I am interested in indie game development. I realize there is so much to be done, and the less I have to do on my own, the better it is. I chose to go the "black box" way, trying to use as much "already-written" code as possible to reduce development time.

I have been looking around for LGPL game SDKs. It turns out there are quite a few. However, before committing to one, I thought it would be a good idea to shoot an e-mail here and see which of these SDKs you people might have used in the past, and what kind of experiences you had.

I am aware of the following:

PLIB >> http://plib.sourceforge.net/
ClanLib >> http://www.clanlib.org/
Fltk >> http://www.fltk.org/
Allegro >> http://www.talula.demon.co.uk/allegro/
SDL >> http://www.libsdl.org/index.php

I would like to stay away from DirectX since it is a Microsoft-only approach. I have nothing against it. I would just prefer a multi-platform solution if possible.

If I am missing an SDK that is even better than the ones I mentioned, please do let me know.

Your input is greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Patrox's PTK (www.phelios.com) is supposed to be good :D

Cas :)

Torque (http://www.garagegames.com/pg/product/view.php?id=1) is a cross-platform, 3D framework. It's not really a library though, it's a big pile of source that you can build off of.

lwjgl (http://www.lwjgl.org) is one of the best around.

pat

I'm using SDL, with pretty good results overall. It has some bugs here and there, but so far they've been trivial (for instance, the mouse cursor code is buggy in Windows :rolleyes: ). SDL is nice because it wraps a LOT of stuff for you, including all OS specific code, 2D Graphics with alpha blending (and image loading/saving), Input, Sound, and even Fonts. It also gives you access to OpenGL if you need it. Best of all you don't have to write a single line of OS specific code, so your code is pretty much portable (except for endian issues which it has functions to take care of as well, but you have to make sure to use them :)). Plus it was made by a programmer who works at Blizzard now, so you KNOW it's high quality. ;)

SDL is a good option for both 2d and 3d games. I like 2d cdx library but it's for windows only. You may also want to try Blitz Basic but it depends on your level as a programmer. Not a bad choice though...

I'm using SDL too, though only under Windows ATM. It's quite easy to use, and I haven't had any problem with my OpenGL game, except with SDL_mixer which plays XM mods quite badly (and IIRC oggs too on the computer of a friend :-\ - though they play fine here on a less powerful PC ).

Try Dumb for your XM : http://dumb.sourceforge.net/

( the first time an openSource thing compiles under cw on the first try ! )

Very good and the author is very helpful.
pat.

Blitz3D (http://www.blitzbasic.com) for 3D games
BlitzPlus (http://www.blitzbasic.com) for 2D games