Should I switch to Love?

[JuiceBox]

Hey guys, I was wondering if it'd be worth it to switch back to Love after a year or so of not using it. I've been using HaxeFlixel since, and have liked it a lot, but it's missing the community aspect I think. (Well, the HF community is so small that once you get in you can meet everyone in the first week. I just happen to not like many people in it.) HF is a pretty powerful engine and such too, which is why I'm weary about going back to Love. (Which to my understanding is only a framework, which does sound fun to work with but a bit tedious.) Basically, I want one or two good reasons to switch back to Love, I'm already tempted to but I need that "push" to do it. Thanks for reading! (And thanks again if you actually respond)

[raidho36]

LuaJIT.

[DanielPower]

Lua is such a wonderful language to work with, and with LuaJIT you get performance similar to a compiled language.

Love itself is just a framework, but once you start reading the forums and wiki, I think you'll find that there are quite a few useful libraries made by community members that give you the features you'd expect from an engine. There are a few lists of quality libraries around.

I highly recommend spending some time on the Love IRC channel. There are always active members talking in there, and it's a great place to get advice, or start a discussion on best coding practices. I find it very easy to get help with my code from the community, and Lua makes it extremely easy to extend and organize my code.

I only really have experience with Game Maker (2006 - 2011), and Love (2015 - present). So I can't really make any comparisons to HaxeFlixel. But I personally love Love.

[Positive07]

Well I provide two more reasons:

Haxe 3.3 introduced a Lua compile target
And Bartbes created a LÖVE wrapper that allows you to code in Haxe for LÖVE

This may be useful since you are comming from HaxeFlixel and you may be more familiar with that language.

If for some reason Haxe doesn't cut it and you don't like Lua you could try programming in Moonscript or a Lisp-like syntax for LÖVE.

What engine respects, there are MANY libraries for LÖVE that would let you do whatever you like, from physics to cameras to user interfaces and whatnot, so I recommend you take a look at the posts in the Libraries and Tools sections here in the forums and at the Wiki, there is also this awesome-love2d list which may have other interesting resources

NOTE: What raidho36 said may seem like a single word but is a strong point, LuaJIT is damn fast competing even with compiled languages, and at the top of the list on what interpreters and JIT compiled runtimes go, so that is a really strong point of LÖVE.

Other strong point would be the mobile ports and now the WIP (unofficial) web ports and Windows Universal apps ports! Plus the standard platforms (Windows, Mac OSX and Linux)

[JuiceBox]

Love itself is just a framework, but once you start reading the forums and wiki, I think you'll find that there are quite a few useful libraries made by community members that give you the features you'd expect from an engine. There are a few lists of quality libraries around.

What engine respects, there are MANY libraries for LÖVE that would let you do whatever you like, from physics to cameras to user interfaces and whatnot, so I recommend you take a look at the posts in the Libraries and Tools sections here in the forums and at the Wiki, there is also this awesome-love2d list which may have other interesting resources)

Yeah libraries would be really great to get started with, and I completely forgot that Haxe can compile to Lua now. (I read about it back when they first launched that feature, but I wasn't interested in the slightest) I'll definitely try out the Haxe to Love wrapper, will make it a whole lot easier for me.

LuaJIT.

I'll have to look into LuaJIT in a few days, as my internet isn't the best atm and can't download it. But it does look a tad interesting.

Thanks for all of the help and resources, I'll definitely have to try out Love again. And now would be the perfect opportunity actually, as I'm working on a small jam game for elevator jam, and I could easily move it over to Love real quick. (Since I don't have a lot set up right now.) I think I'll make my decision to switch or stay after I finish the game. Thanks again though

EDIT

Actually forget the haxe thing, I forgot that I'm not the best with using wrappers or doing anything github related. I'll be fine using Lua anyways.

[raidho36]

LÖVE is built with LuaJIT, it's included. But yea go ahead and take a look at specs and whatnot. You'll have better idea what to do and what not to do.