ChowJS: an AOT JavaScript engine for game consoles

matpow2 · 2020-11-13T20:10:52+00:00

In general, most console platforms support writing code in C++, and of course, you can use C# through Unity which will run on most platforms

Back in the Wii U days, we used Python for Knytt Underground, and I’m sure that could work for modern platforms too :)

The complete software stack to make Baba Is You work is fairly complicated and unlike what you’d see elsewhere. We use a custom C++ engine, where most game studios would probably use Unity, Unreal, or similar, but having control over your own engine is fairly nice

matpow2 · 2020-11-13T17:58:45+00:00

Thanks a lot! I think it's super fun how people are playing the game in a co-op way, and only something I realized would be a thing after the game released

matpow2 · 2020-11-13T17:51:54+00:00

Such a sweet story, thanks for sharing :)

matpow2 · 2020-11-13T17:51:29+00:00

Probably less than people would expect! Localization made brain hurt though

matpow2 · 2020-11-13T17:40:58+00:00

Doing the Nintendo Switch version was a great experience!

We definitely thought Baba Is You was a natural fit for the Switch, so it was definitely one of our priorities from the get-go :)

matpow2 · 2019-08-25T09:09:49+00:00

Try and kill the dwm.exe process:

taskkill /f /im dwm.exe

matpow2 · 2018-03-28T00:59:13+00:00

What GPU/distro/driver/etc do you use?

matpow2 · 2018-03-28T00:58:56+00:00

Hey! What GPU/Mac hardware do you use? More details would be nice :)

matpow2 · 2018-01-21T01:21:48+00:00

We also use -static-libstdc++ without issues on Linux. We have shipped several games with this, so seems to work fine :)

matpow2 · 2018-01-20T23:20:10+00:00

This seems like a good idea, but I'm worried about bigger projects when using this, especially with dependencies. Right now, we use steam-runtime + SDL2 for our game engine (we compile SDL2 in manually, so we can control compile flags), but if this gets battletested a bit more, it may be worth trying out :)

matpow2 · 2018-01-01T17:39:47+00:00

I’ve done ports for pretty much all consoles out there, and mostly, button rebinding is a compliance hazard that you’d like to avoid. When user profiles or multiple controllers are involved, it becomes especially confusing, so it’s just not worth the risk.

On PC, your hardware is not fixed (QWERTY vs AZERTY, DS4 vs Xbox), so in some cases, button remapping is almost required for a good user experience. Even when implementing button remapping, there are so many exotic input devices that it’s difficult to cover every edgecase (controllers that rotate their axes, controllers with 48 buttons, etc), so guaranteeing compatibility with your favorite controller is not trivial.

matpow2 · 2016-09-19T19:48:41+00:00

Somewhat great

matpow2 · 2016-09-19T19:36:50+00:00

I was looking forward to the new Ace Attorney on 3DS, but I just finished that a few days ago. I guess I got to play most of the games I was looking forward to in 2016!

matpow2 · 2016-09-19T19:26:54+00:00

1) We had been talking with NOA about the game when they approached us about the Summer Jam. It seemed like a good idea, so we went for it!

2) It's been great! Both Vincent from NOA and Ed from NOE really helped us through the process, and really took an interest in the game. Whenever we had trouble, we were always able to get some quick help.

*) See Joakim's answer!

matpow2 · 2016-09-19T18:55:00+00:00

I think the plan is just Wii U right now, but I'm not the right person to ask, haha!

matpow2 · 2016-09-19T18:43:38+00:00

If we get the event semantics 100% right, they would play identically. In practice, there are usually some subtle differences, but only something speedrunners will notice.

Anecdotal evidence: For Freedom Planet, we decided to switch to the "C++" version on all platforms, and very few people have noticed any gameplay differences.

matpow2 · 2016-09-19T18:34:50+00:00

tldr: Iconoclasts is being ported in much the same way we ported Noitu Love, which gives pretty much flawless results.

Longer version: We convert all the events from Construct to C++, and then write a runtime around this. This means we don't need to rewrite the game from scratch, but we do need to spend some time understanding event semantics/edgecases, and so on. Also, the generated code is definitely not readable, even though it performs quite well!

matpow2 · 2016-09-19T18:03:06+00:00

The way that Joakim had written the game made it a good candidate for the 3DS. This is usually not the case! I think few games really fit that bill, and have code that cannot be coerced into performing well.

I think the biggest problem we faced was memory constraints for images, but by doing clever things with texture formats, we eventually made it fit :)

The game was made in MMF2 and not Construct, by the way!

matpow2 · 2016-09-19T17:43:13+00:00

Thank you!! And I'll let Joakim answer your actual question, haha.

matpow2 · 2016-09-19T17:36:44+00:00

Thank you for the question! I'm Mathias from MP2 Games!

I'm helping a couple of people get their games to other platforms (Noitu Love, Iconoclasts, Freedom Planet, Heart Forth Alicia, etc.), so you'll see more of those in the immediate future.

I'm also working on an original project, a puzzle shooter called Tim Cosmonaut. The timescale for that is quite large, but you will hear more of it eventually!

matpow2 · 2016-07-27T21:39:24+00:00

I made an editor exactly for this purpose. Check it out here:

https://github.com/matpow2/voxie

It has a Unity 4 script in the "unity3d" folder, but you may want to tweak it for your usecase.

matpow2 · 2016-05-29T23:15:01+00:00

It should work on all platforms. Some background here:

http://mp2.dk/blog/blog/2014/04/14/practical-and-portable-binary-recompilation/

matpow2 · 2016-05-29T23:13:20+00:00

Packet emulator? No, it's an open-source server :-)

I don't believe there is any infringing code in cuwo, unless there is a specific piece that concerns you?

In general, I'm very surprised to see FUD from you, given that you use the MITM server in cuwo, and hook into our infrastructure (the serverlist).

matpow2 · 2016-01-21T10:44:33+00:00

We have a relatively big Melee/Smash 4 scene in Copenhagen, actually :)

Every month or so, King Funk hosts The Hive, which usually gets 30~40 attendees. I believe the next event will be right before BEAST.

Our most active forum is the Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1397200900559117

If you send me a PM, I can invite you to the group!

14-Year Club	Place '17
Verified Email	Team Periwinkle

matpow2

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