Sawblade Software has announced the release of The Green Machine. It’s a new tool inspired by the Neo•Geo video game system which enables you to build your own 2D side-scrolling games running on Mac OS X.
The Green Machine enables you to create titles like Super Metroid or Donkey Kong Country — side scrolling action titles with large, colorful sprites, multiple layers of parallax scrolling, animated cut screens, panning stereo sounds, and particle effects. You can also activate conversations with non-player characters, manage automatic resolution switching, gamma fading, and support saved games.
Amazingly enough, Sawblade Software said that The Green Machine requires no programming and no scripting. Game content is stored within a folder hierarchy hidden within the application itself. You use imaging and text editing applications of your own choosing to create assets for the game, while the Green Machine engine helps to handle complexities like animation sequences, placement of walls, floors and ceilings and more.
The game engine is sold on CD-ROM for US$15 and comes with a demonstration game called Greenland Invasion (pictured above). In this adventure, which comes included on The Green Machine CD-ROM, you play as a fearless Eskimo who must defend Greenland against an evil occupying force of Canadian imperialists,” said the designers.