LÖVE

Hey everyone, I've been an admirer of LÖVE for some time now and have made a number of fun little games and projects with it, but lately I've been worrying a lot about whether or not I should pursue my ongoing relationship with it lieu of other programming languages like *gulp* Java.

One of my biggest issues is that I'm afraid of putting in tons of hours of work and effort into a something that can't eventually be -gasp- marketable.

I also want to have enough freedom to be able to make my own little tools for my games such a tile mapper to that can output files outside of the default save data.

Would it be possible to make a network game that could manage hundreds of people connected to the server? Or would I have to use a different language for the server anyhow?

Do I have any reason to worry about these things?

Help me, I want to LÖVE.

You can make tools that output files outside of the default save data, although it'll take a little more work to do so. Lua's own io library can do this just fine, but it's not as easily cross-platform as Löve's filesystem.

And yeah, you could make a network game that manages hundreds of people connected to the server, but it'll be very hard in any language to pull something like that off.

But remember in the end that the language is merely a tool to help you accomplish your goal. Pick the game you want to build first, than figure out the appropriate framework/language to do it in. It might be löve, it might not be. Whatever makes your game happen best.

Khal wrote:One of my biggest issues is that I'm afraid of putting in tons of hours of work and effort into a something that can't eventually be -gasp- marketable.

Could you explain, what part/aspect of LÖVE or LÖVE games you regard as not marketable?

Would it be possible to make a network game that could manage hundreds of people connected to the server? Or would I have to use a different language for the server anyhow?

No. But neither will java. The problem is not the language or the platform – it's you.

Please don't misunderstand me: I don't mean to be offensive here. This is not a personal attack.

I simply think that you don't know enough to accomplish such task, independently of what language or platform you use - at least, not yet. I know this because of the way you are asking questions. You are implying that all problems can be solved given the right tools. Unfortunately, most of the interesting problems are not on this category; they require experience and a certain amount of hard work, independently of the tools available.

Concurrent network stuff is one of such problems. It's tricky. Very tricky. It requires understanding of several abstract concepts, and subtle interactions between them. And lots of testing.

If this was a videogame, having hundreds of people connected to a server and interacting would be a level 50 Demon. You would be (again, no offense intended) a level 5 archer. You need to level up before even thinking of fighting the demon. The platform and language are like inventory items. They can help, but not that much.

But not everything is bad news. You know what LÖVE is great for? Levelling up!

My advice is: Start doing simpler games, and scale up. People usually start with something like a snake clone. Then maybe a invaders-like game. Then add scrolling and levels to it, so you have an r-type-like game. Then you can start thinking about doing your first platformer. Then a real-time strategy game, with units and paths and lines of sight and fog of war. Then try making it playable over the network, two players only. Then you will have an idea of what it takes to make a 100-concurrent users server; you can start deciding what tool to use then. But the experience will be the same.

It will not take you weeks. It will probably take months, or even years. Some days will be rough. But others will be great. If you ask politely, this community will help you.

In any case, I wish you luck. And strength.

Thanks for your responses, guys.

I've seen plenty of threads and responses to other people out there on forums and such saying that it usually doesn't matter what language or framework you use for things like this, so long as you feel comfortable with it. I've gotten pretty comfortable with löve over the past couple years and thanks to you I'm definitely gonna stick with it.

Making a massively multiplayer game or something vast and profound isn't something that I'm expecting to make anytime too soon with my current skills, I totally know that I'm not up to that level yet. But I'm gonna strive to get there.

I'm glad I have a place to freely ask questions and get support. I will most definitely be around here if I'm stumped and can't find a similar topic and when I'm ready to show off some of my work.

I see others have already given you some nice advice here, and I don't disagree with them at all. I do want to say this though: don't be afraid to try other tools and languages. Just because you test them out doesn't mean you'll suddenly forget Lua and LÖVE. What I've found it that learning new tools and languages teach you thinks you didn't know you didn't know, and that can help you even when working with Lua/LÖVE.

It's not just about having the tools, it's about using them well. Getting more tools is not a bad start though.

i don't see the problem about löve, im going to release my small indie game on itch.io soon and its marketable.

Many games use combinations of languages. A skilled programmer can actually use the best language for a particular task and tie it back to an engine in a completely different language.

Programming languages aren't monogamous!
It's good to snoop around occasionally

Note that this thread is 7 years old...