I am L. Spiro. Welcome to my site.
I live in Tokyo, Japan, and I make video games and video-game engines for a living. I was a developer on Ghost Recon 2 Online, 187 Ride or Die, Catz 5, Dogz 5, Imagine Happy Cooking, Ready Steady Cook, Leisure Suit Larry Beach Volley, HOT PIXEL, After Dark: Flying Toaster, Love Plus (iPhone), and more. I have developed on Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360, PC, iPhone, and Android.
I am currently making a new next-generation engine called L. Spiro Engine. My goal is to meet or beat CryEngine 3, hopefully coming near Frostbite 2. The purpose of this site is to give viewers insight into what goes into making a full-sized commercial game engine. I will post about what I have done on my engine, why I chose to do that, and explain the trade-offs. Forums are available for asking questions, posting opinions, making suggestions, etc. I will provide regular updates on my progress and make demos available for download. I hope a community will form and be very active in technological discussions, but you won’t have to be technically skilled in order to enjoy this site.
Engine Targets:
- Platforms: PC (x86 and x64), Macintosh OS X, Linux, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii U, and iPhone. PlayStation 4 and the next Microsoft® console will likely be supported as well.
- API’s: DirectX 9, DirectX 10, DirectX 11, OpenGL, OpenGL ES, and all OpenGL-based console API’s as listed above.
- Pricing: Pricing will be similar to that of UDK/UDE—free for indies. Full packages with source and no royalties for high-end studios will be around $50,000 (for CryEngine 3 you can expect to pay in the millions). And there will be many types of packages available between these figures, suitable for any person or studio of any size and budget. Everyone can afford one package or another.
- Audio: .WAV and .OGG are supported, and OpenAL is used for audio processing.
- Image Formats: .GIF, .BMP, .TGA, .J2K, .JP2, .PNG, and .LSI (L. Spiro Image) are supported. .JPG/.JPEG is planned.
- Language: C++, ASM, and Objective-C++ for interfacing with iOS.
- Physics: Proprietary.
- Scripting Language: Proprietary, but based on standard scripting syntax so that users do not have to learn a new language from scratch.
- Shader Language: Proprietary, but similar to HLSL or Cg.
Ultimately, I plan to release the engine for private and commercial use. Imagine CryEngine 3, but available to the public and for a much much smaller price.
The site will be updated often and will contain a lot of interesting material for anyone wanting to make his or her own game engine, or even for those who are just curious about what is happening under the hood of their favorite games. So stick around why don’t you? And be sure to register on the forums so you can provide your own input.
L. Spiro
Hi, I have some questions about the improved collision detection and response article, so can you give me your email so I can ask you some questions in more detail?You can send me an email if you have time, thanks in advance.
The forums are available for asking questions, however I don’t know to what article you are referring.
L. Spiro
Thanks for your reply, I will register one.:)
Are you the L. Spiro that used to play Tribes and created an auto-aim and a FF7 text game?
Are there any other L. Spiro’s?
L. Spiro
Well, apparently both CryEngine and UE are available now for a small price. Is there still a strong incentive to develop LSE? How far did you reach in the end?
I am still working on it.
What I was developing at the time of writing this article was more of a test-bed than anything else, but thanks to that my new version is coming along nicely and efficiently, at the cost of extra development time.