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Soup to Nuts: Build a video game using Ruby!
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#webassembly-wasm
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#event-driven-programming
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Soup to Nuts: Build a video game using Ruby!

Amir Rajan • November 08, 2022 • Denver, CO

In a workshop titled 'Soup to Nuts: Build a video game using Ruby' presented by Amir Rajan at RubyConf 2021, participants were guided through the process of developing video games using the Ruby programming language. The workshop focused on creating two types of games: a 2D platformer reminiscent of 'Super Mario Brothers' and a top-down RPG inspired by 'Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.' No prior game development experience was necessary, and participants were provided with a free commercial license to use the DragonRuby Game Toolkit, the game engine utilized throughout the session.

Key Points Discussed:
- Introduction and Setup: Amir began by encouraging attendees to share their favorite 2D games and outlined the workshop's structure, balancing between coding and discussions on game development.
- Experience Levels: During the session, Amir gauged the experience levels of participants in Ruby, adapting his instruction to accommodate varying skill sets.
- Game Development Basics: Participants learned to manipulate code in the DragonRuby engine, including rendering text and creating game elements such as squares and sprites.
- Event Loop and Console Use: Amir introduced attendees to the tick function, the core of the DragonRuby event loop, and demonstrated how to utilize the console for debugging.
- Testing and Prototyping: The workshop emphasized the importance of rapid prototyping and included discussions on testing methodologies, including how to implement gameplay recording and playback for debugging.
- Advanced Topics: Amir later addressed more complex topics such as VR game development and the challenges associated with rendering and game mechanics.
- Monetization and Indie Development: In the latter half of the workshop, Amir shared insights on indie game development, emphasizing the importance of targeting niche markets and building small, manageable projects rather than aiming for large-scale, blockbuster games. He discussed the potential for creators to build a sustainable income by understanding their audience and focusing on small, innovative ideas.

Conclusion and Takeaways:
Amir concluded with the takeaway that understanding Ruby and leveraging it through the DragonRuby toolkit can empower developers to create engaging and unique games. The emphasis was on iterative development, community understanding, and the strategic approach to indie game creation. Participants left with the tools and confidence to start building their games using Ruby, applying the concepts learned in the workshop, and considering how to enter the indie game market creatively and strategically.

Soup to Nuts: Build a video game using Ruby!
Amir Rajan • November 08, 2022 • Denver, CO

Have you ever dreamed of building a video game? Well here’s your chance of making that dream come true. During this workshop, we’ll build a 2D platformer like Super Mario Brothers, and A top down RPG like Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

No previous game dev experience is required.
If you’re new to Ruby, that’s okay too. Building games is a fantastic way to learn a language.
You’ll be given a free, unrestricted commercial license of DragonRuby Game Toolkit (this is the game engine we’ll be using during the workshop).

RubyConf 2021

00:00:10.480 All right, welcome everyone to the workshop! Just to make sure everyone is in the right place, this is Soup to Nuts: Building a Game with Ruby.
00:00:18.320 I will post code just in case anyone falls behind in the primary Discord channel.
00:00:24.000 I have one request. If everyone could share one of their favorite 2D games, or a 2D game that they remember fondly, that would be really helpful.
00:00:30.960 It could be a game that you saw a demo of and thought, 'That looks really cool!' This feedback will be especially useful for the second half of the workshop.
00:00:36.160 I think this workshop is being streamed live. For anyone that has questions, please post them in the Discord.
00:00:42.480 I'd appreciate your participation. Also, if you could include your favorite 2D game in the thread, that would be helpful.
00:00:48.399 Some examples of 2D games include Stardew Valley, Mega Man X—one of my personal favorites—and Undertale.
00:00:59.160 To find the thread, go to the workshop channel for Soup to Nuts, and you'll find two threads: the pre-workshop and the wish list.
00:01:07.920 If you have any questions, you can post them in the pre-workshop wish list or in the general chat. I'll try to keep an eye on those.
00:01:16.640 Chrono Trigger is an excellent choice! There are so many amazing games out there. Alright, let’s get started!
00:01:23.439 We're going to start with a little bit of code, and then I’ll talk about some of my game development experience. I’ll flip-flop between the two during the first half of the workshop.
00:01:35.360 In the second half, we’re really going to dig into some more advanced game development topics. Hopefully, there will be a lot for you to learn during this workshop.
00:01:46.320 A quick show of hands: who here is completely new to Ruby? Just a complete beginner?
00:01:52.560 Alright, it seems like everyone has some experience, with most having over two years of experience with Ruby.
00:02:03.760 So, some of the introductory material will be Ruby-specific, but we should be able to move through it fairly quickly.
00:02:10.320 And who has five or more years in Ruby? Great! How about 10 or more years? Wow, that’s impressive!
00:02:27.560 I started working with Ruby back in 2013, so I’ll be coming up on eight years.
00:02:35.920 One thing that we all feel when starting to use Ruby is this sense of magic associated with the language.
00:02:43.520 It's hard to describe, but there’s an aesthetic to Ruby that makes it a joy to use.
00:02:51.360 However, over the course of 10 years, that sense of magic tends to fade away. What I hope for during this workshop is that you’ll find that magic again.
00:03:09.920 It's really important, and it's something I cherish about the language.
00:03:15.680 The instructions are all there, and the assumption is that everyone has a working environment similar to this.
00:03:23.040 So go ahead and launch your code editor. The source code for what you’re seeing on the left side is inside a directory called 'my game'.
00:03:30.960 Inside that directory, there should be another folder called 'app', and then the file 'main.rb' contains the source code we’ll be working with.
00:03:42.720 Is everyone good with that? You should be able to run the game and make changes in that file.
00:03:52.880 With the game running, you should be able to change a line of code, save it, and see the game update immediately.
00:04:01.600 This is the starting point. If you hit any obstacles or get stuck, let me know.
00:04:09.680 I’ll give you about 30 seconds to set things up. Meanwhile, let me check the Discord.
00:04:20.320 Lots of awesome games mentioned there! Great to see that!
00:04:25.600 Can you make the text larger on the screen? Yes, I can do that.
00:04:30.560 How’s that? Is that better? The gameplay stream will be small, but I want the code to have enough detail.
00:04:37.440 Let's write a simple Hello World program! I want you to replace the code inside the `tick` function. This function is the entry point for the game engine.
00:04:50.080 You can think of this as your top-level event loop. It runs at 60 frames per second, independent of your simulation update.
00:04:57.920 The number you see displayed is the frame count of the game. Update your code to reflect the line above.
00:05:03.280 The `tick` function receives an environment class called `args`. Inside this, there’s a property called `outputs`, which contains `labels`.
00:05:10.080 We are sending a tuple into this construct, representing the `x` and `y` coordinates of the label, as well as the tick count from `args.state`.
00:05:20.800 By doing this, you should see a label display the tick count on the screen.
00:05:29.840 So far so good? In the game itself, we have a heads-up display (HUD). If you press the tilde key, you will see the HUD.
00:05:37.520 You can click 'Show Menu' and press 'Reset Game' to reset your game. You can also use this feature to evaluate Ruby code.
00:05:45.600 For example, when you enter `1 + 2`, it will evaluate this code.
00:05:50.960 The tilde key is right next to the `1` key. Can everyone see it pop up?
00:05:56.640 For those who are into video games, this console is quite reminiscent of the Quake console.
00:06:03.520 You have full access. You can type `say hi`, and it will respond back to you.
00:06:09.040 Now, we have a label working and we understand how to use the console. You can use the console to reset the game at any time.
00:06:15.920 Any questions so far? We’re going to get into some cooler stuff next.
00:06:26.080 Yes, a question was asked about the text editor. Is it an adequate size? Yes, it seems good to me.
00:06:32.560 Alright, let's dive into some cooler things!
00:06:38.640 We are going to render a square on the screen. The concept remains the same: you will provide a tuple.
00:06:45.520 You specify the `x` and `y` position, width, and height of the square.
00:06:52.960 I promise it's going to get much harder, but we’ll start slow and speed up over time.
00:07:00.960 Let’s look at another render primitive called a border.
00:07:06.800 You can notice our fancy little border here. It uses the same constructs as before.
00:07:12.800 If you want to render a sprite, this one takes an additional property, which is the path to your sprite.
00:07:20.720 If you check your 'my game' directory, you will see a folder called 'sprites', which contains a collection of sprites for you to use.
00:07:36.960 I will also post this code in Discord for those working remotely.
00:07:41.440 Now let’s take a look at one of our tech demos that I put together in the past.
00:07:48.320 This demo was a collaboration with an artist, and it showcases various game concepts.
00:07:55.200 Using the concepts we’ve discussed, you can build a game that looks amazing with overlays and ripple effects.
00:08:00.960 You will notice the lily pads have a simple physics aspect to them.
00:08:10.480 Ryan C. Gordon, one of our partners on DragonRuby, has previously built Tetris, which might inspire you for your own projects.
00:08:17.720 So, this tutorial will eventually walk you through creating a Tetris-like game.
00:08:26.960 As for my credibility in this space, I have a game released on the Nintendo Switch that was built using DragonRuby.
00:08:33.440 It's called 'A Dark Room', and there’s even a Wikipedia page for it, which is pretty cool!
00:08:41.520 This game was also available on iOS and Android, and it even went viral after being featured in the New Yorker.
00:08:50.400 So, there’s legitimate credibility behind building games with Ruby in this game engine.
00:08:56.960 Another way to render content is to use hashes, which I'll post in the Discord as well.
00:09:05.200 As for the NSB release, I’m currently working on it.
00:09:12.480 One question that came up was when the pre-sequel would be released, and I assure you that work is in progress.
00:09:19.680 I know I missed a syntax error. Did I forget an end somewhere? There we go!
00:09:27.120 Voila! So, what you have here should work correctly.
00:09:31.440 You'll see similar attributes for sprites, such as rotation and alpha settings for colors.
00:09:39.520 The label also has some additional properties we can explore.
00:09:45.920 Does anyone have questions so far?
00:09:51.760 Yes, as we continue, the tick method is called continuously.
00:09:54.720 When you render repeatedly, it seems you are starting from scratch each time, correct? Yes, that's accurate.
00:10:00.640 This structure allows you to reason about your game without the need to delete rendered objects.
00:10:06.160 You have a clean slate at the start of each tick.
00:10:12.480 There’s a variant called static underscore, which will retain your render primitive by reference—a more advanced API.
00:10:20.720 The documentation for this is locally available. You’ll find documentation in your local environment, as well as online.
00:10:29.040 You can check out docs.dragonruby.org for that.
00:10:37.040 There’s a wealth of sample apps available to help you as we go through the workshop.
00:10:43.760 Does anyone have further questions before we move on to the next part of the workshop?
00:10:53.040 As you all play with the code, you’ll see plenty of opportunities to ask questions and figure things out.
00:11:00.160 I'll pause for a moment to check Discord for any questions.
00:11:06.480 Let’s take a moment to check on the thread for your favorite 2D games.
00:11:10.480 I’m excited to hear your selections and talk about their relevance in game development.
00:11:16.760 As we figure things out together, let’s try building on top of the concepts we’ve discussed today.
00:11:22.080 In the meantime, let's move forward into more advanced coding procedures and techniques.
Amir Rajan
@amirrajan
Explore all talks recorded at RubyConf 2021
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