Playground SDK

Playground SDK

Developer(s)	PlayFirst
Discontinued	5.0.1.18 / December 14, 2009[1]
Development status	Discontinued
Written in	Lua, C++
Operating system	Creation Windows OS X Deployment Windows OS X Nintendo DS iOS Android
Platform	Microsoft Windows, Mac OS
Size	18.5 MB
Available in	18 languages
List of languages  English
Type	Game creation system
Website	Official website

Playground SDK is a game creation system developed and published by PlayFirst, including a game engine and integrated development environment (IDE). It is used to develop video games for Microsoft Windows, Macintosh, Android and iOS. First announced only for Microsoft Windows on PlayFirst's Developer website on 2006.

Overview

Playground SDK was first used exclusively for the DASH games.^[2] It was unveiled to the public in 2006 and PlayFirst launched the Developer Dash Program.^[3] To download the SDK, users need to read the license and must be a US citizen to create a PlayFirst Developer account.^[4]

Development

Development on the Playground SDK ceased on 2010 after PlayFirst changed their direction from PC to Mobile.^[5]

List of Releases

Microsoft Windows

1. Version 3.1 - http://developer.playfirst.com/downloads/windows/31
2. Version 4.0 - http://developer.playfirst.com/downloads/windows/40
3. Version 5.0 - http://developer.playfirst.com/downloads/windows/ 50
4. Version 5.0.1.18 (Final) - http://developer.playfirst.com/releases/windows/final

Macintosh

1. Version 4.7 - http://developer.playfirst.com/releases/mac/47
2. Version 5.0.0.2 (Final) - http://developer.playfirst.com/releases/mac/final

Features

• Easy-to-use, Developer Friendly API
  • Years of game library development experience culminates in an easy-to-use yet powerful C++ API – designed for game developers by game developers. The Playground SDK is designed to make your life easier, to work the way you expect, and to provide all the features you need with minimal complexity.
• Feature-Rich
  • The Playground SDK supports hardware accelerated 2d animated sprites, 3d models, arbitrary 2d and 3d polygonal data, Flash cut scenes, sound effects, music, programmable particle systems, customizable GUI widgets, scalable fonts, text effects, and more.
• Lua Script Support
  • The popular, fast, and compact Lua script language is integrated with support for trivially binding C++ functions. Lua is also used as a dialog and screen layout language, and you can embed GUI functionality directly in the screen layout files.
• Universal Deployment with True Cross-Platform Reliability
  • Run your game on Windows (DirectX 7 support), Macintosh (PPC/Intel Universal Binary), and Web based deployment, with downloadable console support. Hooks are also provided for custom web deployment.
• Powerful Localization
  • The Playground SDK provides strong cross-platform localization capabilities. Once your game is ready in English on Windows, change out a couple files and you'll have Japanese on the Mac and French on the Web with no additional effort. Support for arbitrary cross-platform scalable vector fonts (use all the fonts you want!) and a UNICODE XML spreadsheet for strings makes it easy.
• Compact Runtime
  • Maximize your download bang-for-the-buck! The overhead of the Playground SDK is under a half megabyte compressed, and a typical complete game executable for a game like Diner Dash: Flo on the Go compresses to about a megabyte, so you can spend your size budget on great graphics, sound and music!.

System Requirements

Microsoft Windows

• C++ Compiler
• Lua Libraries
• Supported OS: Windows® 2000, XP, Vista, 7
• Tested Service Packs: Windows XP - Service Packs 1 & 2
• Processor: Pentium® III 700 MHz minimum
• RAM: 128 MB
• Minimum Screen Resolution: 800x600
• Sound Card: recommended
• DirectX® Version: DirectX 7.0 or later
• Hard Drive Space: 80 MB

Note: It will not work properly on Windows 8!

MAC

• Supported OS: Mac OS X 10.3.9 or newer
• Processor: G4 800 MHz or faster processor
• Minimum Screen Resolution: 800x600
• Sound Card: recommended
• Hard Drive Space: 100 MB

Games built with Playground SDK

See also

• Games built with Playground SDK

External links

• PlayFirst's Official Website
• Playground SDK's Official Website
• Official PlayFirst Blog
• Official Listing of games built with Playground SDK

References