I've gotta go with speed. While I *love* Basic-based languages (and have since the early 80s), they tend to be slow. A couple of years ago when I was debating whether to go with BlitzBasic, DarkBasic, Visual C++, or stick with VisualBasic which I already owned, I ran an integer and float speed test. VC++ did the best, of course (but I can't *stand* C-based languages for high-level uses: they're fine for writing mouse drivers and the like, but *suck* for high level uses like games).
Visual Basic ran at 1/20 that speed. Dark Basic ran at 1/5 the speed of VB - 1/100 the speed of VC++. However, Blitz ran 10x faster than VB: it ran at 1/2 the speed of VC++; 10x the speed of VB; 50x the speed of DarkBasic: *that* was what sold me on Blitz! (for math: obviously graphic operations are much more dependent on the hardware installed than on the language.)
Since then, I've sort of followed the competition while coding in Blitz. Blitz3D does have its limits on cutting-edge special effects, but they're more than made up for by the horrible code contortions that other languages *require* to do the simplest things (like create and show a 3D scene).
I've seen other "3D game languages," and they force you to follow their limited selection of setups. Blitz provides much more flexibility. Notwithstanding future language extensions, Blitz as it is now provides a fantastic framework for game designers to easily express their ideas, at high speed, and those future language extensions will only let it go further...
Visual Basic ran at 1/20 that speed. Dark Basic ran at 1/5 the speed of VB - 1/100 the speed of VC++. However, Blitz ran 10x faster than VB: it ran at 1/2 the speed of VC++; 10x the speed of VB; 50x the speed of DarkBasic: *that* was what sold me on Blitz! (for math: obviously graphic operations are much more dependent on the hardware installed than on the language.)
Since then, I've sort of followed the competition while coding in Blitz. Blitz3D does have its limits on cutting-edge special effects, but they're more than made up for by the horrible code contortions that other languages *require* to do the simplest things (like create and show a 3D scene).
I've seen other "3D game languages," and they force you to follow their limited selection of setups. Blitz provides much more flexibility. Notwithstanding future language extensions, Blitz as it is now provides a fantastic framework for game designers to easily express their ideas, at high speed, and those future language extensions will only let it go further...