#terra zero

Around the time I was writing the previous post, shortly afterwards I made some leaps on how I would design the game engine of Melee. Really I just came to conclude that a traditional engine would not cut it, it would need to be a scripted engine that is lightweight, extensible and can arbitrarily define the game behavior with as little restriction or performance loss as possible.

As it happens Lua is the answer - I came across it early on in my programming experience, but didn't think much of it at the time. Years later it's features (or lack of) are precisely what I needed; Lua functions as an embedded scripting language, effectively substituting any machine-code / compiled code with (in my opinion) the smallest, usable functional and data-processing programming language.

Godsource is effectively a C++ program with graphics, sound and other essential machine-code bindings, like a typical engine. Unlike a typical engine it does not put these subsystems together in C++ aside from putting them in scope of eachother - instead the C++ side rushes to give full control to Lua, allowing Lua to control the entirety of the game engine. It is due to Lua's lack of domain-specific constructs that let the engine be defined in terms of subsystems alone, leaving most of the engine architecture up to the author of a game.

The engine is still nowhere ready but I am working on it actively here. Feel free to drop me a line if you think you might be interested in it or want early access to beta versions, or just have questions about it. I do plan on releasing most of the Lua source for the engine, for others to make their own games, but any profit of said games and I do ask for written permission from me first.

Games I am working on that are using this engine:

Terra Zero - Spaceship shooter game, emphasis on customizing the spaceships.

Godscar / Project Melee - Free-form fantasy melee combat game (see previous post).