Alive!
Alive! is a sandbox for learning AI and game programming. It's a simple IDE inspired by Self and Squeak but written in Python.
This project is being developed full time, as part of Game AI Programming tutorials. Send comments to alexjc at users dot sf dot net, using Alive! as the subject, or subscribe to the Game AI Newsletter.
Update: The prototyping phase of the project is over.
- The GOOD: The AI engine (implemented after the screencast) is by far the most promising; it will be developed further, most likely in C/C++. See AiGameDev.com
Stackless is awesome, and should be the default for any Python code.
wxPython is a fine library for most GUIs, and I'll be using it for an upcoming AI editor.
Python itself is awesome for building applications, and plugging functionality together. There are so many great libraries for the language.
- The BAD WxPython makes it hard to build fully dynamic user-configurable interfaces. (PyAUI offers some relief by supporting docking.) Other GUI tools are little better it seems.
PyOgre has been discontinued due to being hard to maintain. Python-ogre, its replacement, is a hugely bloated beast right now -- but it works on the latest code.
- The UGLY: Python is a beautiful language on the surface, but it's only skin deep. It's not a very elegant language, and makes fully modifiable environments like Self or Squeak rather difficult. You can do prototype-based Python, but you end up implementing a lot yourself -- without too many benefits.
Last modified 11/06/2007 by Alex J. Champandard.
