In a lead up to the annual [[https://itch.io/jam/autumn-lisp-game-jam-2018][Autumn Lisp Game Jam]] I thought I'd look into Phil Hegelberg's approach to last Aprils Jam, using [[https://love2d.org/][love2d]] in concert with [[https://fennel-lang.org/][fennel]]. Phil outlines his approach on his [[https://technomancy.us/187][blog]].
Phil Hegelberg's [[https://gitlab.com/technomancy/exo-encounter-667/][exo-encounter-667]] is structured using a modal callback system. Each game state has a mode and each mode has a series of specific callbacks.
If you design your game as a series of states in a very simple state machine, for example *start-screen*, *play* and *end*, with unidirectional progression, you can easily separate the logic for each state into state/mode specific callbacks. As an example, in order to have state dependant rendering that differs between start-screen,play and end you could provide a *draw* callback for each of those states. Similarly if we need state dependent logic and keyboard input we could provide *update* and *keyboard* callbacks. As you iterate you can add and remove callbacks and states/modes as needed with very little friction.
The =make= process as-is will only compile the contents of the root folder and the =lib/= folder+subfolders, so make sure to put your game files in either of those.
Specifically, every =.fnl= file needed at runtime needs to be situated in the root folder, and every file which is not a =.lua= or =.fnl= file needs to be put inside =lib/=.
Use =make linux=, =make windows=, or =make mac= to create executables for each platform, or =make release= to do all three. Make sure to read the makefile for more commands (and remember to edit your game data in it!)
