# Easel programming language

16 Hacker News commenters recommended Easel programming language and 7 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 10 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 4 years (10 owners). It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Recommended for beginner-friendly 2D games where multiplayer is automatic, sitting between Scratch and Python. Main caveat: closed source, and some find it hard to start with.

## Why people recommend it

- Multiplayer built into the language (9 comments): "building our own programming language meant we could build multiplayer into the fabric of the programming language, making multiplayer 100% automatic" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46475377)) "Putting the rollback netcode into the programming language means it always works 100% of the time and you can't make a mistake" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49702581)) "A beginner-friendly programming language for 2D games where multiplayer is automatic." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46579111))
- Beginner-friendly for learning to code (6 comments): "Easel is like halfway between Scratch and Python. It keeps a lot of the intuitive parts of Scratch's cool programming model, but in text form." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46271846)) "a beginner-friendly online programming language for teenagers who want to learn to code" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46269717)) "A beginner-friendly programming language for 2D games where multiplayer is automatic." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46579111))
- IDE tools share data, speed workflow (5 comments): "Using an IDE where all the tools take data and share data has dramatically changed my workflow." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46459009)) "I use this for everything from backend system design to iterating on different UIs." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49303736)) "I like the idea of being able to quickly make little tools in your IDE." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46454769))
- Designed to match how people think (5 comments): "a 2D game programming language that represents how I think (some) games should be made" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45890567)) "It’s a more declarative way of making games which I think is lots more productive." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48086894)) "designed to match how humans, not computers, think about game logic" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45869911))

## What people warn about

- Hard to understand at first (4 comments): "It's not apparently simple, and a beginner wouldn't be able to distinguish it from any other games programming framework." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46270307)) "Even after clicking around a bit on your website, I still had almost no idea what your engine can do" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48006053)) "It's interesting to me that Easel looks declarative but is imperative." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45875214))
- Closed source, including interpreter (2 comments): "If I understand correctly, the language is not open source, right? Not even the interpreter?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46105886)) "the terrible closed source Easel App" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46818480))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Rust](https://hackerapproved.com/p/rust.md): 2039 recommend
- [Go](https://hackerapproved.com/p/go-programming-language.md): 1254 recommend
- [Python](https://hackerapproved.com/p/python.md): 1067 recommend
- [Zig](https://hackerapproved.com/p/zig.md): 743 recommend
- [TypeScript](https://hackerapproved.com/p/typescript.md): 574 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Easel programming language", https://hackerapproved.com/p/easel/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).