Show HN: React Jam, build a game using React (reactjam.com)

13 points by bfelbo 3y ago ↗ HN

We created some games using React. It was surprisingly easy, which got us wondering why more people weren’t doing it. So we decided to host a “React Jam” event to encourage React devs to try their hand at building games!

React Jam aims to be a first-of-its-kind online event where React devs create a game in 10 days. We’ve gotten some amazing judges/sponsors and we’re really excited to see how the React + game dev communities will respond to our event.

More broadly, our hope is that React Jam will help millions of React developers realize that it's quite easy to create their first game using a familiar framework. Building games with React might sound crazy / suboptimal, but React Native seemed ridiculous a decade ago and is now ubiquitous. We think the same could happen with games too!

Would you build a game using React? Why / why not?

3 comments

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bfelbo 3y ago ↗

VentureBeat also just published an article on React Jam: https://venturebeat.com/games/react-announces-its-first-game...

schemescape 3y ago ↗

I know of at least one game on Steam that was built on React… because I made it :)

It worked great for a text-based programming game, but I’m sure more imaginative people can apply React to other genres.

I did have one big complaint, however: basing the whole game on React meant I was mixing state and UI together, so when I later wanted to port the game to the terminal, I had pretty much painted myself into a corner.

Awesome that you made a game for Steam with React! Haha, there's some examples of other games on the website. People make beautiful 3D games using React, which was crazy to me initially.

Hope you'll join the game jam!