Starling is an
open source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...
game
framework used to create 2D games that run both on mobile and desktop platforms. It recreates the traditional
Flash display list architecture on top of
accelerated graphics hardware. Several commercial games have been built with Starling, including ''
Angry Birds Friends'' and ''
Incredipede''.
History
Starling was initiated in 2011 by
Adobe
Adobe (from arabic: الطوب Attub ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for mudbrick. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is use ...
shortly after introducing the
Stage3D
Stage3D (codenamed ''Molehill'') is an Adobe Flash Player API for rendering interactive 3D graphics with GPU-acceleration, within Flash games and applications. Flash Player or AIR applications written in ActionScript 3 may use Stage3D to render ...
API in their
AIR
An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...
and
Flash run-time systems. Stage3D allows utilizing the GPU inside the
Flash Player via a low-level API; Starling should simplify the transition for developers by providing an accompanying high-level API built on top of Stage3D.
The framework has seen rapid adoption over the years, being utilized in many games from both independent and commercial developers. It is now a part of the Adobe Gaming SDK.
Library ecosystem
Since Starling's introduction, several Open Source libraries were published by 3rd party developers that depend on Starling and extend its functionality.
Feathersallows the creation of light-weight user interfaces for both mobile and desktop games and applications.
Citrus Engineis a game engine that is most popular for its Platformer starter-kit.
Dragon Bonesis a 2D skeletal animation solution, available as a plugin for Flash, exporting animations for Starling.
StarlingPunkis designed for developing 2D Flash games, inspired by the popula
FlashPunkframework.
Floxis a
Backend as a Service
Backend as a service (BaaS), sometimes also referred to as mobile backend as a service (MBaaS), is a service for providing web app and mobile app developers with a way to easily build a backend to their frontend applications. Features available ...
targeting especially Starling developers (and built by the same team).
GameBuilder Studiois an Open Source Game Engine and visual WYSIWYG tool for creating professional cross-platform 2D games. Optimized for mobile and web using the Starling rendering engine.
Platformer plugin , Isometric , Multiplayer via Plugin.IO, etc.
See also
*
Cairo
Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...
*
OpenFL
References
Further reading
* Thibault Imbert: ''Introducing Starling'', O'Reilly Media Inc., November 14, 2012,
* Juwal Bose: ''Starling Game Development Essentials'', Packt Publishing, December, 2013,
* Tinic Uro (September 21, 2011
Why Starling (or any other 2D framework on top of Stage3D)?
External links
Official WebsiteOfficial Support ForumOfficial Community WikiSource on GitHubStarting with Starling video course (free)
video course (commercial)
video course (commercial)
How to learn Starling Framework an extensive tutorial and overview
* http://typedarray.org/introducing-starling-js/
{{Adobe Flash
ActionScript
Free game engines
Video game development software