WildTangent reveals RetroDriver, the first game platform for creating and publishing 2D casual online games without requiring the use of Java. Several game developers, including Escape Factory Ltd., Sandlot Games and HipSoft, plan to use RetroDriver in their upcoming online game titles.
RetroDriver includes all of the non-graphical features of Web Driver, WildTangent's 3D online game platform, including both hardware and software acceleration, full-screen mode, a DRM system, compression capabilities and a complete suite of codecs - all optimized for 2D casual games. Also like Web Driver, it supports a range of programming languages, including C, C++, C#, Sun or Microsoft Java and Visual Basic. At around 400k, RetroDriver makes it easy to distribute RetroDriver games over narrowband connections.
RetroDriver will be free to developers in part because WildTangent has licensed GapiDraw 2.0 from Viktoria Institute's on terms that allow WildTangent to make RetroDriver available for commercial use at no cost.
GapiDraw 2.0 is a 2D sprite engine used widely for games in PDA's and next generation cell phones.
The new RetroDriver will be available this summer to game developers for a free download from http://www.wildtangent.com.
