Syntax Arena

Inspiration

My inspiration for this project was strudel. If we can live code music, why not games?

What it does

It consists of a code editor, called a command forge, where you write programs to influence the gameplay of a maze survival game

How I built it

• I wrote a tiny interpreter for the command forge programming language
• I then wrote the forge UI using PromethiumJS, Web Awesome and Lit
• I wrote the forge controller alongside its UI
• Then we implemented the game arena with PIXI.js and glued everything together, theming everything halloween-style

Challenges I ran into

• Designing halloween-themed art and finding the right sounds was a bit of a challenge
• Designing the command forge also had many quirks associated with it
• Making the gaming experience intuitive both for mobile and PC gamers was also a bit of a challenge

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

• I'm really proud of the way the forge turned out
• I'm really excited about the halloween-themed elements and how they look and make the game feel
• I'm proud of the signal-based reactive approach used for rendering the game arena and it's elements

What I learned

• I learned quite a few things about building programming languages and interpreters
• I learned a few really useful patterns for building good UIs and writing great programs in general

What's next for Syntax Arena

• I'm going to open source the command forge as a reusable coding environment controller with an optional web component UI
• I'm going to deploy Syntax Arena to Games on Reddit
• I also plan to use it to teach my students how to code

Built With

• lit
• pixi.js
• promethiumjs
• web-awesome