Characters and all objects in the 

game are all highly configurable 

from the animation to the sounds 

the character makes, in doing 

different actions, like shooting or 

jumping. Hopefully you have 

some artistic talent, since the 

game only comes with a single 

baddie, a snowman and default 

cabbage for scenery. You can 

also add your own graphics into 

the game by dragging and 

dropping. This goes for all the 

graphics in the game. PGF makes 

it really simple, except you need 

to have a source for the graphics, whether you create your own or have someone create them for 

you. My biggest dilemma is, is there a market for a stick figure action hero? 

During my testing with the default graphics and sound except for the added Nine Inch Nails song 

the game was not bad and could even be better with custom graphics, if I had any. What would 

have been nice is if it came with more stock graphics. But understandably it is meant for you to 

add your own. During the time I have had the Power Game Factory, it had several updates and it 

appears they are doing a good job keeping it updated.  

While the interface is well laid out and it is easy to use drag and drop and changing properties of 

objects, kinda like visual programming without the coding, I wish they had included a hard copy 

of the manual. For a program this highly configurable, I felt this is a must.  Returning  back to 

the HTML manual was a pain. But on the plus side,  the HTML manual and, tutorial is really 

easy to follow. 

At first I was a bit skeptical but Power Game Factory has a lot to offer, but in the end, I believe 

Power Game Factory is a great program for non programmers. It is extremely easy to use and 

highly configurable. Don't get me wrong. Creating a game won't be that easy. It still takes hard 

work, but at least you now have a great tool to do that work with. One thing I think is missing is 

a manual. Also, it does not have more stock graphics and sound but I really can't begrudge them 

for that since it is not really meant to make generic games from a template.  

Being royalty free and runnable without the development software itself is a definite plus. For 

any gamer or wannabe programmer who wants to make a 2D sidescrolling action game should 

take a serious look at Power Game Factory. Hopefully if this does well, we may see and 

adventure game version of this. To see all Power Game Factory does, check out their website 

http://www.sawbladesoftware.com

. Then let's see some new games! 

  MPN, LLC 2005 macCompanion 

Page 69 

August 2005, Volume 3 Issue 8