App Game Kit

The App Game Kit (AGK) is a piece of cross-platform games development software developed by The Game Creators (TGC).^[1]

Overview

AGK consists of several tools for developing cross platform apps and games. It is based on a cross platform game library written in C++, which may be linked to directly and used for cross platform C++ programming. On top of this is a custom programming language called AGK BASIC which provides full access to this game library. The AGK BASIC compiler also offers the ability to broadcast the apps it has compiled to AGK player apps which are available for all target platforms, for the purposes of rapid testing and iteration. AGK ships with a modified version of the Geany Integrated Development Environment (IDE) customised to support AGK BASIC.^[2]

At present, programmers may develop using AGK on Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux, and may deploy to Windows, OS X, Linux, HTML5, Android, iOS, and BlackBerry Tablet OS.^[3]

AGK BASIC

AGK offers a high level programming language called AGK BASIC, which aims to be easy for beginners to learn.^[4] The syntax was based on that of an earlier language developed by TGC, DarkBASIC Professional, but was modernised and changed with feedback from the community, which led to various changes such as spaces being removed from commands and parentheses becoming mandatory for function calls.^[5]

The following is an example of an AGK BASIC program which opens a window and displays the text "Hello, world!".

do
    Print("Hello, world!")
    Sync()
loop

Development

AGK was first announced by TGC in December 2010, and was planned for release in early 2011 with support for iOS, Samsung Bada, Microsoft Windows, and Symbian, with other platforms coming later.^[6] After slight delays, AGK was released in August 2011 with support for Windows, OS X, iOS, Samsung Bada, and MeeGo.^[7]

Over the next couple of years, the platform saw a number of updates which included many new commands. Support for Samsung Bada and MeeGo was dropped, whilst support for Android and Blackberry Tablet OS was added.

In June 2013, TGC launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the development of version 2 of AGK. Version 2 promised enhancements to the 2D rendering engine, and through stretch goals, also offered OUYA platform support, 2D animation through Spine integration, an improved IDE, an overhaul of the BASIC dialect, a debugger for AGK BASIC, support for 3D rendering and physics, and Windows Phone 8 platform support.^[8] All goals except for Windows Phone 8 support were funded. The original roadmap suggested that the first features would be available by October 2013, whilst the last would be finished by May 2014. However after a some delays, an alpha of AGK V2 was released in December 2013 with the 2D enhancements and Spine support. In November 2014, AGK V2 left alpha and launched on Steam.^[9] At launch, AGK V2 lacked some of the features from the Kickstarter campaign, but had various others including support for deployment to Linux and for development on OS X.

In April 2016, a free version of AGK was launched for the Raspberry Pi.^[10] In May 2016, HTML5 was added as a new deployment platform.^[11] In July, AppGameKit Education Pack was released.^[12]

Reception

AGK currently holds a rating of 8/10 on Desura,^[13] and was featured in Develop-Online's top 16 game engines of 2014.^[14] It is ranked #7 on Slant's list of best 2D game engines.^[15]

References

External links

• App Game Kit Website
• The Game Creators' website
• App Game Kit Online Documentation