Software:Löve (game engine)

Löve

Initial release	January 13, 2008 (2008-01-13)
Stable release	11.4 / January 2, 2022 (2022-01-02)
Written in	C++
Platform	Microsoft Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, Android, other
Type	Game engine
License	zlib license
Website	love2d.org

Löve is an open-source cross-platform engine for developing 2D video games. The engine is written in C++ and uses Lua as its scripting language. It is published under the zlib license.

The API provided by the engine gives access to the video and sound functions of the host machine through the libraries SDL and OpenGL, or since version 0.10 also OpenGL ES 2 and 3. Fonts can be rendered by the FreeType engine. A version of the engine called piLöve has been specifically ported to Raspberry Pi.

It also provides a basic "sandbox" management of the files in order to avoid giving access to all its disk to the executed games.

Löve is still maintained by its original developers.

This engine is frequently found in the compositions of video game development competitions, such as the international competition Ludum Dare.

In July 2018, it was the 10th game engine most used by independents on the site itch.io, holding a 1.97% share.

History

Version	Code name	Added	Release date
0.1.1	Santa-Power	Reading and displaying images Reading and playing sounds Load and use fonts	January 13, 2008
0.2.0	Mini-Moose	Added a screen that displays if no game is loaded Adding an animation system	February 6, 2008
0.2.1	Impending Doom		March 29, 2008
0.3.0	Mutant Vermin	Addition of the particle system	June 17, 2008
0.3.1	Meat Space		June 21, 2008
0.3.2	Lemony Fresh		July 4, 2008
0.4.0	Taco Beam	Added Physics engine Box2D	August 29, 2008
0.5.0	Salted Nuts	Joystick support Support of protocols TCP/UDP using luasocket	January 2, 2009
0.6.0	Jiggly Juice	Removes the animation system	December 24, 2009
0.6.1	Jiggly Juice		February 7, 2010
0.6.2	Jiggly Juice		March 6, 2010
0.7.0	Slavic Game		December 5, 2010
0.7.1	Slavic Game		February 14, 2011
0.7.2	Slavic Game		May 4, 2011
0.8.0	Rubber Piggy		April 2, 2012
0.9.0	Baby Inspector		December 13, 2013
0.9.1	Baby Inspector		April 1, 2014
0.9.2	Baby Inspector		February 14, 2015
0.10.0	Super Toast	Supports Android and iOS	December 22, 2015
0.10.1	Super Toast		February 14, 2016
0.10.2	Super Toast		October 31, 2016
11.0	Mysterious Mysteries	Support for meshes. Various additions to shaders (such as the effect method) Ability to record from a microphone. Consolidation of many object methods into new methods. Added many new formats to stencil/depth buffers. Audio effects (such as reverberation and echoing)	April 1, 2018
11.1	Mysterious Mysteries		April 15, 2018
11.2	Mysterious Mysteries	Added the ability to set and get a Box2D body's transform.	November 25, 2018
11.3	Mysterious Mysteries	Added support for loading FLAC audio files. Added support for recording audio from the microphone on Android devices. Added support for uncompressed DirectDraw Surface files.	October 27, 2019
11.4	Mysterious Mysteries	Added native Apple Silicon support on macOS	January 22, 2022
12.0			In Development

Features

These features come with the game engine:

• support of OpenGL pixel shaders GLSL,
• touchscreen support,
• support for UTF-8,
• supports image formats PNG, JPEG, GIF, TGA and BMP,
• possibility to use the 2D physics engine Box2D (can be disabled, to lighten the library),
• luasocket library for network communications TCP/UDP,
• lua-enet library, another network library implementing Enet, a reliable protocol based on UDP

Portability and usage

Löve is cross-platform.

Application compatibility is not ensured between different Löve versions.

Additional Libraries & Implementations

There are various libraries and forks of Löve to improve basic functions, such as object-oriented programming with inheritance and overloading, interpolations, camera management, network multiplayer management, game state management, configuration, etc.

• The Simple Tiled Implementation library allows users to load levels as tiles, edit using Tiled and display them in games. It works in conjunction with Box2D for collision management with this decor.
• The anim8 library allows users to load animations, for characters for example, from an image grid into a bitmap file (PNG or JPEG).
• There is also a free platform (GPLv3) called LIKO-12, inspired by the PICO-8 fantasy console and using Löve, allowing to develop applications in a limited resolution, backup/restore in the modified PNG format, in the same way as the video game cartridges of the game consoles or some of the first microcomputers, and export them to HTML5 or to systems supported by Löve.
• Lutro is a Lua game framework for libretro, a partial port of the Löve API. ChaiLove follows a similar path by offering an implementation in ChaiScript, an embedded and cross-platform scripting language for C++ (C++14).
• love.js is a port of Löve that aims to make it possible to run Löve games on the web via HTML5, WebGL, and Emscripten.

Bibliography

• Damilare Darmie Akinlaja (2013) (in en). LÖVE2d for Lua Game Programming -master the Lua programming language and build exciting strategy-based games in 2D using the LÖVE framework. PacktPub. ISBN 9781461946038. OCLC 864886612. https://books.google.com/books?id=beL7AAAAAAQBAJ. 
• Jayant Varma (2012) (in en). Learn Lua for iOS game development. Apress. ISBN 9781430246633. OCLC 834071764. 

External links

• "Love repo" (in en). 10 April 2022. https://github.com/love2d/love. 
• "Your First Love2d Game in 200 Lines - Part 1 of 3". http://www.osmstudios.com/tutorials/your-first-love2d-game-in-200-lines-part-1-of-3. 
• Agam More. "How to Learn LÖVE (Love2D)". https://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/articles/how-to-learn-love-love2d--gamedev-4331.