README.md

Awesome Löve

A categorized community-driven collection of high-quality, awesome LÖVE libraries, projects, and resources.

Contents

• 3D
• AI
• Animation
• Camera
• Development
• Drawing
• Entity
• Helpers
• Input
• Lighting
• Math
• Music
• Networking
• OO
• Performance
• Physics
• Platforms
• Publishing
• Serialization
• Shaders
• Testing
• Tweening
• UI
• Utilities
• Tutorials
• IDEs
• Distribution
• Related

3D

3D-centric Libraries

• 3DreamEngine - An awesome 3D engine for LÖVE.
• anim9 - 3D skeletal animation library (design to be used with IQM and IQE).
• Brinevector3D - FFI-enabled vector library for 3D (x,y,z).
• bump-3dpd - A 3D collision detection library for Lua.
• IQE - Inter-Quake Export loader (text).
• IQM - Inter-Quake Model loader (binary).
• love-gltf - Gltf asset loader and test renderer; Supports skeletal animations and morph targets.
• Lovox - Pseudo-3D library for working with voxels.
• g3d - Simple and easy 3D engine for LÖVE.
• model_renderer - A simple 3d model renderer for love2d.
• Menori - Library for 3D rendering with LÖVE.

AI

Navigation, Decision-Making and AI Libraries

• Jumper - Grid-based pathfinding library.
• Lua-star - Easy and pure Lua A* path finding.
• astar - An other A* library. Any map (grid, point, mesh or infinite map) and support path cost.
• pathfun - Pure Lua library for 2D pathfinding using the funnel algorithm.
• beehive.lua - A functional behavior tree implementation.
• Luafinding - Class-based A* implementation written purely in Lua.

Animation

Animation & Frame-Managing Libraries

• andross - A Lua library for 2D skeletal/bone animations with a Löve backend.
• anim8 - Animation library.
• animx - A featureful Animation library for loading animations from XML files!.
• Aseprite loader - Complete ase/aseprite file loader (no json).
• chiro - Convenience wrapper around Spine.
• Peachy - A parser/renderer for Aseprite animations in LÖVE.
• skeletor - 2D skeletal animation system.
• Walt - Animation library.
• Lump - Adobe Flash animation runtime.
• lovanim - A minimal stateful animation library.
• SYSL-Text - Text animation and automatic wrapping library based on tags.

Camera

Viewport & Camera Libraries

• Brady - Camera library with parallax scrolling.
• cam11 - Camera library that leverages the Transform object introduced in love2d 11.0+.
• Editgrid - Gamera and HUMP compatible scaling grid.
• gamera - Camera system.
• hump.camera - Camera library with window locking and smooth camera movement interpolation.
• parallax - Parallax scrolling with any camera system; seamlessly tile background images.

Development

Development assisting Libraries, that enrich your development experience

• FPSGraph - Small FPS graphing utility.
• debugGraph - Small OO FPS graphing utillity based on FPSGraph.
• Lovebird - Browser-based debug console.
• LoveDebug - Inline console-like debugger utility.
• lurker - Auto-swaps changed Lua files in a running game.
• LÖVE API - The complete API documentation of LÖVE in a Lua table.
• LÖVE Build - GitHub Action for automated cross-platform builds.
• LÖVE TypeScript Definitions - Write LÖVE games with TypeScript.
• lovelier - A LÖVE live reloader with Moonscript support.
• loveprofiler - LoveProfiler is an extremely simple logger and profiler.
• vudu - Broad in-game debugging gui with a console, variable browser/editor, speed controls, and more.

Drawing

Drawing specific Libraries, that simplify the Drawing process

• Artal - A .PSD parsing library for LÖVE.
• Autobatch - Small LÖVE module to automate the use of SpriteBatches.
• center - A simple module to dynamically align and fit content to screens of any size.
• deep - Adds Z axis; allows you to queue actions and draw calls.
• draft - A module for drawing complex shapes.
• grove.draworder - Similar to deep, but you can set a custom sorting method and create multiple, nestable instances.
• HSLUV - Lua implementation of HSLuv (a human-friendly alternative to HSL).
• Maid64 - Low resolution scaler for LÖVE.
• Push - A simple resolution-handling library for LÖVE.
• renderplanet - Realistic orthographic planet rendering.
• Resolution Solution - Scale library, that help you add resolution support to your games!
• svglover - Library to import and display simple SVGs in LÖVE.
• SYSL-Pixel - Pixel art focused scaler for graphics, position, screen-captures and shaders.
• Sölar - A fairly simple solar system simulator.
• Tove2d - Animated vector graphics for LÖVE.
• turtle.lua - Turtle graphics library for LÖVE.
• Runtime-TextureAtlas - Texture atlas packer and renderer at runtime; no external tools.
• Export-TextureAtlas - Extends Runtime-TextureAtlas as a commandline tool to export an atlas.

Entity

Entity and Gameobject Managing Libraries

• adorbs - Minimal, Functional Entity Component System.
• Concord - A feature-complete ECS library.
• ecs-lua - ECS Lua is a fast and easy to use ECS (Entity Component System) engine for game development.
• knife.system - Minimalist functional ECS.
• nata - Hybrid OOP/ECS entity management.
• tiny-ecs - Entity Component System for Lua that's simple, flexible, and useful.

Helpers

Game specific Library bundles, that provide reuseable functions

• astray - Astray is a lua based maze, room and dungeon generation library for dungeon crawlers and roguelike video games.
• batteries - Fills out lua's sparse standard library and provides implementations of common algorithms and data structures useful for games.
• cartographer - Small Tiled map loader and drawer.
• clove - A helper library which allows you to quickly loads huge amount of assets.
• grove.color - Blend, convert and interpolate colors using 'color objects'.
• hump - Collection of tools for developing games with LÖVE (Gamestates, Timers/Tweens, Vectors, Classes, Signals, Cameras).
• iffy - A SpriteSheet and Tileset helper library for LÖVE.
• knife - Collection of useful micro-modules for Lua (Class, State Machines, Bind, Chain, Coroutines, Event, Memoize, Entity, Tests, Timer).
• shard - Collection of useful mini modules.
• lovely-windows - A Window/Screen Manager Module for virtual windows.
• love-state-switcher - State switcher class for Lua LÖVE Engine.
• lua-state-machine - Lua Finite State Machine.
• lue - Lue is a LÖVE library that allows you to display hue color effects in your game.
• lume - Collection of functions for Lua, geared towards game development.
• Manami - An improved "reflowprint" with UTF-8, multicolor, and justify support.
• narrator - An Ink narrative scripting language parser and runtime implementation.
• reflowprint - A library designed for alignment of text that is shown one character at a time.
• roomy - Screen management library for LÖVE.
• rotLove - Roguelike Toolkit in LÖVE. A LÖVE/lua port of rot.js.
• YAS - Yet Another Screen manager.
• Scenery - A dead simple scene/state management system.
• ScreenManager - Screen/State Management for the LÖVE framework.
• shack - Shack is a LÖVE library that lets you easily add screen effects such as shake and rotation.
• Simple Tiled Implementation - Tiled map loader and renderer.
• Vivid - Color math, manipulation and conversion library.
• Yonder - A ridiculously easy to use game state management library for LOVE2D.

Input

Input & Binding Libraries

• baton - Input library for LÖVE that bridges the gap between keyboard and gamepad controls.
• GamepadGuesser - Get the right button icons for gamepads; load updated gamepad db.
• input - Simple and powerful input library. support check operation time, sequence.
• Kazari - Multitouch gesture and input library.
• love-microphone - Simple microphone support for LÖVE.
• LoveKeys - A simple input handeling library that keeps track of things for you.
• Swipe - A simple radial keyboard library.
• tactile - A straightforward and flexible input library.

Lighting

Lighting & Shadow Libraries

• lighter - A performant dynamic light implementation with a simple API.
• Shädows - A Shadows & Lights engine for LÖVE.
• Light World - A lighting model.
• Simple Love Lights - A very simple raycasting light implementation.
• Light - A simple dynamic light implementation.

Math

Math specific Libraries

• Bresenham - Bresenham's line algorithm written in Lua.
• brinevector - Standalone lightweight luajit ffi-accelerated 2D vector library for great performance.
• Cirno's Perfect Math Library - Math/intersection library designed for games.
• delaunay - Delaunay triangulation for convex polygons.
• hump.vector - Powerful 2D vector class.
• MLib - Math and shape-intersection detection library written in Lua. It's aim is to be robust and easy to use.
• nvec - Hump.vector-compatible LuaJIT FFI-accelerated 2D vector library.
• shash - A simple, lightweight spatial hash for Lua.
• vector.lua - A simple vector library based on the PVector class from processing.

Music

Music related libraries

• denver - A Löve custom waveform generation library.
• lovebpm - A LÖVE library for syncing events to the BPM of an audio track.
• ripple - An audio manager with tagging support.
• wave - A sound manager with audio parsing and rhythm functionalities.

Networking

Networking & Online-Play Libraries

• Grease - Networking library intended to make networking easy for lovers (TCP, UDP, Enet). (IPv6)
• LoverNet - A networking library that leverages bitser and enet. (IPv4)
• NoobHub - OpenSource multiplayer and network messaging. (IPv6)
• Sock.lua - A Lua networking library for LÖVE games. (IPv4)
• löve-ws - A websocket client and server library.
• love2d-lua-websocket - A simple event-driven websocket client library. (IPv4)

OO

Object Orientation Libraries that support Class-Commons

• 30log - Minified framework for object-orientation in Lua. It features named (and unnamed) classes, single inheritance and a basic support for mixins.
• classic - Tiny class module for Lua. Attempts to stay simple and provide decent performance by avoiding unnecessary over-abstraction.
• hump.class - Small, fast class/prototype implementation with multiple inheritance (class-commons).
• knife.base - Extremely minimal base class providing single inheritance and constructors.
• middleclass - Simple OOP library for Lua; has inheritance, metamethods (operators), class variables and weak mixin support (class-commons).
• muun - Moonscript compatible class implementation.
• selene - Project template for writing games in Moonscript instead of Lua without precompiling.

Performance

Performance measurement tools

• AppleCake - Profiling library for LÖVE, with detailed profiling and thread support.
• jprof - Profiling library/tool for LÖVE.
• Piefiller - Graphical profiler for LÖVE.
• ProFi - A simple lua profiler that works with LuaJIT and prints a pretty report file in columns.

Physics

Collision Detection & Physics Wrappers

• breezefield - A lightweight and easy love.physics wrapper (windfield alternative).
• Bump - Collision detection library for Lua.
• HC - Collision detection with arbitrary polygons; allows rotation of objects.
• loveblobs - A softbody library with support for both dynamic and static arbitrary softbodies.
• Strike - 2D collision detection library. Extendable, based on Separating-Axis-Theorem.

Platforms

Ports for Platforms other than the ones officially supported by LÖVE

• LoveDos - A Lua framework for 2D DOS games, implementing a subset of the LÖVE API.
• LoveFTW - Work-in-progress port to Windows phone 8.1.
• LÖVE Potion - Unofficial implementation of the LÖVE for Nintendo (3DS, Switch and Wii U) Homebrew.
• LOVE-WrapLua - A small and simple wrapper for OneLua, lpp-vita, and Lua Player PS3.
• Love.js - LÖVE ported to the web using Emscripten.
• LÖVR - LÖVE for virtual reality devices.

Publishing

Guides to distributing LÖVE games in 3rd party stores

• Love-Snap-Template - A template for packaging LÖVE games for distribution in the Snappy Store.
• AppImageKit - Using AppImageKit you can package LÖVE games as AppImages that run on common Linux-based operating systems, such as RHEL, CentOS, Ubuntu, Fedora, debian and derivatives; one game = one file.

Serialization

Save Game & Storage Libraries

• arson - Companion library for registering custom data types that can be encoded and decoded by json.lua.
• binser - Customizable Lua Serializer.
• bitser - Serializes and deserializes Lua values with LuaJIT.
• cdata - Serialize between Lua data and C data using LuaJIT's FFI.
• knife.serialize - Serialize data as a Lua script.
• Lady - Saving and loading savegames; based on Ser.
• moonblob - Binary serialization and data parsing library.
• Ser - Fast, robust, richly-featured table serialization library for Lua.
• Smallfolk - A fast, robust, secure, richly-featured table serialization library for Lua.
• trickle - A bitstream library focused on high compression for use in networking.

Shaders

GLSL related Libraries

• LoveShaderConverter - Convert Shadertoy Shader files to LÖVE GLSL Files with handy utilities for infinite purposes.
• ngrading - Simple color grading library.
• Shadertoy viewer - Run code copied from shadertoy directly or output the converted code to a LÖVE shader.
• Moonshine - Repository of common post-processing effects like blur, vignette, color-grading, etc.
• ShaderScan - Adds hot reload, includes, and better error messages for faster shader iteration.

Testing

Libraries and Tools for Unit Testing

• busted - Simple unit-testing framework with customizable assertions.
• knife.test - Fixture-free test framework.
• Luassert - Extends assert() with additional, customizable tests.
• Lunatest - xUnit-style randomized unit testing framework.
• lust - Minimal test framework.
• Specl - Behavior Driven Development (BDD) tool.
• Telescope - Highly-customizable BDD-style testing library.

Tweening

Smoothing & Timer Libraries

• Flux - A fast, lightweight tweening library for Lua.
• hump.timer - Timer and tweening library with flexible tweening methods.
• knife.timer - Create timers and tweens with ease.
• NAniTe - Timeline-based animation system that supports forward and backward update.
• tick - Lua module for delaying function calls.
• tween.lua - Tweening/Easing/Interpolating functions for Lua inspired on jQuery's animate method.

UI

User Interface Libraries

• CatUI - A very light-weight GUI library for LÖVE.
• cimgui-love - LÖVE module for Dear ImGui obtained by wrapping cimgui (programmatically generated C-api) using LuaJIT FFI, easy to update to the latest Dear Imgui version.
• GOOi - Android-oriented GUI library.
• Gspöt - A stateful GUI lib for LÖVE.
• Hanker - Maximalist immediate mode-ish UI elements; gamepad-friendly.
• Helium - A modern, customizable, high performance retained UI framework.
• Layouter - A simple UI grid layout library for LÖVE 2D game engine.
• ListBox - A dynamic ListBox for LÖVE that supports touch, mouse, and keyboard inputs.
• LoveFrames Fork - 11.2 Fork of a GUI library.
• Love Imgui - Imgui module for the LÖVE game engine.
• Löve-Nuklear - Lightweight immediate mode GUI for LÖVE games.
• Lynx - Very-lightweight list-based UI library.
• NLay - Flexible layouting library.
• Patchy - 9patch library.
• Slicy - A newer 9patch/9slice library fixing some issues with Patchy.
• Plan - A super simple Rule-based layout library.
• Polywell - A highly-configurable text editor / coding tool written in Lua that runs on the LÖVE game engine.
• SafeWord - An overscan detection library for LÖVE.
• Slab - Slab is an immediate mode GUI toolkit for the LÖVE framework.
• SUIT - Small immediate mode GUI library.
• YALG - A very simple, cross-platform, reactive UI for last minute UIs.
• YUI - Declarative UI library for LÖVE.
• Inky - Any-purpose GUI framework.

Utilities

Non-Game specific libraries and tools

• ArrayRotation - Rotation of two dimensional arrays (square and non-square).
• cargo - Asset manager.
• chance.lua - Library for generating random data.
• colorchanger - Change the colors in your LÖVE game.
• Flirt - LÖVE version manager; allows to switch between multiple versions of engine on same machine.
• GifCat - A simple module for saving gifs from LÖVE.
• hex2color - A single function to use HEX color values.
• i18n - Internationalization library designed to help localize your game.
• Ini Parser - General purpose ini configuration parser.
• log.lua - Library for configurable log output.
• love-loader - Threaded resource loading.
• love2d-assets-loader - Assets Loader.
• love-pe - A tool made in LÖVE for changing LÖVE icon itself.
• lovely-engine - A tool that makes setting up and using LÖVE easier and with Moonscript support.
• Lily - Async Asset Loader.
• luasteam - Lua bindings for the Steamworks API.
• Luvent - Simple event-driven programming.
• nativefiledialog - Open a file picker on Windows/Mac/Linux.
• nativefs - Read and write files outside of LÖVE's allowed paths.
• Optikon - WYSIWYG visual level designer.
• ParticleEditor - An editor of particle for LÖVE.
• particle-system-playground - A basic LÖVE particle system editor.
• require.lua - Require all files in a folder.
• splashy - Splash Screen Library.
• ShakeDetectorLua - Uses accelerometer data for shake device detection written in Lua.
• tick - Useful timing tweaks for LÖVE's run loop.

Tutorials

Blogs and tutorials

• learn2love - Book for learning programming with Lua and LÖVE (Version 11.0+).
• Using Tiled Maps in LÖVE - An article about using maps created with Tiled in your LÖVE game.
• Tutorial on making an Arkanoid-type game - A complete tutorial on how to make a breakout clone by nooowaay.
• Simple Game Tutorials - Tutorials for making simple games with LÖVE (Snake, Sokoban, Tetris, etc.).
• How to LÖVE - A book by Sheepolution teaching LÖVE from the ground up.
• CS50 Introduction to Game Development - Harvard Colleges CS50 OpenCourseWare.
• Building love2d games for the web with love.js and Docker - A tutorial on packaging LÖVE games for the web.

IDEs

Integrated Development Environments and text editor plugins

• Brackets - A modern, open source text editor by Adobe (obsolete).
  • Lua Syntax Highlighter - Add Lua syntax highlighting in Brackets.
  • LÖVE Hints for Brackets.io - Provides LÖVE code hints.
  • Run LÖVE - Run LÖVE projects with a hotkey.
• ZeroBrane Studio - ZeroBrane Studio is a lightweight Lua IDE with code completion, syntax highlighting, live coding, code analyzer, and debugging support.
  • API Syntax Hightlight - Script to add LOVE API syntax highlighting to ZBS.
• IntelliJ IDEA - Capable and Ergonomic Java IDE.
  • EmmyLua - Lua IDE/Debugger Plugin for VSCode.
  • LÖVE IDEA - Snippets and code completion for IntelliJ-IDEA.
• Vim - Vim is a highly configurable text editor built to make creating and changing any kind of text very efficient.
  • Vim LOVE Docs - Syntax highlighting for Vim.
• Notepad++ - Notepad++ is a free source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages.
  • LÖVE API for Notepad++ - Code completion and documentation for Notepad++.
• Visual Studio Code - VS Code is a new type of tool that combines the simplicity of a code editor with what developers need for their core edit-build-debug cycle.
  • Visual Studio Code LÖVE Launcher - A Löve Launcher Extension for Visual Studio Code.
  • Lua for Visual Studio Code - Provides Intellisense and Linting for Lua in VSCode.
  • Local Lua Debugger - Simple Lua debugger with no dependencies. Löve specific launch.json example provided.
• Sublime Text - Sublime Text is a sophisticated text editor for code, markup and prose. You'll love the slick user interface, extraordinary features and amazing performance.
  • Package Manager - The Sublime Text package manager that makes it exceedingly simple to find, install and keep packages up-to-date.
  • SublimeLove - Supports syntax highlighting, auto-completion, and build system.
  • SublimeLinter-luacheck - Provides linting and static analysis of your Lua code.

Distribution

Tools that automate game publishing in one way or another

• LÖVE Actions - Build & deploy cross-platform game packages on ALL popular platforms. Supports Android, iOS, Linux, maxOS, Windows.
• love-packager - Simple CLI to package your LÖVE Game in seconds.
• boon - Multi-platform, easy to use tool supporting Windows, macOS, Linux.
• love-export - Fast and simple command-line tool that builds binaries for you. Supports Windows, macOS, and Linux.
• love-release - A Lua script that automates game distribution. Supports Windows, macOS, Debian, Linux.
• makelove - Advanced multi-platform tool to fuse your game written in Python 3. Supports Windows and Linux with AppImage.
• love-deploy - Build and deploy games on itch.io (supports windows and web exports).
• love-fuser - Packages LÖVE Games using GitHub Actions. Supports Windows, Linux, and Android.

Related

• awesome-lua - A list like this one, but more general and encompassing all of Lua's uses.
• awesome-love-shaders - A collection of shaders designed to work in LÖVE.
• awesome-pico8 - A curated list of PICO-8 resources, tutorials, tools and more.

Other awesome lists can be found in the awesome-awesomeness list.