07-08-2018, 04:21 PM
Hi Domarius!
I can't give much advice here, because the question is about preferences, and I don't have personal experience with Love2d.
Love2d is an all-in-one Lua-only framework: it gives graphics, sound, input, text rendering, networking... It has the same scope as the SDL ecosystem, and if you look at its install dependences, you'll see that SDL2 is there (the ability to play mod files comes from SDL_sound). So Love2D is more or less a sdl wrapper for Lua.
Tilengine on the other hand is just a rendering library, but whereas the graphics part of Love2d/SDL is very generic, Tilengine has all the bells and whistles you may need to setup a retro game. You have to pair it with other components, but the SDL ecosystem is your best bet here. I know you like Lua language, and Tilengine has a LuaFFI binding, but I can't tell anything about it because it was contributed by another person, I haven't tried it.
Regarding the build process, the new Tilengine 2.0 has a simple build Makefile for Linux environments, and a VisualStudio project for windows. Last week I set up a Travis CI build task, you can see online the process of a successful build.
I think the decision here is choosing between a tool that you're familiar with but may not be as suitable for the task you want, or a tool that is more suited for what you want to do, but that's more unknown and may require some effort setting up.
Any tool you may choose, your Alex Kidd demake for the Pico8 is awesome! Great job!
I can't give much advice here, because the question is about preferences, and I don't have personal experience with Love2d.
Love2d is an all-in-one Lua-only framework: it gives graphics, sound, input, text rendering, networking... It has the same scope as the SDL ecosystem, and if you look at its install dependences, you'll see that SDL2 is there (the ability to play mod files comes from SDL_sound). So Love2D is more or less a sdl wrapper for Lua.
Tilengine on the other hand is just a rendering library, but whereas the graphics part of Love2d/SDL is very generic, Tilengine has all the bells and whistles you may need to setup a retro game. You have to pair it with other components, but the SDL ecosystem is your best bet here. I know you like Lua language, and Tilengine has a LuaFFI binding, but I can't tell anything about it because it was contributed by another person, I haven't tried it.
Regarding the build process, the new Tilengine 2.0 has a simple build Makefile for Linux environments, and a VisualStudio project for windows. Last week I set up a Travis CI build task, you can see online the process of a successful build.
I think the decision here is choosing between a tool that you're familiar with but may not be as suitable for the task you want, or a tool that is more suited for what you want to do, but that's more unknown and may require some effort setting up.
Any tool you may choose, your Alex Kidd demake for the Pico8 is awesome! Great job!