LÖVE

TechnoCat wrote:I responded to a PM about using Noah's Ark to learn about sidescrolling and I thought my response could help the general public.

TechnoCat wrote: I'm glad you like my Noah's Ark game!

However, I strongly encourage you not to use any of Noah's Ark code and to merely look at it. I wrote that code and created all the graphics during a 48 hour gamejam. It is really messy and really hardcoded! Like you said, take out one thing and it all falls apart.

There are 4 paths to collision detection and resolution for sidescrollers that I will recommend.

• Use Fizz (or similar, of which I am aware of no others)
  1. This library was written specifically to be a drop-in solution to making a sidescroller.
  2. Lightweight
  3. Very easy
  4. Might not have all functionality (It tries to be a single solution)
• Use Hardon Collider (My personal favorite path)
  1. This library is written to purely be a collision detection library, not a collision resolution library. However, detection is the hard part.
  2. Lightweight
  3. A little bit of difficulty. (requires you read the HC API)
  4. Very robust (this library makes almost no assumptions)
• Implement a versatile collision detection library (such as Metanet's)
  1. To do this you are going to need a really good understanding of Linear Algebra
  2. You'll still have to resolve collisions after you implement this.
• Use Box2D
  1. Box2D is often considered unsuitable for sidescrollers. But, Kurosuke and some others get away with it.
  2. love.physics is actually Box2D

I hope this helps you get started.