September 12, 2011

10 Games in 10 Languages

For school we have this programming course for Java. It isn't anything special really and it would be really boring if I don't like to program, it almost is anyway, if it weren't for the fact that we're to create a game! Just any game will do and we're in a group of two and we have about a month to complete it. Mmh I like.

Me and Li, my conspiring friend, have a pretty decent idea of something we can make. The only minor thing is that neither he nor I know anything about Java. Turns out I've done some gamemaking in mostly C++ and it's really not different so we'll see how the game finishes.

Now this game me a bit of an idea, or rather it resurfaces and older idea, namely to make a few games in a couple of different languages. I like to explore different languages and I like to make games so why not combine them?

I'll try to make 10 different games with 10 different languages, starting with this Java game. I won't make this one alone but that hardly matters I guess, there's plenty of time to code in solitude later.

These are some I had in mind:

1. Java
   This one is slated for release in the middle of October

2. C++
   I'm not sure if this one is considered cheating? I mean I've made a few already.

3. C
   I haven't done much pure C, and this looks like a nice time as any.

4. Lua
   I've used you to change values without compiling before, but do you have more to offer me?

5. Clojure
   I do love lisp and as it runs on the JVM it shouldn't be too different from Java.

6. Scala
   Scala is one of those languages you just got to try someday. Also a JVM, piece of cake right?

7. Perl
   Perhaps my current favorite language, it's just so fun to write you know?

8. Python
   When you're gonna do the Ludum Dare many are recommending you to use Python with PyGame, it's time to find out why.

9. Coffee-script + html 5
   One of the more hyped up web technologies right now and I haven't used them? Shame on me.

10. Haskell
    Oh Haskell, I've tried to get you down the last two summers but you won't quite let me. Enough is enough, you're going down!

I might change one or two later on if I find something better to try out (C++ is a bit lazy to include) and I certainly won't do them in this order. There's a big chance I won't do them once a month either, but that's the general goal I'm setting up.

Now it's time to do some other, more boring, school work...