LÖVE

Hello fellow LÖVErs ,

Me and some friends want to create a little game with the focus on design concepts, and not so much on the programming part.

Google directed me to LÖVE, and it looks pretty neat to me!
I've already seen things like gravity and animation, so I am hopeful we can use this 'engine' to create our little game.

What the game will feature:

- Moving sideways: The regular looks of a sidescroller, thus not a top-down perspective.

- Scrolling background: I read somewhere on this forum that somebody wanted to use a scrolling background. I also saw he was advised to use a 'tile map', exactly how is this done in LÖVE?

- Multiple 'plans': There is a foremost 'Overlay Layer' (thus it is closest to you, the player) , with bushes/rocks that cover certain parts of the visible area. Behind this layer, there would be the 'Interaction Layer', on this layer the player's avatar moves around and interacts with objects.
Behind this layer is a 'Background Layer', which would feature some kind of background image (trees, mountain silhouettes)

- Morphing: The idea of the game is that the player will complete a level by solving the puzzles in it. Puzzles are solved by morphing the game's main character (a ghost-like character) into certain ghost-like animals, and using each animal's special abilities to solve the puzzles. You start out with one, but you'll earn more later on.
So the objective is to use the right animal at the right time (e.g., objects that are unreachable by the default character, could be reached by a bird, or holes that are too small for the player character to pass through, could be reached by a snake or rat).


The designs itself aren't the problem, finding a capable (yet easy-to-use) 2D engine, seems harder than we thought.
Especially since we lack knowledge of heavy-duty engines like OGRE.

Does anyone here has an idea if we could realise this in LÖVE? Or alternatives which we could use (e.g. another engine)?

Many thanks in advance!


DrGonzo

All of this is possible in LOVE, however - LOVE doesn't have many helper functions for games; you'd have to make the side-scroller system, player movement and the like.

Layering is simple in LOVE, simply draw whatever is in the back first.

Regarding tile-based scrolling, I wrote a simple tutorial some time ago, you can find it here. Keep in mind that it's pretty simple, you will probably need to enhance it quite a bit to suit your needs. Hope it helps

Merkoth wrote:Regarding tile-based scrolling, I wrote a simple tutorial some time ago, you can find it here. Keep in mind that it's pretty simple, you will probably need to enhance it quite a bit to suit your needs. Hope it helps

Thanks, that certainly will be useful!

The tile inputting is the most tedious part -.-

We need a title editor (No, i'm not complaining lol)

Kaze wrote:LOVE doesn't have many helper functions for games

Isn't it a game engine though? Better start suggesting some features then!

---

Hehe, yeah. One of the first things we created when starting making LÖVE[1] a couple of years back was a tilemap object and other high-level stuff like A* pathfinding[2]. This was before we even had a Lua virtual machine up and running. That was obviously the wrong approach.

[1] This pun never gets old.
[2] Remember, Mike?

Ah, yes.. I still have the code for my A* algorithm some in the depths of Kei, my computer. I agree that trying to add helper functions/features should be secondary (LÖVE 2.0 ?) and can always be handled by the great libraries that people are making for LÖVE. I feel that LÖVE itself should be as pure as possible, which allows people to do things whatever way they please, but also opens up for expandability without ignoring/changing the internal workings of the engine.

We were actually going to build a GUI into LÖVE, but other people seem to be doing a better job than we ever could, so we'll leave it in your capable hands.

PS: If I didn't link to your GUI then don't think it's because I don't like it.. I just picked the two first ones I could find.

mike wrote:Kei, my computer

Exactly how anthropomorph is your computer? Does it have orifices? I know you use it to make LÖVE[1].

[1]: I actually giggled (in a really masculine way, I assure you) when writing this.