How exactly should I learn

[xNick1]

If you wanna learn how to make a game you have to start making a game. Step by step you'll have to solve new problems.
For example I wrote a big part of the game and then I realized I had many problems with handling memory and the resolution scaling.
A couple months ago my game was consuming around 800mb of ram, now around 130mb.
Just write it, then you'll realize you have to rewrite some stuff cause the project is big and you didn't organize it well, then you'll have to rework other parts cause of structural problems or you'll have to change sprites cause those ones suck.
It's about building something piece by piece, entity by entity.

[mike_bibbs]

I some kind of disagree with the last answer given above here. As I understand from entry post, you have exactly zero experience with programming anything under your belt. So all that learn-to-practice thing wouldn't work for you, at least from mine prospective I think so. In order to make something you should know something, and I must say that lua is not the very thing entry-level coder need on their very beginning. I guess it may be better for you to start with something simpler nevertheless, the JS e.g.

[Jasoco]

I disagree. I feel Lua is pretty easy to learn. At least as easy as BASIC IMHO.

I came to Löve after trying to code my original project in JavaScript and it was a horrible pain. I was originally programming it in QuickBASIC in DOSBox for a while (Out of fun and because it was what I knew) and hit a memory wall so I started looking for alternatives that were easy to use since TNTBasic turned out to be a damp squib*. So I tried JS since it seemed accessible. But JS is so finicky and has terrible error handling. I would have something that worked then suddenly didn't work but didn't tell me why it didn't work. When I found Löve I was so happy. I had found something as easy to use as BASIC and am still here today. Sure JS/HTML5 game development has changed in the passed what, 9 years now (Wow) but I can't see myself going back.

*And that is the first and possibly only time I will be able to use that term and use it correctly in daily use.

[OmegaMax]

Any language you choose as a beginner is going to be difficult,I started with assembly languages first,6502,z80 68000,C then Lua.Starting with Lua is absolutely fine.

http://norvig.com/21-days.html

[zorg]

I some kind of disagree with the last answer given above here. As I understand from entry post, you have exactly zero experience with programming anything under your belt. So all that learn-to-practice thing wouldn't work for you, I guarantee that! In order to make something you should know something, and I must say that lua is not the very thing entry-level coder need on their very beginning. Maybe it would come in use to you to ask professionals to assist you with the way you're learning coding here https://www.assignmentexpert.com/programming because I'm not sure it is possible to learn that from Scratch without somebody helping you by expalining everything is easy language. But I guess you may be better to start with something simpler nevertheless, the JS e.g.

Bold words for your first post after googling this specific thread and not noticing the post dates.

I learned the necessary math and some very basic programming (including visual, turtle graphics and stuff, but also pascal and delphi, which are syntactically similar to lua) in middle/high school; i was around 14 at the time.

I wouldn't say that the teachers there were professionals, they were only knowledgeable at least as much as i am now, and they also possessed the minuscule amount of logic needed to understand concepts like branching ("If there's gravity, the apple will fall, else it won't") and loops (P.E. class, run x laps around the track); the rest i picked up from the internet, more specifically, reading docs for the languages themselves (Programming in lua, or Pil, in this case, and the löve wiki), and looking at the sources of others' work.

Granted, everyone's different, some may learn better by watching YouTube video tutorials, and not by static media like books or online documents, but it's absolutely possible to learn anything by yourself; otherwise, a lot more old things would vanish out of everyone's descendants' minds than how many actually does. (Case in point: I know zilch about old music formats, but i'm forcing myself to understand ancient C and assembler code to figure out how they worked, so i can re-implement it in my own program, and yes, it is relevant to löve because that's what i'm using.)

That said, even then, you need to actually think and not accept everything blindly; "Programming in lua" has things that aren't relevant to löve, because the online version of the docs is for the 5.0 or 5.1 version of the lua language, and löve uses something called LuaJIT, in which different practices are faster than those detailed in the Pil. Even the wiki has tons of scripts and libraries that are out of date, but not removed, because of lack of man- and willpower basically (*cough* TEsound *cough*).

Also, i looked at that site you linked; i wish i had the time to tear the lua page up paragraph by paragraph and highlight what a load of bull it is, but alas, let me just say that you'd be better off not thinking that lua's one of those "one solution is the best, no exceptions" type of language, and if you don't want to use the FFI, you most certainly don't need to learn C.

Oh, and it's a paid service, you shillling fuck.

[trentdb]

I'm in the same stage as the original OP was at the time of posting, going through half-day spells of optimism then the next wondering if I am just kidding myself.

Especially since I've spent a week straight going through all the options, including engines that were said to be more accessible and yet I am getting somewhere (somewhere, not far but somewhere) with Love2D.

[Master Malakai]

Im in the same boat.

Firts of all go to udemy and but kyles love2d course, Im pretty sure there's only one so far so you cant miss it.

Helped me a ton. Started with a simple clicker, did a top down shooter, then finishes with a platformer.

Everyrhing you learn in the three gives you some basic level knowledge that you can use to try your own.

The rest will come with time I guess.

[milon]

I've never used udemy, but that made me curious so I did some googling. Here's the love2d course:
https://www.udemy.com/lua-love/

You have to pay for courses on the site, but it looks like right now (at least, on my PC) there's a sale and it's available at $10.99 for the next 13 hours, instead of being $49.99.

[infinite_loop_8]

https://online-learning.harvard.edu/cou ... evelopment

Haven’t seen this mentioned yet, but provides step by step videos, slides and source code for 8 games made in love, all for free. And it’s Harvard so I’m guessing they know a little about teaching and learning.

And if you don’t want to go through udacity course route they have videos posted on YouTube.