The Game Creators
 | |
| Private | |
| Industry | Software development |
| Founded | Lancashire, United Kingdom (1999) |
| Founder | Lee Bamber, Richard Vanner |
| Headquarters | Macclesfield, Cheshire, United Kingdom |
Key people |
Lee Bamber (Managing Director) Richard Vanner (Financial Director)[1] |
| Products | Video game development software, modelling software |
| Website | TheGameCreators.com |
The Game Creators, Ltd. (often stylised "tgc") is a British game development software company[2] formed through a partnership between programmer Lee Bamber and Rick Vanner in 1999,[3] located in Macclesfield, Cheshire, United Kingdom. The company was formerly known as Dark Basic Software Limited.
The company primarily develops and markets game development tools for Windows,[4] although some of its products, most notably App Game Kit, also support other platforms.[5] Among others, it has developed DarkBASIC Professional, its predecessor DarkBASIC, App Game Kit, FPS Creator (and its successors FPS Creator X10 and GameGuru) and The 3D Gamemaker.
The company also electronically publishes a number of other game development tools and utilities made by other parties, such as 3d modeling tools and media. In the past, they published a small number of computer games.
History
In 2005, The Game Creators acquired AlienCodec, a small game development company. The AlienCodec product range is now distributed by The Game Creators, with the original company existing only as a wholly owned brand of The Game Creators Ltd.[6]
Alongside game creation products, the company has occasionally published games. For example, in the recent past, TGC created several iOS.[7][8]
In 2012, The Game Creators released the Freedom Engine (later discontinued in 2013[9]) and the App Game Kit (AGK).
Game Guru
In November 2012, the company launched a campaign aiming to raise funds for the development of a new version of FPS Creator called "Reloaded", using crowd funding site Kickstarter. Despite the eventual failure to secure funding, a private investor agreed to fund development and The Game Creators began to accept funding using an internal system. As of October 2013, a beta version was in development [10] with a limited release scheduled for 31 October 2013. It was later renamed Game Guru and widened its focus beyond the first-person shooter genre. Since 27 February 2015 it is available as a Steam early access title. The company hopes the engine can make game creation more accessible.[2]
The 3D Gamemaker
The 3D Gamemaker is a computer application developed by The Game Creators, that allows users to make various genres of 3D games[11][12] for Microsoft Windows. The tool is marketed as allowing users to create 3D games without programming and art skills. Games developed with 3D Gamemaker require at least 400 MHz Pentium processor, 64 MB of RAM and DirectX 7.0b[12] to run. Alongside the full boxed release, The 3D Gamemaker was also released in a Lite edition, with less categories of assets available and a reduced feature set.
The software has a simple[12] point-and-click interface[13][14] which guides the user through the process of creating the game. The user chooses a scene from one of several different genres[12][13] ("shooter", "horror", "war", "space", "driving", "jungle", "cartoon", or "silly"[12]), and then chooses different characters, weapons, items, enemies and so on.[12][13] The software includes hundreds of pre-made scenes and 3D objects.[13] The software can also automatically generate a game by choosing random elements.[12][13] The resulting game can be exported as a standalone Windows executable.[12] The 3D Gamemaker has a built in placement editor that allows the user to indicate where enemies, items, and obstacles go. This is not available in beginner mode or the lite edition. There is also, amongst other things, a simple level creator. It also includes the ability to import your own media.[12]
Reviewing The 3D Gamemaker for GameSpy, Tricia Harris praised the software's ease-of-use, but criticised the animation and "placement editor" systems.[15]
References
- ↑ The Game Creators Newsletter issue 82
- 1 2 Freeman, Will (2015-02-27). "Lessons from the GameGuru". Develop. Retrieved 2016-08-08.
- ↑ About: The Game Creators
- ↑ CrunchBase - The Game Creators
- ↑ The Game Creators Newsletter - Issue 95
- ↑ Aliencodec Homepage
- ↑ The Game Creators - iPhone and iPod Touch games
- ↑ PocketGamer.biz - Interview with The Game Creators
- ↑ "Freedom Engine · Game Changing Technology (beta)". 2013. Retrieved 2015-08-14.
- ↑ http://fpscreloaded.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/wednesday-waypoint-zones.html
- ↑ Walker, Trey (2001-08-24). "The 3D Gamemaker nears completion". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 2012-10-19. Retrieved 2016-08-14.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Cruickshank, Alex (2002-01-22). "DarkBasic - 3D GameMaker review". itreviews.com. Archived from the original on 2012-07-22.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Harris, Tricia (October 2001). "GameSpy.com - Reviews: 3D Game Maker (PC)". GameSpy. Part 1. Archived from the original on 2008-03-02. Retrieved 2016-08-14.
- ↑ Steinberg, Scott (2006-02-06). "Make Your Own Game". Popular Science. Retrieved 2016-08-14.
- ↑ Harris, Tricia (October 2001). "GameSpy.com - Reviews: 3D Game Maker (PC)". GameSpy. Part 3: Scores. Archived from the original on 2008-02-12. Retrieved 2016-08-14.