Using open source libraries in cross platform games development

Abstract

With the rapidly evolving mobile game industry it has become increasingly lucrative to develop quickly across as many different platforms as possible. There is a great number of Open Source Software libraries which help with the different aspects of cross-platform game development. Nonetheless there is still a great deal of low level systems to be crafted to deal with each platform, a process far more complex than the game design and development process. This is a large discouragement to cross-platform development and has resulted in many companies specializing on the costly and complex process of porting games from platform to platform. The lack of simple cross platform development tools reduces developers' target consumer range, and thus revenue. The solution is an intuitive game development tool, based on a range of Open Source Software packages to easily create cross-platform games. The complex interweaving of graphics, audio, physics, scripting, input and file systems can be completed by the tool leaving developers to focus wholly on the game creation. The majority of the code can be written for the general case, and then platform specific input and file systems configurations can be added to make for more natural gameplay experiences on each platform. A graphical UI would enhance the development process of creative games, allowing for easy addition of specific cases for each platform where required. In short, the tool will remove the overwhelmingly complex process of cross-platform development into a seamless and intuitive experience.