LOVE Commercial Viability?

[Cybearg]

I don't mean to make a bad first impression with a skeptical question--and don't get me wrong, while I'm very new to LOVE, I love how active its community is, how extensive the documentation is, and how simple it seems to be to use.

But, realistically, how commercially viable is it? What are its down-sides? How big of games can it handle making without bugs or major slow-downs from the engine cropping up? Can it be compiled to native code on multiple platforms, or at least efficiently enough to run well on both mobile and desktop platforms? Have there been any commercial releases of a game made in LOVE yet?

What I'm basically curious about is whether LOVE is meant to be an engine for making actual commercial games, or whether it is more a framework for prototyping, game jams, and small projects?

As I said, I'm new to LOVE, but I would very much like to become involved, if it is a sufficiently flexible platform that still has enough stability for a commercial game to be built on it.

Here is an obligatory unicorn.

[szensk]

It can't really be compiled to native code, as far as I'm aware. But there is the fast LuaJIT implementation of Lua. If you don't have a multiperson team, then I'd say Love is a reasonable choice, regardless the size of your project. It does exceptionally well at small projects because Lua is a dynamic language and Love's API is simple. Lua is quite easy to 'refactor' compared to statically-typed languages. The API is simple to grasp compared to let's say SDL or libgdx.

[Cybearg]

It can't really be compiled to native code, as far as I'm aware. But there is the fast LuaJIT implementation of Lua. If you don't have a multiperson team, then I'd say Love is a reasonable choice, regardless the size of your project. It does exceptionally well at small projects because Lua is a dynamic language and Love's API is simple. Lua is quite easy to 'refactor' compared to statically-typed languages. The API is simple to grasp compared to let's say SDL or libgdx.

Any speculation on what sort of game size we're talking? Could something like Super Meat Boy or Papers, Please or Binding of Isaac be done in LOVE and work well?

I don't know much about those things you discussed. Does this LuaJIT help LOVE, even though it's something separate?

Is there any goal for LOVE to be more commercially viable, being able to be used in the same way as libraries like HaxePunk or Loom? Since posting, I've gone through a LUA programming run-through, and it strikes me that, since data types aren't explicitly declared, memory use could certainly be an issue, especially for larger games. I very much like some of Lua's programming flexibility, though.

[szensk]

Any speculation on what sort of game size we're talking? Could something like Super Meat Boy or Papers, Please or Binding of Isaac be done in LOVE and work well?

I don't know much about those things you discussed. Does this LuaJIT help LOVE, even though it's something separate?

Is there any goal for LOVE to be more commercially viable, being able to be used in the same way as libraries like HaxePunk or Loom? Since posting, I've gone through a LUA programming run-through, and it strikes me that, since data types aren't explicitly declared, memory use could certainly be an issue, especially for larger games. I very much like some of Lua's programming flexibility, though.

I'd say yes to all of those. Love can be compiled with LuaJIT in place of plain-old Lua. This can increase execution speed for Lua code. Most of the underlying calls (like drawing) are actually calls to native code, regardless. I don't think Love can do much for mobile development yet.

Lua's very flexible and fast. I wouldn't worry too much about it. It's used in many commercial games (Natural Selection 2, World of Warcraft, and Civilization V among others). Love has the trade off that all the game is in Lua, not just the game logic. This could have an impact on memory and performance but I wouldn't worry about it until you run into it.

[markgo]

A repeated question, but I can say with much confidence that LOVE is capable of commercial quality games.

Let me point you to some high quality links:

http://tangramgames.dk/games/mrrescue/
http://stabyourself.net/

[conroy]

If you're only planning on targeting the desktop, then I say yes. My game, Journey to the Center of Hawkthorne, has grown large (in code base size) and LOVE has done quite a good job of keeping up.

[Jasoco]

Don't forget the upcoming Concerned Joe.

http://concernedjoe.com

I am really looking forward to this one.

[jjmafiae]

im working on a commercial game called 9891(i have been working on it for 11 months, Davidobot made some textures and parts of the multiplayer system) and everyone's friend "slime" made a game called snayke its available for purchase on Desura.

[SiENcE]

I'm also working with another guy on an commercial LÖVE rpg called Aeon of Sands.

It's not graphic fancy but has a large codebase.

Here is a very early shoot from last year.


If you have problems attaching the raw lua code into the executable you can compile the lua scripts to lua binary. It works out of the box with LÖVE.

The only problems i have is that LÖVE does not run stable on mobiles. No iOS, no Android, no WindowsPhone :-(.

The LÖVE-Webplayer from ghoulsblade and the love-nacl are ok for demos, but they require WebGL or chrome+plugin. So not really usable for all.

Solutions would be to enhance the LÖVE-Android port, add Canvas support to LÖVE-Webplayer and to make an iOS port.

But i think for 0.9.0 nothing of this is comming :-/.

[jjmafiae]

9891

outdated picture from the multiplayer mode (below)