I've been graced with the coding skills of an amoeba: still, I've been turning half-baked schemes into crappy games since my adolescence, thanks to such classic programs as Adventure Construction Set or Shoot-'Em-Up Construction Kit. Now comes Klik & Play, which uses the Windows interface to make creating games (almost) as easy as point-and-click.
Developed by Europress Software - the same folks who produced the AMOS game creator for the Commodore Amiga - Klik & Play is a programming language without the programming. Every aspect of Klik & Play is controlled by mouse clicks and menu commands: scaling and rotating graphics, adding sound effects to game events, and so on. Klik & Play's remarkable step-through editor mode even lets you test play part of a game before it's done. Completed Klik & Play games can then be compiled into stand-alone files to be distributed across the biosphere.
Klik & Play includes a healthy supply of graphics, music, and sound effects to tap, along with nearly a dozen Klik & Play-created games. (The CD version has more of everything, including 20 Klik & Play games to dissect.) Best of all, Klik & Play lets you rip off - er, import - a variety of graphic and music files, including: .PCX (graphics), .FLC (3-D animations), .MID (general MIDI), and .WAV (sound samples).
Keep in mind that Klik & Play won't let you write the next Doom, Myst, or Super Mario Bros. - it's not powerful enough to create sophisticated games. But you will be able to create shareware-quality games relatively easily, and that's probably enough to satisfy most folk. It satisfies me - I'm already hard at work on Klik & Play versions of my favorite Atari 2600 games.
Klik & Play for Windows: US$54.95. Maxis: (800) 526 2947, +1 (510) 254 9700.
STREET CRED
Graphic MysteryTomorrow's Print News Today
Return of the Emperor's Nightingale
A Gingerbread Man Worth Catching
Shareware Game Maker
