[Request] Docs

[gnuwilliam]

Hey @rxi! I recently found out your work, and I must say I'm really impressed by it! It really inspires me.

I've been studying your LD32 entry code to get to know more about juno, but since I'm new to game programming, sometimes I get a bit lost.

Do you have plans to write a documentation for this project? I can help if you want to, just tell me what to do.

Again, great work! Please keep it up.

[rxi]

Hey, thanks for the kind words!

I originally wrote the framework to provide myself with better control over audio which is something other frameworks I used didn't provide. This fairly niche advantage, combined with the fact that the framework uses entirely software rendering (which wouldn't work well for anything but visually lo-fi games) made me think that other people likely wouldn't choose to use it, and might opt for using something like LÖVE instead.

For this reason I hadn't really planned to write any documentation for the framework, and am unsure how many people that documentation would reach if it were written. That being said I'm not against the idea of it having documentation, I'm just unsure if it'd be entirely worth the effort given how few people might benefit from it.

If you do use the framework and have any questions which aren’t easily explained by the source itself, the examples or my LD entries, feel free to make an issue and I can try and answer them for you.

[JaredSartin]

@rxi - Thanks for the detailed answer. I think a couple areas to doc or detail may be general flow control and class/method lists in the basic API - no need to detail anything more than merely a list for each class. I guess this can all be derived from examples - so links to code for that as a direction to go may suffice.

@gnuwilliam - If you have any development experience, the code is GENERALLY straight forward, do you have general game questions? Like @rxi said, something like LÖVE is a great starter for game dev and can do what Juno can. @rxi has done a great job making more of a "hacker" game engine - small expectations with large amount of customizability.

[gnuwilliam]

@rxi - thanks for the explanation! It makes sense to me now. I tried LOVE, but honestly, what made me fall in love with your framework, is the simplicity it has (not that LOVE isn't simple already), but I can go over all your code and actually see what's going on much easily. I think I'll keep studying your code and start making some small games with juno. I really want to learn more Lua and C as well, so it's a good excuse! haha

@JaredSartin - I do have development experience, but I've always been a web developer (Python and JavaScript), so when it comes to game development, there are many topics I'm still learning. But I agree with you, the code is generally straight forward. I'll keep studying and I'm pretty sure most of the things I'm confused about will be cleared in the next couple of months.

[JaredSartin]

@gnuwilliam - I think with some C and Lua knowledge, you will do just fine. Pro-tip - Metatable is like a prototype in JS. Lua has some similarities to Python and JS - so it should be a simple learn. Focus on C, as it will provide lots of insight and knowledge for your game work - great for understanding the underlying systems of Juno, LOVE, Urho3D, etc!

[gnuwilliam]

@JaredSartin - Awesome! Thank you so much for the tips, really appreciate it.

[ts-co]

I've been looking for a simple Lua Engine so I can just learn Lua and have a conceptual understanding of code. I would love to use Juno to make a game, but I just...don't know where to start! Documentation would be awesome, even if it just told me how to start or an example of a game.

[JaredSartin]

Love2D has more following and an easier interface for a beginner. I would
start there. Juno is a cool piece of software, but has some raw parts of
the API that are not as straightforward.

Docs may prove me wrong, but for Lua + game learning - this may not be the
best first step.

On Mon, Mar 28, 2016 at 8:04 AM Pilot1000 [email protected] wrote:

I've been looking for a simple Lua Engine so I can just learn Lua and have
a conceptual understanding of code. I would love to use Juno to make a
game, but I just...don't know where to start! Documentation would be
awesome, even if it just told me how to start or an example of a game.

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[rxi]

@pilot1000, I agree with @JaredSartin's comment about LÖVE probably being a better option. It is very well documented, has several video tutorial series to get you started and has an active community.

[ArcadeDoug]

What am I doing wrong? I can't get it to compile, unable to locate the following files:
font_ttf.h, buffer_lua.h, time_lua.h, graphics_lua.h, keyboard_lua.h, mouse_lua.h, debug_lua.h, init_lua.h

[rxi]

@ordigdug Those files are created by the build script -- to build you should run the build.py file, python2.7 is required.

[ghost]

@rxi why are you not using opengl?

[liconaj]

@rxi Did you do the mini game in the example GIF? It would be great if you have some game with more things out of the examples :)