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Preface: The Prosperon Vision

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Prosperon is based around a Javascript-like language, DullJS, termed henceforth "dull", engineered to be the quickest way to make computer games. "Dull" will be explored in more detail, but for all intents and purposes it is Javascript, with a handful of ES6 features removed. We've given it its own name to crush from the outset any idea that what you're dealing with a web styled Javascript environment!

The Vision

The less lines of code it takes to do something, the less your program does. The less your program does, the faster it is, and the fewer bugs it has. And, the less the developer needs to keep in their head, the less bugs and more understandable a program is.

Prosperon is designed to achieve a minimal number of lines of code when creating a game. Prosperon is designed to be the best way to make computer games, quickly.

  1. Flexible API A lot of the API usage is informed from 'duck typing'. If something "looks" like a camera - it can be used like one! If something "looks" like a sprite, it can be used like one! This means that if you create an enemy in the game, you may be able to pass it in to render, while in other more strict languages, you might need to create an intermediate "sprite" object.

  2. Uniformity Javascript has the brilliant object idea, which is used and abused everywhere in prosperon. Objects allow for a huge variety of ideas to be expressed, and act as an ideal transferring tool between the disparate parts of a computer game. Dull, our dumbed down javascript, uses objects and closures to a greater extent than modern javascript, without losing any of the features. There is less syntax to remember, meaning it is quicker to get code down.

  3. Highly reflective Built in tools to give an overview of your game. Prosperon can tell you where and how many certain entities are created, how much space they use, and so on. Prosperon can generate an textual overview of your game, resulting in documentation.

  4. Text based Prosperon is totally text based. It uses a script based scene structure, where scripts spawn each other and concatenate onto each other to create objects in a scene in a flexible way. This allows for a first class experience with SCM tools, and allows for easy multi user collaboration.

  5. Gradual Performance There are fast paths on nearly everything for well defined objects. For most use cases, the flexible, duck typing works. But in specific circumstances, where speed is required, it's possible.

  6. Interactive Whenever there is a question of feature, Prosperon chooses the interactive path. Games are interactive. That means you want it to be totally dynamic and fast. Prosperon is designed to favor, for example, generated MIDI music, which you might be able to sync to goblin death animations, over static MP3 files.

Installation

Just grab the prosperon build for your platform, drop it in a folder, and run it. Prosperon is a tiny executable, so it's recommended to version it with your project.