Writing a small arcade game in Ruby (or Python)?

[Sam Livingston-Gray]

Hi, all-

I'm starting a two-term CS thesis project at PSU, and am facing the
less-than-idyllic prospect of working in Smalltalk (the language is
fine, but Squeak's UI is bad for my blood pressure). As part of the
project, I'm going to need to implement a tile-based Pacman game with
at least some rudimentary animation. (This part is secondary; for
more on my general topic and some nifty screenshots, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiobjects and follow the PDF link at
bottom.)

I remembered Topher's uber-cool turn-based cowboy game from FOSCON,
though I don't think that approach will work for this. Can any of you
fine folk suggest pre-existing libraries I can swipe for the GUI?

More broadly, is it even advisable to try doing this as my first Ruby
GUI work, or should I just get used to working with the grooviest
language of the 1980s? (=

Hmm. Now that I think of it, if there are any compelling Python
options, I'm quite comfortable in Python as well (though, again, no
GUI experience).

Naturally, I'll STFW shortly, but thought I'd solicit suggestions here.

-Sam

[Topher Cyll]

Hey Sam,

If you can stomach the environment, I might be tempted to stick with
Squeak. As I understand it, it's a pretty good fit for this sort of
project and a chance to use Smalltalk is rare enough that you might
want to take advantage of it.

That said, PyGame is _really fun_ and I'd definitely recommend it if
you don't mind moving into Python land. Off the top of my head, I
can't think of a good equivalent for Ruby, but maybe someone else
knows of one?

Good luck,
Toph

Post by Sam Livingston-Gray
Hi, all-
I'm starting a two-term CS thesis project at PSU, and am facing the
less-than-idyllic prospect of working in Smalltalk (the language is
fine, but Squeak's UI is bad for my blood pressure). As part of the
project, I'm going to need to implement a tile-based Pacman game with
at least some rudimentary animation. (This part is secondary; for
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiobjects and follow the PDF link at
bottom.)
I remembered Topher's uber-cool turn-based cowboy game from FOSCON,
though I don't think that approach will work for this. Can any of you
fine folk suggest pre-existing libraries I can swipe for the GUI?
More broadly, is it even advisable to try doing this as my first Ruby
GUI work, or should I just get used to working with the grooviest
language of the 1980s? (=
Hmm. Now that I think of it, if there are any compelling Python
options, I'm quite comfortable in Python as well (though, again, no
GUI experience).
Naturally, I'll STFW shortly, but thought I'd solicit suggestions here.
-Sam
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[Sam Livingston-Gray]

Post by Topher Cyll
If you can stomach the environment, I might be tempted to stick with
Squeak. As I understand it, it's a pretty good fit for this sort of
project and a chance to use Smalltalk is rare enough that you might
want to take advantage of it.

I do have the advantage of a thesis advisor who's a Squeak expert, so
it's definitely doable. It just offends my sensibilities, and screws
with my muscle memory, to use an iBook with a perfectly good copy of
TextMate to run an environment that evokes Windows 3.1. ;>

Post by Topher Cyll
That said, PyGame is _really fun_ and I'd definitely recommend it if
you don't mind moving into Python land. Off the top of my head, I
can't think of a good equivalent for Ruby, but maybe someone else
knows of one?

Thanks! I'll check it out.

-Sam

[Bill Burcham]

Post by Sam Livingston-Gray
Hi, all-
I'm starting a two-term CS thesis project at PSU, and am facing the
less-than-idyllic prospect of working in Smalltalk (the language is
fine, but Squeak's UI is bad for my blood pressure). As part of the
project, I'm going to need to implement a tile-based Pacman game with
at least some rudimentary animation. (This part is secondary; for
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiobjects and follow the PDF link at
bottom.)

Is there any flexibility on the whole Pac-Man thing? If so I wonder if you
could channel your angst over the sad state of the squeak user interface
into fixing same. I am with you on the blood pressure thing. But as I
expressed in Smalltalk Browser Goes
Jurassic<http://www.memerocket.com/2006/02/01/smalltalk-browser-goes-jurassic/>I
actually think there is hope as evidenced by Seaside's LiveWeb -- a
way
out of the platform-specific "browser" and into the "web browser" where we
can all get our standards-based HTML-AJAX-CSS on web-style.

Are there AntiObject potentially at play there? I think there could be.
Could a guy treat inspecting objects, evaluating expressions, changing code
as a game? That'd be cool.