4 ms·

Helm: A functionally reactive game engine in Haskell

25 points by lobo_tuerto 11y ago

efnx 11y ago
Helm is a great effort but as far as I know the project has been mostly abandoned :(
- lobo_tuerto 11y ago
  Seems like the github repo is not that abandoned: kasbah authored 13 days ago
  - efnx 11y ago
    Maybe the original authors have passed it on. If they're still working on it then it would be great to see an OpenGL backend.
fgaaldal 11y ago
It would be nice to see some examples, otherwise this is "yet another game engine that will be deprecated in 1 year". I consider this very important as games are so different that it is hard to find common parts to put into a library that are not trivial and could be reimplemented. In particular have at least 3 slightly involved examples, otherwise it is unclear what one would gain over simply using SDL/OpenGL. This goes also the other way. If I hack for fun, I often think about how to abstract stuff that is not specific to my current problem and put it into a library (I think we all have been there). Fact is, I often rush, so my abstraction only works for the current situation and so does not belong into a library. Until I did not reimplement the stuff at least 3 times I try to avoid making a library.
- lobo_tuerto 11y ago
  I posted this because I was looking for info on how to go about writing a game using Haskell, or FP for that matter. I think this at least exposes how you can do it, and what kind of tools it uses to accomplish it. After I also stumbled upon this: http://elm-lang.org/guide/reactivity http://elm-lang.org/guide/reactivity And then on this: https://github.com/evancz/elm-architecture-tutorial/ https://github.com/evancz/elm-architecture-tutorial/
  - fgaaldal 11y ago
    Obviously it depends on the game. However if you do not plan to make a straight-forward game or do not have to be fast, I highly recommend the combination SDL2 + OpenGL. It just works. - you find tons of documentation - you will run anywhere (that is obviously not trivial) In particular if you are going 2D you can skip OpenGL if speed is not a problem (yet). You then just write a small C-kernel which provides the main functionality and explore Haskell's FFI.
  - efnx 11y ago
    Check out the Haskell game dev reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/haskellgamedev/ https://www.reddit.com/r/haskellgamedev/
- sseefried 11y ago
  Yes, and so few people write actual games, just game engines. My game is pretty crappy but I overcame a bunch of (mostly boring) technical issues to get it running on both Android and iOS. Here is a repo that sets up an Android development environment. https://github.com/sseefried/docker-epidemic-build-env https://github.com/sseefried/docker-epidemic-build-env
pauloday 11y ago
Wow, that is a beautiful homepage. I particularly like the font and colorscheme for the code example, well done.

25 points by lobo_tuerto 11y ago

efnx 11y ago

Helm is a great effort but as far as I know the project has been mostly abandoned :(

lobo_tuerto 11y ago
Seems like the github repo is not that abandoned: kasbah authored 13 days ago
- efnx 11y ago
  Maybe the original authors have passed it on. If they're still working on it then it would be great to see an OpenGL backend.

fgaaldal 11y ago

It would be nice to see some examples, otherwise this is "yet another game engine that will be deprecated in 1 year". I consider this very important as games are so different that it is hard to find common parts to put into a library that are not trivial and could be reimplemented. In particular have at least 3 slightly involved examples, otherwise it is unclear what one would gain over simply using SDL/OpenGL. This goes also the other way. If I hack for fun, I often think about how to abstract stuff that is not specific to my current problem and put it into a library (I think we all have been there). Fact is, I often rush, so my abstraction only works for the current situation and so does not belong into a library. Until I did not reimplement the stuff at least 3 times I try to avoid making a library.

lobo_tuerto 11y ago
I posted this because I was looking for info on how to go about writing a game using Haskell, or FP for that matter. I think this at least exposes how you can do it, and what kind of tools it uses to accomplish it. After I also stumbled upon this: http://elm-lang.org/guide/reactivity http://elm-lang.org/guide/reactivity And then on this: https://github.com/evancz/elm-architecture-tutorial/ https://github.com/evancz/elm-architecture-tutorial/
- fgaaldal 11y ago
  Obviously it depends on the game. However if you do not plan to make a straight-forward game or do not have to be fast, I highly recommend the combination SDL2 + OpenGL. It just works. - you find tons of documentation - you will run anywhere (that is obviously not trivial) In particular if you are going 2D you can skip OpenGL if speed is not a problem (yet). You then just write a small C-kernel which provides the main functionality and explore Haskell's FFI.
- efnx 11y ago
  Check out the Haskell game dev reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/haskellgamedev/ https://www.reddit.com/r/haskellgamedev/
sseefried 11y ago
Yes, and so few people write actual games, just game engines. My game is pretty crappy but I overcame a bunch of (mostly boring) technical issues to get it running on both Android and iOS. Here is a repo that sets up an Android development environment. https://github.com/sseefried/docker-epidemic-build-env https://github.com/sseefried/docker-epidemic-build-env

pauloday 11y ago

Wow, that is a beautiful homepage. I particularly like the font and colorscheme for the code example, well done.