4 ms·

Making an RPG in Clojure (part one of many?)

59 points by gtani 16y ago

zephjc 16y ago
From a year ago, but still relevant. It's also a good lesson in handling program state without needing to make it mutable.
code_duck 16y ago
Looks great so far! I'm writing an RPG in Scala, and am taking a different route - I'm adding a GUI after the mechanics (battles, equipment, map navigation, tasks) are complete in the console. This is my first game, too, so I'm not sure that this is the right plan, but it seems like a good idea.
- mcantor 16y ago
  I think from a "fun game design" perspective, it's probably a terrible idea, but it still sounds like a fun exercise in of itself, because it will force you to design the mechanics in a way that's decoupled from the GUI, and thus easy to tweak. I say it's probably a terrible "game design" idea because you run a very high risk of working hard on the mechanics, then working hard on the GUI, only to plug them into each other after much blood sweat & tears to discover that you've created a game that isn't fun. It's less of a risk since you're programming an RPG--a known concept that you can trust to have a certain appeal just by following a few conventions of RPG-ness--but in general, the best way to do game design is to "find the fun" first.
  - krakensden 16y ago
    I'm pretty sure his hope is that with a well defined separation of UI and mechanics, it will be quicker to iterate and 'find the fun'.
  - code_duck 16y ago
    Like you say, RPGs are very much a known concept. That simplifies things a lot! I'm quite familiar with the genre, having spent plenty of time doing what I'll claim to be research on what makes a good RPG. I'm modeling this game with various classic 8 bit RPGs in mind, so I have some idea of how the graphics work, as well as knowing what I personally find appealing about the game. Just think, if your favorite 8 or 16 bit RPG that never had a sequel got a sequel, what would it be like?
pragmatic 16y ago
Purely Functional Retrogames: http://prog21.dadgum.com/23.html http://prog21.dadgum.com/23.html And his conclusions: http://prog21.dadgum.com/37.html http://prog21.dadgum.com/37.html This walkthrough is in Erlang but same patterns apply.
samatman 16y ago
) c'mon, it's Clojure! Can't leave us hanging like that! also: http://xkcd.com/859/ http://xkcd.com/859/
revoltingx 16y ago
I made a 2D mmo for Android using Erlang. Dev blog: http://developingthedream.blogspot.com/ http://developingthedream.blogspot.com/ Website: http://solrpg.com http://solrpg.com Admittedly though, I used mnesia and ets for shared state data.
zandorg 16y ago
Don't forget a line-of-sight algorithm so that where the character goes in the darkness, it gets light.

59 points by gtani 16y ago

From a year ago, but still relevant. It's also a good lesson in handling program state without needing to make it mutable.

code_duck 16y ago

Looks great so far! I'm writing an RPG in Scala, and am taking a different route - I'm adding a GUI after the mechanics (battles, equipment, map navigation, tasks) are complete in the console. This is my first game, too, so I'm not sure that this is the right plan, but it seems like a good idea.

mcantor 16y ago
I think from a "fun game design" perspective, it's probably a terrible idea, but it still sounds like a fun exercise in of itself, because it will force you to design the mechanics in a way that's decoupled from the GUI, and thus easy to tweak. I say it's probably a terrible "game design" idea because you run a very high risk of working hard on the mechanics, then working hard on the GUI, only to plug them into each other after much blood sweat & tears to discover that you've created a game that isn't fun. It's less of a risk since you're programming an RPG--a known concept that you can trust to have a certain appeal just by following a few conventions of RPG-ness--but in general, the best way to do game design is to "find the fun" first.
- krakensden 16y ago
  I'm pretty sure his hope is that with a well defined separation of UI and mechanics, it will be quicker to iterate and 'find the fun'.
- code_duck 16y ago
  Like you say, RPGs are very much a known concept. That simplifies things a lot! I'm quite familiar with the genre, having spent plenty of time doing what I'll claim to be research on what makes a good RPG. I'm modeling this game with various classic 8 bit RPGs in mind, so I have some idea of how the graphics work, as well as knowing what I personally find appealing about the game. Just think, if your favorite 8 or 16 bit RPG that never had a sequel got a sequel, what would it be like?

pragmatic 16y ago

Purely Functional Retrogames: http://prog21.dadgum.com/23.html http://prog21.dadgum.com/23.html And his conclusions: http://prog21.dadgum.com/37.html http://prog21.dadgum.com/37.html This walkthrough is in Erlang but same patterns apply.

samatman 16y ago

) c'mon, it's Clojure! Can't leave us hanging like that! also: http://xkcd.com/859/ http://xkcd.com/859/

revoltingx 16y ago

I made a 2D mmo for Android using Erlang. Dev blog: http://developingthedream.blogspot.com/ http://developingthedream.blogspot.com/ Website: http://solrpg.com http://solrpg.com Admittedly though, I used mnesia and ets for shared state data.

zandorg 16y ago

Don't forget a line-of-sight algorithm so that where the character goes in the darkness, it gets light.