Coding Languages

Wayfinding: Tools > Software > Coding Languages

This can seem like the most daunting hurdle for many theatre makers. While it is possible to use Unity and Unreal Engine to create assets and spaces without knowing a programming language, it is very helpful to learn one or two that integrate with the engine – for example, Unity supports C#, and more complex Unreal builds benefit from C++. With so much documentation and big user communities, though, you will have a lot of help to learn enough of a programming language to create shows. Nathan Leigh mentioned working on an interactive platform: ‘I'm trying to take the platform that we used for POV, I coded myself entirely from in JavaScript'.

Clemence Debaig developed a web app that would allow her audience for Strings to decide which haptic device she wore would cause her to move: ‘from a technical point of view, this is technically a website that is running through WebSockets which allowed me to change what people see dynamically, depending on where they are in the performance, and then their interactions are in real-time; and, they can also see each other. … everyone is represented in all the small dots, and then they can see each other’.