFEdit here:
<a href="http://wiki.fifengine.de/index.php?title=FIFEdit_Design_Document">FIFEdit design document</a>
You can also already access Fallout 1 / 2 .dat archives and display maps, view animations and listen to the original .acm sound files. But I guess this information is just important for the Fallout fans here. The Fallout maps just serve as example implementation to show what's already possible.
Intention of this post:
We would like to know what you think about our idea of a flexible isometric engine that focuses on modding abilities. Do you think this concept will work out or isn't it worth the hassle? Are there other projects that want to achieve something similar? Do you think that our engine is worth being used later or is it easier to create an engine from scratch for indie teams that plan to create ISO games?
Are there ISO fans out here that really like the idea and want to support us working on the engine? What kind of features would be really needed to make this engine attractive? Which parts of our design documents are well worked out and what's missing? Feedback is really appreciated
<a href="http://wiki.fifengine.de/index.php?title=Category:Design_Documents">FIFE design documents</a>
More information:
<a href="http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=385950">FIFE help wanted thread @ Gamedev</a>
<a href="http://www.fifengine.de">FIFE homepage</a>
<a href="http://wiki.fifengine.de/index.php?title=Main_Page">FIFE development wiki</a>
<a href="http://www.fifengine.de/index.php?module=pagesetter&tid=5">FIFE screenshot section</a>
Screenshots:
These screenshots were taken using FIFE with the original maps from Fallout 1 / 2. You'll need a valid copy of the Fallout games to load and display these maps; FIFE doesn't come bundled with copyrighted material! Additionally we do now feature screenshots of our custom maps too.
Official 2007.1 demo map: official_map.xml:
New map with buildings created by wulax:
FIFE with real square tiles. Useful for the creation of classical non-ISO 2D games like jRPGs:
Split personality. The new multiple cameras feature:
Welcome to the New California Republic:
FIFE offers a console interface to debug your games with:
One of our first custom XML maps with placeholder graphics:
Transparency for roof tiles:
