gash

Disclaimer: This framework only works on Windows so please disregard any cross-platform hype below. Instead of diving into .NET Core console implementation on Linux I have decided to port it over to JS and React. You can find the new and improved framework here: web-gash.

Acronym for game-again shell, punning on the pun of Bash (Unix shell), gash is a framework for console games. It is C# class library targeting .NET Standard 1.6 and therefore compatible with .NET Core 1.1. Read cross-platform!

Features

• Cross platform support via .NET Core
• Allows you to focus on gameplay rather than gimmicks of console world
• Command driven logic
  • Easy to use interface to define and register new commands
  • Commands have syntax inspired by Unix shell commands including parameters and flags support
  • Built-in Unix inspired "man" type of command for manual pages of commands and keywords
  • Built-in "list available commands" command
• Tab auto-complete for commands and keywords
• Separated input and output
  • Only one of those can use the underlying console at a time
  • Input line is not overwritten by output but rather moved down
• Fixed-time game loop
• Unix shell style command history (up/down arrows)

Getting started

gash is published as a Nuget package since it is primarly intended for use in .NET Core console apps.

1. Install and follow getting started for .NET Core
2. Add gash as dependency to your .csproj file

<ItemGroup>
  <PackageReference Include="Gash" Version="1.0.0" />
</ItemGroup>

3. Perform any desired starting procedures including but not limited to:
   1. Register commands via GConsole.RegisterCommand
   2. Register keywords via GConsole.RegisterKeyword
   3. Subcribe game logic instances to the game loop via GConsole.SubscribeLooped
   4. Change settings via GConsole.Settings and text resources via Resources.text

Note that the first call to GConsole will initialize the framework but does not start it, see below.

4. Start the gash framework through GConsole:

GConsole.Start();

Note that this will block the calling thread and is therefore suited to be used in Main function. This will also start the game loop.

5. Anytime during your game execution you can use GConsole static WriteLine methods to write to the console
6. Once your game has finished exit the Gash framework:

GConsole.Exit();

Futher reading

• Wiki here on Github should be your starting point for using gash.

Contributing

All kinds of contributions are welcomed. Bug reports, feature requests, documentation suggestions all go to Github Issues page. As for a format, inspire yourself by already existing tickets there. For larger efforts, either look at open Issues or contact me directly.

History

• April 2017 - The 1.0.0 of Gash was released
• April 2017 - Alpha version of Gash was used in my LD 38 entry
• February 2017 - What would become a Gash library is in heavy development for a game project