The game of the year was written in Lua

Balatro is an extremely successful game that was created using the Love2D framework in Lua. I found that pretty interesting so I decided to explore Love2D a little to try and re-create some of that Balatro magic. A journey which gave me a new appreciation for shaders.

I have no talent please forgive my terrible code.

[ksalieri]

Balatro is a great example of how much sound design matters for games.

[ivanjermakov]

Amazing games were written in assembly, C++ and JavaScript. Horrible games were written in assembly, C++ and JavaScript. It is not about the tools, it is about the idea, gameplay, storytelling, performance, accessibility, user experience and other metrics players actually care about. Programming language is just one of the tools. The best way to tell if the language fits your needs is through experience. Start with small playable prototypes, see what works and what doesn't.

[doodleEeto]

"If you ask Jonathan Blow..."
Let's not.

[MarcelloLins]

I studied computer science in Brazil with the creator of Lua, professor Roberto Ierusalimschy. He's such a down to earth guy, and taught some of the best classes I ever had.

Also, screw Jonathan Blow !

[robertshiple]

Jonathan Blow is still mad from the time that Soulja Boy said that Braid sucks

[zekenebel]

Jonathan Blow has been programming since the womb and has never actually had to ask anyone a single question. Truly a game dev purist of our time, did you know he made the entirety of braid with his eyes closed balancing on top of his ego?

[gtPacheko]

I've been to the university where Lua was created when I was 14 and didn't even know about it. Now I'm getting into programming and I'm so glad I got to be there. Awesome place.

[Porcuponic]

0:10 I'm so glad I never intended on asking Jonathan Blow anything. That's how I know I'm cut out for game development.

[kesorangutan]

You know who else loves Lua? John Romero. I'm serious, he thinks writing games in Lua is as fun as writing games in the 80s.

[ukcroupier]

I'm 57 and recently started messing around with Pico-8 which uses Lua. It's probably the closest modern language to BASIC, so it's great for us old guys who grew up with the 8 bit machines.

[rmdashrfv]

Had to come back to this and say that it's so fucking cool to have a software engineering YouTube channel that's about engineering software and not about quitting your software engineering job while you make avocado toast talking about how "it just feels like time". Tom Delalande 🐐

[Woodside]

I learned how to program in Lua using the Computercraft mod for Minecraft.

My only gripe with it (because otherwise I love it), is how indices start at 1 not 0. It may feel more natural to start at 1, but there are a grand many reasons why starting at 0 is better, and doesn't take long to get used to as a new programmer IMO.

Good video, also. I like showing the code and explaining what it does without being bogged down with the detail. Leaving a viewer to pause if they so desire, but not required to.

[machi_dev]

“which is why it’s surprising it’s written in the same language I use to configure my text editor”
That line has me rolling

[lachee]

a short and sweet video essay. Amazing format you have <3

[awfyboy]

iirc, FromSoftware's (devs of Dark Souls and Elden Ring) in-house engine uses LUA as bindings to code the logic in the game. The engine itself is written in C++, but the code for things like player, enemies and NPCs were written in LUA (or HavokScript which is some alternative version of LUA).

[Etcher]

My intro to Lua was on the Playdate. And I love it. So simple and quick to get something on screen and working. Love2D is firmly on my (ever growing) list of things to deep dive into.

[TymurSoroka]

you can't imagine how inspiring this video is

[leonun]

Great video! 👍 There's also another not so little game engine that uses Lua called defold that i've been learning, very good as well

[MatthewDiamond]

Thanks for sharing, Love2D looks like a great beginner framework to get started with.

[DanielGomez-srcs]

this guy made this video just so he could say “I use vim btw” at 1:39. Don't lie to us!

I will subscribe now. Thanks.