Icon Changer for linux and more...

[yetneverdone]

Hi, i've seen some threads regarding using "resource hacker" to change the icon of the love executable for windows, but i cant seem to find anything regarding for the linux environment.

Also, please clarify these:
1. game.love to game.exe needs to be in a folder(or zip) that also contains the other files like love.dll etc, right? Is it possible to make a single executable exe for windows even if they dont have love installed?

2. love build for linux is certainly not the .exe type of file. So what comes to my mind is the .love extension, but, that would be like giving away youre game to piracy, since users can easily change the .love to .zip then get a look at the codes(even pirate it ). So is there anyway or any other type executable for the linux?

Thank you, I am about to finish my very first game using love2d i came from game maker studio so adjustments. Happy loving folks!

[raidho36]

Linux executable files don't include an icon, so you don't need such tools. What you do, is supply an image file and generate a start menu entry with this icon, and a launcher with this icon. Try using AppImage tool to produce necessary distribution.

TL;DR: the .love file is there for all platforms, it's just if you make fused file it's not in plain sight but it's right there in the open nonetheless.

One thing you need to know about Linux is that it's not like Windows - being a single platform with single set of rigid parameters, guidelines and defaults. Every Linux distribution is free to set its own rules, and there are plenty of them. And on top of that, unlike Windows, Linux runs on wide variety of processors and as you should be well aware, x86 code will not run on POWER8 or ARM. The basic and pretty much the only viable method of software distribution in Linux is therefore source code. Even LÖVE is built individually for each distro and making a universal build is still an ongoing (and I fear futile) struggle. You can't have your cake and eat it too; it's either you only support whatever few distros you're willing to support and piss off everyone else, or you ship the game that they can then build to run on their machine. It may sound like a poor environment, but another thing you need to know about it is that the ecosystem is not built around making profits through stifling competition, it's built to support collaboration, experimentation and innovation through open source.

It doesn't makes much sense to make fused executables beyond making it easier for end user to play the game who don't want to bother with installing LÖVE. If they already have LÖVE installed, not providing the .love file will in fact only be limiting. This is because fusing archive with the executable provides no other benefits. Zip files have their "header" in the tail, and you you fuse the archive to the executable so that it becomes it's tail. Thus you can simply open fused binary as zip archive and everything will be right there in the open.

Linux executable files come in the Executable Linux File format, and have no trailing filename extension - they instead have +eXecute file mode enabled. While the basic format is universal, actual machine code is not, so the machine code contents have to match the hardware. By virtue of Lua being an interpreted (and JIT-compiled) language, you don't need to build your game for every single supported platform -you don't need to build anything altogether- because the Lua code will run everywhere LÖVE can run, and being open source it's been compiled and ported to many places.

LÖVE doesn't provides any secure method of packaging so if you really worry about it then you need to consider third party tools. But really, you just shouldn't worry about it. If anything, it improves the product quality to the tinkerers and the like. And it's not like people can't rip off your game just by looking at it, or like anti-piracy measures actually stop piracy. Give your customers fair shake, sell your game DRM-free on Steam, GoG and Itchio.

[zorg]

Also, you mentioned coming from game maker; that's also a neat little platform where games can be easily taken apart. Might be a few more steps than what's required for löve files, but if one felt like it, they'd do it without issue. You don't worry about this kind of thing.