HOME
ABOUT CREATOR
DEMOS
DOWNLOADS
GAMES
SIMULATIONS
EDUCATORS
AWARDS
SUPPORT
ABOUT US
CONTACT
SITE MAP

BUY NOW

Note that Apple, having licensed the technology to Stagecast, does not support the former Cocoa. Apple now uses their trademark Cocoa to designate an unrelated technology used by software engineers to develop general applications for Mac OS X.

Stagecast Creator and Player include over 60 enhancements to Apple's Cocoa Design Release. Here is a partial list.

Cocoa compatibility

- Open a Cocoa .cco file, save it in Creator format, then add backgrounds or any of the other enhancements listed below.

Cross platform

- Create and play any world on: - a PC running Windows 95, 98, or NT;
- a PowerMac running Mac OS 8.0 or later;
- Linux, Solaris, SunRay, and other Java platforms.

Multiple worlds (Note: worlds are called "sims" in Creator 2)

- Two worlds can be displayed at the same time.
- Characters can be dragged between worlds, allowing easy copying.
- Worlds can serve as libraries of "clip characters".

Multiple stages (stages are called "boards" in Cocoa)

- Two stages can be displayed at the same time.
- Optionally, characters on undisplayed stages can run their rules, enabling certain types of realistic simulations.

Multiple square sizes

- Every stage can have its own square size.
- Characters scale in proportion to the square size. - Rules can set the square size.
- Allows "zooming in and out" on stages.

Backgrounds

- Each stage can have a background--a solid color or a picture;
- a GIF or JPEG file can be imported as the picture.
- Rules can change a background over time (e.g. night falling).

- In Creator 2, the background can be tiled, centered, or scaled to fit.

Z-ordering

- Characters can pass "in front of" or "behind" other characters;
- makes Creator a 2 1/2-D system. - Overlapping characters can be displayed in an "exploded view" to make it easy to select any character in a pile.

Doors

- Teleport any character through a door to a remote square on the same stage or another stage, or to the "time out" area.
- Allow a stage to have more than one entry point.

Text characters

- Any size and shape, editable text, choice of type style.
- Allow new classes of simulations such as interactive books.
- Allow user input to running worlds.
- Allow student comment and student performance capture.

Display variables

- Appearances can have embedded variables, e.g. for displaying scores.

Jars

- Allow classification of characters (several types of fish can be classified as "Shark Food").
- Characters in rules can be generalized using jars (one rule can allow a shark to eat any type of fish that is "Shark Food").

Do In Turn

- in addition to "Do First", "Do Random", and "Do All & Continue", Creator offers "Do In Turn"; each rule in the rule set runs in a separate tick of the clock, allowing a character to perform a fixed sequence of actions

Key actions

- Characters other than the main character can be controlled by keys on the keyboard;
- Allows two users to play a game on one keyboard.

Location variables

- A character has (x,y) coordinate variables that allow rules to test and change the character's position on the stage.
- A character has a Stage variable that allows rules to test and change the stage on which the character appears.

New rule actions

- Change the Z order of a character (over/under other characters).
- Split the screen to display two stages at once.
- Teleport through a door.
- Record all changes to variables, including stage size, stage background, square size, etc.
- Multiply and divide a variable by a value or another variable.
- A scientific calculator in Creator 2 that can build algebraic expressions with numbers and variables.
- Text operations in the calculator to extract characters, words, and items.
- In Creator 2, a rule can Stop, Reset, or Quit the simulation.
- In a world running in a web browser in Creator 2, a rule can open a new web page in the same or another window. That web page can contain another world.

Serial and parallel updating

- Repaint the screen after every action or only once per tick.
- Repainting once per tick is faster and often more natural.

New debugging features

- Play a single rule or rule set to verify that it works.
- Place a stop sign on a rule to pause play at that point.
- Show in the Rule Maker window which squares and which tests of the rule match the current situation on the stage.

Reporting

- Generate an HTML summary of everything in the world.
- Aids in student assessment.
- Helps an author prepare a guide for others wishing to customize the world.

Rule Maker

- Does not require the stage to be set up before editing a rule.
- Has easy-to-use "palettes" of tests and actions.

Picture Painter

- Shows all the appearances of a character.
- Allows easy modification of multiple appearances.
- Allows importing of GIF and JPEG files into appearances.

Stagecast Player

- Runs worlds standalone or in a web page (in selected browsers).
- Reset button restarts the simulation as if it had just opened.
- Allows characters on stages to be created, moved, copied, or deleted.
- Prevents new types of characters from being created.
- Prevents rules from being viewed, changed, or added.

Built-in Tutorial

- Kids can learn Creator interactively.

Other user interface improvements

- Far fewer commands, with no loss of functionality.
- Only one menu; more use of icons. - More use of drag-and-drop.
- Lightweight scroll arrows instead of scroll bars.
- Copy tool
- can be used on characters, variables, rules;
- can make multiple copies easily.
- "Tool tip" "hover help" for identifying commands and tools.
- Execution speed can be tied to the real-time clock.
- Games don't become unplayable when run on faster machines.
- Sounds can be turned off for crowded environments like classrooms.
- Stage grid can be displayed for better understanding of squares.
- Autoscrolling in windows during dragging.
- A rule set can have a "pretest" to avoid adding an identical test to every rule in the set

Support

- Creator is a fully supported product.

To make Stagecast Creator cross-platform while adding all the new capabilities listed above, Stagecast had to make some tradeoffs:

Creator requires more memory

- 32 MB minimum on most platforms.

Worlds can't be saved as stand-alone applications.

- However, if Stagecast Player is present, you can double click a world to open it.

Sounds can't be recorded through a microphone directly into a world

- However, you can import sounds that were recorded in other applications.

You can't cut and paste images between Creator and other applications. You can import graphics into Creator for character appearances and backgrounds."

We hope you agree that Stagecast Creator takes Cocoa to a new level. To continue, download an evaluation version of Stagecast Creator, view the Guided Tour, return to the Stagecast Home Page, or read about how to order.