[lisp-game-dev] Gamemacs: an idea for a modular, extensible, capable and easy to use game-development IDE

Sat Apr 3 21:37:18 UTC 2010

Mockup ready. It looks more like a graph but it works to make my idea clear.

The idea is to have 2 modes, code mode and graphical mode. In the graphical
mode, Gamemacs reads your code and based on the defuns, defrooms, defsprites
and whatever it creates a list for each in a nice attractive way, where you
can click through to edit the form of that resource in a way that is good
for that resource, for example a level editor. I think it would be perfect
if you can just define new forms for example to edit images (sprites),
tilemaps, levels, objects, functions, maybe even a tool to aid in creating
macros, and all tiling up side by side in a sliding view.

Please comment on this idea :)

2010/4/3 Joop Kiefte <ikojba at gmail.com>

> I have Climacs running now, now there's work to do :)
>
> It really was like they said on the pages about it, the hardest part is
> tracking down the dependencies.
>
> Next tasks: get an issuetracker up, get the repositories all on github and
> the mock-up.
>
> I will do the drawing now, can someone suggest me a good place to organize
> it all together, at least an issue tracker?
>
> A website we can do with HTML on Github of course, and I think an entry on
> cliki would be nice.
>
> 2010/4/3 Joop Kiefte <ikojba at gmail.com>
>
> I will try to make a mock-up now and send it here, please help me remember
>> if I forget... =X.
>>
>> As the code of your UI-system is in common lisp, I guess it won't be too
>> hard to make it an addition on Climacs and integrate it already :). Maybe
>> you can give it a try and we can bake up some basic code already that way. I
>> see you already use github, I will dump climacs and dependencies on github
>> as well as soon as I got it running (I wanted to 'release' the ideas already
>> so I'll have some people pushing and out there to help :) currently the clx
>> is biting me... I will keep you up to date on my efforts, although it's
>> pretty much a free time only project) and maybe create a superproject with
>> climacs, dependencies, your project etc to get new developers up and running
>> quickly (although it's pretty much vaporware now... but climacs is not so we
>> have something to get starting anyway :)).
>>
>> So, on to the drawing!
>>
>> 2010/4/3 David O'Toole <dto1138 at gmail.com>
>>
>> Hi Joop,
>>>
>>> This sounds like a good idea. Expanding the tools space is great.
>>>
>>> I am working on a project with a few similar goals but some big
>>> differences. My game engine and IDE were written originally in Emacs
>>> Lisp in late 2006, and then over the last few years I've gradually
>>> rewritten it in Common Lisp. In the process I built a set of CL user
>>> interface widgets that behave in roughly emacsy ways. So my IDE is now
>>> split into two portions: GNU Emacs for the lisp code editing and SLIME
>>> stuff, and a spreadsheet-like Common Lisp UI system for the map editor
>>> and such.
>>>
>>> If you are curious to see, my game engine is at
>>> http://dto.github.com/notebook/xe2-reference.html
>>>
>>> What are your thoughts on user interfaces?
>>>
>>> On Sat, Apr 3, 2010 at 12:31 PM, Joop Kiefte <ikojba at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> > Hello guys,
>>> > At the moment I am gathering together all pieces of the Climacs editor
>>> to
>>> > start an open source project to create a modular, extensible, capable
>>> and
>>> > easy to use game-development IDE. Until I switched to Linux I have made
>>> some
>>> > games with Game Maker, a fine but windows only piece of software that
>>> is too
>>> > commercialized nowadays for me to like it as it is now, and I (and some
>>> > others as well I think) have been looking for a good replacement on
>>> linux
>>> > for quite some time. As most good programmers I am extremely lazy and
>>> don't
>>> > like to do repetitive work if I can prevent it, and as such have
>>> skipped
>>> > things like py-game.
>>> > I have done a little bit of fiddling with clojure and as I see it now
>>> some
>>> > gaming stuff is coming up for clojure as well, but I didn't feel like
>>> gaming
>>> > is the perfect bet for clojure. Now I am programming for a small
>>> company in
>>> > common lisp and doing that I feel like I need some open source project
>>> to
>>> > keep in shape on common lisp on the side line. So I thought, let's make
>>> a
>>> > game maker clone!
>>> > I am not going to make things from scratch, it won't be useful to do
>>> and
>>> > besides, if there is nothing to build upon, we won't even get started.
>>> So I
>>> > thought this might be a perfect use for climacs. It might even be a
>>> revival
>>> > of the climacs project if you like. Gamemacs is just a working name
>>> (and a
>>> > bit more, as I will explain later), I mean to contribute to the several
>>> > sub-projects and with normal add-ons as much as possible, to keep
>>> everything
>>> > as modular as possible.
>>> > To not keep things vague, and to have a good direction, this is a list
>>> of
>>> > things I want to have for a nice game-editor (and in general to make of
>>> > Climacs an emacs-killer instead of an emacs-clone), most of it taken
>>> from
>>> > Game Maker:
>>> > * Integration of something like Lispbuilder (most probably just
>>> > Lispbuilder).
>>> >   - It has SDL
>>> >   - It has OpenGL
>>> >   - It has an .exe-creator/binary compiler
>>> > * Integration of the .exe-creator/binary compiler in the editor itself
>>> > * Publish versions of Climacs compiled that way to make further
>>> development
>>> > easier
>>> >   - so for basic development of games you don't even need to install
>>> > anything else than that compiled version of climacs
>>> >   - we can call this compiled package with extensions Gamemacs, and
>>> keep the
>>> > source pure climacs, so it remains as modular as it can be
>>> > * I would like to have a generic graphical editor for lisp-code on top
>>> of
>>> > the textual editing mode.
>>> >   - and this to be extensible with cool graphical editors for example
>>> to
>>> > create levels (I think I will need to make a mock-up of this idea to
>>> get it
>>> > clear)
>>> > * Create libraries for game-development that are included by default
>>> and
>>> > work nicely with the graphical interface so you will be able to make
>>> simple
>>> > games with mostly point and click and harder games with a great
>>> emacs-like
>>> > editor :)
>>> > I have all this quite detailed in my head, but after dumping it all
>>> here I
>>> > want your input as well, so it will be great to work with. In the end
>>> my
>>> > goal is to have fun creating games on linux and to be able to sketch
>>> and
>>> > prototype and build games all in one place. (If you can develop
>>> everything
>>> > for emacs in emacs without leaving it, why shouldn't you be able to
>>> create
>>> > games without hassle?)
>>> > First things I will do anyhow (but help is appreciated on all sides!):
>>> > * Put all the dependencies of climacs on Git
>>> > * Build climacs and fiddle with it to get accustomed to the inner
>>> workings
>>> > * Same with lispbuilder etc.
>>> > What do you think?
>>> > Greetings,
>>> > Joop Kiefte
>>> > --
>>> > Communication is essential. So we need decent tools when communication
>>> is
>>> > lacking, when language capability is hard to acquire...
>>> >
>>> > - http://esperanto.net  - http://esperanto-jongeren.nl
>>> >
>>> > Linux-user #496644 (http://counter.li.org) - first touch of linux in
>>> 2004
>>> >
>>> > _______________________________________________
>>> > lisp-game-dev mailing list
>>> > lisp-game-dev at common-lisp.net
>>> > http://common-lisp.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lisp-game-dev
>>> >
>>> >
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Communication is essential. So we need decent tools when communication is
>> lacking, when language capability is hard to acquire...
>>
>> - http://esperanto.net  - http://esperanto-jongeren.nl
>>
>> Linux-user #496644 (http://counter.li.org) - first touch of linux in 2004
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Communication is essential. So we need decent tools when communication is
> lacking, when language capability is hard to acquire...
>
> - http://esperanto.net  - http://esperanto-jongeren.nl
>
> Linux-user #496644 (http://counter.li.org) - first touch of linux in 2004
>

-- 
Communication is essential. So we need decent tools when communication is
lacking, when language capability is hard to acquire...

- http://esperanto.net  - http://esperanto-jongeren.nl

Linux-user #496644 (http://counter.li.org) - first touch of linux in 2004
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