Cross-Platform Games in Kotlin

TL;DR

This paper presents a practical method for developing cross-platform casual games in Kotlin, enabling code transpilation to JavaScript for web browsers and JVM compatibility, demonstrated with a Tetris game playable by AI or humans.

Contribution

It introduces a methodology and software design for writing Kotlin games that run seamlessly on both web browsers and JVM, facilitating AI research in gaming.

Findings

Kotlin code can be transpiled to JavaScript for browser play

The methodology ensures code compatibility across platforms

Demonstrated with a working Tetris game for AI and humans

Abstract

This demo paper describes a simple and practical approach to writing cross-platform casual games using the Kotlin programming language. A key aim is to make it much easier for researchers to demonstrate their AI playing a range of games. Pure Kotlin code (which excludes using any Java graphics libraries) can be transpiled to JavaScript and run in a web browser. However, writing Kotlin code that will run without modification both in a web browser and on the JVM is not trivial; it requires strict adherence to an appropriate methodology. The contribution of this paper is to provide such a method including a software design and to demonstrate this working for Tetris, played either by AI or human.