Zest3D: A New Cross-Platform Game Engine

While mobile games are something we feature often on this website (isn’t that surprising?), it’s not often that we showcase the technology that actually goes into creating those games.

Zest3D is a new, cross-platform 3D engine currently in development by Gary Paluk for iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry, Kindle, Nook, Web, PC, Mac, and even the Ouya. While game engines are not an uncommon sight, it’s rare to see one with so much compatibility and flexibility. Gary’s goal with Zest3D has been to create an engine that can perform to AAA standards while still enabling them to be deployed onto almost any kind of modern hardware device.

Unlike many other 3D Flash engines, Zest3D has been built from the ground up with cross-compatibility in mind, ensuring that it’s capable of supporting many features that other Adobe Flash and Adobe Air-based game engines are not. The engine has support for both pre-processing and post-processing, allowing for effects such as bloom or motion blur. There is also support in place for features that aren’t yet supported by Stage3D APIs such as additional blend modes, texture bit depths and 1D and 3D textures, allowing them to be enabled in an instant if Adobe makes such features available.

If you’re a developer of mobile games, or simply interested in checking out the Zest3D engine, you find even more information over at the official development blogor website, as well as on their Twitterand Facebookpages.