Compiling Löve2d from SVN TRUNK

Since there are no docs on howto compile love from svn directly I though I would make this post quick to help those who are struggling with it. Automake / Autoconf is not all 100% setup for löve2d yet so you need to manually kick it off like so:

You need automake to get this right to install that if you dont have it

Checkout the code base:
svn co https://love.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/love/trunk love

Install the basics
sudo apt-get install build-essential libboost-dev libsdl1.2-dev liblua5.1-dev libfreetype6-dev libdevil-dev libphysfs-dev libsdl-mixer1.2-dev libflac++-dev

The following will be installed by the autobuild script but this is for FYI:
ftp-upload libalut-dev libflac-dev libmodplug-dev libmpg123-0 libmpg123-dev
libopenal-dev libsdl-sound1.2-dev libspeex-dev libtiff4-dev libtiffxx0c2
liblua5.1-0-dev libsdl1.2-dev libfreetype6-dev libphysfs-dev libdevil-dev libmng-dev
libmng-dev liblcms1-dev liblcms1-dev libpng12-dev libflac-dev libmpg123-0
ibspeex-dev libtiffxx0c2

cd love
cd platform/unix
./autobuild

You will end up with:
love-r774-linux-src.tar.gz
love-r774-ubuntu-x86.deb
love-r774 - Binary on its own


FAQ

configure.in:6: error: possibly undefined macro: AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE
you havnt run automagic yet!

Creating Sprites and Animating ( Vector Based )

One of the major problems I had was trying to find a solution to create Sprite Sheets without painfully hand drawing my actors. So I have documented what I am using for you so that you dont have to waste as much time as I had to to figure this out.

Applications:

Inkscape ( Vector based graphics app for Linux / Mac / Windows )

SynFig ( An amazing and free vector based animator for Linux / Windows )

Pixen ( Sprite editor and animator, export to sprite sheet support )
Gimp ( Cross platform OpenSource image powerstudio )

Since I am creating mostly very simple sprite based animations for my Platform game at the moment, I am using SynFig under Ubuntu to create my model and animate him. This consists of drawing a model, seting up keyframes and animating walk cycles and so forth.

I am then exporting the model to a bunch of PNG files and combining them with imagemagick under linux into a sprite sheet with the following command:

montage -background "transparent" -depth 24 -type TrueColorMatte *.png -geometry 256x256 -matte -transparent "transparent" -type TrueColorMatte -depth 24 spriteSheet1.png

The resulting sprite sheet works perfectly with Torque Game Builder.

If you are using Pixen to create your animation and exporting that to a sprite sheet, You will probably need to tweak it in Gimp before it will work with Torque Game Builder correctly. I found that I also needed to add a extra blank frame to the end of the animation before I export it otherwise the frame alignment goes out.

I cant seem to get Pixen to export sprite sheets with a transparent background either so I normally add a coloured background to a layer behind my sprite ( pick one that does appear in your sprite ) and then crop it out with Gimp afterwards and export to PNG with transparency.

Indie Gamming Setup

So its been a while but I have collected all the knowledge and programs needed for a serious Indie game project. I am developing on MacOS so its been a long and curvy road to finding all the tools I needed. Herewith the:

Kegans Indie Game Development App List.

Torque Game Builder ( 100 USD from GarageGames.com )
Platformer Starter Kit (50 USD from GarageGames.com )
2D Fantasy Character Pack ( 30 USD from GarageGames.com )
Pixen Sprite Editor ( FREE opensword.org )
Blender for Modeling to Render 2D Objects ( FREE blender.org )
Gimp Image Editor ( FREE gimp.org )
Cosmic Painter to create Tiles (FREE garagecube.com )
Smultron to Edit .CS files (FREE tuppis.com )
Pencil Animator ( FREE pencil-animation.org )

Wikkad Internet Resources for Textures
http://cgtextures.com/

Want to recreate your favourite games from the early gaming era? see:
http://www.vgmaps.com/Atlas/PC


GarageGames.com has some awesome forums and tutorials which you will have a lot of fun with and is a great way to kill the Winter! :D With these apps and resources you will be able to go nuts!