Fantastic First Steps

I just created my first game ever, using Lua and LÖVE. It’s called The Devil’s Wrench, and it has an intentional glitch: your settings change randomly.

I am a programmer by profession, but game dev was an area I was always afraid to try, because C++ is daunting and C# is not my jam. I come from a background of dynamically typed languages where you get great power and great responsibility.

But then, last month, a video popped up on my YouTube timeline and it made me curious. It taught how to build a simple game with LÖVE within 90 minutes. I realised that Lua was a lot like my favourite language, JavaScript, and game development suddenly started seeming much more approachable.

As an aftermath, two things happened. One, I discovered Balatro, an intricate, extremely well designed game developed in LÖVE, and spend some time playing it. (So far I’ve beat the 8th Ante twice.). Secondly, I created an Itch account, found a couple game jams and decided to, as they say, just do it.

Two weeks later, this is the result.

It’s nowhere near the best game I’ve played, but I think it’s fun enough for the occasional mindbend. It’s not exactly addictive either. To achieve that, I’d have to add items, power-ups and levels. But that’s for another day. Or never. I don’t know. We’ll see.

Till then, good luck finding your way out of the dungeon with broken controls.