Ecspanse: An Elixir ECS Library for Game Development
The article introduces Ecspanse, an ECS (Entity Component System) library for game development in Elixir. The author shares their experience of building a multiplayer game using Elixir and Phoenix, and how they transitioned from using GenServers to ECS. They explain that using a single GenServer became unmaintainable and not scalable, leading them to explore ECS concepts. They created their own library called Faktor, but faced challenges with race conditions. After studying other ECS libraries, they were inspired by Bevy and decided to create Ecspanse. The article emphasizes that Ecspanse is not equivalent to Bevy, but draws inspiration from its API and concepts. It is recommended for developers interested in exploring game development in Elixir. The author also suggests trying Bevy for indie game development on Steam. Ecspanse provides a way for developers to leverage ECS in Elixir and offers an alternative for those looking to develop games in the language.