Introduction to Love2D

Welcome to your first game development course! In this course, you'll build a complete platformer game using Love2D and the Lua programming language.

What is Love2D?

Love2D (also written as LÖVE) is a free, open-source framework for making 2D games. It's beginner-friendly, fast, and perfect for learning game development concepts.

Why Love2D?

• Simple and easy to learn
• Fast iteration (just save and run)
• Great for prototyping and game jams
• Active community and lots of resources

What is Lua?

Lua is a lightweight scripting language. It's known for being:

• Easy to read and write
• Fast to execute
• Widely used in games (World of Warcraft, Roblox, etc.)

Your First Love2D Program

Every Love2D game has three main functions:

• love.load() - Called once when the game starts
• love.update(dt) - Called every frame to update game logic
• love.draw() - Called every frame to render graphics

Let's write a simple program that displays "Hello, World!" on screen.

luaRun in Sandbox
-- This runs once when the game starts
function love.load()
    message = "Hello, World!"
end

-- This runs every frame to update game logic
function love.update(dt)
    -- We'll add game logic here later
end

-- This runs every frame to draw graphics
function love.draw()
    love.graphics.print(message, 100, 100)
end

Try it! Click "Run" to see your first Love2D program in action.

What You'll Build

By the end of this course, you'll have a working platformer with:

• A player character that moves and jumps
• Platforms to jump on
• Collectible items
• A score display

Let's get started!