Haskell games and apps for iOS and Android

Abstract

The use of pure functional languages like Haskell to create games and mobile applications is, still to this day, rare. The reasons for this are multiple. First, purity and laziness be seen as an obstacle in performance-sensitive applications. Second, the lack of libraries for multimedia, games and mobile programming increases the cost of projects that require such facilities. Third, the lack of well-supported, professional development tools to target mobile platforms makes the development process slow and increases potential for errors and, overall, the risk of failure.

In this talk we will present the tools and methodology that we use at Keera Studios to develop, compile and publish commercial Haskell apps and games for Android and iOS. Our setup is cross-platform and includes mobile and gaming libraries, template applications, and compilation/packaging/publishing tools. Our setup works out of the box, is well supported by continuous-integration services, and makes it possible to create, compile and publish new applications to online stores within minutes.