Any game maker type tool in Love2D?

[ddabrahim]

Hi all!

I was just wondering, did anyone ever made an attempt to create a GameMaker, RPG Maker, Roblox type of tool using Love2D?
If yes, I would like to see some of the attempts even if they are dead just curious how they might looked and functioned.
If not, what do you think why that is?

From what I see, there are tons of libs could make this possible, there are filesystem libs, GUI libs and Love2D and Lua itself seems capable to me. But guess it doesn't even have to be written in Lua and Love2D it could be written in any language and only export Lua code that can run in Love2D.

I can see attempts for Level editors, but no dedicated game maker tools and engines. I mean even in GameMaker people did create game makers like Silent Walk FPS Creator comes to my mind. Wondering why I see no attempts in/for Love2D.

[grump]

It's not easy to make, and the community is tiny. A tool like that would be pretty far removed from the immediate mode DYI philosophy of love2d.

There's already PICO-8 and its clones that cover the Lua niche, which is not that big.

If something like that ever shows up, it will have little resemblence to love2d as you know it.

[GVovkiv]

It's not easy to make, and the community is tiny. A tool like that would be pretty far removed from the immediate mode DYI philosophy of love2d.

There's already PICO-8 and its clones that cover the Lua niche, which is not that big.

If something like that ever shows up, it will have little resemblence to love2d as you know it.

Yep
From that point, better to look, for example, into defold https://defold.com/ which is pretty engine with lua

[pgimeno]

There's Liko-12, a Pico-8 inspired fantasy console that runs in Love2d. https://love2d.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=82913

There's also an RPG engine currently in development called Magic Pixel, see https://love2d.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=92187

[Ross]

I don't know anything about them personally, but I think that's what Grid and Castle are/were.

I've been working on a "game engine" built on Love2D for my own purposes off-and-on for about 3 years now. Including my own attempt at a level editor. It's just a lot of work and there's a lot of pitfalls. It's hard enough to make a game, trying to make a universal system for building various games that is stable and twit-proof is even harder.

There's a pretty strong anti-structure attitude in the Love2D community too. It seems to attract the kind of people who think that level editors are limiting and therefore Evil and Wrong.

[ddabrahim]

Thank you for the replies, really appreciate it.

I am familiar with most game engines support Lua like Defold, Shiva, Roblox,..etc I started with such engines but now I prefer a small and light-weight framework like Love2D.
But since we have to make our own engine and many even develop their own editors it is just feels tempting and I was wondering if anyone ever shared the tools they made.

Liko-12 is very impressive with being an all-in-one tool with code, sprite and sound editor and the virtual operating system with disks and a full command set. It is really shows how capable Lua and Love2D is. It is very inspirational and the source has a lot of educational value to offer.

The others are also really nice I love the clean UI of Grid but yes I understand the Love2D community is not really interested in such tools and frameworks, after all the whole reason to use something like Love2D is to do it our own. It is certainly something worth to keep in mind when somebody feel tempted to make and share something.

Thanks a lot.

[zorg]

There's a pretty strong anti-structure attitude in the Love2D community too. It seems to attract the kind of people who think that level editors are limiting and therefore Evil and Wrong.

I'd rather say that the people you see as "anti-structure" are more about "anti-your-structure" and "pro-their-structure"; they don't like conforming to whatever API you make, because it'll lack something they want, or the implementation won't be to their tastes... i know, i'm one of these people.

I'm not against structure though, and if i needed to, i'd code a level editor for myself.

[grump]

more about "anti-your-structure" and "pro-their-structure"

a.k.a. NIH syndrome. It's not really a good thing. But I'm doing it too with love2d because, quite frankly, there's not that many good libraries. Most are substandard.

[GVovkiv]

more about "anti-your-structure" and "pro-their-structure"

a.k.a. NIH syndrome. It's not really a good thing. But I'm doing it too with love2d because, quite frankly, there's not that many good libraries. Most are substandard.

Well, it may be good learning expirience

[grump]

Well, it may be good learning expirience

That's a valid point of course, but if it's more about improving your productivity and getting games done than about learning basics, then having a mature set of tools and interoperable libraries is the way to go. That's sadly not really a thing in the love2d ecosystem, probably because of widespread NIH syndrome in the already small userbase.