Games - The Games Factory

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	Games - The Games Factory

The Games Factory, or TGF, a piece of GUI-centered software authoring software created by French developers Clickteam for Microsoft Windows 3.1 and subsequently Windows 95. It focuses on giving the user the ability to easily create 2D games using a grid-based interface as opposed to typing out code as in most other similar programs. However, the software was hampered by the slow speed of the games it produced (running at only 50 loops per second and allowing only 262 "objects" simultaneously). It has since been deprecated by its successor, Multimedia Fusion.

The Games Factory (TGF) is a software programming IDE. The purpose of the software was to permit so-called 'ordinary' users of Windows to create their own games using the developmental software. The software used a revolutionary GUI (graphical user interface) method for programming; the 'programmer' as it were did not have to learn any complex rules or a 'language' per se. The 'programmer' would interact with the software using a drag-n-drop interface, the 'programmer' would not have to type unless absolutely necessary (for values, for example), which was a rare occurrence.

The software was originally published by Europress, Inc. before its dissolution. The software is now only available in rare quantities in stores or online from the software vendor (Clickteam). Unfortunately, the program comes with no documentation, and no books have been written about how to use it.

Although in most respects, the sequence of commands was a 'programming language', users of the software found it very hard to convince fellow programmers that the programs they created were any more than a program or game created with a 'click to make game' software. In many circles this made users resentful of competitors' products such as Dark Basic.

In addition to the game-making abilities of the program, at a later stage in development (after CNC was dropped), it was possible to download "extensions" (an extension was a program, a DLL, which added further functionality to Clickteam software) which provided users with a vast array of tools such as Zip compression amongst others.

In the latter years of the program's life, users were often ridiculed or mocked for being the programming equivalent of "script kiddies" as programs like Multimedia Fusion (MMF) replaced the product.

The Games Factory is also known as Klik and Play 2.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for The Games Factory ]

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