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Community News: Big Studio uses mmf!
News posted 22nd July, 2004 by Rikus  
I have some cool news here, it seems that a big studio is using mmf as test software to quickly test out certain parts of their games or test out mini games for there big budged commercial games! They are doing this to get quick great results, this is according to Ziophaelin who works for Griptonite/Amaze Entertainment and posted this at the clickteam forums. There games are btw published by E.A for the Game Boy Advance. Here is a short list..Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, James Bond 007 :Everything or Nothing. Is that cool or what. And you know what? I'm not surprised either, because mmf is the perfect tool to quickly create what you want without spending months to program it first. Way to go!:)) Hopefully more companies will follow.




Posted by colej_uk 22nd July, 2004

This can only be good news for clicking!
 
Posted by Willy C 22nd July, 2004

thats neat!
 
Posted by X_Sheep 22nd July, 2004

WHA? Lol, you should AT LEAST be a little surprised ;)
 
Posted by Lupo 22nd July, 2004

Wonderful news! These games was released and submitted here??
 
Posted by 22nd July, 2004

Yeah, yeah. Why would some of the greatest game producers like EA, Acclaim, Ubi soft, ID, Rockstar games, Infogrames, etc... use MMF !!! It can't even create a proper A.I. It can only draw 2D graphics. -- MMF won't never create games like SIMS, ROLLER COASTER TYCOON, C&C, etc... ~~, because those games demand some advanced mathematics and you can't really create adv. math. with MMF. (ONLY GB"A"C"/NES"8-,16 bit"/Saturn kind of games can be made with MMF)
 
Posted by Rikus 22nd July, 2004

IronBAR, read my good friend:) They use it to "test" certain parts of the game and mini games not the full games:)
 
Posted by GoMoogles 22nd July, 2004

That's amazing! Go clickteam!
 
Posted by Tigerworks 22nd July, 2004

They use it to quickly throw together prototypes of games without wasting time on complicated programming. MMF can do proper AI if you code it right. Objects like Klik OpenGL can do 3D. You could probably make RollerCoaster Tycoon in MMF, it's 2D for a start.
 
Posted by skn3 22nd July, 2004

"You could probably make RollerCoaster Tycoon in MMF, it's 2D for a start." Haha don't make me laugh. Companies do this all the time. Heard of the new sony PSP ? Well its flag ship puzzle game game (sticky balls) was demo-d using blitzbasic, then later taken to another language. I can't see how mmf can be used to "quickly" put together anything on the scale of a normal comercial 2d game. It takes just as long, if not longer to do anything beyond the "race car movement" and some backdrop objects! Anyway, good for clickteam I guess, but this is insanity if you ask me.
 
Posted by skn3 22nd July, 2004

And I meant put together "test" things.
 
Posted by Rikus 22nd July, 2004

Skn3 if they use it to test mini games and certain parts of the game i think this is highly possible, it would be faster to create everything from scratch in another language anyway.
 
Posted by X_Sheep 22nd July, 2004

The big question is, how do they import the thingsies made in MMF to the GBA?
 
Posted by Kristofor Durrschmidt 22nd July, 2004

We dont import things made from MMF to GBA we remake them once they are approved. This is how it works. The publisher, lets say, wants a mini games added to the GBA title we are working on. So we use MMF to quickly put together workable mini game demos for them to pick from. Once approved then the real assets are generated and a programmer's time is then allocated to creating the game code for GBA. This is MUCH MUCH faster than going all out and having the publisher change thier minds 20 times and hinder our deadlines. Basically MMF sort of gives us an idea of how things would play out before investing too much time in creating the art and taking up the precious time of the people working in the studio.
 
Posted by Jeremiah 22nd July, 2004

I think some of you don't realize how long programming takes. It took me several hours to get a pong game going in Visual Basic and I imagine C++ would take longer. TGF and MMF are a relative breeze.
 
Posted by Kramy 22nd July, 2004

You're probably cutting dev time down to 1/30 with MMF. :P Then again, you're also cutting speed down hugely, so I can see why commercial companies would only use it for conceptual stuff.
 
Posted by Silveraura 22nd July, 2004

MMF can make a RollerCoaster Tycoon type of game, it would just require math as you said, that doesnt mean MMF isnt powerful enough to do it. Way to go Clickteam!!
 
Posted by Retired Kliker Lazarus 22nd July, 2004

Wow! That's great news! I'm exploding with joy! ^_^
 
Posted by The Gonz 22nd July, 2004

Mmmm... MMF for GBA development. How about it, Clickteam? Better yet, how about MMF for Dreamcast dev? It shouldn't be THAT difficult to port it :)
 
Posted by Justin 22nd July, 2004

Wow I had that idea a long time ago. I always wondered if anyone actually used click products to test things out quickly. And they do.
 
Posted by Dr. James MD 22nd July, 2004

its not exactly a surprise. I was asked to do some character sprites for a GBA game last year and they accepted MMF files as they and a bunch of other UK based GBA development team use MMF. probably for testing.
 
Posted by Victor T 22nd July, 2004

i wish MMF was free :D
 
Posted by GoMoogles 22nd July, 2004

Dustin G, that would be amazing!
 
Posted by Weston L 23rd July, 2004

brilliant.
 
Posted by FlameCritter 23rd July, 2004

Dustin G, that would be amazing!
 
Posted by Justin 23rd July, 2004

A while ago I heard something about mmf converting to gba. Dont remember where but someone said they were trying to build an extension that did it. No clue how that would work. . .
 
Posted by Gamer 23rd July, 2004

Wow, lots of ignorance here. //Mmmm... MMF for GBA development. How about it, Clickteam? Better yet, how about MMF for Dreamcast dev? It shouldn't be THAT difficult to port it // Thanks for reading the news post. [/endsarcasm] //A while ago I heard something about mmf converting to gba. Dont remember where but someone said they were trying to build an extension that did it. No clue how that would work. . . // I'm 99.9% sure it's not possible through an extension. Possibly converting the .cca into C++ so that a GBA could read it.. but that'd require a total rewrite of the MMF engine and API functions, and many objects would be left in the dark. Doesn't seem like it's worth any of Clickteam's time or resources if you ask me. I'd rather have MMF2 any day.
 
Posted by Kristofor Durrschmidt 23rd July, 2004

It would be extremely hard to make a plug in for MMF to port to GBA. Unless CT specifically designs the software for that system it wont work. There are a HUGE list of rules your must follow in order to display sprite art and backdrop on screen. Such as how the GBA handles tiles (chars) vs the way that mmf uses it. Also the GBA can only have 16 colors per 8x8 char, on 3 layers one of which must be allocated to animated sprites. Thats just brushing the surface. I dont see that ever happening unless CT specifically designs a GBA dev mode for MMF 2. Which also probably won't happen because NoA (Nintendo) charges an arm and a leg for dev licenses. Think the price of a new car for each title you want to submit and make to run on their platform. O.o ..... so in a nut shell -Matthew- has the right idea.
 
Posted by Jack Galilee 23rd July, 2004

Who really cares its up to them guys leave em alone no matter how etchy MMF can be It is a great product you try finding another program that makes games as fast as the click team range with no code what so ever invloved... Proberly a great tool to test out the game!
 
Posted by Pkeod 23rd July, 2004

I think it's great that people are using mmf to make demos. It's just great guys! I mean wow! There using the same software that was used to make "Mario lost his hat!" to test demos so that the publishers don’t have to waste so much time! I mean wow! I am beside myself! This means that one day, I too could use mmf to make a demo... that could someday be totally re-written into something... wonderful. What’s the big deal? It's not like there actually doing anything besides making quick alphas. If I were mmf I would feel used and abused! Really its great and all, I hope clickteam feels proud, and warm and fuzzy and and ^.^ :gasp: I just wasted a few full mins of my life... oh dams...
 
Posted by Buster 23rd July, 2004

Dustin G, that would be amazing!
 
Posted by Assault Andy 23rd July, 2004

That is sooo awesome. Sounds like a big more publicity for clickware.
 
Posted by CYS 23rd July, 2004

I don't find it a big news or something, it would only mean that our games would go way below the standard klik games.
 
Posted by AfterStar 23rd July, 2004

Cool news! I hope in the future Clickteam decides to go a step further and create an even more powerful tool like,lets say...MMF 3D ?(what do you say? :D) Make 3D animations with MMF,easy to use tools for newbies and more advance cabapilities for advanced users(like making good AIs,ect...) that want to create a commercial game! Well....i will keep dreaming until they make it happen :P >)
 
Posted by Ted Boomerang 23rd July, 2004

That is pretty cool that big name companies reconize MMF. I can see it being used for a lot of things, like mini games and map testing. Gives me good reason to keep working with it. But probably by the time I even get a job like that, the 2-D revolution will be stone dead :/
 
Posted by Paolo Victor 23rd July, 2004

Of course, keep wasting time with MMF and you'll *maybe* be able to code hypotetical minigame tests for gba games.
 
Posted by 23rd July, 2004

It would have me impressed to see MMF used to produce final versions of professional software, and not just testing.
 
Posted by RapidFlash 23rd July, 2004

MMF 3D is being made. Anyway, this is good news.
 
Posted by Jamesbuc 24th July, 2004

BRILL!
 
Posted by 24th July, 2004

Bring us some proves !!!
 
Posted by Lewis 25th July, 2004

wow, i got told about this, and it is pretty cool news, i dont really care about what some people say about it not being a "real programmers" tool. MMF is great its a tool for any person to use to make games. programmer or not. and you can come out with some good results. im really looking forward to mmf 2 and mmf 3D Rapid flash is right, mmf 3D is being made.
 
Posted by 1st August, 2004

Maybe maybe MMF 3d is being made, but what will prove the fact, that it takes as much time to make a game in c++, or etc... as in MMF 3D ??? (Altough this is good advertisement for clickteam)
 


 



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