Game Development Quickstart

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See other docs in Category:Developing games

This is a quickstart/walkthrough from 2007 for new developers who may be unfamiliar with OLPC, the XO.

Why make a game for the XO?

  • Audience. The XO is a platform that will be distributed to tens of thousands of kids all over the world, free of charge. In many cases, these will be the first computer games these kids have ever seen. You can't beat that kind of distribution.
  • Transparency. Since all OLPC games are open-source, you won't just be making games for kids to play - you'll be making something they can use to learn how to program and make games themselves.
  • Collaboration. The XO platform comes with collaborative features that make innovative multiplayer ideas possible.
  • Technology. While the XO CPU isn't that powerful, it does have some hardware that does not come standard with other laptops, like the camera, mesh networking, and the tablet mode game-controller.
  • First mover advantage. There aren't that many games for the XO yet, so making a good game in this stage will generate a lot of publicity and attention. You can help out and make an exciting new game platform grow!
  • Add your own reasons here!

How to start a game

Things to think about while designing

Hardware considerations

kentquirk: The XO is definitely limited in processing power -- people should imagine the performance of a machine that was current sometime in the late 90s or so -- a few hundred mhz, no 3d graphics.

Find out more at Hardware_specification.