I keep hearing this line, mostly on the Odin Discord server. What is that? It's a bunch of nerds who like a programming language called Odin.
Now, why am I even writing a blog about this stupid line that makes no sense anyway? Good question. The answer is: because someone has to tell nerds when they are being nerds, so they stop nerding out so hard.
This is me being nice, actually. I'm just trying to make the Odin Discord server a better place.
The Line
Every time someone says it, it sounds like they are giving raylib a compliment. But it's not really a compliment, is it? Maybe sometimes, but not in the Odin server. Remember, we are dealing with evil nerds here. It's more like a backhanded "good job, I guess."
But it is great for small games. What's wrong with saying that? - gingereebill
The problem isn't that raylib can't be used for small games. Of course it can. It's actually really easy to make games with it. The problem is the way people say it as if that's all it's good for. Like raylib is just a toy library you will eventually grow out of once you are ready for the "real stuff."
To be clear, "simple games" isn't an insult, to the games or to raylib. - barizodin
Yeah, I'm used to that same line from game engine people. It's just a nice thing to say.
Of course you can use it for non-learning and slightly less simple games. But it was created for learning - karlzylonski
And? That's irrelevant to what raylib actually is. It has a lot of solid, well-written code. The creator can use it however he wants, but that doesn't limit anyone else. Lua, for example, was created to be a nice config file language, and look how it's used now. Also, thanks for the "slightly less simple games" upgrade. I get it, not an insult, just like the line above.
You are just complaining and trying to have strong opinions. - karlzylonski
Bro, who is having strong opinions here? Also why is this blog becoming like a Discord chat?
Strong Opinions
The Odin server has more graphics devs, so it makes sense they look at anything even slightly high-level as "simple" or "just for learning." That's the culture. But that context doesn't make the line true. It just means you are hearing it from people who would rather make their own "better" abstractions. And that's fine. I'm waiting to see how Gordon2D (a library by gingereebill) and Karl2D (a library by karlzylonski) will evolve.
These people also assume raylib will always be used "as is." But that's not the case. If you need something different, you can just fork it and make the changes you want. There's really no serious problem you can't solve with a custom fork for your project.
By the way, just search "OOP" in the Odin Discord server. It's currently mentioned 2,716 times and counting. For comparison, the D Discord server has 1,331 mentions of OOP, and that's a language with OOP support. Odin is one of those no-OOP langs. Strong opinions, huh?
no, like, raylib is close to the ideal; its got allot of c apis nonsense, but still it is just a list of functions that are well named and has the right kind and ammount of docs - monkyyy
Me
Anyway, that's enough ranting. For what it's worth, I'm currently using raylib as the base for my own little game engine/framework/library (never cared about the distinction) called Parin. I might switch things up in the future, but right now raylib is perfect for what I need. If you are curious, here's the repo.
Worms Within - A bite-sized escape room game.
Conclusion
So yeah, raylib works. That's all that matters to me.
Top comments (1)
Be nice.