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Show HN: C# Game Engine with its own scripting language and IDE

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Why This Matters

ArcadeMaker introduces a lightweight, cross-platform 2D game engine with its own scripting language and integrated IDE, aiming to simplify game development for indie developers and hobbyists. Its open-source nature invites community collaboration to enhance features and expand its capabilities, including web support. This project highlights the ongoing evolution of custom game engines tailored for ease of use and flexibility in the indie game development scene.

Key Takeaways

ArcadeMaker

ArcadeMaker is a simple 2D cross‑platform game engine that includes its own programming language (its prototype is called Exp) and an integrated IDE.

The engine and IDE themselves are written in C#, but the language you use inside ArcadeMaker to program your games is my custom language, not C#.

Currently, the graphics and audio backend is powered by MonoGame, which allows exporting to desktop, mobile, and consoles. I’m also planning to add a KNI-engine implementation to enable web support.

This project is not finished yet.

But since I have very little time to work on it, I decided to open‑source it in the hope that others will find it interesting and help turn it into something real.

ArcadeMaker is based on GameMaker 8, so if you’ve ever used it, you’ll find it very easy to learn.

Project Background

ArcadeMaker has been built in several stages over the span of a few years, and different parts of it were written at very different points in my programming journey.

The IDE was written about three years ago, when my programming skills were very different from what they are today.

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