It's funny, there is a big hype currently about the popular cross-platform game dev tool GameMaker Studio: the creator (YoYo games) has been recently acquired for $16.4 million by an online gambling software company (Playtech).
They have over 750,000 registered game developers, and everyone is now talking about long-term concerns..
There is a quote on Gamasutra that got my attention:
While there is concern, it seems that game developers who use GameMaker aren't panicking quite yet. "[The] biggest worry is long-term, it needs commitment," game developer Rob Fearon said. "After the first year is done we'll see how things pan out, I reckon. [I'm] not worried for now though, partially because I've lived the dry times with GameMaker on multiple occasions, and saw it get pulled back to [being] good."
and:
XNA: abandoned.
Flash: neglected.
GameMaker: sold.
Your proprietary tool could be next.
Open Source. For your own protection.
— Lars Doucet ن (@larsiusprime) February 16, 2015
It is funny, because this engine and it's users are really.. BIG. Big tech, big user base, big possibilities.. and big money
compared to what happens here, we are just peanuts. A8 is just a peanut. Even JCL is a peanut.
In my plans for A7ITUDE (which is still under development, yes), I changed my plans for target audience and target platforms a lot, and what is clear, is that I want to develop for PC and not mobile, and I want to reach out on Windows, Mac and Linux.. so it is inevitable to switch at some time.
First I was flirting with jMonkey (for JAVA reasons), then I flirted with GDX (also JAVA, but a strong 2D feature set as well and better exporting features), and now I am heavily considering Godot Engine. I am also searching an engine with integrated shadow mapping support that just works... Unity is too expensive for me.
Godot is developed by Okam Studio - a game dev studio actively developing games for PC and console - and it is open source. It is really developing well and gaining ground, and it is is open source.
I think that is a smart move... you are developing actively games and you are developing (or "sponsoring") the engine in an open source fashion, with people actually paid for this - and you get feedback from the real world, you even gain new features without paying.
I do not suggest that JCL should make the same moves, but what is striking me is that there are no moves at all.
I am also unsure if the Android exporter will be the holy grail to the engine, because a lot of other features and tools are missing as well..
[EDIT]
Here are some URLs for the aroused minds:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/236574/GameMaker_Studio_creator_acquired_for_164_million.phphttp://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/23667...erm_concern.phphttp://gamasutra.com/blogs/LarsDoucet/20150217/236674/Game_Maker_Security_and_Freedom.phphttp://okamstudio.com/http://www.godotengine.org/wp/
