What do I need to know

[Lord Uber Dowzen]

Hi, I've got a game design concept and after much browsing I've settled on Love as my engine of choice. Before I started making my game I was wondering whether it was best to just get into it and learn as I go or if it's best to learn LUA first. Any advice?

[Lord Uber Dowzen]

Also, any advice on learning the physics engine?

[Lord Uber Dowzen]

Oh yeah, I also forgot (mind like a sieve) is it possible to integrate Steam with Love. Just for planning ahead.

[kikito]

If your project is big, learn Lua first, with smaller projects. Perhaps prototypes of your final game showing some parts (the options menu, a simple level, etc)

The single most important thing about the physics engine is that if you try to move things around changing their position (with body:setPosition) then they are not really 'moving'; they are 'teleporting from one position to the other'. The engine does not 'interpolate'; so if you place a character on a platform, and you move the platform 10 pixels high with setPosition, then the character gets "trapped inside" the platform.

The best way to avoid these inconveniences is not using setPosition, and using setLinearVelocity or setForce or setImpulse instead.

This is very conter-intuitive and inconvenient for making platformers.

No one has done any game with Steam yet. I bet you could integrate it; but you would be navigating uncharted seas.

[Lord Uber Dowzen]

Thanks for the tips!

At this point I have no idea whether I could get the game on Steam anyway. I'll see what happens.

[zac352]

Hi, I've got a game design concept and after much browsing I've settled on Love as my engine of choice. Before I started making my game I was wondering whether it was best to just get into it and learn as I go or if it's best to learn LUA first. Any advice?

Lua, not LUA. Lua is Portuguese for moon, not some acronym.

[Jasoco]

Along the same lines, Mac not MAC. MAC is an acronym for Media Access Control. Mac is short for Macintosh.

Not that anyone was making that mistake here, but I've seen it on this forum before.