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[Oats]

I'm reading up on clojure and other lisp like languages, but the documentation I'm reading mentions nothing about it's use in video games. Most specifically I'm talking about using clojure on top of libGDX (cause thats a thing that can be done), but any advice or experiences with any lisp language and their use in video games would be interesting.

I've looked on the lisp games wiki http://lispgames.org/index.php/Category:Game, and there really aren't many listed. Is this just because lisps aren't fashionable or is there something about it's architecture that just makes it inconvenient?

[JulianGindi]

I can't speak for graphics programming with Lisp, but I've used it to make a number of text adventure games. I personally love lisp and feel like it's a great game scripting language. Although the games presented are fairly unsophisticated, Land of Lisp is a pretty awesome book that teaches lisp through games.

Would love to hear a bit more from someone who made a more robust game with lisp!

[Mr Speaker]

We're pretty much at a stage where you can use any ol' language to make great games. If you are extremely confident with a Lisp, then you're going to be much better at achieving your artistic vision that if you try to slog it out in C++... if the game is a reasonable size, you aren't going to hit performance barriers.

In the end, no one gives a crap at all about the language - it's all about the game. It doesn't matter if it's 100% Haskell, or 100% Visual Basic - if it's a good game, it's a good game!

[Egberto]

In the end, no one gives a crap at all about the language - it's all about the game. It doesn't matter if it's 100% Haskell, or 100% Visual Basic - if it's a good game, it's a good game!

I like this comment.

I'm exploring Lisp for video game programming (and stuck right now with the graphics part), so I'm interested in what you can find (clojure looks like a better option that Common Lisp).

[Photon]

In the end, no one gives a crap at all about the language - it's all about the game. It doesn't matter if it's 100% Haskell, or 100% Visual Basic - if it's a good game, it's a good game!

However, it is worth noting that some languages are better at certain things than others. The key here is not to spring for one language over another simply because its one half-lap ahead of another. Unless you expect the game logic to be really demanding (ex: really high-end 3D graphics,) then there's much less concern over hitting a language's performance ceiling.

As a personal example, I used to really like Python and using Pygame. I moved away from it, however, because building a working executable involved jumping through hoops I didn't care to jump through.

[Oats]

no one gives a crap at all about the language - it's all about the game. It doesn't matter if it's 100% Haskell, or 100% Visual Basic - if it's a good game, it's a good game!

Well sure, the end user has no idea what language a program is written in, most won't even really understand the difference. But I'm not asking about the experience of the end user, I'm asking about the experience of the programmer, and about whether or not lisps are a good programming environment for game development. 

I can't speak for graphics programming with Lisp, but I've used it to make a number of text adventure games. I personally love lisp and feel like it's a great game scripting language.

That's what I was thinking, since clojure can integrate java classes so easily at no real cost to performance, I was thinking of scripting game logic through it, and using java to write more performance critical/mutable side of the system. But then again that might make it needlessly complex.

Land of Lisp is a pretty awesome book that teaches lisp through games.

I'll look into the book, might even be worth getting a library card for...   

I'm exploring Lisp for video game programming (and stuck right now with the graphics part), so I'm interested in what you can find (clojure looks like a better option that Common Lisp).

Yeah, I haven't checked if there are any openGL bindings to lisp, but because I'm using clojure I'm just going to use libGDX for a lot of the basic game functionality like rendering and physics.

Unless you expect the game logic to be really demanding (ex: really high-end 3D graphics,) then there's much less concern over hitting a language's performance ceiling.

Yeah I never understood why some people are so obsessed with performance. Like sometimes I'll start worrying about my game slowing down with new features then suddenly I remember that less then 100 fps on a shitty laptop from 2011 isn't actually bad at all. Indie games with "minimalist" graphics (aka programmer art in my case) have it easy.

Thanks for the replies, I'm still very interested in what other people have to say about it.

[Cheezmeister]

That's what I was thinking, since clojure can integrate java classes so easily at no real cost to performance, I was thinking of scripting game logic through it, and using java to write more performance critical/mutable side of the system. But then again that might make it needlessly complex.

I don't see why it would. Assuming clojure integrates easily as other JVM languages, you should have no trouble switch-hitting. My biggest concern would be deciding where to draw the line, because changing your mind on that will be a pain in the butt.

Granted, games are so innately state-ful that using any lisp for them will be a challenge. I'm not a fan of the Java platform in general for games, though I hear good things about libGDX. If I wanted to get my FP gamedev on I'd probably look to Elm first...but if you have your heart set on a lisp for whatever reason, my guess would be that clojure is your best bet.

[InfiniteStateMachine]

Racket lisp has opengl bindings

http://docs.racket-lang.org/sgl/main.html

I've been playing it in my spare time. It's cool but I don't have a lisp background so it's going ultra slow for me. I'm not ashamed to admit I chose racket lisp because John Carmack uses it :D

[the2bears]

Major bump...

My Clojure game development:





https://github.com/the2bears/the-iron-council

https://github.com/the2bears/DS3

[InfiniteStateMachine]

cool!