Python or Ruby for game development

[bluehazed]

I've had the urge to learn a scripting language, python or ruby, for a little while. I played around with them both, and found them both relatively user-friendly (although I liked ruby a bit better)

My question is, if I wanted to do game development, what is better to use in terms of cross compatibility? (Pygame OR Rubygame)

I know both languages work on almost all OS's, but what would be easier to work with?
I mainly work on my mac and my linux pc.

 

[e]

Ruby on OS X, if you use MacRuby, is blazing fast and would probably be your best choice. However, in terms of optimal cross platform development, Python would be your best bet. As far as I know, most game development frameworks rely on similar libraries, so it's mostly a choice of which language you prefer and what your goals are. In general Python is faster for most of what games require (i.e.: number crunching), but Ruby has its advantages too.

 

[bluehazed]

So I suppose this all comes down to personal preference? There isn't very much to distinguish what would be better to use, as far as I know, both are relatively fast, as even scripts I run on my G3 iMac don't lag.

I think I will try with ruby first, as it's a bit more familiar (thanks to RGSS).

 

[e]

Well, from personal experience and general mouth-to-ear, Python is supposedly faster; like I said, though, on OS X with MacRuby Ruby is faster, but that's because it acts as a facade for Objective-C. Otherwise, yeah, Python is - again, supposedly - faster.

 

[bluehazed]

Hmmm... Being biased, I think I will use ruby on my mac :P. I doubt that if my 266mhz G3 can work fine with, anyone else will have a problem (I mean, really. 266mhz!)

If I do see issues with using ruby that affect runtime negatively, I will most likely switch to python.

 

[normajeanpunk]

Personlly i like python better, but then i use centOS at home and i works pretty fast but since u have a mac ruby is good if you know how to use it
:haha:

 

[Tohsaka]

I will note that it'll depend on the libraries and wrappers that you'd like to use. I would recommend coding your basic engine with C/C++, and include a Python or Ruby interpreter.

If you're using Python, which I recommend, check out pygame [http://www.pygame.org/]. For Ruby, you have Rubygame [http://rubygame.org/], but I'm not sure if Ruby game has moved as far as pygame. It's quite possible to code an engine using pygame and Python, as seen by RenPy [http://www.renpy.org/].

 

[e]

I thought both PyGame and RubyGame were wrappers around SDL. As far as I know the RubyGame folks are closely following on whatever PyGame does.

 

[Kelevra]

I say check out blender (programmed in python) http://blender.org

 

[Tohsaka]

I say check out blender (programmed in python) http://blender.org

Blender is a game engine in itself- Good for 3D Games, and related items, but the major issue is that it doesn't have sound on OS X.

 

[normajeanpunk]

yeah ive tried out blender and it is ok but it has a kinda steep leearning curve and you will be watching alot of tuts online but when u get the hang of it, it is better than most other programs out there

 

[Kelevra]

I say check out blender (programmed in python) http://blender.org

Blender is a game engine in itself- Good for 3D Games, and related items, but the major issue is that it doesn't have sound on OS X.

That's why Blender is open source. The joys of adding functions!! (^_^)

 

[Tohsaka]

I say check out blender (programmed in python) http://blender.org

Blender is a game engine in itself- Good for 3D Games, and related items, but the major issue is that it doesn't have sound on OS X.

That's why Blender is open source. The joys of adding functions!! (^_^)

The code is there, it just doesn't work on Intel Macs.

 

[bluehazed]

I doubt my g3 can handle blender

Actually my iMac just committed seppuku, so I've decided to go with python, as it's faster on my linux machines, and pygame seems to have much larger libraries than rubygame.

Perhaps I will try out blender, but I wanted to use 2D maps/sprites in the game.