A Juicy Bite of Citrus
posted by Kevin Chan 
on March 09, 2009 at 02:01 PM
filed under: Flash, Games, and Software
Kevin Chan
Interactive Designer : New York
topics: Design, Internet Video, Agile and Scrum, Creativity, and Animation and 3D
filed under: Flash, Games, and Software
As a Flash developer, games are definitely one of my favorite things to build. Still, as fun as developing a game can be, the dread of getting the nitty gritty of a game set up can sometimes put a damper on that fun. That’s why I’m always on the lookout for great game development platforms that smooth out that process as much as possible.
Rather recently, I discovered Eric Smith’s rather amazing Citrus Engine and I was quite impressed. Built in ActionScript 3.0, it’s a fairly robust Flash sidescrolling platform game engine that allows quick and easy development. It even makes game physics a little less painful to implement, by integrating the Box2D physics engine into the game mechanics.
- Blazing 50 FPS in the browser on current machines, and 250+ FPS on the desktop (or Adobe AIR).
- Physics-based engine allows for tumbling crates, pulleys, vehicles, and just about anything else you can imagine, without the limitations of a grid.
- The Level Architect visual level editor makes it easier to create level blue prints, then tweak your level to your hearts desire.
- Robust documentation includes and ASDoc API and a developer-friendly manual.
- Standards-based code API means developers and designers spend more time tweaking the fun stuff, and less time debugging.
- Level-based progressive downloading allows gamers to start playing the game quicker by only downloading what the next level needs.
I’m definitely excited to dig deeper into this. Eric says it’s still in beta, but I still encourage everyone interested to check it out. I look forward to seeing him add more awesomeness to this in the coming months.
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