How I fell in LÖVE
How I fell in LÖVE
Not so long ago the only thing I used was Game Maker. I liked it, it did the job. But I felt I needed to continue with something else. An actual programming language. At that time I used ActionScript 3 at school, but let’s just say my school isn’t all too great. I tried improving my AS3 with videos and tutorials. But a lot of stuff just didn’t seem to make sense to me. So then I decided to try Java, then C#, JavaScript as well. And every time the same problems. It takes so much code for a simple image to appear on the screen. Or to make even the basis of a game code. The loading, updating and drawing. So I tried and gave up at everything. Maybe too soon, but I didn’t feel improving. So I told the IRC chat about how I felt like the worst programmer in the world. And then someone suggested LÖVE. So I gave it a try. And I fell in LÖVE.
A few videos were necessary before continuing on my own. These past months were a great adventure of coding. I’ve learned so much in that time. Things like tile-based levels. Or pendulum physics. And there is still so much to learn. But why LÖVE? What was it that made me understand this framework so much easier than others? Let me show you:
The left code is AS3 and the right side is LÖVE. And for a beginning programmer the left side looks a lot more confusing than the right side. So many words, and so many questions: Private, void, extends, addEventListener, e:Event? A lot problems I hadt with AS3 was “What does all that stuff mean?!”, while at the same time I tried to program a game.
Now the great thing about LÖVE for me is that it skips that stuff. It allows me to focus on programming game mechanics and not having trouble with the tricky code stuff. Here’s the thing: In my time using AS3 I needed to Google my compile error all the time to understand what was going on. With LÖVE I have done that maybe once or twice. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that it’s bad. I understand that it ensures for clean code to make the software run faster (I think), and I will eventually get back to it.
So if you’re like me and have trouble finding a language that fits for you, please give LÖVE a try, it has a great (and a little dirty) community, and it’s so easy to understand.
http://nova-fusion.com/2011/06/14/a-guide-to-getting-started-with-love2d/
Thanks for reading!