Player Movement

Now let's make our player move! We'll read keyboard input and update the player's position.

Reading Keyboard Input

Love2D provides love.keyboard.isDown(key) to check if a key is currently pressed:

lua
if love.keyboard.isDown("left") then
    -- Left arrow is pressed
end

if love.keyboard.isDown("a") then
    -- A key is pressed
end

Adding Movement

Let's update our scene to allow the player to move left and right:

lua
function love.load()
    player = {
        x = 50,
        y = 200,
        width = 30,
        height = 40,
        speed = 200  -- pixels per second
    }
end

function love.update(dt)
    -- Move left
    if love.keyboard.isDown("left") or love.keyboard.isDown("a") then
        player.x = player.x - player.speed * dt
    end

    -- Move right
    if love.keyboard.isDown("right") or love.keyboard.isDown("d") then
        player.x = player.x + player.speed * dt
    end

    -- Keep player on screen
    if player.x < 0 then
        player.x = 0
    end
    if player.x + player.width > 400 then
        player.x = 400 - player.width
    end
end

function love.draw()
    -- Sky
    love.graphics.setColor(0.4, 0.7, 1)
    love.graphics.rectangle("fill", 0, 0, 400, 300)

    -- Ground
    love.graphics.setColor(0.4, 0.8, 0.4)
    love.graphics.rectangle("fill", 0, 250, 400, 50)

    -- Player
    love.graphics.setColor(1, 0.3, 0.3)
    love.graphics.rectangle("fill", player.x, player.y, player.width, player.height)

    -- Eyes
    love.graphics.setColor(1, 1, 1)
    love.graphics.circle("fill", player.x + 10, player.y + 12, 5)
    love.graphics.circle("fill", player.x + 22, player.y + 12, 5)

    -- Pupils
    love.graphics.setColor(0, 0, 0)
    love.graphics.circle("fill", player.x + 12, player.y + 12, 2)
    love.graphics.circle("fill", player.x + 24, player.y + 12, 2)

    -- Instructions
    love.graphics.setColor(1, 1, 1)
    love.graphics.print("Use LEFT/RIGHT or A/D to move", 10, 10)
end

Key Concepts:

We check for both arrow keys AND WASD keys for accessibility
player.speed * dt ensures consistent movement speed
Boundary checking keeps the player on screen

Try it! Use the arrow keys or A/D to move the player left and right.