Lament of Laurence

A small 2D platformer built with Lua and the LÖVE framework.

This was my project for the first programming course of my college degree, Algorithm I (Algoritmos I). It is the first game I ever wrote, so it doubles as a learning record as much as a game.

Lua is a Brazilian programming language, created at PUC-Rio in 1993. Using it for a college algorithms course was a good fit: it is small, fast, and easy to read.

About the game

You play as Laurence. The game is a short side-scrolling platformer with enemies, pickups, a life bar, and a few endings. It was inspired by classic Castlevania.

The game still has a few bugs. It was a first project, and it is kept here as it was written.

How to run it

The project targets LÖVE 11.x. Install LÖVE first, then run the game folder.

1. Install LÖVE

• Linux: install from your package manager (for example sudo apt install love) or download the AppImage from https://love2d.org/.
• Windows: download and run the installer from https://love2d.org/.
• macOS: brew install --cask love, or use the .dmg from https://love2d.org/.
• WSL: LÖVE opens a graphical window, so it needs WSLg (Windows 11, or an updated Windows 10) or an X server. Install LÖVE inside the WSL distro the same way as Linux, then run it as below.

Check the install:

love --version

2. Run the game

From the project root (the folder that contains main.lua and conf.lua):

love .

On Windows you can also drag the project folder onto love.exe, or run:

love.exe C:\path\to\lament-love-2d

The game opens in a 770x580 window. There is no quit keybind: use the "Surrender" button in the menu, or close the window.

Controls

• Left / Right arrows: move
• Space or Up arrow: jump
• Mouse: menu navigation (Start / Quit)

Map

Levels were built with Tiled, the map editor from https://www.mapeditor.org/. The map data lives in map.lua and is loaded at runtime through the STI library.

Libraries used

• anim8 - sprite animation for LÖVE (https://github.com/kikito/anim8)
• STI - Simple Tiled Implementation, loads the Tiled map in-game (https://github.com/karai17/Simple-Tiled-Implementation)
• button_love - button helper for the menu, written by a classmate (Vinicius Costa, https://github.com/costvin15/buttonLove2d)

The camera used to rely on STALKER-X. It has since been replaced by a small self-contained camera module in modules/camera.lua, so the project no longer depends on an external camera library.

Notes

• Built for the third grade of the Algorithm I course.
• Some parts of the code are in Portuguese, following the course and the author's first language.

What is a man?

A miserable little pile of secrets.