Difference between revisions of "Entity Component System"

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* [http://gameprogrammingpatterns.com/component.html Game Programming Patterns: Component], a straightforward explanation of component based architecture, along with example implementation.
* [http://gameprogrammingpatterns.com/component.html Game Programming Patterns: Component], a straightforward explanation of component based architecture, along with example implementation.
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U03XXzcThGU Brian Bucklew: Data-Driven Engines of Qud and Sproggiwood], IRDC 2015 talk about a data- and component-driven roguelike architecture.
* [https://kyren.github.io/2018/09/14/rustconf-talk.html Catherine West: RustConf 2018 Closing Keynote: Using Rust for Game Development] ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKLntZcp27M video], [https://kyren.github.io/rustconf_2018_slides/index.html slides]), works through various alternatives for game engine structure in Rust and ends up at an ECS architecture as the best option for a medium to large game in Rust.


[[Category:Developing]]
[[Category:Developing]]

Revision as of 05:12, 16 September 2018

An entity component system is a way to implement your game objects so that you can build their functionality through composition instead of object-oriented inheritance. The prevailing wisdom in current game development seems to be that complex games should have one of those instead of an inheritance-based object system that is likely to lead to unmaintainable blobs of a class. A roguelike is probably a complex enough game that you should use an entity component system in one.

The basic idea is that game objects at their core are just unique identifiers (UIDs), plain strings or integers, instead of complex objects. The complex data and functionality is moved into multiple components, which are stored in their own containers and associated with the object UIDs.

This makes it easy to have data-driven object construction and allows very diverse combinations of component loadouts in objects that still coexist in the same game world as the same fundamental type of program object.

References