[Book Review] 'LÖVE for Lua Game Programming'

LÖVE for Lua Game Programming

Preface
Chapter 1: Getting Started with LÖVE
Chapter 2: LÖving Up!
Chapter 3: Before You Build a Game
Chapter 4: Making Your First Game
Chapter 5: More About Making the Game
Chapter 6: Pickups and Head-Up Display and Sounds
Chapter 7: Meeting the Bad Guy!
Chapter 8: Packaging and Distributing Your Game

What you will learn from this book

• Create different environments to make your games more interesting
• Add sound and music to your games
• Apply game physics and real-time particle collisions
• Animate game characters using sprites
• Deploy your games to Windows, Linux, and Mac platforms

In Detail

LÖVE is a game development framework for making 2D games using the Lua programming language. LÖVE is totally free, and can be used in anything from friendly open-source hobby projects, to closed-source commercial ones. Using the Lua programming framework, one can use LÖVE2D to make any sort of interesting games.

LÖVE for Lua Game Programming will quickly and efficiently guide you through how to develop a video game from idea to prototype. Even if you are new to game programming, with this book, you will soon be able to create as many game titles as you wish without stress.

The LÖVE framework is the quickest and easiest way to build fully-functional 2D video games. It leverages the Lua programming language, which is known to be one of the easiest game development languages to learn and use. With this book, you will master how to develop multi-platform games for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. After downloading and installing LÖVE, you will learn by example how to draw 2D objects, animate characters using sprites, and how to create game physics and game world maps.

LÖVE for Lua Game Programming makes it easier and quicker for you to learn everything you need to know about game programming. If you’re interested in game programming, then this book is exactly what you’ve been looking for.

...

I read this book on Friday (while waiting for UPS to deliver my Xbox One... ;) and found it well paced and easy to follow. The book takes an incremental approach easing you into programing with LOVE and Lua. It is NOT a programming tutorial. It assumes you have some programming background and doesn't waste space on the things you are assumed to already know (like looping, functions, variables, etc, etc).

The author also does a nice job introducing you to common game dev tasks, like level design, tile usage, character animation, and so on. With 106 pages, you don't get depth but you do get a great initial introduction and in the end, a working game.

The "who this book is for" is spot-on;

This book is for aspiring game developers with a decent understanding of Lua scripting language, and anyone who wants to learn video game design. If you are looking for a step-by-step approach to learn how to design a game from idea to prototype quickly with a robust and easy-to-understand game engine, this book is for you.

If you are looking for a fun way to get started writing games, using all free tools, games that run cross platform, this book will help you get started.

 

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe my readers will enjoy. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

 

Related Past Post XRef:
[Book Review - Preview] 'LÖVE for Lua Game Programming'