The game development industry is not as big as web applications development, but is growing very fast all over the world. If you want to be a game developer or just develop some games, you must first decide what language you will use, because there is no solution for every language (at least not up to date or well maintained). The biggest solutions are Unity (C# , javascript and Boo) and Unreal Engine (C++). Other good solutions are LibGDX (Java) and PyGame (Python). So, if a Smalltalker wants to develop a game , they must select another language and adapt to that environment. Winter is a simple and fast to learn solution to this problem, so we can develop games using Smalltalk.

1. Winter
A 2D game development framework
for Pharo

2. Winter
Alvaro Piorno

3. Agenda
❆ Which was my motivation?
❆ Looking for a solution
❆ From dead Storm to living Winter
❆ Demo
❆ Future Work

4. Which was my Motivation?
Game industry today
❆ Grown from focused markets to mainstream.
❆ Improvements in technology have contributed to
enhancement of game experience.
❆ It excels because it anticipates demand.
❆ It employs traditional developers but also needs specific
disciplines to cover.

5. Which was my Motivation?
Game Frameworks vs Game Engines
Do more, assists a lotDo not assist
Libraries, sub engines and graphic toolsLibraries with unified API
Can not become a frameworkCan become an engine
Muscles that do all the workSkeleton (Architecture and Program flow)

10. ❆ Where to start?
Looking for a Solution
❆
❆ Rewriting the wheel?
❆ Was something done about this?
❋ Storm
❋ Woden 2

11. by Esteban Lorenzano.
❆ Pharo 2 or 3
❆ AthensCairo Graphics
❆ NativeBoost FFI
❆ Chipmunk2D 6.x C Physics Library
Storm

12. by Ronie Salgado
❆ Pharo
❆ Lowcode VM Modified VM
❆ AbstractGPU Low-Level Graphics API abstraction
❆ AbstractPhysics Physical Simulation Layer
abstraction
Woden 2

13. Storm
❆ 2D
❆ Prototype Project
❆ Simple
❆ A lot of work to be
done
Storm vs Woden 2
Woden 2
❆ 3D
❆ Complete Project
❆ Complex
❆ Nothing to do here

14. Storm
❆ Pharo 2 or 3
❆ AthensCairo
❆ NativeBoost
❆ Chipmunk2D 6.x
From dead Storm to Living Winter
Winter
❆ Pharo 6.x (64)
❆ AthensCairo
❆ UFFI
❆ Chipmunk2D 7.x
“Storm died a long time ago” - Esteban Lorenzano

15. Problems… and “Solutions”
Problems
Some Chipmunk calls failing
on 64 bits VM
VM Crashes on 32 bits
(Linux)
Failed builds on Windows
Solutions
Bye Chipmunk , hello physics
on Smalltalk
Started adding features to
the framework

16. New Features Sound and Music DONE
Sprites DONE
User Input Management DONE
Assets Management DONE
Tiles and Tiled Maps In Progress
Animations To Do
Camera To Do
Interactive Feedback To Do
Particles Effect To Do

17. Demo

18. Future Work
❆ Animations
❆ Camera
❆ Interactive Feedback
❆ Particles Effect
❆ Back to Chipmunk2D (or another physics library)
❆ Network API (Lan & Online)

19. Winter
After the Storm, comes the Winter, and ...

21. THANKS!
alvaropiorno100@gmail.com
https://github.com/apiorno
SPECIAL THANKS
Esteban Lorenzano
Julian Maestri