// HACKER NEWS — CYBERSECURITY
Show HN: C# Game Engine with its own scripting language and IDE
ArcadeMaker is a simple 2D cross‑platform game engine that includes its own programming language (its prototype is called Exp) and an integrated IDE.
The engine and IDE themselves are written in C#, but the language you use inside ArcadeMaker to program your games is my custom language, not C#.
Currently, the graphics and audio backend is powered by MonoGame, which allows exporting to desktop, mobile, and consoles. I’m also planning to add a KNI-engine implementation to enable web support.
This project is not finished yet.
But since I have very little time to work on it, I decided to open‑source it in the hope that others will find it interesting and help turn it into something real.
ArcadeMaker is based on GameMaker 8, so if you’ve ever used it, you’ll find it very easy to learn.
ArcadeMaker has been built in several stages over the span of a few years, and different parts of it were written at very different points in my programming journey.
Originally, ArcadeMaker started as a C#‑based engine where users wrote their game logic directly in C#. After leaving the project for a while, I eventually created my own programming language and decided to return to ArcadeMaker — replacing the old C# scripting layer with my language and rewriting the core engine around it.
Because of this long, staggered development history, the IDE currently includes many features that the new engine backend does not yet support. For example:
The long‑term goal is to bring the new engine up to feature parity with the old C# version — and then expand far beyond it.
I love working on ArcadeMaker, but I don’t have enough time to develop it at the pace it deserves.
By open‑sourcing it, I hope others will:
If you enjoy GameMaker‑style workflows or want to contribute to a lightweight, beginner‑friendly 2D engine, you’re more than welcome to join.