BravoSprites Game Engine

(This page was last updated: Dec. 27th, 2009)

What is BravoSprites?

BravoSprites is a robust game engine for creating 2D games or media-rich applications for Mac OS X. BravoSprites is written in C/Objective-C and is built using the following frameworks/API's:

• OpenGL - for graphics, sprite animation, and visual effects
• OpenAL - for sound effect playback
• Ogg Vorbis - for audio file loading/processing
• Chipmunks Physics - for realistic sprite physics and collision detection
• QuickTime - for music playback
• Cocoa - for Mac OS X-specific application features

Demo Video

Click here to see a simple demo video showing sprite animation, particle effects, sound effects, and physics.

Ease of use

BravoSprites was intended to make game development not just easy, but fast. It accomplishes this by filling in the blanks, and providing robust, intelligent default behaviors for all elements you add to the game, letting you override or customize only as much as is needed to make your game work.

For instance, sprites by default contain all the information they need to animate independently of the physics engine (or with an attached physical body), draw themselves, respond to basic collisions, receive input from the mouse or keyboard, etc. You can easily make various game elements behave as realistic physical objects with mass, velocity, friction, and elasticity, or you can make a sprite behave as a GUI element with BravoSprites' built in behavior.

For instance, writing an entire game in BravoSprites is this easy:

	engine = [BBSpritesSystem startSpriteEngine];
	[engine setBrain: self]; //set the controller/ main delegate
	
	[engine loadTextures]; //load image files into OpenGL textures
	[engine showWindow]; //display window
	
	BBSprite *sprite = [BBSprite sprite];
	//add a few details here to customize the sprite
	[engine addSprite: sprite];
	
	[engine run]; //run

Granted, the above example doesn't have much in the way of gameplay, but just add a few sprites and a little game logic and BravoSprites will do the rest.

BravoSprites makes it easy to perform tasks that normally can be somewhat difficult to implement. For instance, if you want to display OpenGL-drawn text in a custom font, resized and word-wrapped within a bounding width, it's this easy:

	BBTextSprite *textSprite = [BBTextSprite textSprite];
	[textSprite setTex: FONT_TEXTURE];
	[textSprite setString: @"Hello, world!"];
	[textSprite setCharHeight: 20]; //set a custom font size
	[textSprite setPos: NSMakePoint(200,200)]; //place it onscreen
	[textSprite setBoundingSize: NSMakeSize(100,0)]; //word wrap within 100 pixel width
	[engine addSprite: textSprite];

As you can see above, BravoSprites also uses many familiar Cocoa methods and data structures, so Mac OS X developers will feel right at home integrating it with existing XCode/ObjC/Cocoa projects.

Other cool stuff:

• Particles (smoke, sparks, etc.)
• Text display and input system
• Easy sound effect loading/playback with seamless looping, pitch adjustment, volume adjustment, and music playlists
• Built-in sprite physics and collisions using Chipmunks Physics
• Input handling (keyboard/mouse)
• Display capturing / screen fading
• Built-in debugging tools
• Intuitive delegate/callback and Object-Oriented design

For developers

As BravoSprites is still being developed, it is not currently available (yet) for a public release, however you can see it in action in BravoBug's newest upcoming arcade/adventure game (details to come soon).

Questions

Email Matt at: info@bravobug.com Back to BravoBug.com  |  BravoBug Blog