DIV Games Studio 2 with 3D (includes FREE game Tokenkai) by FastTrak

Description

Homebrew games development has always attracted a large crowd of enthusiastic participants and with the release of the second version of DIV Games Studio that crowd is sure to help keep interest high.

From the off it's important to point out that this is not a point-and-click tool, instead it's a collection of programming utilities based around a variant of the BASIC language.

Complete with a unique integrated development environment (IDE) which provides a central control point for all the tools and graphics, sound and game map editors, DIV does a great job of easing the newcomer into what can be a very daunting experience–no-one ever said games development was easy!.

The language itself has been massively extended from version one with the addition of 130 new commands to cover functionality including multi-player network gaming and a pseudo-3D mode which allows for the creation of Mario-Kart-style games for those looking to break away from a pure 2D environment.

Sadly the 3D element is a bit lacking and doesn't hold a candle to the facilities provided by Blitz Basic 3D, but for the beginner and the enthusiastic amateur who doesn't have the time to get the best from a semi-pro package like Blitz, DIV Games Studio is a very entertaining product with a lot going for it. It's very user-friendly and can be very forgiving–a godsend for those just starting out.

If there is one major failing in this release of the software it's that it requires a DOS environment to run in and as such is totally incompatible with Windows XP (unless you happen to have a dual-boot PC with a DOS option). The packaging states supported platforms are Windows 95/98/98 SE and Windows ME. FastTrak are planning a future XP-compatible release but until that time many users may find themselves excluded from the world of DIV–a great shame really.–Chris Russell

Platforms

Windows 95, Windows 98