This is a story many have shared. It is typical. You can get it by asking how one got involved with computers.
Most will say, they started playing games. Then something happened and they wanted to see how things worked under the hood. Then they got hooked.
The story is the same. What changes is the era, the type of games, and the computers.
In my case, for example, it was the 80s. Games were what we would call retro games nowadays. The computers were home computers: Amstrad and Amiga.
I always wanted to create games. In fact, I used to play with AMOS Basic on the Amiga. A great IDE for creating games. It had everything one would need to create simple games.
So today, a million years after that, I release an open source game called Sector Five II.
It’s written in Ruby using Gosu, a 2D game development library. It’s based on an example in a book. The Sector Five example in Learn Game Programming with Ruby. A book written by Mark Sobkowicz.
I will be working to extend the game with new levels and challenges. Why, you may ask. I like writing my own little games. I want to help people learn Ruby by writing games. Especially new folks that want to enter the programming world.
You may ask why Ruby. It’s the language I have been using the most the past few years. I don’t need anything faster for now.
If a need ever rises to write a more commercial game, I may have to reconsider. We now have DragonRuby as an option, so that’s a good candidate for the future. It solves the problems of targeting platforms (Windows, macOS, iOS, Android), speed, and packaging. Something that Ruby+Gosu falls a bit short.
You can check the game and even consider contributing if you like:
https://github.com/petros/sector-five-ii
What are you up to Petros?
Staying calm. Indie 2D retro style game dev wannabe. Check what I am doing now.