Making a cross-platform mobile game in Reason/OCaml (opens in new tab)

(jaredforsyth.com)

170 pointsjaredly8y ago24 comments

24 comments

c-bayprogrammer8y ago

The game, Gravitron, looks very similar to an old Ludum Dare entry called Graviton:

http://sam.draknek.org/projects/gravity

(timelapse development video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tQ00R69rF8)

It's a really cool game concept, even cooler being written in OCaml! :)

nerdponx8y ago

Not only is this game a total blast to play, but it's also one of the only games that I think is best played on a trackpad instead of with a mouse.

However if I were the creator of this game, I'd be pretty pissed at the one in the OP. One was obviously inspired by the other.

jaredlyOP8y ago

Convergent evolution :) I made the version version of Gravitron in 2006

faitswulff8y ago

/u/jaredly, thanks for posting, this is really exciting! I've been reading about Reason here and there, and I've always wanted to write a simple game.

At the app/game level, is there any platform-specific code? Or is it all in src? And to clarify, the big news here is cutting down on the yak-shaving with the cross-compilers and build systems right? Does it enforce any conventions on the code? Did you use any frameworks to create the game itself?

chenglou8y ago

I'll reply for Jared since he doesn't seem around. I work on Reason.

It's a single codebase and build system. There's platform-specific code buried in some conditional compilation in the Reprocessing drawing lib he uses: https://github.com/Schmavery/reprocessing

Here's a livestream of the Reprocessing folks making a flappy bird clone (https://github.com/schmavery/flappybird) from scratch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aD3aPvNpyQ&feature=youtu.be...

jaredlyOP8y ago

In the game, the only place I check the platform is to see how big I should make the screen (like 3 lines). Everything else is shared! The big news here is that you can use a single codebase (and a nice advanced language like ocaml), and deploy to 4 platforms. The framework I'm using is called "reprocessing", which is a ~port of the "processing" language to OCaml, targetting OpenGL. It abstracts out the different platforms.

k__8y ago

I guess the Linux port wouldn't be a big thing, but what about Windows?

1 more reply

niilohlin8y ago

Very cool. Hot reloading in iOS would be extreamly useful. I remember that I used a plugin that was called injectionforxcode but it was not working very well.

drdiablo8y ago

I have yet to find a reason to support iOS hot reloading in this context to be perfectly honest. I use the desktop bytecode hot reloading (implemented inside Reprocessing so everyone can benefit from it), and it works wonderfully well. It's faster than anything you've seen before. And given that you probably want to be coding in Reason and not objc, it doesn't really matter what your render target is while you're iterating and being creative. I'm all ears if you can think of something though.

gman838y ago

Flutter has a nice hot reloading feature: https://flutter.io/hot-reload/

mixedCase8y ago

Yeah, but then you have to use Dart.

2 more replies

xfer8y ago

There is no hot reloading in the toolchain, but the compiler is very fast. I am not sure what you mean by xcode plugin, this is a js application, Reason is syntax for ocaml using bucklescript backend.

thangngoc898y ago

This is both a native (as in binary) and js application. It compiles down to binary and uses OpenGL for native targets and WebGL for the web

michaelsbradley8y ago

Reason code can indeed be compiled to JavaScript using the Bucklescript backend (as can regular OCaml), but it can also be compiled to native since it's just a dialect of OCaml. In the latter case, the programmer would need to avoid JS interop or employ conditional compilation.

nivertech8y ago

Can somebody compare Reason to Elm and PureScript?

drdiablo8y ago

I don't know if you've read this https://reasonml.github.io/docs/en/what-and-why.html#why-oca... :)

beesmum8y ago

Does it only work on desktop browsers?

beesmum8y ago

By which I mean does the version that's compiled for browsers not work on mobile browsers? I noticed the Gravitron game loads on mobile but the layout is broken. Is that just a case of not being optimized to work for mobile browers? Or is there a limitation in the frameworks that prevents it from working in mobile browsers?

kbenson8y ago

I'm not sure the answer, but since it's for sale on android and ios, I imagine there's not a lot of incentive for the author to make it work on mobile browsers if it's easily done.

jaredlyOP8y ago

I haven't optimized it for mobile browsers, but it wouldn't be hard. Was pretty heads down on getting mobile native out the door.

beesmum8y ago

Great, thanks! This all came at a perfect time -- I was just about to start working on converting a bunch of our music education games to iOS. My plan was to do that, then convert our existing games from Flash to HTML5. If I can get this up and running, it would save a great deal of time.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

24 comments

c-bayprogrammer8y ago

The game, Gravitron, looks very similar to an old Ludum Dare entry called Graviton:

http://sam.draknek.org/projects/gravity

(timelapse development video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tQ00R69rF8)

It's a really cool game concept, even cooler being written in OCaml! :)

nerdponx8y ago

Not only is this game a total blast to play, but it's also one of the only games that I think is best played on a trackpad instead of with a mouse.

However if I were the creator of this game, I'd be pretty pissed at the one in the OP. One was obviously inspired by the other.

jaredlyOP8y ago

Convergent evolution :) I made the version version of Gravitron in 2006

faitswulff8y ago

/u/jaredly, thanks for posting, this is really exciting! I've been reading about Reason here and there, and I've always wanted to write a simple game.

chenglou8y ago

I'll reply for Jared since he doesn't seem around. I work on Reason.

It's a single codebase and build system. There's platform-specific code buried in some conditional compilation in the Reprocessing drawing lib he uses: https://github.com/Schmavery/reprocessing

Here's a livestream of the Reprocessing folks making a flappy bird clone (https://github.com/schmavery/flappybird) from scratch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aD3aPvNpyQ&feature=youtu.be...

jaredlyOP8y ago

k__8y ago

I guess the Linux port wouldn't be a big thing, but what about Windows?

1 more reply

niilohlin8y ago

Very cool. Hot reloading in iOS would be extreamly useful. I remember that I used a plugin that was called injectionforxcode but it was not working very well.

drdiablo8y ago

gman838y ago

Flutter has a nice hot reloading feature: https://flutter.io/hot-reload/

mixedCase8y ago

Yeah, but then you have to use Dart.

2 more replies

xfer8y ago

thangngoc898y ago

This is both a native (as in binary) and js application. It compiles down to binary and uses OpenGL for native targets and WebGL for the web

michaelsbradley8y ago

nivertech8y ago

Can somebody compare Reason to Elm and PureScript?

drdiablo8y ago

I don't know if you've read this https://reasonml.github.io/docs/en/what-and-why.html#why-oca... :)

beesmum8y ago

Does it only work on desktop browsers?

beesmum8y ago

kbenson8y ago

I'm not sure the answer, but since it's for sale on android and ios, I imagine there's not a lot of incentive for the author to make it work on mobile browsers if it's easily done.

jaredlyOP8y ago

I haven't optimized it for mobile browsers, but it wouldn't be hard. Was pretty heads down on getting mobile native out the door.

beesmum8y ago

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse