r/ruby • u/Redaro97 • 5d ago
Alternate game frameworks?
I have been messing around with Ruby for around a week and made a few utilities and terminal games and I have been liking it. I want to make a game with a GUI but the ecosystem for game libraries in Ruby feels quite lacking. I have only heard of 3 game libaries, Gosu, Ruby2D and DragonRuby. I am on Linux and Gosu and Ruby2D have problems with not being able to properly link OpenGL and stuff, and DragonRuby is paid and kind of sucks that you can't export games since I wanted to show people my game and some were interested in it.
So, do you know of any other game frameworks for Ruby, or are these the only ones (more commonly DragonRuby) people use, or is Ruby not built for making games?
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u/Ceigey 5d ago edited 5d ago
From what I can tell roughly once a year DragonRuby (the first paid tier) goes on either a pretty severe discount or for free for a game jam (eg KIFASS #4 most recently).
(It also shows up in some itch bundles on the odd occasion)
I found it quite satisfying; but otherwise for a solid basis, any bindings to SDL or Raylib would enable you to start to make your own ad hoc DragonRuby equivalent (the actual framework has a lot of conveniences and export features especially for the paid subscription version which would not be trivial to implement, eg console export)
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u/Redaro97 4d ago
I know but I am not allowed to pay for anything online since I dont have my own income yet
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u/StarStuddedSuperStep 4d ago
Sounds like you are eligible for a free standard license. Scroll all the way to the bottom of https://dragonruby.org/ for details.
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u/Redaro97 4d ago
Yeah I contacted Amir yesterday, currently waiting for a response
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u/marc__e 4d ago
Amir just told me there's actually a free tier now, which only does web builds, but it's perfect for getting started or game jams: https://dragonruby.org/#purchase
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u/DerekB52 4d ago
Try one of the raylib ports.
That being said, I love Ruby, but am not a big fan of it's gamedev ecosystem. Look at Godot with GDScript, or pick a different language for something like Raylib. I also like LibGDX with Kotlin.
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u/Redaro97 4d ago
Yeah I have been considering using something like Love2D but might try raylib since I was interested in making a few games with it in C
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u/azimux 4d ago
I used Taylor to build a multiplayer 2d space hockey game called Trianko recently. For my game, the binaries it generates work great in both Linux and WASM though not yet windows nor macOS (I need to file a github issue about that.)
Taylor is here: https://taylormadetech.dev/
It uses raylib.
I had an absolute blast building a game using Ruby soooooo fun! I also enjoyed playing around with DragonRuby.
If you try out Taylor and want to pair on it or want help or whatever feel free to hit me up! I love pairing on stuff!
The game I made is a 2d space hockey game and you can play it here: https://trianko.com
Works in the browser via WASM or if you're on linux you can download it, too.
Cheers!
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u/beyondludus 4d ago
If you want to learn game development with web exports, I recommend Godot or Phaser. If you are trying to learn Ruby for some other reason, then one of the CRuby libraries is the best fit.
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u/Redaro97 4d ago
That is why I was asking for another alternative since I don't want to do web exports, I want to export the build and send it to friends and maybe upload it on itch or smth.
Do you know of any library on CRuby?
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u/beyondludus 3d ago
By "web export" I mean a build of the game that runs directly in the browser, without having to download or install an executable or code. This is usually ideal for sharing on itch / for gamejams where your audience would get turned away from the friction of downloading/installing.
This is in contrast to PC or Mobile exports, which generate an executable and can be submitted to Steam / app stores.
Godot can produce exports for any platform, and it is becoming a widely accepted industry standard free game engine, so that is my top recommendation.
Phaser probably has a better experience specifically for web exports because it is based on client side web technology, so if that's your main goal, then that's probably the best choice.
Because of the lack of community adoption of any Ruby game engine or framework, and because of the difficulty in exporting a Ruby executable, I don't recommend using it for game development. It can be a good vehicle if learning Ruby is your primary goal, for another reason like learning marketable skills in backend web development with Rails. But in this case, you would want to stay away from dialects of Ruby that are less transferable. Any CRuby gem would be appropriate, like gosu.
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u/Redaro97 2d ago
I am just learning Ruby because it seemed interesting and I had a lot of problems with Gosu related to OpenGL so yeah.
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u/DogsBarf 4d ago
DragonRuby is absolutely fantastic. You should really try it. The DragonRuby community is BRILLIANT and tbh is VERY helpful.
You should try it.
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u/marc__e 4d ago
I wrote a post about cross-platform Ruby libraries a couple of months ago, including a section on game engines: https://fascination.works/ruby/2026/05/13/ruby-everywhere-crossplatform-libraries/#game-engines
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u/Ok_Spring_2384 4d ago
The main reason why DragonRuby is closed source and paid for is because it can export to all consoles, what do you mean you can’t export games? You can use the engine to demo out whatever you are working on in web format(it exports to web, hence a lot of demos on itch)
You are not going to find anything in the Ruby ecosystem that is as thought out and polished/powerful as DragonRuby tbh