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[Ryan]

So I've been wanting to do this for a while. I've made different iterations and such of the same engine, I think I posted about it somewhere on these forums at some point.

Anyway, although I don't make games much myself other than silly little prototypes, I want to support the indie community in some way. My plan is to make a little game creation kit (mac, windows, linux) that helps people sketch out ideas and such, or even full games if they want.

How I plan to do this:
- GUI editor to edit / compile / run programs
- g++ backend
- library wrapper

Here is what a basic program looks like so far, I'm sort of abusing C++ in order for the syntax to look how I want:

Code:

#include "mint.h"

void mints()
{
    graphics.size(800, 600);
    graphics.title("TigerSauce!");
		
    while(mint.runs)
    {
        if(input.keyhit(ESC) or mint.close) exit;
		
        graphics.clear;
        graphics.flip;	
    }
}

Anyways, I have other classes, like "sprite" and "anim" for loading different image formats and drawing them on the screen. I was wondering:

- is anyone interested in this? and if so...
- what does the syntax look like (easy/hard to understand?)
- what features would be nice to add?

Thanks everyone

[SplinterOfChaos]

Syntax looks fine to me. I'm not interested because I'm trying to make my game right now by my self as possible, but that looks like very nice syntax and having preset sprite such classes is pretty nice.

BTW: "exit" is written as a keyword in your example, but it seems more like it should be a function.

[sonofbier]

It looks like all functions that have no arguments are written with the parenthesis.

Other than that, it looks great. Please let me know when you release a beta or anything.

I love the name too.

[ravuya]

You probably don't need to spend time writing a language. My library can be easily bound to Python or lua with swig. Making a useful library is hard enough without a language that might not offer any domain specific benefits over a general one.

[Ivan]

I am finishing work on a 2d game library right now in C and hopefully will be releasing it sometime this week. Its focus is rapid game development and it includes an editor where you can create sprites with named animations, maps, etc.

Here's a sample of its syntax:

http://code.google.com/p/librgs/wiki/SimpleExample

[Ryan]

BTW: "exit" is written as a keyword in your example, but it seems more like it should be a function.

Like I said, I was sort of "abusing" the C++ syntax. Every function that did not have arguments was defined as:

Code:

void _function();

And then in the header:

Code:

#define function _function()

(It's purpose was to limit the amount of braces within braces.)

I am finishing work on a 2d game library right now in C and hopefully will be releasing it sometime this week...

Well there we go! . I don't see any reason for two libraries that do essentially the same thing. I'm not really losing any work except a couple of hours, as I'm using this engine (with different syntax, though) in my own game. Thanks to everyone who gave input! I'll try to think of something else to contribute at a later date.

[Ivan]

no, no, i didn't mean like "i'm doing it, so you shouldn't"!!!! I was just posting a link to the syntax example as a reference. Yours is object oriented and simple and can be very handy for people starting out. Mine requires at least a basic knowledge of C.

[Ryan]

No, I understand, manhugs all around. I think it would be a waste of time when your library will do everything mine would do, (probably even more) and is released much, much sooner. I have some other ideas up my sleeve.

Edit: I forgot to mention, although this version of the library will never be made, I will still release the library I'm using for my game (once the game is done). So, if you still have any feature requests or whatever, let me know (in a PM, here, whatever). For reference, it has Textures with alpha channels, Animation support, OpenGL, Keyboard/Mouse/Xbox 360 controller handling, Timing, Audio (ogg, wav, etc), Texture Fonts (monospace) and a simple particle system thus far.

[Bad Sector]

I've also made a similar thing called SiSIG, with the difference that it's actually my UndeadScript scripting language plus some game-related functions.

It's an interesting idea, though, to use the preprocessor in order to make have C++ cleaner syntax :-)