Your must-have LÖVE libraries for new projects

[loveuser]

Hey, friends! I'm new to LÖVE development and want to get a feel for how people start off their new projects.

I'm thinking that Hump and Bump are probably good starting points, but I'd love to hear what everyone else thinks is a must-have for starting a new game project.

[Tanner]

Here's a big but curated list: https://github.com/love2d-community/awesome-love2d

[ivan]

bartbes' inifile is a great choice for storing game options, localizations and other data
robin's ser is not bad too, but it's probably overkill in most cases

Depends on your project's needs.

[Robin]

robin's ser is not bad too, but it's probably overkill in most cases

Unless you want to save human-readable stuff, my newer library bitser is better. It's superfast, produces smaller files, is safe to use from untrusted sources and supports saving and loading class instances.

[Wrinkliez]

the loveframes library is amazing, probably my favorite lib, and it scares me that it's going away https://github.com/KennyShields/LoveFrames

i'm a big fan of tween https://github.com/kikito/tween.lua

hump also, mostly just for timers and gamestates http://hump.readthedocs.org/en/latest/

and its not a library, but everyone should use zerobrane!

[Kenny Shields]

the loveframes library is amazing, probably my favorite lib, and it scares me that it's going away https://github.com/KennyShields/LoveFrames

I'm currently writing a new ui library that will replace Love Frames, which is main reason why Love Frames is no longer being maintained.

[Kingdaro]

I was actually curious about that when I saw it. Is the whole of the new interface going to still be object-oriented, or are you going with something different? Maybe post example code of the new API's usage?

Somewhat off-topic: I feel like UI is a pretty significant hole right now in libraries. Thranduil isn't being maintained, gspot is poorly documented, suit isn't very customizable, and LoveFrames is too heavyweight for simple use cases.

GOOi looks pretty good, can't really see anything too wrong with it. I think the only reason that gets passed up a lot is because it showcases itself as being Android-oriented, when most LOVE devs probably aren't targeting Android. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Thranduil probably did it the best in my opinion, but ended up being a bit difficult to use. Suit's interface is innovative, but somewhat unintuitive for people unfamiliar with IMGUI, and changing anything more than colors/fonts seems to require editing the source code. Again, correct me if I'm wrong.

I guess, maybe in the end, its people's dangerous want to always reinvent the wheel when it comes to doing complex things? But I guess it can't be helped when a good solution doesn't seem to be available right now...

[Kenny Shields]

I was actually curious about that when I saw it. Is the whole of the new interface going to still be object-oriented, or are you going with something different? Maybe post example code of the new API's usage?

Yes, the new library will still be object-oriented, though the internals are structured differently this time around. Also, the API will be very similar to Love Frames. For example, the code for creating a frame could look something like this:

Code: Select all

local frame = ui:create("Frame")
frame:setSize(500, 300)
frame:center()
frame:setTitle("New Frame")
frame:setIcon(path_to_icon)
frame:addHook("onRemove", function(obj)
    -- hook code
end)

[NightKawata]

Generally, you're always gonna want some LUBE. I mean, in order to Hump, you gotta get prepared, bro.
Some AnAL is always a classic if you're looking to spice things up, else, a Quickie here and there is pretty good.
Nothing beats SECS, though. Man, my HardonCollider always enjoys some of that.

(inb4 flame war)
(I actually still use AnAL)

Nah but rxi's classic is pretty alright, airstruck's knife is pretty solid, and uh, tactile's reboot is a lot more sane than before. Else use boipushy I guess. Or just run your own input system. Just stay away from COCK because it's overcomplicated and useless. (Yes I refrained from using that in my controversial paragraph!)

[technomancy]

Can't imagine writing a Lua game (or Lua program of any kind) without Lume. The map/reduce/filter/reject stuff is super handy, as is having serialization, partial application, and non-destructive variants of built-in table functions.