TileGamer

My games program has a new name: TileGamer. This reflects the fact that with the first version of TileGamer, all game elements are contained within the cells or tiles of one or more onscreen grids. Also, all animated objects are either contained in a cell/tile, or straddle the boundary between 2 adjacent cells/tiles. When a future version of TileGamer comes out that supports arbitrary velocities of 2D animated objects, I can call it "TileGamer Ultra" or "TileGamer Deluxe" or whatever. If and when TileGamer supports 3D animation, I can call that version "TileGamer 3D". The following paragraph summarizes the technical aspects of TileGamer.

TileGamer is a tool used for developing multiplayer games. These games run in a web browser (inside a Java applet). Simple drag-and-drop games can be put together by non-programmers, and programmers can add functionality to these games. All games are written in a built-in scripting language called Treescript, which resembles Java. The game editor lets you switch between infix mode (like Java) and prefix mode (like Lisp, the default). The game editor compiles Treescript code into Tilegamer Intermediate Language (TIL), which is a text file. At runtime, the Java applet downloads the TIL code from the game server and converts it into an in-memory tree, which is then executed by the Java applet. The game editor is written in Java, so it will potentially run on multiple platforms, such as Linux and Mac, not just Windows. The "Tile" in TileGamer indicates that all game elements are contained within the cells or tiles of one or more onscreen grids. Also, all animated objects are either contained in a cell/tile, or straddle the boundary between 2 adjacent cells/tiles.

The business model of tilegamer.com is as follows: anyone can play/create TileGamer games for free. Hardcore TileGamer users can, for a fee, download the Turbo Utility, which translates TIL code into Java byte-code. This makes games run much faster, and facilitates the playing of more complex games.