Jai in 2026: The State of Jonathan Blow's Programming Language
4 days ago
- #programming
- #game-development
- #jai-language
- Jai entered closed beta in late 2019/early 2020 and remains invite-only.
- Jonathan Blow's game 'Order of the Sinking Star' is built entirely on a custom engine written in Jai and will be released in 2026.
- The game's engine will be open-sourced after release, and the language itself will eventually be open-sourced.
- Jai features compile-time execution, fast compilation speeds, data-oriented defaults, built-in reflection, and no hidden control flow.
- A healthy community has formed around Jai, with forums, tutorials, and resources available.
- Competitors like Odin and Zig have emerged, offering alternatives with some overlapping goals.
- Jai's deeper metaprogramming, faster compile speeds, and focus on game development may differentiate it post-open-source release.