Published 26 Aug, 2024 by Louis Pilfold
Gleam is a type safe and scalable language for the Erlang virtual machine and JavaScript runtimes. Unlike most programming languages, Gleam does not come from any particular tech corporation or academic institution; Instead it is a truly open-source community project and is funded entirely by sponsors, both individuals and corporations.
Today we welcome and thank Lambda, Gleam’s new primary sponsor.
Lambda operates in a wide array of fields, from machine learning, to distributed systems, crypto infrastructure, video games, animation, and more. They often use other BEAM languages such as Elixir and Erlang, as well as strongly-typed languages such as Rust, and now they are expanding their technology stack to include Gleam.
Lambda has a broad portfolio of impactful open-source projects, such as lambdaworks, a collection of efficient cryptographic primitives for proving systems; Cairo-VM, the Rust-based virtual machine for the Cairo language; and Erlings, a comprehensive set of exercises for mastering Erlang’s fundamentals and advanced topics.
One of their latest exciting projects is the upcoming mobile game Champions of Mirra, a fast-paced multiplayer mobile game launching soon in Argentina.
The game program that runs on your phone is made using the popular Unity game engine. Being a competitive multiplayer game, they needed to pair this game program with a backend that is reliable, scalable, and perhaps most importantly low latency, making it a perfect fit for the Erlang virtual machine.
The current version of the backend has recently been published as open-source software which can be viewed on GitHub, and Lambda intends to use Gleam for future iterations of the backend, gaining both the reliable performance and resilience of the virtual machine, and the practical and precise development experience of Gleam and its strong static types.
Lambda’s work isn’t limited to only software development! They are also working on the groundbreaking cyberpunk anime Electro Andes, set to release next year.
Lambda’s investment in Gleam, both financially and in making it part of their technology stack, is a testament to the Gleam ecosystem and a real milestone for us. We hope that Lambda inspires other groups, encouraging them to take advantage of what Gleam has to offer, and to follow their lead in supporting the ecosystems they are part of.
Thank you Lambda, we’re excited to see where this partnership goes and what innovative Gleam-powered technologies emerge. Especially cool stuff like games and anime!
If you wish to learn more about Lambda and what they do, or if you are interested in collaborating with them, please visit their website. If you’d like to get more involved in Gleam then why not join the Gleam Discord and meet your fellow Gleamlins.
Thanks for reading 💖