Launching Turian
It’s finally time to talk about what I’ve been cooking. After a massive technical pivot and a lot of “mad scientist” hours in the lab, I am super excited to announce that Turian is officially live.
Turian is a 3D game engine built entirely in Zig. But to understand why it exists, we have to look back at where I was just a few months ago.
The Road Through C#
If you’ve followed my work, you know I’m incredibly proud of Guinevere, the C# GUI library I designed. I love that project. But as I tried to use it to build a full-blown engine studio, things got… complicated. I even tried a hybrid approach using Avalonia—which is a rock-solid piece of tech—but it just didn’t feel right for what I wanted to achieve. Plus, let’s be honest, the C# game engine scene is pretty crowded already.
When I started my “side quest” into Zig, something clicked. Programming in Zig was just fun. I found an existing Zig IMGUI library that let me start building the Turian Studio from day one. It’s not as powerful as I want it to be yet—I’ll probably end up forking it or investing heavily in enhancing it—but it got the ball rolling.
Some Technical Magic
One of the biggest hurdles in Zig (compared to C#) is the lack of reflection. I needed the editor to be able to “see” and manipulate the code. I’m happy to say I’ve mostly solved this! Now, the editor can inspect your structs and give you a proper UI to tweak them.
But the feature I’m most proud of? The In-Editor Play Mode. I managed to implement this by compiling the user’s game code into a library and loading it at runtime. It feels just like working in Unity or Godot—you hit play, and you’re in the game instantly. When you’re ready to ship, the final game is still compiled as a single, lean, native executable.
Right now, you can create a project from scratch, drop in your 3D models, add scripts, and “cook” the final game with just a few clicks.
The Roadmap
We are moving fast. The engine is evolving every day. Here’s the general plan for the near future:
- Refining the 3D World: We’re currently deep into improving materials, lighting, and shadows.
- Studio Power: Making the editor more robust, user-friendly, and powerful.
- The Big Three: Soon, we’ll be investing heavily in Audio, Physics, and a proper In-Game GUI system.
The goal is to give you everything you need to build a complete, functional game without leaving the ecosystem.
A New MEGA4
This release marks a reset for the MEGA4 initiative. Like the original plan, we’re embracing the “One Language” philosophy, and, this time, Turian is our starting point. Instead of starting from the GUI and building upwards, we’re are jumping some steps and then go down to the bottom of the stack.
I’m definitively not an expert in Zig, and building a game engine is most definitely not an easy task, so there is not lack of excitement.
It’s totally open-source (GPLv3). I’m having a fun time coding this project. Check it out at turian.mass4.org!
