Not long ago, an interesting video on the gamesfromscratch channel appeared describing the engine framework behind the hit of recent months - Balatro!
I've heard about Love before, but somehow I never took it seriously for several reasons, such as:
I'd have to learn to code in Lua (which could be an interesting challenge in the age of AI: how quickly can one learn a programming language by analyzing someone else's code?)
I'd have to give up 3D because Love is currently only used for 2D games
Similar to Monogame, you have to program a lot yourself (like displaying sprites, for example)
That last one reminded me of that book I’ve read recently…
Yet something in this case is different.
Mike (our man from the gamesfromscratch channel) took the Balatro game files, converted the .exe file to a .zip, and... unpacked the game. Inside, he had the whole code to browse through.
It can't get any simpler than that.
If more games were made in Love, the library of inspirations would be vast, and game developers (at least the young ones) would truly stand on the shoulders of giants.
So, what do you think?
Are we downloading Love, buying Balatro, installing Codeium, and getting to learn? 😉
You know my position.
One more time: Game Framework or Game Engine?
Not long ago, I mentioned how, thanks to you all, I manage to stick to certain decisions. Decisions like whether to make games using an engine or a framework. My recurring dilemma of whether to stick with the Godot engine or switch idealistically to the MonoGame framework can probably be considered an ongoing joke by now 😉
Interesting! The Wiki is a bit messy, but I see there are some good third-party tutorial sites.