Twisted Pixel Uses RAD's Granny 3D In Comic Jumper, BEARD Engine

Not only will Splosion Man developer Twisted Pixel's latest game, Comic Jumper, use RAD Game Tools' Granny 3D animation toolset, but the toolset will be integrated into Twisted Pixel's BEARD engine, the companies announced. This is the third title in which Twisted Pixel is using Granny, and it credits the value-add in the toolset's support for multiplatform development. There's no release date for Comic Jumper, a title that tracks a superhero-for-hire and his sidekick as they travel through comic books to save the genre. But it's using the BEARD engine, and the developer says the Granny 3D tool helps support it and makes for a logical integration. "Granny’s highly optimized runtime and suite of tools for both art and engineering provide our development team and our engine licensees the ability to create a highly optimized pipeline for the unique requirements of their games," says Twisted Pixel CTO Frank Wilson. Granny features animation decompression, playback and blending functions, plus a new blend graph editor designed to help developers build more complex blend operations without a programmer. It supports exporting for 3ds Max, Maya and XSI in both 32- and 64-bit versions, and includes over 40 built-in transformations. "Twisted Pixel keeps innovating and creating fantastically fun games.We are thrilled to be able to support their creative team with our products,” RAD Game Tools' Mitch Soule. "Now that Twisted Pixel is offering their tools—with Granny3D integrated—to the larger game community, the innovative engine can be utilized by production teams over a wide array of projects."