Casual game maker PlayFirst on Tuesday introduced Playground SDK, a software development kit to help casual game makers create their own multiplatform games. Playground has already been used to create more than a dozen casual games, according to the creator.
Initially, Playground SDK was available specifically to PlayFirst’s publishing partners, but with this announcement, the company is making Playground SDK available to any developer who wants to use it. What’s more, the company has begun the “Developer Dash Program,” an incentive for casual game makers to create titles using the software, with up to $100,000 in awards.
Playground SDK uses a C++ application programming interface (API), and supports 2D and 3D hardware accelerated graphics. It supports OpenGL and Universal binaries on the Mac side, and features cross-platform compatibility to enable developers to easily make titles that run on Mac OS X, Windows and the Web.
The Playground SDK features music and sound effects support, the ability to incorporate Flash-based cut scenes, programmable particle systems, customizable GUI widgets, support for the Lua scripting language and more.
Developers who use Playground are required to credit the SDK somewhere in the game, and are also required to advised PlayFirst when the title becomes commercially available. More details are available online.