6 ms·

Show HN: Kaboom.js is a zero-dependency declarative JavaScript game library

205 points by slmjkdbtl 6y ago

Mobleysoft 6y ago
This is very cool. What was your inspiration for this?
- MaxLeiter 6y ago
  They didn’t create it, this was made by the team at repl.it. In case a mod sees this, it would be great to be able to provide a reason for flagging a submission Edit: assumptions bad
  - amasad 6y ago
    @slmjkdbtl works at Replit and he designed and lead this project :)
    - MaxLeiter 6y ago
      Ah my mistake! Awesome to see. Thanks for all the great work
- slmjkdbtl 6y ago
  Hi! It's mainly a summary of me trying to learn game dev and reflection on current tools, also Scratch kinda inspired the "blocky declarative" style because we hope kids can make games with kaboom with "real code" just after they completed learning Scratch. Also a lot of softwares I like e.g love2d, PICO8, sokol, Amulet, Klik & Play
  - acbart 6y ago
    Klik n Play was such a fascinating programming model. I can't think of many places with... Example-based programming? It was such a curious paradigm, in retrospect.
    - slmjkdbtl 6y ago
      hh I love the sounding of "example-based programming"! i would also add a "spreadsheet-based programming"
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
gremlinsinc 6y ago
Looks cool, can this work on mobile? Via react native or something?
- slmjkdbtl 6y ago
  It's not on mobile yet, but I'm thinking using QuickJS + platform native APIs to enable them run on native platforms (like React Native but only care about getting window with graphics / audio context, thinking about using sokol for that). But yeah you can always just put a webview and run it.
  - tpetry 6y ago
    None of the demos seems to work on mobile. Which is kind of expected as they depend on a spacebar. But even the buttons example does not work as there is no mouse click on mobile?
    - slmjkdbtl 6y ago
      yeah, the click ones should be trivial I'll add support now
  - abalaji 6y ago
    honestly that could be huge. Imagine a repl.it arcade on iOS, kids would go wild to make stuff their friends could play on their phones. At least middle school me would have.
- Mobleysoft 6y ago
  Should be possible with Apache Cordova.
tpetry 6y ago
That looks like really nice concept for very quick game prototypes. Is there something similar?
- slmjkdbtl 6y ago
  You mean quick game making tools? Yeah there're some good alternatives like love2d, pico8, compared to these kaboom provide more abstractions and helpers and runs natively on web, but it's also less mature than these since it's much younger
  - spicybright 6y ago
    TIC-80 is also another fantasy console like pico8, same idea.
    - slmjkdbtl 6y ago
      yea! TIC-80 is probably the best open source one it's written in taste
pipnonsense 6y ago
That’s interesting. As side-projects I just created two sibling games using JavaScript: https://www.gameofpainting.com https://www.gameofpainting.com https://www.paintingpuzzles.com https://www.paintingpuzzles.com I optimized for the “fasted path to ship”, so I used React only, as it is what I know. The games reflect the limitations of the tools of course. They are just tapping games with simple game logic. It would be nice to have something more powerful but still in a language that I know (I have no intention of going full game-developer). I’ll take a look at it.
- tartoran 6y ago
  Great games!!
slmjkdbtl 6y ago
Hi! My name is tga and I'm the author of kaboom.js. I'm working at replit and this is part of the effort of us trying to make game dev more accessible to beginners & intermediate programmers. Kaboom is like a summary of me trying to learn game dev. There're a lot of tools and most of them tend to get bloaty as they go on, they often require complicated setups and hard to really for beginners to really get started, one goal of kaboom is to allow beginners to get a game up and running with no effort and start enjoying the game dev fun right away. Using Js is because I want it to run natively on browser, also it seems like the "go-to" beginner language right now, but I'm also thinking about making Kaboom Native where it uses QuickJS + platform native APIs (thinking sokol for that) to run on native platforms, so you can write your game in Js once and run on every platform natively (so unlike other cross platform engines, it doesn't require emscripten / WASM on web) Inspired by fantasy consoles, there's also a special editor on replit that enables you code and manage / create assets in the same environment, check it out! https://replit.com/kaboom https://replit.com/kaboom (still in early dev) Ask me anything!
- amasad 6y ago
  Worth noting that while Kaboom.js is aimed at novices, it turned out to be super fun for developers too. Our team is having a lot of fun with it -- you can have an idea write a game in 30 minutes to an hour in typically less than 100 LoC. Some examples from our team and community: - ReplJewled https://replit.com/@ConnorBrewster/ReplJeweled https://replit.com/@ConnorBrewster/ReplJeweled - Flappy Mark https://replit.com/@slmjkdbtl/flappymark https://replit.com/@slmjkdbtl/flappymark - Bamboo Ninja https://replit.com/@RoBlockHead/KaboomJam https://replit.com/@RoBlockHead/KaboomJam - Cookie Vs Oreo https://replit.com/@Coder100/COOKIE-VS-OREOS-KABOOMJS-BOOMOMOMOMOM https://replit.com/@Coder100/COOKIE-VS-OREOS-KABOOMJS-BOOMOM...
- dvfjsdhgfv 6y ago
  I just wanted to say thank you, it looks superfun!
- shuding 6y ago
  Wow great work tga, love it!!
sebringj 6y ago
This is the first time I've seen a dev-made musical intro video for a game platform and it was great!
- slmjkdbtl 6y ago
  Thank you! Had fun working on that hh
- matsemann 6y ago
  The video, song, logo. Everything so fun and cool, made me laugh. Really looks like the author went the extra mile.
- searchableguy 6y ago
  Yup, totally awesome.
abalaji 6y ago
I wasn't alive for the web in the '90s but I really dig the retro vibe Super neat project!
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
Waterluvian 6y ago
This is really exciting for me. I want to make little games for fun and js/Web is the best distribution method for a fun hobby. But phaser is way too heavy for my target. How well does it work on mobile for simple games?
- slmjkdbtl 6y ago
  Hi! Thanks. Mobile is not well supported yet, but will be focused shortly, but for simple games for sure, the goal is to get a simple game out quickly
karmakaze 6y ago
I like in the 'car' demo how continuing to zoom out, you can end up with zero or even negative scale so it's rotated 180.
- slmjkdbtl 6y ago
  hh yeah that's fun! try playing a game upside down
franklyt 6y ago
How mature is this? Can I use it to teach kids? How is it more desirable than makecode arcade? I’m right in the use-case for this and have tried many alternatives.
- amasad 6y ago
  Somewhat early but very usable. Check out the environment on Replit. We are exactly targeting your use-case. Feel free to email us with feedback amjad@repl.it
  - franklyt 6y ago
    If I may be so bold as to make your case for you, a huge pain point in the amazing software that is makecode arcade is that it pigeon holes you into TypeScript strict mode, which, while an amazing and flexible technology for seasoned engineers, it is a a very limiting and confusing convention for young learners.
FpUser 6y ago
I like it. You brought back some fun. Congrats for the job well done.

205 points by slmjkdbtl 6y ago

Mobleysoft 6y ago

This is very cool. What was your inspiration for this?

MaxLeiter 6y ago
They didn’t create it, this was made by the team at repl.it. In case a mod sees this, it would be great to be able to provide a reason for flagging a submission Edit: assumptions bad
- amasad 6y ago
  @slmjkdbtl works at Replit and he designed and lead this project :)
  - MaxLeiter 6y ago
    Ah my mistake! Awesome to see. Thanks for all the great work
slmjkdbtl 6y ago
Hi! It's mainly a summary of me trying to learn game dev and reflection on current tools, also Scratch kinda inspired the "blocky declarative" style because we hope kids can make games with kaboom with "real code" just after they completed learning Scratch. Also a lot of softwares I like e.g love2d, PICO8, sokol, Amulet, Klik & Play
- acbart 6y ago
  Klik n Play was such a fascinating programming model. I can't think of many places with... Example-based programming? It was such a curious paradigm, in retrospect.
  - slmjkdbtl 6y ago
    hh I love the sounding of "example-based programming"! i would also add a "spreadsheet-based programming"

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

gremlinsinc 6y ago

Looks cool, can this work on mobile? Via react native or something?

slmjkdbtl 6y ago
It's not on mobile yet, but I'm thinking using QuickJS + platform native APIs to enable them run on native platforms (like React Native but only care about getting window with graphics / audio context, thinking about using sokol for that). But yeah you can always just put a webview and run it.
- tpetry 6y ago
  None of the demos seems to work on mobile. Which is kind of expected as they depend on a spacebar. But even the buttons example does not work as there is no mouse click on mobile?
  - slmjkdbtl 6y ago
    yeah, the click ones should be trivial I'll add support now
- abalaji 6y ago
  honestly that could be huge. Imagine a repl.it arcade on iOS, kids would go wild to make stuff their friends could play on their phones. At least middle school me would have.
Mobleysoft 6y ago
Should be possible with Apache Cordova.

tpetry 6y ago

That looks like really nice concept for very quick game prototypes. Is there something similar?

slmjkdbtl 6y ago
You mean quick game making tools? Yeah there're some good alternatives like love2d, pico8, compared to these kaboom provide more abstractions and helpers and runs natively on web, but it's also less mature than these since it's much younger
- spicybright 6y ago
  TIC-80 is also another fantasy console like pico8, same idea.
  - slmjkdbtl 6y ago
    yea! TIC-80 is probably the best open source one it's written in taste

pipnonsense 6y ago

That’s interesting. As side-projects I just created two sibling games using JavaScript: https://www.gameofpainting.com https://www.gameofpainting.com https://www.paintingpuzzles.com https://www.paintingpuzzles.com I optimized for the “fasted path to ship”, so I used React only, as it is what I know. The games reflect the limitations of the tools of course. They are just tapping games with simple game logic. It would be nice to have something more powerful but still in a language that I know (I have no intention of going full game-developer). I’ll take a look at it.

tartoran 6y ago
Great games!!

slmjkdbtl 6y ago

Hi! My name is tga and I'm the author of kaboom.js. I'm working at replit and this is part of the effort of us trying to make game dev more accessible to beginners & intermediate programmers. Kaboom is like a summary of me trying to learn game dev. There're a lot of tools and most of them tend to get bloaty as they go on, they often require complicated setups and hard to really for beginners to really get started, one goal of kaboom is to allow beginners to get a game up and running with no effort and start enjoying the game dev fun right away. Using Js is because I want it to run natively on browser, also it seems like the "go-to" beginner language right now, but I'm also thinking about making Kaboom Native where it uses QuickJS + platform native APIs (thinking sokol for that) to run on native platforms, so you can write your game in Js once and run on every platform natively (so unlike other cross platform engines, it doesn't require emscripten / WASM on web) Inspired by fantasy consoles, there's also a special editor on replit that enables you code and manage / create assets in the same environment, check it out! https://replit.com/kaboom https://replit.com/kaboom (still in early dev) Ask me anything!

amasad 6y ago
Worth noting that while Kaboom.js is aimed at novices, it turned out to be super fun for developers too. Our team is having a lot of fun with it -- you can have an idea write a game in 30 minutes to an hour in typically less than 100 LoC. Some examples from our team and community: - ReplJewled https://replit.com/@ConnorBrewster/ReplJeweled https://replit.com/@ConnorBrewster/ReplJeweled - Flappy Mark https://replit.com/@slmjkdbtl/flappymark https://replit.com/@slmjkdbtl/flappymark - Bamboo Ninja https://replit.com/@RoBlockHead/KaboomJam https://replit.com/@RoBlockHead/KaboomJam - Cookie Vs Oreo https://replit.com/@Coder100/COOKIE-VS-OREOS-KABOOMJS-BOOMOMOMOMOM https://replit.com/@Coder100/COOKIE-VS-OREOS-KABOOMJS-BOOMOM...
dvfjsdhgfv 6y ago
I just wanted to say thank you, it looks superfun!
shuding 6y ago
Wow great work tga, love it!!

sebringj 6y ago

This is the first time I've seen a dev-made musical intro video for a game platform and it was great!

slmjkdbtl 6y ago
Thank you! Had fun working on that hh
matsemann 6y ago
The video, song, logo. Everything so fun and cool, made me laugh. Really looks like the author went the extra mile.
searchableguy 6y ago
Yup, totally awesome.

abalaji 6y ago

I wasn't alive for the web in the '90s but I really dig the retro vibe Super neat project!

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

Waterluvian 6y ago

This is really exciting for me. I want to make little games for fun and js/Web is the best distribution method for a fun hobby. But phaser is way too heavy for my target. How well does it work on mobile for simple games?

slmjkdbtl 6y ago
Hi! Thanks. Mobile is not well supported yet, but will be focused shortly, but for simple games for sure, the goal is to get a simple game out quickly

karmakaze 6y ago

I like in the 'car' demo how continuing to zoom out, you can end up with zero or even negative scale so it's rotated 180.

slmjkdbtl 6y ago
hh yeah that's fun! try playing a game upside down

franklyt 6y ago

How mature is this? Can I use it to teach kids? How is it more desirable than makecode arcade? I’m right in the use-case for this and have tried many alternatives.

amasad 6y ago
Somewhat early but very usable. Check out the environment on Replit. We are exactly targeting your use-case. Feel free to email us with feedback amjad@repl.it
- franklyt 6y ago
  If I may be so bold as to make your case for you, a huge pain point in the amazing software that is makecode arcade is that it pigeon holes you into TypeScript strict mode, which, while an amazing and flexible technology for seasoned engineers, it is a a very limiting and confusing convention for young learners.

FpUser 6y ago

I like it. You brought back some fun. Congrats for the job well done.