Current game developer. This is why you tend to use a low level / static / concrete language to write the (relatively constant, well-defined) game engine — the

Current game developer. This is why you tend to use a low level / static / concrete language to write the (relatively constant, well-defined) game engine — the graphics pipeline, model loading, animation playback, sound, etc — and you use a high level scripting language like LUA to write the (constantly changing, unique) game logic. To tie this back to the OP, this is one of the reasons I'm fond of Clojure (even though I don't get much of an opportunity to use it). It's written to be concise and expressive (as described in Rich's talk, when compared to C++) but also relatively high perf (by leveraging the native capabilities of the host on which it sits). It has the potential to be a great language for both the high-perf core of a game and the high-level logic. Sadly, it doesn't yet target a host without a GC (and probably never will), so you're going to have a devil of a time using it in a way that guarantees pause-free execution.