Introduction

There are several Elm packages like elm-playground, pixelengine, which offer simple APIs to create a game. However, these packages have many limitations and are not suitable for creating complex games. pixelengine is specialized for pixel games, while elm-playground only has several simple rendering APIs.

Messenger is a 2D game engine for Elm based on WebGL. It provides an architecture, a set of APIs, and many library functions for rapid game development. Additionally, Messenger is message-based and abstracts the concept of objects using the co-inductive type technique.

Messenger has many cool features:

WebGL-based renderer
Messenger uses a WebGL-based renderer, which is very performative and powerful.
Separate User Code and Core Code
User code and core code are separated. Any side effects are controlled by the Messenger core. This helps debugging and decreases security concerns.
Basic Game Engine API Support
Messenger provides handy common game engine APIs, including data storage, an audio manager, a sprite manager, and more. Additional features are under development.
Modular Development
Every component, layer, and scene is a module, simplifying code management. The implementation is highly modularized, allowing focus on the specific logic of the needed functions. Messenger is designed for convenience and ease of use.
Highly Customizable
The data of each object can be freely defined. The target matching logic and message type are also customizable. Users can create their own object types using the provided General Model type.
Flexible Design
The engine can be used in various ways, with separate management of different tasks. Components can be organized flexibly, allowing classification of portable and non-portable components in any preferred way.

More than 60 users have used Messenger to create fantastic games. See SilverFOCS website.

To see the capabilities of Messenger, play with the core test. Its source code is at here. You could use it as an example project to learn Messenger.