5 ms·

Helm, a functionally reactive game engine

122 points by kaishiro 12y ago

elbrodeur 12y ago
Would love to see examples of the engine working. Poked around a bit and couldn't find any demonstration games. Am I missing something?
- phowat 12y ago
  I found 2 demo projects in their github account: https://github.com/switchface/helm-demo-colors https://github.com/switchface/helm-demo-colors and https://github.com/switchface/helm-demo-gradients https://github.com/switchface/helm-demo-gradients .
- Gracana 12y ago
  They do have some examples of the engine working in the "guide" pages [1], but I don't really know enough about the technology to be impressed. "It's just a black triangle." [1] http://helm-engine.org/guide/gradients/ http://helm-engine.org/guide/gradients/
  - michael_fine 12y ago
    Those don't really show much of the FRP style programming, it's how pretty much all haskell graphics libraries work.
    - sntran 12y ago
      The language that Helm was inspired by, Elm (http://elm-lang.org/ http://elm-lang.org/), does have multiple examples to show the power of FRP.
      - sprobertson 12y ago
        The resources surrounding Elm are the best set of FRP examples I've seen so far.
- CmonDev 12y ago
  That's the biggest problem with pure FRP: people like to talk about it and make libraries for it, but non-trivial game implementations are rare. I am still not sure what is supposed to be a unit of re-usability (like components/systems in ECS) in FRP?
oakwhiz 12y ago
I haven't been able to figure out how to get this to compile on Windows. It seems to have something to do with its dependency on GTK.
- sgwizdak 12y ago
  Yeah, I haven't had much luck with OSX either, lots of the glib dependencies seems somewhat busted due to https://github.com/gtk2hs/gtk2hs/issues/1 https://github.com/gtk2hs/gtk2hs/issues/1
kaishiro 12y ago
I actually just started playing around with this today, after seeing the reference via Chucklefish's blog: http://blog.chucklefish.org/?p=154 http://blog.chucklefish.org/?p=154 TL;DR - Apparently they're stepping away from it with their latest game, primarily because of its focus on 2D rendering. It's heavily influencing their newest internal toolset though, called Cove (not opened up yet, as far as I can tell).
_Robbie 12y ago
I used Helm for a simple 2D simulator/prototype for edge detection and orientation. Link to code below (it was my first Haskell program). While it was not a game in any sense, I found it quite fun and easy to use. https://github.com/rgleichman/sense/blob/master/AngleGripper.hs https://github.com/rgleichman/sense/blob/master/AngleGripper...
thoughtpalette 12y ago
Might be off topic, but I love the logo.

122 points by kaishiro 12y ago

Would love to see examples of the engine working. Poked around a bit and couldn't find any demonstration games. Am I missing something?

phowat 12y ago
I found 2 demo projects in their github account: https://github.com/switchface/helm-demo-colors https://github.com/switchface/helm-demo-colors and https://github.com/switchface/helm-demo-gradients https://github.com/switchface/helm-demo-gradients .
Gracana 12y ago
They do have some examples of the engine working in the "guide" pages [1], but I don't really know enough about the technology to be impressed. "It's just a black triangle." [1] http://helm-engine.org/guide/gradients/ http://helm-engine.org/guide/gradients/
- michael_fine 12y ago
  Those don't really show much of the FRP style programming, it's how pretty much all haskell graphics libraries work.
  - sntran 12y ago
    The language that Helm was inspired by, Elm (http://elm-lang.org/ http://elm-lang.org/), does have multiple examples to show the power of FRP.
    - sprobertson 12y ago
      The resources surrounding Elm are the best set of FRP examples I've seen so far.
CmonDev 12y ago
That's the biggest problem with pure FRP: people like to talk about it and make libraries for it, but non-trivial game implementations are rare. I am still not sure what is supposed to be a unit of re-usability (like components/systems in ECS) in FRP?

oakwhiz 12y ago

I haven't been able to figure out how to get this to compile on Windows. It seems to have something to do with its dependency on GTK.

sgwizdak 12y ago
Yeah, I haven't had much luck with OSX either, lots of the glib dependencies seems somewhat busted due to https://github.com/gtk2hs/gtk2hs/issues/1 https://github.com/gtk2hs/gtk2hs/issues/1

kaishiro 12y ago

I actually just started playing around with this today, after seeing the reference via Chucklefish's blog: http://blog.chucklefish.org/?p=154 http://blog.chucklefish.org/?p=154 TL;DR - Apparently they're stepping away from it with their latest game, primarily because of its focus on 2D rendering. It's heavily influencing their newest internal toolset though, called Cove (not opened up yet, as far as I can tell).

_Robbie 12y ago

I used Helm for a simple 2D simulator/prototype for edge detection and orientation. Link to code below (it was my first Haskell program). While it was not a game in any sense, I found it quite fun and easy to use. https://github.com/rgleichman/sense/blob/master/AngleGripper.hs https://github.com/rgleichman/sense/blob/master/AngleGripper...

thoughtpalette 12y ago

Might be off topic, but I love the logo.