SwinGame 3 Alpha

Over the Winter break we've been working on a new version of SwinGame - SwinGame 3!

This version aims to consolidate all the previous SwinGame code incorporating a new, more consistent, coding style and naming convention. The distribution mechanism has also undergone a large number of changes which will make it easier to maintain SwinGame and distribute it to a number of programming languages.

SwinGame 3 is scheduled to be launched in January of 2010 in time for the SwinGame 10 Programming Competition. At this stage we are releasing an Alpha version for testing purposes. Please be aware that things are likely to change between now and the full release of SwinGame 3.

Download SwinGame 3 Alpha from SwinGame.

If you encounter any issues with the Alpha version of SwinGame 3 please let us know!

Get started Programming VBugs

Over the summer we were very fortunate to have two Swinburne students help us create a new tutorial on using SwinGame and Visual Basic .NET to create small arcade style games. The first version of the tutorial is now available on the SwinGame web site. It walks you through the process of creating a game called "VBugs" and shows you how to use sprites, sounds, mouse and keyboard input, along with developing procedures and designing your own classes.

Teachers interesting in using this as a teaching resource can request an additional pack containing solutions to the various work sheets from Swinburne's school resources page.

We hope you enjoy this new tutorial.

SwinGame 09

The SwinGame competition for 2009 is now open!

This year the competition is open all students from secondary schools in Australia. The competition theme is on developing Arcade games using the SwinGame API.

Check out the SwinGame 09 Competition page for details.

We look forward to seeing what you can produce this year!

SwinGame 2.0 Released

SwinGame 2 is now available for download!

New features include:

• Alpha blended primitive shape drawing
• Sound and music volume control
• Triangle drawing
• Image and Sprite rotation and zoom
• Simple text drawing, using pixel fonts

The version also includes a number a fixes to existing bugs.

Download version 2 now...

New Summer Projects

SwinGame 2 is on the way! New features include:

• Triangle drawing
• Alpha blended primitive drawing
• Volume control
• Bitmap and sprite rotation and zoom
• Simple text drawing without pixel fonts
• Other small changes, and restructured code

We are also developing a new learn to program book using SwinGame and VB... Its in the early stages at the moment, but things are looking impressive!

Time to submit!

Interest in the SwinGame competition has been great, and we are looking forward to seeing what you have been able to create. Its now time for you to finish that final polish for your game, in time to submit. Remember that all entries must reach us by 5:30pm on Monday the 11th of August. Check the competition details for instructions on what needs to be submitted, and how you can submit.

Thank you to everyone who has shown interest in this competition. We hope it has been a fun and rewarding experience, and we look forward to meeting you on Open Day.

Forum Goodness and New Version

The forums are back online! Yay... Once again sorry for the inconvenience caused.

To celebrate the return of the forum we have created a new version of the SDK. This one has some minor additions, and now allows you to end text input, a feature requested several times in the forums. Hopefully this will help you guys out...

Anyway. Thanks for sticking with us, and we look forward to seeing what you can create with the SDK.