Hands-on Rust

Understanding Terminology

ECS uses a common set of terms to denote its different parts:

• An entity can be anything: an adventurer, an orc, or a pair of shoes. The game map is an exception—it’s usually not an entity, but rather a resource entity’s reference to travel. Entities don’t have logic associated with them; they are little more than an identification number.

• A component describes a property an entity may have. Entities typically have lots of components attached to them, serving as a description—and adding functionality through systems. For example, a goblin might have a Position component describing where it is on the map, a Render component describing how to render it, a MeleeAI component indicating that it attacks with hand-to-hand combat, ...