StackMachine: Build pipline for LÖVE games

[conroy]

Over the last year and a half, I've been working on Journey to the Center of
Hawkthorne. Since the game is open source and worked on by multiple people, we
needed infrastructure to manage publishing the game. Every release goes
through a build pipeline which adds automatic updates, player metrics, and
crash reporting, all automatically. This infrastructure has made our game
better, as more people update and we can find and fix bugs faster.

And today, with the release of StackMachine, anyone can use that
infrastructure.

Once you upload a LOVE file, you'll get:

- Windows and OSX applications
- Automatic updates
- Player metrics
- Crash reporting
- Custom Icon and splash screen

Both 0.8.0 and 0.9.0 are supported.

Here's a short video on how it works:



In the future, I'll be adding the ability to sell your games

Feedback, features requests, and questions are welcome!

1/21 UPDATE

You can now use a custom icon and splash screen for your game

[Roland_Yonaba]

Wow. This is so nice.
I was reading yesterday evenight this page about Parse and its buit-in metrics feature for Corona apps, and I was thinking that having something close for Löve would be interesting.
Thanks again for setting this up! It needs to be tight up with itch.io !

[Murii]

OMG!This is so cool !! But what about Linux ? And lets say my games its becoming bigger like 500mb this means it will redownload every time when i do an update?

[bartbes]

That looks pretty cool! I was wondering though, what about a .love download? Or even just faking a linux version by prepending it with a shebang?
It also made me wonder what happens if the client doesn't have internet connectivity.

EDIT: Oh, and there wouldn't be an opt-out for users, right?

[jjmafiae]

Awesome!

[Mermersk]

Amazing. I might upload most of what iv'e done to Stackmachine. My hard drive is old and if it fails everything will go with it

I'm constantly impressed by all the awesome libraries and helper tools the Löve community makes!

[conroy]

Thanks for the support everyone!

But what about Linux ?

I was wondering though, what about a .love download?

A .love download option for Linux users is in the works, but I'll probably be focusing first on 0.9.0 support.

It also made me wonder what happens if the client doesn't have internet connectivity.

The client fully expects to be run offline. While the StackMachine features won't work (bug repoting / auto updates), the game will run completely fine without the user noticing a difference.

Oh, and there wouldn't be an opt-out for users, right?

There is currently no way to opt-out of updates for users. This may change in the future, but right now I think auto updates are good for everyone.

And lets say my games its becoming bigger like 500mb this means it will redownload every time when i do an update?

If your game gets that big, users will have to do that anyway. In the future I may look into some binary diff options to decrease update size, but that's a way off.

It needs to be tight up with itch.io !

The plan is to integrate with as many current publishers as possible. What kind of integration are you looking for?

[bartbes]

There is currently no way to opt-out of updates for users. This may change in the future, but right now I think auto updates are good for everyone.

Right, but some of them might not be interested in the error reporting, for instance.

If your game gets that big, users will have to do that anyway. In the future I may look into some binary diff options to decrease update size, but that's a way off.

Well, 0.9.0 brings a way to mount zip files from the save dir, so I guess you could have diff zips that are then mounted over the normal image.

[Germanunkol]

Löve-Related:

Well, 0.9.0 brings a way to mount zip files from the save dir, so I guess you could have diff zips that are then mounted over the normal image.

In a way, I agree, but at the same time, I hate having pretty much the games put into the .local/share/love folder.
The problem is that as of this point, love games don't really have a proper uninstaller, and that the player can't choose where the save folder is (let alone see it). Usually players will delete the .love and think they're done with it.
Filling up a directory that the player doesn't even know is related to the game sounds... wrong.

I have the same problem with vapor.
Players should be able to install games where they want to...

StackMachine-Related:
This rocks! I love the easy interface, the statistics, the crash reports - it's all so cool!
I was thinking of creating something similar for my future games. Now I might not have to. Awesome!
I second (or third?) the linux-suport request. I think this should get more priority - A lot of users are using linux here, but 0.9.0 has only just been released. Currently, the linux issue is keeping me from using Stackmachine more, not the lack of 0.9.0 support.

[jjmafiae]

games that's compiled (exes and .apps) do not use the love folder.