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> Currently it is the low level, cross platform layer that is the most complex and the biggest hurdle towards making a game engine viable I couldn't agree more

> Currently it is the low level, cross platform layer that is the most complex and the biggest hurdle towards making a game engine viable I couldn't agree more. My goal is not to simply build "a better game engine", but to make this kind of low-level tech accessible at a higher level and with much better dev tools to a broader class of developers and applications > Don't underestimate what an individual or small teams can produce if they are operating on a solid platform This gets into my motivations for building a company - larger companies have the resources to build moats, but often can't quickly realign themselves to go after novel technical opportunities. It's not either / or - both models exist for very valid reasons.

joeyjojo 2y ago
I am glad people are working on it!! Have you seen Kha by any chance? It has similar goals. I find it quite awesome, but it won't gain mass adoption for a bunch of reasons. https://github.com/Kode/Kha https://github.com/Kode/Kha Someone built an immediate mode renderer on top https://github.com/armory3d/zui https://github.com/armory3d/zui, which is utilised by ArmorPaint https://armorpaint.org https://armorpaint.org. I also use Zui for my own bespoke 2D game engine. I find this tech and tooling really quite amazing (just look at how little source code Zui has) given just how small the ecosystem around it is. I think Kha really illustrates what can be achievable if the lower levels have robust but simple APIs, just exposing the bare minimum as a standard for others to build upon. It really suggest taking a look at the graphics2 (2d canvas like) api. For the kind of project I work on (mostly 2d games), I think it would really awesome if your framework also supported low level audio, and a variety of inputs such as keyboard, mice, and gamepads. If it also had decent text rendering support it would basically be my dream library/framework.
- seanisom 2y ago
  Interesting! Had never heard of it before, will check it out. The point of Haxe seems to be as a meta-compiler to generate code for a bunch of different languages/compilers? The same spirit of the Wasm dev experience but without the runtime. Text / fonts is very much on the roadmap! For input and audio I would have to think through the scope.
  - joeyjojo 2y ago
    > The point of Haxe seems to be as a meta-compiler to generate code for a bunch of different languages/compilers? That's basically correct, although there is also a cross platform runtime called Hashlink but is unsupported by Kha. https://hashlink.haxe.org/ https://hashlink.haxe.org/

joeyjojo 2y ago

I am glad people are working on it!! Have you seen Kha by any chance? It has similar goals. I find it quite awesome, but it won't gain mass adoption for a bunch of reasons. https://github.com/Kode/Kha https://github.com/Kode/Kha Someone built an immediate mode renderer on top https://github.com/armory3d/zui https://github.com/armory3d/zui, which is utilised by ArmorPaint https://armorpaint.org https://armorpaint.org. I also use Zui for my own bespoke 2D game engine. I find this tech and tooling really quite amazing (just look at how little source code Zui has) given just how small the ecosystem around it is. I think Kha really illustrates what can be achievable if the lower levels have robust but simple APIs, just exposing the bare minimum as a standard for others to build upon. It really suggest taking a look at the graphics2 (2d canvas like) api. For the kind of project I work on (mostly 2d games), I think it would really awesome if your framework also supported low level audio, and a variety of inputs such as keyboard, mice, and gamepads. If it also had decent text rendering support it would basically be my dream library/framework.

seanisom 2y ago
Interesting! Had never heard of it before, will check it out. The point of Haxe seems to be as a meta-compiler to generate code for a bunch of different languages/compilers? The same spirit of the Wasm dev experience but without the runtime. Text / fonts is very much on the roadmap! For input and audio I would have to think through the scope.
- joeyjojo 2y ago
  > The point of Haxe seems to be as a meta-compiler to generate code for a bunch of different languages/compilers? That's basically correct, although there is also a cross platform runtime called Hashlink but is unsupported by Kha. https://hashlink.haxe.org/ https://hashlink.haxe.org/