Cubedoom: A DOOM-Like Shooter Forged in the Spectre Programming Language

Building a game from scratch is a significant undertaking, but doing so in a custom-built programming language elevates the challenge and the achievement. Cubedoom, an arena shooter inspired by the likes of Wolfenstein 3D and the original DOOM, stands as a compelling demonstration of the Spectre Programming Language's capabilities. This project not only delivers a minimalist, engaging gameplay experience but also serves as a practical showcase for Spectre's design principles, including its multi-dimensional array handling and robust C-interoperability.

Cubedoom: An Overview

Cubedoom is an arena shooter designed to immerse players in maze-like environments, engaging in combat with a single enemy type while striving for survival. Its gameplay is intentionally minimal, focusing on the core loop of navigation and combat, reminiscent of early FPS titles. The game features essential elements like a health bar, a minimap HUD, and classic viewbob mechanics, contributing to its retro feel.

Raycasting for Retro 3D

The game's 3D world rendering employs a raycasting technique, a method popularized by early first-person shooters. This approach involves casting a set of rays from the player's position each frame, stepping through the map grid until a wall collision is detected. The distance to this collision then dictates the vertical slice height drawn to the screen, effectively creating the illusion of depth without the computational overhead of more complex rendering pipelines.

It is important to note the specific implementation of this technique. As one commenter clarified:

At runtime each frame casts a set of rays from the player’s position, stepping through the map grid until a wall collision is detected. It's not how Doom works. It's more like Wolfenstein 3D.

This distinction highlights that while Cubedoom draws inspiration from DOOM, its rendering architecture aligns more closely with the simpler, yet effective, raycasting used in games like Wolfenstein 3D, keeping the engine lightweight and performant.

Technical Foundations in Spectre

Cubedoom is built entirely in the Spectre Programming Language, depending on the SDL2 and SDL2_Image development libraries for graphics and input. The project began as an experiment to push Spectre's multi-dimensional array capabilities and its C-interoperability. The development of Cubedoom even led to specific language enhancements, such as the introduction of extern-related "header" syntax, to improve compatibility with alternate compiler backends.

The game's source code is openly available on GitHub, inviting contributions from the community.

The Spectre Programming Language: Powering Cubedoom

Spectre is the foundational technology behind Cubedoom, and its ongoing development is crucial to projects like this. Recent updates to Spectre, specifically v0.0.5, demonstrate its continuous evolution and growing capabilities:

• C-to-Spectre Translation: A new --translate-c flag allows for the translation of C code into Spectre, streamlining migration and integration.
• Experimental Backends: The introduction of new experimental LLVM and C99 backends expands Spectre's compilation targets and optimization potential.
• Improved Type System: Enhancements to the type-level invariant syntax provide more robust type safety and expressiveness.
• Performance Optimizations: Significant improvements in semantic analysis and module resolution have led to faster compile times.

These advancements make Spectre a more versatile and efficient language for developing complex applications, as evidenced by Cubedoom.

Future Directions and Community Engagement

The roadmap for Cubedoom includes exciting additions such as sound effects, a greater variety of enemy types, and an ammo-counting system to deepen the gameplay experience. Both Cubedoom and the Spectre Programming Language are open-source projects, actively seeking contributions from developers interested in exploring language design, game development, or both.

The community's reception highlights the satisfaction of such an endeavor:

Must be satisfying. a game in your own lang.

And the enduring appeal of its classic inspirations:

Got to love these classic games that were so amazing in their glory days and still fun today!

Cubedoom is more than just a game; it's a testament to the power and potential of custom language development, offering a unique blend of retro gaming nostalgia and cutting-edge programming exploration.