written by Walter Bright

My career has been all about designing programming languages and writing compilers for them. This has been a great joy and source of satisfaction to me, and perhaps I can help others with some observations about what you’re in for if you decide to design and implement a professional programming language. Of course, this is a book length topic, so I’ll just hit on a few highlights here, and avoid topics well covered elsewhere.

Many games depend on content variety to tailor their gameplay experience. Having repetitive challenges can lead to player boredom, so designers generally aim to create an experience that is constantly engaging. Games usually consist of many facets such as levels, mechanics, graphics, sounds, etc. One of the most unique is level design. It does not introduce a new dimension in the game, instead, it is concerned with the arrangement of the existing elements. With the high demand for content in games, level design becomes a major task in game design. Its role is of pivotal importance, to the extent of being assigned to a different team than the one responsible for game and mechanics design, for games with large scopes.