In the spring of 2024, my good friend and Basilisk developer, Jonah Coffelt, invited me to the Texas Aggie Game Developers (TAGD), where we competed in their semester-long game jam. Under the pressure of ETAM, I convinced him to create a 3D game in Python. We developed Dicey Decks, the first of many Python games and the proof of concept for a full Python-based game engine.

That summer, we began working on the first version of Basilisk Engine, aiming to create multiple 3D games without needing to rewrite the codebase each time. Unfortunately, we only made one game with this version: IndepenDance Day.

This early version had a major limitation, a fixed file structure. Users had to download the Basilisk Engine from our GitHub and place all their scripts in a specific folder. We knew that if we wanted others to use our engine, it had to be as convenient as possible. So, we converted Basilisk into a Python package installable via pip install basilisk-engine. This new version powered Emulsion, which won 2nd place at Chillennium, and Selva, our most recent game.