LÖVE Runner

Run LÖVE 2D projects directly from VS Code with a single click.

LÖVE Runner is a lightweight Lua game-development workflow for the LÖVE game engine. It packages the current project as a .love game archive and launches it from VS Code.

This extension packages your project into a .love file and launches it with the installed LÖVE executable, so you can iterate on game logic without leaving the editor.

Note: LÖVE Runner does not run standalone Lua scripts. It only runs LÖVE projects — the play button and Alt+F5 appear while editing any .lua file, but running always packages and launches the whole workspace as a LÖVE project, and requires a main.lua at the project root.

Features

• One-click launch from the editor title bar
• Alt+F5 keybinding while editing Lua files
• Validates that your project has a main.lua in the root
• Creates a temporary build folder, packages the game, and cleans up afterward
• Supports a custom LÖVE binary path via configuration

Who it is for

Use LÖVE Runner when you build 2D games in Lua with LÖVE and want a fast play-test loop inside Visual Studio Code. It works with standard LÖVE projects that have main.lua at the project root — it is not a general-purpose Lua interpreter or script runner.

Quick start

1. Open your LÖVE project in VS Code as the workspace root.
2. Make sure main.lua exists at the project root.
3. Click the play button in the editor title bar or use Alt+F5.
4. The extension will build a temporary .love package and run it.

Requirements

• The love executable must be available on your PATH
• On Linux/macOS, zip must be installed
• On Windows, PowerShell's Compress-Archive is used automatically

Configuration

Set the path to your LÖVE executable if it is not on PATH:

{
  "love.binaryPath": "/usr/bin/love"
}

The extension ships with a less aggressive default play shortcut: Alt+F5.

You can remap it in VS Code's Keyboard Shortcuts editor by searching for LÖVE Runner: Run LÖVE Project, or disable it entirely:

{
  "love.enablePlayKey": false
}

Support

If you enjoy this extension and want to support its development, you can donate via Ko-fi:

• https://ko-fi.com/baealves

Development

npm install
npm run lint
npm run compile
npx @vscode/vsce package --no-dependencies

To run the extension in a development window:

code --extensionDevelopmentPath=/path/to/love-runner

License

CC0 1.0 Universal