JamEngine Release1 Instructions

First things first, unzip the zip to a folder on your machine. You will also need Visual Studio 2005 installed (though we have successfully tested it with the free Visual Studio 2008 Express).

1. To build and run the examples
2. To set up and build the skeleton project
3. To add your own graphics to the skeleton project
4. To distribute a version of your game

1. To build and run the examples

Open the Examples.sln project from the Examples directory to load it into Visual Studio 2005

Select one of the examples as the active project (right click on it in the Solution Explorer and choose Set As Startup Project)

Hit F5 to build and run

The best place to start developing your own game is to use the skeleton project. This is a simple example project that gives you a screen and an update function that is called at a rate of 50 frames per second. The files Game.cpp and Game.h contain all that you need to start making a game with the Jam engine! If you want to delve further then look into JamMain.cpp as well.

2. To set up and build the skeleton project

Open the JamProject.sln project from the Skeleton/JamProject directory to load it into Visual Studio 2005

Right click on JamProject in the solution explorer and select Properties

In the Configuration menu in the top left of the properties dialog select All Configurations

Navigate to the Configuration Properties -> Debugging property page

Set Command Arguments to “nosplash”

Set Working Directory to “..\WorkingDirectory”

Hit F5 to build and run

You should see a blue window with two sprites - one is controlled by the arrow keys and one by the mouse

3. To add your own graphics to the skeleton project

Drop your source images in the Data/Images directory. You can use bitmaps, pngs, jpegs...

Run the UpdateGraphics.bat file in the root directory. This packs the textures together in the format that the engine uses

You can now use these images in your game. Check the SetTexture calls in Game.cpp to see how

4. To distribute a version of your game

The Working Directory folder contains a distributable version of your game. Just zip it up and share it!

Please send feedback if you have any problems with JamEngine.