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Comment by phtrivier | Hacker News Reader

I wonder how much of the 10 years spent making "a programming language, an engine, and a game" were actually spent on each slice.

Hopefully, jai and the engine will help make the next game faster...

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I think he has said this in some stream and the majority of the time was spent on the game. He also said many times that the game is way more difficult to make than the compiler.

It's hilarious he had to build a new language just so he could create a sokoban game with graphics of flash era.

I'm sure it builds fast and whatever, but you could make this in python in few weeks.

He didn't have to. He wanted to.

Which is the same motivation as creator of rust, zig, nim, ruby, perl, python had. They all wanted to make a programming language better at something.

So I don't see anything "hilarious" about it.

Rust was created on a Mozilla payroll to provide a C++ alternative with better concurrency support for the purpose of browser engine rewrite. Also, Rust doesn't have a 'creator', the person tasked with leading the project didn't have the authority to make the decisions, see https://graydon2.dreamwidth.org/307291.html

Rust was a personal project of Graydon's for years before it was sponsored by Mozilla. It's perfectly apt to be included in the parent poster's list.

Pretty strong comment to make given that you have most likely played 0 minutes of the game and used 0% of the underlying engine and languages.

That being said, it's a free country (sort-of). Go ahead and devote "a few weeks" to build "the same thing". We'll be patient.

the game was not the motivation to make the language

If I remember correctly, the game was just a showcase to test the new language. Afaik that's exactly why it's a sokoban clone, because he didn't want to spend time inventing new mechanics.

Sorry, but no. Just because the graphics have some cartoony stylization does not mean that a lot of thought and effort did not go into them, not to mention lots of work from artists. You absolutely could not recreate something that looks like that with python in a few weeks. Not that the language/engine was strictly necessary to do so either, but you’re way off-base in terms of the level of work and effort required for these things.

> I'm sure it builds fast and whatever, but you could make this in python in few weeks.

Show us how it's done big guy, it's only a few weeks of your time.

> you could make this in python in few weeks

lol

Or in one of those game engines people like to use.

He made Chip's Challenge. He took a decade to make Chip's Challenge.

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