diff --git a/site/posts/2018-01-06-Escapism.md b/site/posts/2018-01-06-Escapism.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6ee53cc --- /dev/null +++ b/site/posts/2018-01-06-Escapism.md @@ -0,0 +1,48 @@ +--- +title: Escapism +author: nek0 +tags: english +description: Something on GameDev +--- + +Hi again. First off all, I wish you a happy new year. Between finishing one part +of my rehab, holidays and the Chaos Communication Congress I attended I forgot +to write a new post here. I am deeply sorry. + +During that time I was also programming a lot, especially on my game engine and +example games, or technical demos, for said engine. I do game development in +Haskell. For fun. + +Why game development? Why in Haskell? These are questions I regularly hear from +people, when they get to know me and what I do. Somehow There seems to be a +notion, that game development is not real development and that Haskell is either +an unfit or even impossible choice for that. Both notions are not true. Game +development is a very complex matter (You're doing real time Simulations of a +world) and Haskell is very fit for the Job. I could be seeing results faster in +different languages, but that's not the languages fault. I have to write a lot +of the tooling myself, which slows me down. But it's a great learning +experience. + +But why do I do that? Well, I like creating and developing worlds. You can see +that in my [writing](https://nek0.eu/tags/writing.html) section. But writing +sometimes is limited when it comes to interaction with the world. In games the +player usually can explore the world to a deeper level. The immersion is +different. + +That's what I always liked about the games I played. They let me escape to a +different world and go on my own adventures. In RPGs I could take on the role of +a brave adventurer, in RTS games I could lead a faction to victory on the +battlefield. Those are the game genres I mostly played. + +Nowadays I play less and less, but I do more game development. At the current +stage my knowledge and tooling do not suffice for the kind of game I have in my +mind for quite some time, so I try to take smaller steps. But ultimately I bring +my escapism of past days to a new level. Now I don't escape into virtual worlds +created by others, but I am in the process of creating them myself. Sometimes +it's a frustrating experience, but sometimes it's awesome. + +For those of you interested in my games, I can show you at this point only +[haskelloids](https://github.com/nek0/haskelloids). Not the most original name, +but It's the first real game that runs on my own engine, which you can find +[in its own Github repo](https://github.com/nek0/affection), together with some +small example programs.