Are there any Love2D alternatives?

General discussion about LÖVE, Lua, game development, puns, and unicorns.
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Gunroar:Cannon()
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Re: Are there any Love2D alternatives?

Post by Gunroar:Cannon() »

Oh, yeah. And I heard about this one C++, lib called SFML. Seemed like love2D...but..err...C++.,
The risk I took was calculated,
but man, am I bad at math.

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GVovkiv
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Re: Are there any Love2D alternatives?

Post by GVovkiv »

Gunroar:Cannon() wrote: Fri Dec 23, 2022 4:50 pm Oh, yeah. And I heard about this one C++, lib called SFML. Seemed like love2D...but..err...C++.,
it's actually have official C and .NET binding, so they up to day and should work as flawless as possible.
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ddabrahim
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Re: Are there any Love2D alternatives?

Post by ddabrahim »

The convenience of being portable, self contained and able to just run my code with the Love2D executable is what I like about Love2D the most and of course the Lua programming language is also very nice in my opinion.

As far as I know there is no other framework and library that offer similar. Most frameworks do require some setup and command line tools.
In terms of simplicity this is the ones I can recommend as an alternative

Raylib + C# binding.
You can just install Mono Develop or Visual Studio then install Raylib nuget package and you can start coding games in C#.
The problem however is that it maybe desktop only. Not sure if you can target mobile. But I can confirm that it works on Windows, macOS and Linux.
https://github.com/ChrisDill/Raylib-cs

MonoGame
Similar to Raylib, just install from nuget and start coding games in C#.
The problem however is that it has its own Asset Manager and 3D is not documented.
https://www.monogame.net

AppGameKit
It comes with its own code editor, you can just download, install and start coding games in BASIC.
The problem however is that it is not free and the BASIC programming language is very limited compared to Lua or C# does not support OOP and 3rd party code editors are not really supported so if you don't like the code editor it comes with then you are out of luck.
It does offer a C++ API but it is require some setup and building for mobile is more complicated.
https://www.appgamekit.com

AGKSharp
You need to install Visual Studio and then download and install the templates and you can start coding games in C#
The problem however is that it is using an out of date version of AppGameKit and it is Windows only as far as I know and it is maintained only in spare time. It may or may not be actively developed.
https://madbit.itch.io/agksharp

Cerberus X
It comes with its own code editor bundled with compilers so you can just download, install and start coding games in a custom BASIC like OOP language. You can also use 3rd party code editors but it is require some setup.
The problem however is that it is developed only in spare time, it may or may not be actively developed.
https://github.com/cerberusxdev/cerberus
Rexo
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Re: Are there any Love2D alternatives?

Post by Rexo »

MicroStudio is probably the closest thing to a Love2d gmae creation system with an built in editor. Uses Lua as well a few other languages.

https://microstudio.dev
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MikeHart
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Re: Are there any Love2D alternatives?

Post by MikeHart »

I have used 2 alternatives in the past:

Solar 2d aka Corona SDK aka Ansca Mobile at : https://solar2d.com/

Gideros at : https://www.http://giderosmobile.com/
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ddabrahim
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Re: Are there any Love2D alternatives?

Post by ddabrahim »

I was kind of forced in to using Python recently and I have explored the available libraries for it. One Python library that is pretty similar to Love2D (apart from Raylib) is Pyglet: https://pyglet.org

It is similar to Love2D in that regard there is no dependencies and very minimalist, offer only a Windowing system and draw and input events.
For example to draw an image on the screen and move it right when any key is pressed you can do:

Code: Select all

import pyglet

window = pyglet.window.Window()
image = pyglet.resource.image('myimage.png')

class Sprite():
    def __init__(self, img):
        self.x = 0
        self.y = 0
        self.width = image.width
        self.height = image.height
        self.image = img
    
    def draw(self, x, y, width, height):
        self.image.blit(x,y, width=width, height=height)

mySprite = Sprite(image)

def on_key_press(symbol, modifiers):
    mySprite.x += 100

@window.event
def on_draw():
    window.clear()
    mySprite.draw(mySprite.x, mySprite.y, width=200, height=200)

pyglet.app.run()
I find it very pleasant to work with, there is many more but Pyglet did stand out for me with its simplicity and clean syntax.
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