I am currently studying for a degree in computing and i am doing a dissertation on game development so i just wanted to ask a quick question. The question is does anyone know of any companies that have used relatively unknown tools, for example SLUDGE (Scripting Language for Unhindered Development of a Gaming Environment) a tool for developing graphic adventures, to create games and release them onto the market? If anyone knowns of any could they let me what tool was used and, if you know, why the company chose to use it. Thank you to anyone who replies Sarah

"ScummVM is a 'virtual machine' for several classic graphical point-and-click adventure games. It is designed to run Adventure Soft's Simon the Sorcerer 1 and 2, Revolution's Beneath A Steel Sky, and games based on LucasArts' SCUMM (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion) system. SCUMM is used for many games, including Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max and more. Compatibility with supported games is continually improving, so check back often." (http://www.scummvm.org/)

well, it's not "relatively unknown" but you can mention it in your work.

[edited by - viator on February 5, 2004 2:40:35 PM]

Thank you very much i will check that out and will definatly be mentioning it in work

Sarah

Sierra also used a specialised toolkit - actually two, AGI for older games like Larry 1, Space Quest 1 etc. and SCI from 1990 which was used in pretty all Sierra adventure games.

A lot of companies have custom internal tool sets. Neversoft have their own scripting language for Tony Hawk. Naughty Dog developed 2 complete LISP-based development environments: compilers, linkers, debuggers, etc. Gas Powered Games developed their own scripting engine for Dungeon Siege. In the elder days, Infocom used a custom language system for developing its text adventure. Westwood studios had a custom engine for developing its games in the old days.

Beyond that, almost every company has some amount of custom tools for all kinds of purposes: cutting up sprites, laying out textures, creating sound libraries, custom model formats, etc. Some have far more custom pipelines (such as Naughty Dog) whereas some nowadays might not go much beyond using the standard Renderware stuff. Most usually have some kind of custom tools, though.

More about Naughty Dog's Jak II.

[edited by - flangazor on February 10, 2004 8:41:00 AM]