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Comment by nawtacawp | Hacker News Reader

I was just looking at love2d, I don't know much about it. My son is 8 and is very bored with Scratch. A once over the documentation makes me think love2d might be a good fit for a next step from Scratch. How is the love2d community and is it active?

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The love2d community is definitely still active, especially on IRC. Some of the nicest folks I've ever spoken to over the internet.

I can't recommend the language or its community highly enough.

A couple of friends just successfully launched a commercial game on android/ios/steam using love2d, and they're really happy with the results.

I couldn't believe it was made with lua, it runs really smooth.

http://midipixel.com/warlockstower/

The love2d source code is in C++. I believe Lua interpreter was embedded as a scripting mechanism

https://bitbucket.org/rude/love/src

AFAIK, LÖVE integrates LuaJIT.

Why wouldn't it run smooth if it was made with Lua?

I learned lua and love2d last year and found them ... lovely! Hadn't done any graphics programming in about 20 years, and thoroughly enjoyed the process. What was really great was the ability to target multiple platforms. I even wrote an SVG library @ https://github.com/globalcitizen/svglover and a roguelike @ https://github.com/globalcitizen/zomia for the 2016 Annual Roguelike Release Party (ARRP).

love2d is great. I've dabbled with a bunch of game engines and am an avid lover of Processing and p5.js, both of which are great for learning to code. Love2d is right up there with them, though the documentation is less newbie-oriented, IMO. The best thing for you to do would be to go through this tutorial yourself and then decide if you think it would be appropriate for your kid. http://sheepolution.com/learn/book/contents

For a 8 year old, Löve might be a bit hard.

At our weekly CoderDojo in Zurich, we're using love2d (and processing) as the next step for the kids that over 10 years and who are comfortable with typing.

Both just work!

https://www.meetup.com/Coder-Dojo-Zurich/

Your welcome to join with your kids or as a mentor if you happen to be not too far away...

Processing may also be a good choice.

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