GDC: Entire game built with GUI tool

Indie studio GlobZ has released a new iOS game built entirely with a tool designed for making high-end GUIs.

Originally a Flash title, 2D action-puzzler TwinSpin was made using Autodesk Scaleform byutilising the tech as a game engine, making it the first commercially released game to do so.

But GlobZ’s creative work with a tool traditionally used to build elaborate menus in triple-A releases isn’t likely to be unique for long, as the 4.1 version of Scaleform announced at GDC is set to arrive in spring with a host of features conceived to allow for the development of games. 4.1 extends the middleware’s potential as a mobile game development toolset with a new mobile-ready player, flexible input support, game kits and tutorials, demonstrating Autodesk’s support for the tech as a games dev platform.

"Scaleform rendering was key in producing the quality of graphics that we wanted to achieve for the iOS version of TwinSpin, and we had more space to style the game because the Scaleform footprint is so small compared to certain other solutions," said Alexandre Houdent, general manager at GlobZ. "Scaleform also provides interfaces for cleanly integrating platform-specific libraries with our content."

"Testing was also an important part of our development process to make sure that the game was translating well on the new platform," continued Houdent. "Using Scaleform the game file compiles more quickly, so we were able to work iteratively until we felt the game was presented in the best possible light on iOS."

"The TwinSpin game mechanics translate extremely well to the touch-based iOS platform," added Marc Stevens, Autodesk vice president, product management. "It’s great to see promising games like this get a second life on new platforms, with new customers to delight and new revenue opportunities. We expect that Autodesk’s offering of mobile game development solutions will help more developers like GlobZ to do the same."

Scaleform’s multithreaded vector graphics renderer enabled GlobZ to increase the frame rate of the Flash original of TwinSpin from 25 to 60 frames per second for the iOS build.

The game engine features to be introduced with Scaleform 4.1 demonstrate Autodesk’s interestin supporting mobile development

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