[pull_my_finger]

I'm a big fan of Love and Lua, but one thing that always bothered me was that there's no real "great" solutions for a) cross platform/web/mobile distribution. I know there are 3rd party solutions but for as mature as the framework is, you'd think it could get a first party solution. The same goes for several API's that you'd think are core to game making, like sprite animations. There are fairly mature libraries, but I always hate having a bunch of patchwork libraries that should be included batteries instead of 3rd party boilerplate.

[vlaaad]

Defold is not as well-known as Löve, but it seems to fit your description: https://defold.com/

[rollcat]

> cross platform/web/mobile distribution

Unfortunately, each and every platform has its own unique quirks[^], and I think the problem is too large for a project like LÖVE to tackle.

In fact, LÖVE's authors have already done "90% of the work in 10% of the code": you can make a ZIP file, change the extension to .love, and just distribute that. Install LÖVE, double-click YourGame.love, and you're done. You can also concatenate the game executable with the ZIP file to create a self-contained binary distribution for that target platform (super old & cute trick; it's possible because ZIP's "header" is in fact, at the end of the archive).

[^]: In 2016 I've attempted a "one game per month" challenge; but I also wanted to distribute executables for Windows, macOS, and Linux, so that all of my friends could just play them. It went something like this:

- Windows: distributing executables from your personal domain is considered a crime; the browser and the OS will yell at the user, block the download, blacklist you, etc.

- macOS: simply concatenating won't work; you need an elaborate dance to create a .app bundle, and distribute that in a .dmg - good luck building that on a Linux host, also good luck debugging without an actual Mac. Nevermind code signing, you can bypass that with shift-right-click-open. Oh wait, macOS 15 won't let you.

- Linux: are you ready for the .so hell?

- BSD: bonus! The documentation for SDL_GetPlatform doesn't even enumerate all of the possible values! You need to source-dive to get them: https://github.com/libsdl-org/SDL/blob/f45ce45603a00e92332f9... - plus any possible patches in ports; most developers won't ever care, and will just hardcode "Linux". Checking for $DISPLAY is also unreliable: macOS users may have XQuartz installed, Wayland purists may run without XWayland, etc.

[trevorhinesley]

DragonRuby did it: https://dragonruby.org/

[rollcat]

And many other frameworks did it too. LÖVE decided it's out of scope, and that's a 100% valid choice, considering the breadth and complexity of the problem. They still went quite far in ensuring it's no more difficult than it actually needs to be. Similar with e.g. cross-compiling Go programs (unfortunately, no cgo-less, cross-platform framework for interacting with windowing systems/video hardware exists).

[trevorhinesley]

Yes, but most other engines are much larger scope and fundamentally different purpose than LÖVE. DragonRuby, however, is in the same camp: code-first, scripting language (Ruby vs Lua), beginner-to-expert friendly. So my point was there are (at least one) project(s) very similar in purpose and size/scope to LÖVE that did solve for cross platform.

[dartharva]

Balatro is available on Android though?