The Beginner's Guide to Lua for Game Development

A book for the absolute beginner that wants to learn how to program in Lua · By SquidGod

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Overpriced

A topic by AN81 created Sep 23, 2023 Views: 294 Replies: 3

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AN81222 days ago(-1)

Its a decent resource but you're paying $15 for a 44 page booklet. I guess we're paying for what the book will eventually become. It isn't much different than any other beginners coding book where the examples mostly involve some kind of print function.

I like his videos on YouTube, which are one of the few resources available for playdate programming, so I try to look at it as donating for those videos and getting a booklet thrown in.

If you're a beginner, like me, then I recommend also checking out Pico-8, which I only recently heard about, that's also coded in lua. Search here for mboffin's top-down adventure game tutorial, and his tutorial carts. Then use ai to explain whats happening. Take small ideas from those carts, and the ai explanations, ask "how do I..." and "What if?" questions, then make your own tutorial carts and save them in a folder. This is more useful than writing print() code.

Nicole Ham216 days ago (1 edit) (+1)

What a strange comment. I bought his book because I wanted to learn LUA for use in Playdate apps and visual novel adjacent stuff. You refer Pico 8 and a totally different person's series that's actually unrelated..
EDIT: I checked out the PDF and the series you mentioned. I think what you meant to say is that the series you're referencing is a LOT more visual. Squidgod's guide is a handy guide to the actual logic and usage of LUA conditions and such

Thanks for the suggestion, but fr, it's a bit rude to say it's overpriced

AN81215 days ago (1 edit) (-1)

I payed $15 for a booklet. It's overpriced. I didn't say the content was bad, but that $15 is too much for what you get.

Pico8 games are also coded in Lua, as are several other game development environments. At the moment there are more resources for Pico8 than Playdate, so it makes sense for people to get practice within Pico8 then carry that over to playdate - if they want to. If someone has no interest in Pico8 then they can ignore my advice.

Mboffins videos, tutorials etc, aren't more visual they are more practical, you learn by doing, and there is a lot of it, and I payed for it because its high quality stuff. Squidgod's booklet is about Lua coding in general, it's more technical. Practicality and tinkering are very important for beginners, since knowledge forms out of experience from the specific to the general. Print() code, or it's equivalent in other languages, whether its cout or something else, won't cut it if you want to figure out how the machine is running and build machines of your own. And, I almost forgot to mention, the help from AI is huge, it's explanations and examples are extremely helpful.

Nicole Ham214 days ago (8 edits) (+1)

Sir, madame, whoever you are, no disrespect, but you are actially comparing a 45 page booklet to a youtube video in a different engine. It's not even remotely the same thing, and they're not even the same TYPE of tutorial. LUA is the only thing that connects both, and that their tuts are focused a lot more on visuals and more typical 'gamemaking' logic, not the absolute basics.

Again, try not to take another person's comment personally; I just genuinely think it's disrespectful to comment something like this on their page. You commented publicly to be seen by others, correct?

As someone who has tabled irl at print shows and comic and book fairs for a literal decade, I've paid 15 dollars for way less 'content'. I respect what people price their own material as, and I don't leave comments directly on their pages referencing another person's tutorial series.
It's just genuinely nonsensical and an unreasonable 'critique', in my opinion, NOTE; OPINION.  If you can't handle with that being my opinion, then that's okay, continue to do you.

My sentiment still stands. Buying someone's PDF and then commenting someone else's video series 'is better' is rude and strange. Squid god has a ton of tutorials of his own.

I also don't believe that in ANY universe 15 bucks is 'too much' for someone laying out the basics of a whole scripting language for beginners. I literally used it yesterday to get me through some concepts. I'm a beginner, the book works and is helpful. 15 bucks totally well spent.

So it didn't work for YOU. You'd rather watch a video. That's your own personal issue. He didn't say he was going to teach you how to create an entire game, it literally says LUA concepts for beginners.

All I will say. Good day! Your comment was just the first thing I saw on his page when I went to download the pdf, I just thought it was uncalled for. You needed some pushback on your opinion IMO.
--N
edits: spelling mistakes lol. tired

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The Beginner's Guide to Lua for Game Development

Overpriced