Try some SLUDGE (cross-platform game engine) - now with Nathan's Second Chance!
 

Hi!

Some of you may be aware of the cross-platform open source adventure game engine called SLUDGE. It used to be Windows-only, but starting with version 2.0 it's available for Windows, Mac and Linux. (The 2.0 development kit is currently Mac-only, but games made with the 1.x dev kit in Windows can be run in the 2.0 engine, and there are plans to bring the new dev kit to all three platforms.) Version 2.0 is currently in beta, but it's reached the point where it's working well, so we want more people to try it to find any bugs that may be remaining.

I have packaged up the game Nathan's Second Chance with the engine, so that it's easy to test. It's a pretty good game, so if you haven't played it, now's the time to do so! But don't use the download on the game's site. That would get you the old engine. (Yes, Tim Knauf has given me permission to re-package and distribute the game.)

Mac version
Windows version

Linux users will have to download the tarball, compile the engine themselves and then use that to run the gamedata.slg file found in either the Mac or Windows download.

Please let me know if you find any bugs or problems! I'm also interested to know the system requirements, so if you run this on an older computer, I'd appreciate it if you let me know how that works, too.

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If you're interested in SLUDGE, you can find out more at the official SLUDGE forum.

If have downloaded the Mac version, I have to apologise to you. There was a bug that prevented the game from starting at all. I have uploaded a fixed version.

Thanks to Trumgottist
 

Hi everyone, I'm Tim Knauf - the author of Nathan's Second Chance. Just wanted to say a huge thanks to Trumgottist. From what I can tell, he's put in a big amount of effort making the SLUDGE engine cross-platform. I've really enjoyed playing through Nathan's Second Chance again on my Mac, and it's great that Linux users can come to the party now too. Enjoy the game, everyone. Once you get over my MSPaint-style graphics you'll find a lot to like. ;)

Hey, I liked the graphics! Is there any chance you'll create a new game anytime soon?

Oops, didn't see your reply there. (Still Tim Knauf here, I'm just under a different username now.) The answer is: yes, actually! I'm working on one with the very talented Tristan Clark right now. Erin, you'll be 'disappointed' (ahem) that I'm not doing the graphics this time around. ;)

The new adventure is Scarlett and the Spark of Life for iPhone (and iPod touch). The game is co-written by Tristan, who is also doing a great job of the artwork.

We've started up a forum topic about it just recently.

Hey Tim :)
Just wanted to ask what engine you are using for the iphone game?

Cheers :)
Myles Blasonato.

Hi mylesb, nice question. The graphics engine is an open-source project called cocos2d. Personally I like to work at a higher level than raw OpenGL calls, and so cocos is hugely helpful with getting sprites, image manipulation, layering, scaling etc set up. I heartily recommend it.

On top of cocos we're building an 'adventure engine' (akin to SLUDGE in some but not all ways) which handles all the proper adventure stuff like scripted events, walking around, talking to characters, inventory, cutscenes etc. It's an interesting challenge! We're pretty happy with the results so far, though. :)

(Feel free to ask any and all questions about Scarlett in the thread we made for her. We're very keen to discuss. :devil:)