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moki · Jan 16, 2002, 04:31 AM

Ambrosia Software, Inc. released today the Coldstone game engine that brings professional-quality game building tools to the masses. No programming is required to produce polished, stand-alone games that run on Mac OS, Mac OS X, and Windows -- all that is needed is your imagination:

http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/games/coldstone/

Imagine a set of powerful yet easy to use tools for constructing your very own stand-alone game... no rules... a completely blank sheet of paper on which to pen your masterpiece, your imagination is the only limit on what you can create. This is exactly what Beenox, in conjunction with Ambrosia Software, Inc., is bringing to you with the Coldstone game engine. Want to see for yourself? You can download a demo version and get started right now!

Nebrie · Jan 16, 2002, 08:24 AM

Cool! I've been waiting for something like this ever since Corel Click & Create died (I imagine partly because it cost 10x more than this)

Guy Incognito · Jan 16, 2002, 11:23 AM

w00t! Very nice on OS 9. Reminds me of the good ol' days when I used to make World Builder games. The joy!

Though, I wish I could say the same about the OS X version of Coldstone. Poorly carbonized and unstable.

Edit: hmmm...moki, you know how to write carbon apps very well. Could you help Beenox get some of the new carbon events in?

Meh, I guess that's what apps look like when they have to be both OS 9 and OS X compatible...although why have two seperate apps then?

[ 01-16-2002: Message edited by: Guy Incognito ]

MacGorilla · Jan 16, 2002, 11:52 AM

About time! Grrrrrrrrrrrrreat!

moki · Jan 16, 2002, 03:05 PM

Originally posted by Guy Incognito:
Though, I wish I could say the same about the OS X version of Coldstone. Poorly carbonized and unstable.

Edit: hmmm...moki, you know how to write carbon apps very well. Could you help Beenox get some of the new carbon events in?

There is, alas, little I can do about it -- parts of the Coldstone game editor itself are written in RealBASIC (the core engine, and any games it produces are all C++) -- and unfortunately, RealBASIC's Mac OS X support is lacking.

We're not happy about it either, but until they fix their OS X issues, our hands are tied.

MacGorilla · Jan 16, 2002, 03:19 PM

Yes quitting it is an adventure--I always have to force quit it. It's a bit of pain but I'll deal with it. Thanks for the good work on this--it rocks!

The_Equivocator · Jan 16, 2002, 04:37 PM

Now all I need is Escape Velocity: Nova. Any idea on when we might get to see it, Moki?

Guy Incognito · Jan 16, 2002, 05:03 PM

Originally posted by moki:


There is, alas, little I can do about it -- parts of the Coldstone game editor itself are written in RealBASIC (the core engine, and any games it produces are all C++) -- and unfortunately, RealBASIC's Mac OS X support is lacking.

We're not happy about it either, but until they fix their OS X issues, our hands are tied.

No worries...it looks great and works very well in OS 9. As long as I can build my games in one OS or the other I'm happy.

Guy Incognito · Jan 16, 2002, 05:09 PM

Originally posted by The_Equivocator:
Now all I need is Escape Velocity: Nova. Any idea on when we might get to see it, Moki?

I'm wondering what's keeping Pop-pop from being released....that game must have been in development for almost 3 years now. Last time the author updated his log (back in April of last year I believe?) he said that he would have been able to release it at the end of 2000 or something.

I hope this isn't one of those games that's going to silently fade away...like Manse (reincarnated as a 3D engine source code for dev I believe...the name has escaped me though), or Ragnarok.

[ 01-16-2002: Message edited by: Guy Incognito ]

moki · Jan 16, 2002, 08:55 PM

Originally posted by Guy Incognito:


No worries...it looks great and works very well in OS 9. As long as I can build my games in one OS or the other I'm happy.

We will be issuing an updated OS X version when a more stable RealBASIC runtime is available.

moki · Jan 16, 2002, 09:00 PM

Originally posted by Guy Incognito:
I hope this isn't one of those games that's going to silently fade away...like Manse (reincarnated as a 3D engine source code for dev I believe...the name has escaped me though), or Ragnarok.

[ 01-16-2002: Message edited by: Guy Incognito ]

Manse was not progressing well; we had no confidence that it would be released as a marketable game.

As for Ragnarok, we own the source code, we just haven't decided what, if anything, we wish to do with it.

pop-pop is still progressing, and it will be released as soon as it is ready

In the meantime, Coldstone is a heck of a lot of fun to play with.

MacGorilla · Jan 16, 2002, 09:20 PM

It is..I have been making a really bad game with it. A downloadable tutorial would be really, really (begging) nice!

Archangel · Jan 17, 2002, 02:53 AM

Originally posted by The_Equivocator:
Now all I need is Escape Velocity: Nova. Any idea on when we might get to see it, Moki?

I just want all the ppl working on EV:N to know that they have my $30 as soon as I get the thing d/led. I won't even bother playing it first. That's how much I trust you guys.

So, Ambrosia can go $30 in debt, I'll bail you out.

moki · Jan 17, 2002, 08:52 AM

Originally posted by MacGorilla:
It is..I have been making a really bad game with it. A downloadable tutorial would be really, really (begging) nice!

There are tutorials in the documentation...

MacGorilla · Jan 17, 2002, 10:14 AM

Really? The readme begs to differ:

"The game tutorial has not been included in this package to reduce the download size of this version of Coldstone. The full version comes with a complete 30 pages tutorial that takes you step by step through the creation of your very first, complete game"

Starkiller · Jan 18, 2002, 01:09 PM

Do the Pillars of Garendall plug-in tutorial; that'll get you started off on a good foot.

Jan 18, 2002, 01:12 PM

Oh, if you want to discuss CGE with others, check out the Coldstone Web Board.

zeebe · Jan 18, 2002, 10:52 PM

Moki, I am sure this has been discussed many times before, but WHY can you not make EV networkable? I loved the original version and have played the second one but it needs to go a step further. Even with better graphics, it is still the same game as the first.

Judge_Fire · Jan 19, 2002, 02:51 PM

Cool

This reminds me of Shoot 'Em Up Construction Kit for C64/Amiga way back in the olden days...

... so my friend and I decided to do this insanely great shooter using it, a bit like Deimos Rising, you know the genre.

We got off to a great start designing the weirdest enemies and background graphics and putting a lot of effort into it. But when the time came for level design, we we're starting to get bored with it, so at the end of Level 2, we decided we'd just throw about a few hundred enemy mini- bosses for a few minutes at the player - no one could ever get past them with no health boosts and just three lives, so... there is no Level 3!

About a year a relative of mine, a guy 6 years old, borrowed a few game floppys from me, some old games and other misc. stuff.

And 3 days later, I get a call asking "Cool game, with your names on it and all! But it just ends after level 2 after we blasted all those mini- bosses! When are gonna continue with it?"

So. Even with an editor like ColdStone, creating good games is a lot of work. Thankfully, you'll be spared from any future games by me, but fortunately, there must be a lot of people out there who'll have fun using it AND who'll come up with great games.

Thanks, Ambrosia, yet again,

J

Guy Incognito · Jan 19, 2002, 07:55 PM

Originally posted by zeebe:
Moki, I am sure this has been discussed many times before, but WHY can you not make EV networkable? I loved the original version and have played the second one but it needs to go a step further. Even with better graphics, it is still the same game as the first.

Moki's not responsible for EV...nor is he responsible for PoG or Coldstone. Those are games/programs published under Ambrosia...moki didn't create them so he's not responsible for EV not being networkable.

Archangel · Jan 20, 2002, 03:22 AM

Originally posted by zeebe:
Moki, I am sure this has been discussed many times before, but WHY can you not make EV networkable? I loved the original version and have played the second one but it needs to go a step further. Even with better graphics, it is still the same game as the first.

I believe the reason had something to do with the way hyperspace jumps and the timeline worked. Players with bigger ships spend 2-3 days in hyperspace. Smaller ships are only one day. Thus, players w/ different size ships would start separating chronologically. Furthermore, just by going into hyperspace the player puts himself in a different day of the timeline that the other players would not be at. Essentially, the minute somebody jumps he left the mp game and is now on his own separate sp game. I really doubt they would ever cross again chronologically. This would be impossible to work with a networked game unless the entire hyperspace jumps were all instantaneous (no days passed), all mp games took place in one system, or if EV was converted to a turn-based game. Also, what about time spent planet-side? Would that be real time or what? That's all I can remember at the moment, maybe there were more problems.

zeebe · Jan 20, 2002, 10:59 PM

Originally posted by Guy Incognito:


Moki's not responsible for EV...nor is he responsible for PoG or Coldstone. Those are games/programs published under Ambrosia...moki didn't create them so he's not responsible for EV not being networkable.

I don't think I ever said Moki was responsible for EV, I was simply asking a question about it. I figured, since he works for Ambrosia, he would know where to get the answer. When I said "you" in my message, I was talking about Ambrosia, not Moki himself. I love the EV games and think that they [Ambrosia] should come out with a networkable version of it!!!