Product Focus: Virtools Dev™, Virtools' cure-all for Game Developers
appearing in Edge

French company Virtools has launched a new package aimed squarely at making game design easier and quicker for developers. The platform, entitled Virtools Dev, enables designers to swiftly build realtime 3D content, along with all the necessary component of interactivity (behaviors, skills, etc.). The results can be taken all the way to finished game status using just Virtools Dev, or alternatively developers can import their own elements such as custom 3D engines, to create hybrid titles.

Frederic Raynal, creative director at the Sega-owned No Cliché, is one devotee of the system which he currently uses to test ideas for upcoming projects. "From my point of view, the main attraction is the speed at which you can create something playable," he explains. "A few years ago, it was possible to test an idea in one or two days. Nowadays, each time you want to start a project, even for simple test, you need hours just to set up the core engine. With Virtools, everything is already there. After just a few clicks you can see something running. Then you can focus on the gameplay."

The demo Edge witnessed certainly bore out this claim. The Virtools environment is super-friendly, allowing game logic to be pieced together in a very graphical fashion, negating the need to get your hands dirty with reams of instructional data.

"You can go a long way without actually typing code," enthuses Raynal. "When you reach the limit of Virtools's behaviors - if you very specific programming bricks - you just have to enter the SDK and make your own. Actaully the strongest way to work is to build complex behaviors (in C or in Virtools) according to the gameplay you want and then give them to designers to allow them to easily build levels."

If Virtools Dev's powerful enabling capabilities attract enough developer interest, its effect on game design could be widely felt.