I wrote this free book on how to make games with Ruby using the DragonRuby Game Toolkit. As I've been learning the engine, I've felt really inspired by how quickly I can prototype my ideas and release them for all the major platforms. DragonRuby GTK is a really interesting use of mruby and SDL. To see Ruby be used for anything other than Rails is always exciting. I thought maybe this book would nudge others interested in Ruby game dev to take the plunge. Would love any feedback! Thanks.
Thank you for sharing the book, Brett! I definitely need to revisit the SDK which I had from its early versions, but unfortunately it was always lacking something. That was years ago tho.
Brett, thanks for making this book! You've reinvigorated my interest in DragonRuby. I have a pro license that I haven't done much with; a couple jam "games".
I have a question about FLOSS that I haven't seen the answer to floating around. If I want to make a GPLv3 game, release, and sell it, what are the implications with using DragonRuby?
Is the recommended approach to ship the commercial packages with DragonRuby and have an open source variant running with zif[0]?
Any recommendations? Thank you again for the book!
I can definitely help you here! The code you write is yours to license as you please. So you can release the source for your game under GPLv3, you just can't distribute the engine alongside the source. Someone would have to own the engine and use your source alongside it to contribute to your game. You can compile and sell your game as you normally would, of course!
Zif is an open source community library for DragonRuby Game Toolkit that gives you a lot more classes and structure, if you so choose to use it. So it's not an "instead of" but rather a library you can drop into your DragonRuby Game Toolkit game.
While DragonRuby GTK is not FLOSS, your code is your code, and it's built upon mruby, llvm, and SDL, so it's got a really strong FLOSS core. I'm not a license expert tho, so maybe there are more implications than I'm realizing.
While I love Ruby, and love the concept of DragonRuby, it’s a really naive and simple engine.
It’s basically a wrapper around SDL, which means you’ll have to create everything you want in a game engine. But it’s a really good start to understand graphics and game programming..
I’d recommend cocos (2D) if you wanna create a 2D game. It’s very high performance, full features and is supported on almost any platform. You can write in c++, or use JavaScript / lua.
I can understand where you're coming from, but I disagree with the sentiment of it basically being just a wrapper around SDL and naive.
DragonRuby Game Toolkit's API is simple, and that's a good thing! It provides the foundations needed for building any kind of 2D game without introducing dozens of classes, an inheritance tree, or complex data models. With just a few primitive data types and some methods, everything one needs it there. Combine that with the sample code and the community, and there's not a type of 2D game out there that you can't get going with in DRGTK within a couple of hours.
DRGTK does make it easy to render sprites and text and handle input on top of SDL, which is valuable in and of itself. But it's not just direct bindings where you have to look at and understand how SDL works. I've never once had to look at the SDL docs to understand DragonRuby GTK's API. What the engine then gives you is: cross-platform builds with a single command, its simple API, ability to write games in a fantastic language, live reload of your game while developing without needing to recompile, the ability to use the toolchain of your liking, and more.
I'm personally not interested in using C++ to make games, and I think if someone is, they probably wouldn't want to use DragonRuby GTK anyway. But choosing between JS, Lua, or Ruby, I'd choose Ruby every single time. It's a more enjoyable language to use. That to me is a big factor in why I like DRGTK—the toolchain. After spending 10+ years making 2D games as a hobby by experimenting with XNA/MonoGame, Unity, HaxeFlixel, Love2D (Lua), Phaser.js, Gosu (Ruby), C++, and AS3, I really think DragonRuby has a unique combination of offerings that has me so excited about it and wanting to see it succeed.
Exactly, it handles sprites, textures and some other stuff. It’s an SDL wrapper (ok, a bit more than that in terms of api, which is nice), and tolling to get cross platforms builds.
Like I said, it’s nice for that. And I like that you have an immediate console.
But you’ll have to recreate everything else which you’d wanna use.
I hope it’ll succeed, or at least stay alive, bc it’s a great starting point.
people behind are SDL guy, and another person that did make successful games on apple. it has a lot of features that other engines, have. so what do I miss here?
does cocos2d is so advanced and better than dragon ruby to build a 2d game?
You can generate builds for desktop operating systems and the web with the basic license. With the web builds, you can host them anywhere on the web since they're static files. But a lot of the community uses Itch.io to share their games.
I released a game in rubymagic back in the day and have kicked the tires on DragonRuby a few times. I love the concept but hate the license.
They give it away for free all the time for game jams, but I think the fact that it’s paid is too big of a barrier for wide adoption. I hope your book does well anyway! It’s a fun piece of tech and it would be a good teaching tool if the engine was free (I’ve been using pixi.js with my kids).
Thanks for the kind words! I appreciate where you're coming from.
My perspective on the license and price is that it's a small team of less than 5 people who work on DragonRuby Game Toolkit. To spend $32 for a lifetime basic license is totally worth it to me for everything that comes with it. The work that's gone into the cross-platform support, designing the API, gluing together mruby and SDL, and more without a doubt is an incredibly compelling offering. I want to see DRGTK sustain itself for the long-term, and I think the team getting paid for helps make that happen.
I've thought about what it'd be like if the basic license was always free... The book is free, so it's a little awkward to then have a reader need to pay to use the software it's about. Sure, maybe more people would use it, but for an engine still in its early days (~3 years isn't that long compared to those that have been around for 10+ years), I think having a slight barrier to entry may benefit the project so it's not flooded by needing to support the flood of people that'd come from an always free version while it grows, stabilizes, and establishes itself.
This is fantastic. I would highly recommend DragonRuby if you like Ruby as a language and would like to dip your toes into 2D game development. The community is very welcoming too.
+1 on the community being kind and welcoming. That to me is a major factor. I've learned so much from the community, and it extends beyond just making game dev. The community organizes jams, monthly game clubs, and supports one another.
I think it may be the opposite with regards to Unity and being time constrained, as there's a lot more to learn with Unity when making games rather than something like DragonRuby Game Toolkit. For a hobby that you have only a little bit of time to dedicate to, I think 2D games in an engine with a simple API would be quite a bit easier. But that's just me!
I agree with Brett! Plus, if you're not already experienced with ruby, you'll get some exposure to the mruby variant in DR. It's been a pleasure working in ruby!
Readit News
I really enjoyed your "Why the Book is Free" section.
I have a question about FLOSS that I haven't seen the answer to floating around. If I want to make a GPLv3 game, release, and sell it, what are the implications with using DragonRuby?
Is the recommended approach to ship the commercial packages with DragonRuby and have an open source variant running with zif[0]?
Any recommendations? Thank you again for the book!
[0] https://github.com/danhealy/dragonruby-zif
Here's an example of one of my games that is released under the Unlicense: https://github.com/brettchalupa/XENO.TEST & https://book.dragonriders.community/source-control.html#a-no... walks through how to do that
Zif is an open source community library for DragonRuby Game Toolkit that gives you a lot more classes and structure, if you so choose to use it. So it's not an "instead of" but rather a library you can drop into your DragonRuby Game Toolkit game.
While DragonRuby GTK is not FLOSS, your code is your code, and it's built upon mruby, llvm, and SDL, so it's got a really strong FLOSS core. I'm not a license expert tho, so maybe there are more implications than I'm realizing.
It’s basically a wrapper around SDL, which means you’ll have to create everything you want in a game engine. But it’s a really good start to understand graphics and game programming..
I’d recommend cocos (2D) if you wanna create a 2D game. It’s very high performance, full features and is supported on almost any platform. You can write in c++, or use JavaScript / lua.
DragonRuby Game Toolkit's API is simple, and that's a good thing! It provides the foundations needed for building any kind of 2D game without introducing dozens of classes, an inheritance tree, or complex data models. With just a few primitive data types and some methods, everything one needs it there. Combine that with the sample code and the community, and there's not a type of 2D game out there that you can't get going with in DRGTK within a couple of hours.
DRGTK does make it easy to render sprites and text and handle input on top of SDL, which is valuable in and of itself. But it's not just direct bindings where you have to look at and understand how SDL works. I've never once had to look at the SDL docs to understand DragonRuby GTK's API. What the engine then gives you is: cross-platform builds with a single command, its simple API, ability to write games in a fantastic language, live reload of your game while developing without needing to recompile, the ability to use the toolchain of your liking, and more.
I'm personally not interested in using C++ to make games, and I think if someone is, they probably wouldn't want to use DragonRuby GTK anyway. But choosing between JS, Lua, or Ruby, I'd choose Ruby every single time. It's a more enjoyable language to use. That to me is a big factor in why I like DRGTK—the toolchain. After spending 10+ years making 2D games as a hobby by experimenting with XNA/MonoGame, Unity, HaxeFlixel, Love2D (Lua), Phaser.js, Gosu (Ruby), C++, and AS3, I really think DragonRuby has a unique combination of offerings that has me so excited about it and wanting to see it succeed.
Like I said, it’s nice for that. And I like that you have an immediate console.
But you’ll have to recreate everything else which you’d wanna use.
I hope it’ll succeed, or at least stay alive, bc it’s a great starting point.
people behind are SDL guy, and another person that did make successful games on apple. it has a lot of features that other engines, have. so what do I miss here?
does cocos2d is so advanced and better than dragon ruby to build a 2d game?
If anyone has examples of games they've made with ruby/DragonRuby, please drop a link, keen to check them out!
I'm actively working on an interactive showcase of DragonRuby games here: https://dragonridersunite.itch.io/dragon-os
Or you can browse games made with it here: https://itch.io/games/made-with-dragonruby-gtk
They give it away for free all the time for game jams, but I think the fact that it’s paid is too big of a barrier for wide adoption. I hope your book does well anyway! It’s a fun piece of tech and it would be a good teaching tool if the engine was free (I’ve been using pixi.js with my kids).
My perspective on the license and price is that it's a small team of less than 5 people who work on DragonRuby Game Toolkit. To spend $32 for a lifetime basic license is totally worth it to me for everything that comes with it. The work that's gone into the cross-platform support, designing the API, gluing together mruby and SDL, and more without a doubt is an incredibly compelling offering. I want to see DRGTK sustain itself for the long-term, and I think the team getting paid for helps make that happen.
I've thought about what it'd be like if the basic license was always free... The book is free, so it's a little awkward to then have a reader need to pay to use the software it's about. Sure, maybe more people would use it, but for an engine still in its early days (~3 years isn't that long compared to those that have been around for 10+ years), I think having a slight barrier to entry may benefit the project so it's not flooded by needing to support the flood of people that'd come from an always free version while it grows, stabilizes, and establishes itself.