Plasmacore

 

About

Plasmacore is a professional cross-platform 2D game programming framework.  It is ideal for creating casual, mobile, and independent games.

Plasmacore is not a construction kit or an engine - it requires proficiency in high-level object-oriented programming.  What it provides is incredibly easy and intuitive graphics loading and drawing, sound loading and playing, and input processing - with a smooth, robust, and hassle-free architecture to back it up.

Plasmacore games are written in Slag , a language which mirrors the ergonomic philosophy of Plasmacore.  Slag brings with it all the benefits of languages like Java and C# while being lighter, more portable, and easier to work with.

Plasmacore is free software, available under the terms of the Apache License 2.0.  The full version is available for download below.

Download

• plasmacore-2.24.zip  (October 13, 2009)
  Plasmacore for Windows, Mac, and iPhone.  Read this page for instructions on getting a project going.
  View the Change Log for changes since 2.23.

Hello World

If you follow the instructions to create a new Plasmacore project then a serviceable "Hello World" program will be created for you.  Here's the bare minimum:

[include "plasmacore.slag"]

class Hello : Application
  method init:
    println( "Hello World! " )
endClass

• Use ':' to specify which base class your class extends (default is "Object").
• The first class in a file is called the main class.  Slag creates an object of the main class upon loading; your main class's init() method should contain or initiate the rest of the program.
• Constructors in Slag are called initializers and are named init.
• Normally a class contains categories for PROPERTIES and METHODS.  If a regular method is the first thing defined in your class you can omit the METHODS category header.
• When an example shows a fragment of test code you can typically put it in place of the "println" above to try it out.