6 ms·

The Moai Runtime - An Object-Oriented Reactive System

39 points by pygy_ 14y ago

LaSombra 14y ago
I think that's the engine Double Fine will use in it's Kickstarter adventure game
- Robin_B 14y ago
  That's correct. The new Shadowrun kickstarter game will use it as well.
  - toddz 14y ago
    Also, Strikefleet Omega is made with Moai, from the same team that did Crimson for Bungie. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhdAosf7f9g http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhdAosf7f9g
    - andrewschleifer 14y ago
      The Shadowrun kickstarter is from the same team that made Strikefleet Omega & Crimson: http://harebrained-schemes.com/ http://harebrained-schemes.com/
- PostOnce 14y ago
  Hopefully after Double Fine throws some weight behind it the docs will get better. In my experience, they're not great.
DrStrngeluv 14y ago
I've been using this engine, it's quite nice, and targets all the platforms one might be interested in. It only took a few hours to figure out how to translate some code from love2d.
- seclorum 14y ago
  I have become a huge MOAI fan. I've built a physics game, a generalized data/entry application, a board game, and a few other things (internal projects) and I can't say I ever want to look at Objective-C/Android SDK's again. After deploying my apps on all platforms, I see absolutely no point to fall into the developer-brainshare trap again.
eskimoto 14y ago
really intuitive
yareally 14y ago
My experience trying to prototype on Moai is it has promise, but they really need better documentation. There isn't very much of it as far as up to date examples and the API itself is not exactly complete. Since they went to version 1.0, much of their existing documentation is also depreciated. I think in the near future as the project matures, it will become far more solid. It already has a big advantage of being open source and cross platform. Other such engines like Corona and Gideros for lua are closed and also have some limitations on how you can extend and use them at the code level. I tried Moai for a few weeks for prototyping (after already trying Corona and Gideros before). I decided it would just be better to do the actual game in a native code framework on whatever platform (something like libgdx for android or cocos2d for iOS).
- aptwebapps 14y ago
  Have you looked at Cocos2d-x? http://www.cocos2d-x.org/ http://www.cocos2d-x.org/
  - yareally 14y ago
    I have not actually. I will check it out. Do you have much experience you can share with it offhand? Mainly what to expect or avoid with it.
    - aptwebapps 14y ago
      No, sorry. That's why I was asking.
- seclorum 14y ago
  Because I'm using MOAI for my projects (5 so far..) I am able to ship high-performance software on: * Mac OSX * Linux * Windows * iOS * Android Please note: MOAI targets BOTH mobile and desktop markets, and in that respect is much more powerful than a lot of competing frameworks. The app looks the same on each platform, in fact its indistinguishable wherever you run it. Such a powerful framework, and many who look at it seem like they want to be hand-fed their apps, pre-developed for them ..
shadowmint 14y ago
I don't get it. I don't want to bag lua scripting in games, because I fully support that; supreme commander was a pretty good example of how you can do this right. ...but I can't help but think moai isn't it. I've seen the code of three groups who are working on games using this engine (primarily because it's cross platform), and their code all makes me shudder. It's rubbish (no offence guys). lobsterGfx = MOAIGfxQuad2D.new () lobsterGfx:setTexture ( "openlobster.png" ) lobsterGfx:setRect ( -128, -128, 128, 128 ) explosionGfx = MOAIGfxQuad2D.new () explosionGfx:setTexture ( "fire.png" ) explosionGfx:setRect ( -32, -32, 32, 32 ) That's not a high level API controlled by a scripting engine. That's _low level_ api controlled by a scripting engine. All the code I've seen using this engine suffers from the same thing I've seen a dozen or more times in unity projects, but worse: 1) no unit tests, 2) spagetti code, 3) no interfaces or dynamically replaceable behaviour, 4) no documentation, 5) no workflow for artists. It's a game engine by programmers for programmers to hack with; and I'll give it that; it _is_ fun to hack with, and it's nice to be able to shift the behaviour of things a little bit and see the results immediately... but that alone doesn't make it a good choice for serious projects.
- aptwebapps 14y ago
  That's not a high level API controlled by a scripting engine. That's _low level_ api controlled by a scripting engine. To be fair, they call it a "minimalist game client framework" in the FAQ and a "minimalist cross platform C++ game engine with a Lua-based scripting interface" in the SDK's page in the wiki, so they aren't billing it as a high level API.
- seclorum 14y ago
  Its a good choice for serious projects. Nobody serious would ever bother with complaining about the low-level nature of the MOAI runtime without understanding its design. Having done 5 projects in MOAI so far, I can tell you this: what you are isolating as a fault is actually a very big strength. If I need it, I can drill down and have absolute control over the Quads. If I don't need it -big deal, I isolate into higher-level abstract API's, and away we go. I really don't think you're looking at it fairly, or professionally. If you want a higher-level API, choose Corona or something else. If you want serious power, there is nothing out there better than MOAI.

39 points by pygy_ 14y ago

LaSombra 14y ago

I think that's the engine Double Fine will use in it's Kickstarter adventure game

Robin_B 14y ago
That's correct. The new Shadowrun kickstarter game will use it as well.
- toddz 14y ago
  Also, Strikefleet Omega is made with Moai, from the same team that did Crimson for Bungie. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhdAosf7f9g http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhdAosf7f9g
  - andrewschleifer 14y ago
    The Shadowrun kickstarter is from the same team that made Strikefleet Omega & Crimson: http://harebrained-schemes.com/ http://harebrained-schemes.com/
PostOnce 14y ago
Hopefully after Double Fine throws some weight behind it the docs will get better. In my experience, they're not great.

DrStrngeluv 14y ago

I've been using this engine, it's quite nice, and targets all the platforms one might be interested in. It only took a few hours to figure out how to translate some code from love2d.

seclorum 14y ago
I have become a huge MOAI fan. I've built a physics game, a generalized data/entry application, a board game, and a few other things (internal projects) and I can't say I ever want to look at Objective-C/Android SDK's again. After deploying my apps on all platforms, I see absolutely no point to fall into the developer-brainshare trap again.

eskimoto 14y ago

really intuitive

yareally 14y ago

My experience trying to prototype on Moai is it has promise, but they really need better documentation. There isn't very much of it as far as up to date examples and the API itself is not exactly complete. Since they went to version 1.0, much of their existing documentation is also depreciated. I think in the near future as the project matures, it will become far more solid. It already has a big advantage of being open source and cross platform. Other such engines like Corona and Gideros for lua are closed and also have some limitations on how you can extend and use them at the code level. I tried Moai for a few weeks for prototyping (after already trying Corona and Gideros before). I decided it would just be better to do the actual game in a native code framework on whatever platform (something like libgdx for android or cocos2d for iOS).

aptwebapps 14y ago
Have you looked at Cocos2d-x? http://www.cocos2d-x.org/ http://www.cocos2d-x.org/
- yareally 14y ago
  I have not actually. I will check it out. Do you have much experience you can share with it offhand? Mainly what to expect or avoid with it.
  - aptwebapps 14y ago
    No, sorry. That's why I was asking.
seclorum 14y ago
Because I'm using MOAI for my projects (5 so far..) I am able to ship high-performance software on: * Mac OSX * Linux * Windows * iOS * Android Please note: MOAI targets BOTH mobile and desktop markets, and in that respect is much more powerful than a lot of competing frameworks. The app looks the same on each platform, in fact its indistinguishable wherever you run it. Such a powerful framework, and many who look at it seem like they want to be hand-fed their apps, pre-developed for them ..

shadowmint 14y ago

I don't get it. I don't want to bag lua scripting in games, because I fully support that; supreme commander was a pretty good example of how you can do this right. ...but I can't help but think moai isn't it. I've seen the code of three groups who are working on games using this engine (primarily because it's cross platform), and their code all makes me shudder. It's rubbish (no offence guys). lobsterGfx = MOAIGfxQuad2D.new () lobsterGfx:setTexture ( "openlobster.png" ) lobsterGfx:setRect ( -128, -128, 128, 128 ) explosionGfx = MOAIGfxQuad2D.new () explosionGfx:setTexture ( "fire.png" ) explosionGfx:setRect ( -32, -32, 32, 32 ) That's not a high level API controlled by a scripting engine. That's _low level_ api controlled by a scripting engine. All the code I've seen using this engine suffers from the same thing I've seen a dozen or more times in unity projects, but worse: 1) no unit tests, 2) spagetti code, 3) no interfaces or dynamically replaceable behaviour, 4) no documentation, 5) no workflow for artists. It's a game engine by programmers for programmers to hack with; and I'll give it that; it _is_ fun to hack with, and it's nice to be able to shift the behaviour of things a little bit and see the results immediately... but that alone doesn't make it a good choice for serious projects.

aptwebapps 14y ago
That's not a high level API controlled by a scripting engine. That's _low level_ api controlled by a scripting engine. To be fair, they call it a "minimalist game client framework" in the FAQ and a "minimalist cross platform C++ game engine with a Lua-based scripting interface" in the SDK's page in the wiki, so they aren't billing it as a high level API.
seclorum 14y ago
Its a good choice for serious projects. Nobody serious would ever bother with complaining about the low-level nature of the MOAI runtime without understanding its design. Having done 5 projects in MOAI so far, I can tell you this: what you are isolating as a fault is actually a very big strength. If I need it, I can drill down and have absolute control over the Quads. If I don't need it -big deal, I isolate into higher-level abstract API's, and away we go. I really don't think you're looking at it fairly, or professionally. If you want a higher-level API, choose Corona or something else. If you want serious power, there is nothing out there better than MOAI.