Interactivity!

I just had what I think is a good idea (don't even think about holding me to that!).

I've been fiddling with a Forth system recently and I must say I'm enjoying it's interactivity. The way the whole development process feels like it "keeps rolling". Could we apply this to game development, but I mean more than just making the programming environment interactive?

I haven't fully thought this through yet (no!) so be sure to point out anything pretty obviously hindering that I've not considered.

I'm thinking of what's more or less a "toybox" environment. An environment where you can instantly(ish) see changes to any aspect of the game - even graphically (which may be a pipe dream).

Hell, this whole idea may be a pipe dream.

Well tell me what you think. I'm especially interested to hear ideas from the regular game programmers here.

'K, I'm off to youtube, aka "free music videos".com :p

Do you mean one of those "Game Maker" apps? Or programming with hot code replacement?

Ew ew eww no I don't mean like "Game Maker". Hell no!
The second one.

I know I've been rambling on a lot lately about these, but I'm thinking it'd be pretty cool (better?) if I implement this as a virtual machine.

I'll give it some more thought.

In order to hot swap code you need to be able to pause execution (and set points at which to pause usually called "breakpoints"). Which essentially means you need to write a debugger.

This is an extremely difficult task (writing a debugger is hard enough, supporting hot swapping is even harder)

It's possible to subsitute in different source files at runtime with certain scripting languages (like python).

Hmm I was hoping for more interest and enthusiasm.
:(

Welcome to the world of the LP Mud.


Quzah.