LoveZero

LoveZero is a cross-engine framework inspired by Pygame Zero, designed to run seamlessly on Love2D, Lutro, and Love Potion. It abstracts away boilerplate and engine-specific quirks so you can focus on making games!

Features

• Cross-Engine Compatibility: Automatically detects the underlying engine and hooks into the correct game loop safely.
• Screen Module: Pygame Zero-style drawing primitives (lz.screen.fill, lz.screen.draw.rect, lz.screen.draw.text).
• Clock Module: Easy timers (schedule_interval, schedule_unique) and smooth tweening animations (animate).
• Actor Model: Simple entity management (lz.Actor) with automatic image loading and AABB collision.
• IDE Support: Fully typed via Sumneko LuaLS (lovezero.lua and .vscode settings) for robust autocomplete and intellisense.

Getting Started

Drop the lovezero/ folder into your project directory.

Trivial Example (examples/trivial/main.lua)

Check out the examples/trivial folder for a basic moving box example.

You can run this example using Love2D from the repository root:

love examples/trivial

Nest Integration 3DS Example (examples/nest_trivial_3ds/main.lua)

Check out the examples/nest_trivial_3ds folder for a basic moving box example running with Nest configured to emulate/target a Nintendo 3DS screen.

You can run this example using Love2D from the repository root:

love examples/nest_trivial_3ds

Nest Integration Switch Example (examples/nest_trivial_switch/main.lua)

Check out the examples/nest_trivial_switch folder for a basic moving box example running with Nest configured to emulate/target a Nintendo Switch screen.

You can run this example using Love2D from the repository root:

love examples/nest_trivial_switch

Lutro Integration Example (examples/lutro_trivial/main.lua)

Check out the examples/lutro_trivial folder for a basic example running on Lutro (the LÖVE-like libretro core for RetroArch).

Setup on a Typical Linux Distribution (e.g., Ubuntu/Debian)

To run Lutro, you will need to install RetroArch and the Lutro libretro core. On typical Debian/Ubuntu-based distributions, install them via apt:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y retroarch libretro-lutro

Running the Lutro Example

We provide a convenient ./lutro executable wrapper script in the repository root that automatically locates the installed Lutro core on your system and launches the target directory:

# Set execute permissions on the wrapper if needed
chmod +x ./lutro

# Run the trivial example with Lutro
./lutro examples/lutro_trivial

Alternatively, you can launch RetroArch manually and point it to the Lutro core and main.lua file:

retroarch -L /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libretro/lutro_libretro.so examples/lutro_trivial/main.lua

Note: Depending on your Linux distribution or installation source, the core might be located at /usr/lib/libretro/lutro_libretro.so or ~/.config/retroarch/cores/lutro_libretro.so.

Headless / CI Testing

For automated testing or headless environments, you can run the Lutro wrapper using virtual framebuffer (xvfb-run):

# Install xvfb if not already present
sudo apt install -y xvfb

# Run the example headlessly
xvfb-run -a ./lutro examples/lutro_trivial

Running Tests

LoveZero includes a headless pure-Lua test suite to validate internal logic without needing a graphical environment.

# Ensure luajit is installed
chmod +x test.sh
./test.sh

Credits

• Character assets provided by the amazing Kenney Assets from the New Platformer Pack.
• The sample Lutro font provided by the Lutro project.