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Enigma-Dev A Linux Game Engine, Compatible With GameMaker Scripting

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Enigma-Dev is a fully featured game engine that compiles natively for Linux!

Enigma is completely compatible with GML (the GameMaker Language), as well as C and C++. It is developed and written in Java, and can cross-compile to Linux, Mac, and Windows. It is a "work in progress" currently, but can compile full games. There are several bugs in the engine, but most of them you can just bypass.

image

Pros
- Full Box-2d implementation
- Game controller support
- Open Source
- Can open and edit most GameMaker 6 through to GM Studio files

Cons
- Many bugs currently, mainly a startup error (can be bypassed)
- No built-in image editor, but GIMP works great!
- Does crash occasionally
- Can take a bit to get set up and running

Once this is in a more stable state, I am sure it can be a giant competitor to GameMaker. It's also funny to see the community bring a GameMaker compatible editor to Linux.

You can find the package in the Arch User Repository, but not in Debian/Ubuntu repositories.
http://enigma-dev.org/

Tip: If you don't use a Arch based distro, you have to open the lateralgm.jar file through the terminal with java -jar ./lateralgm If you don't the program will not be able to locate a few files. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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About the author -
Linux user since 2009 (Fedora), currently dual-boot Manjaro and Mint 17.1. A huge fan of Fallout 1, 2, and Tactics, as well as Wasteland 1 and 2.
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6 comments

rick01457 Jan 8, 2015
Interesting, I've been looking for a game engine to play around with and have been pretty shocked at how few run natively on gnu/linux. I'll be checking this out.
codyaj1995 Jan 8, 2015
Quoting: rick01457Interesting, I've been looking for a game engine to play around with and have been pretty shocked at how few run natively on gnu/linux. I'll be checking this out.
I did forget to add, it compiles fully native executables, not java files!
Speedster Jan 8, 2015
Quoting: rick01457Interesting, I've been looking for a game engine to play around with and have been pretty shocked at how few run natively on gnu/linux. I'll be checking this out.

How many of the engines listed as having native editor support on the wiki have you had a chance to check out yet?
egofree Jan 9, 2015
Enigma is the game's engine and it is written in C++. The game's editor, LateralGM, which uses Enigma, is written in Java.
It's true that Enigma has been very buggy, but fortunately the situation is improving all the time. Sorlok reaves, a developer of Enigma, is trying to port open source games made with Game maker. When he encounters bugs, he fixes them in the game's engine. You can see some of his work :
- An untitled Story : http://enigma-dev.org/forums/index.php?topic=2350.0
- Iji : http://enigma-dev.org/forums/index.php?topic=2207.0

I am a modest contributor of LateralGM. I added some new features in the rooms editor. Recently i added a selection tool and copy and paste functions.
rick01457 Jan 9, 2015
Quoting: SpeedsterHow many of the engines listed as having native editor support on the wiki have you had a chance to check out yet?

Well none, as it turns out. I didn't even realise there was a wiki page for that. Should've looked I guess.
Is there any you might recommend?
adolson Jan 11, 2015
Quoting: rick01457
Quoting: SpeedsterHow many of the engines listed as having native editor support on the wiki have you had a chance to check out yet?

Well none, as it turns out. I didn't even realise there was a wiki page for that. Should've looked I guess.
Is there any you might recommend?
You didn't ask me, but I'd recommend you check out Godot Engine. Stable 1.0 released in mid-December, and there's been a ton of work made since then in github, including robust new autocompletion and syntax tooltips, amongst others. It's MIT-licensed, so there's no worries about licensing or royalties or restrictions of any kind. The community just finished a Christmas game jam which resulted in 7 or 8 open-source games that you can look at to learn (my own entry was a simple 2D shooting game, with online leaderboards). I've been using it for over a year in my spare time, and I really like it. The scripting language is loosely based on python, which I had never touched before, and I found it easy to pick up. The company who released it has a point and click game demo on Steam (including Linux), and is planned for release in May.

As the wiki points out, there are many different engines, but this is the one I like. The forums and IRC are active if you have questions.
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