I am always interested in exploring ways of writing code. Lately, I have been trying to break the monotony of writing "business apps" and decided to take a look at writing a few games. It has been a long time since I have written a non-web app so I started up by doing a little research. Since I am a fan of CQRS/DDD/event sourcing/etc, I wanted to learn more about writing systems that do not require giant object graphs and "god objects." My previous exposure to game systems (a long time ago) seemed to run on magic, duct tape, and a lot of luck. But, maybe that was just programming in general.
In my research, what I have come across has been pretty interesting. I ran across a way of developing using "Entity Systems." It is like an OOP-less way of writing applications with the added benefit of built-in Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP). There are plenty of blog posts covering introductory information, so I won't rehash it here. (I may leave that to another blog post later.)
One of my favorite ways of exploring new ideas is to write up a quick spike. In that fashion, I have written a simple little test app that throws around some colored dots on the screen. It's not perfect, doesn't do everything I would want in a real system, but was fun to write. Entity systems will definitely remain on my radar for a while. Well, without further ado, here is my quick little app (in C#).
Links
For a nice overview of entity systems, check out the following links:
- T=Machine.org - Entity Systems are the future of MMOG Development
- Entity Systems Project
- Scott Bilas - Dungeon Siege
(While these are "old," they still contain some really good information.)
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