Dev tools · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to My first Open Source project -- Teaching my son Lua

Lua Text Adventure Engine. Contribute to shawndumas/adventure.lua development by creating an account on GitHub.

adventure.lua is a Lua-based text adventure engine hosted on GitHub. It was created as an open-source project to teach Lua programming. The tool is designed for developers interested in building text adventure games… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. My first Open Source project -- Teaching my son Lua launched in 2012; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

1. 1
   Evolved.lua – An Evolved Entity Component System for Lua▲55

   I'm excited to announce the first release of my library, evolved.lua! evolved.lua is a fast and flexible ECS (Entity-Component-System) library for Lua. It is designed to be simple and easy to use, while providing all the features needed to create complex systems with blazing performance. Enjoy!

   2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

2. 2
   A console-based editor with Lua support, based on antirez's project▲85

   A minimal text-editor with lua scripting. Contribute to skx/kilua development by creating an account on GitHub.

   2016 · github.com · its alternatives →

3. 3
   Lumix Engine – Open source C++ 3D game engine▲260

   3D C++ Game Engine - yet another open source game engine - nem0/LumixEngine

   2017 · github.com · its alternatives →

4. 4
   I open sourced a game I just released on Steam, written in Lua▲496

   A replayable arcade shooter where you control a snake of heroes. - a327ex/SNKRX

   2021 · github.com · its alternatives →

5. 5H0
   Hypatia 0.2, a 2D adventure game engine▲191

   Hello, Hacker News! My name is Lillian (see: http://about.lillian.link/), and I just released version 0.2 of my MIT-licensed game engine, Hypatia(http://lillian-lemmer.github.io/hypatia/). Hypatia is a game engine for single player 2D action adventure games. You can use it to make a game like Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons. Hypatia is aimed at non-programmers and programmers alike. I'm seeking any sort of feedback. Hypatia supports FreeBSD first, but has great support for just about any platform…

   2015 · its alternatives →

6. 6
   Sailor, an MVC web framework in Lua▲61

   A Lua MVC Web Framework. Contribute to sailorproject/sailor development by creating an account on GitHub.

   2015 · github.com · its alternatives →

7. 7
   Lua in Python▲57

   Lua in Python. Contribute to scoder/lupa development by creating an account on GitHub.

   2015 · github.com · its alternatives →

8. 8
   LÖVR – VR framework for Lua▲131

   An open source Lua framework for building 3D games and VR experiences.

   2017 · lovr.org · its alternatives →

9. 9
   LuaGB – A Gameboy emulator written in pure Lua▲136

   A gameboy emulator written in pure Lua. Work in progress. - zeta0134/LuaGB

   2017 · github.com · its alternatives →

10. 10
    A new way of blogging about Lua▲111

    blogging klipse Lua Wasm live examples code snippets

    2017 · blog.klipse.tech · its alternatives →

11. 11
    Lua▲194

    No-code token minter for Polygon

    2021 · lua.cash · its alternatives →

12. 12
    Lua Carousel, create little programs on desktop or mobile devices▲165

    Write programs on desktop and mobile

    2023 · akkartik.itch.io · its alternatives →

13. 13
    Lumi.new▲227

    Hi HN — we’re the team behind Lumi (lumi.new). Lumi is an all-in-one platform to build and launch websites or lightweight apps simply by chatting—no code needed to write, no external services needed to integrate. We’re a 10+ person team. What’s UNIQUE: ANYWHERE: Multi-country language support out of the box (create & maintain multiple locales in one project) ANYONE: With built-in Database + Sign-In + more internal tools coming soon, anyone can achieve anything without technical stuff being barriers ANYTIME：No waiting list! Works right now to bulid CRM system, e-commerce portal, photo -…

    2025 · lumi.new · its alternatives →

14. 14
    The Programming Language Lua▲9

    Lua is a powerful, efficient, lightweight, script language.

    2024 · lua.org · its alternatives →

15. 15
    Server-rendered multiplayer games with Lua (no client code)▲85

    Hey folks — here’s a small experiment I hacked together over the weekend: https://cleoselene.com/ In short, it’s a way to build multiplayer games with no client-side game logic. Everything is rendered on the server, and the game itself is written as simple Lua scripts. I built this to explore a few gamedev ideas I’ve been thinking about while working on Abstra: - Writing multiplayer games as if they were single-player (no client/server complexity) - Streaming game primitives instead of pixels, which should be much lighter - Server-side rendering makes cheating basically…

    Jan 2026 · cleoselene.com · its alternatives →

16. 16
    I made a 2D Lua game engine using Rust with code and asset live reload▲30

    I love making small 2D pixel art games, especially using tools that have some constraints. Things like Pico-8 and the Playdate SDK are simple, fun, and allow for focusing on the game idea rather than the technical minutia. Years ago I prototyped an idea for this little game engine, Usagi, but used Rhai instead of Lua. The idea for this little game engine never went away, so I decided to finally dig in and build it. Today I released v1.0.0 of Usagi Engine after making a bunch of small games, getting feedback from developers, and stabilizing the API. It's simple, has a great developer…

    May 2026 · usagiengine.com · its alternatives →

17. 17
    Lua/LuaJIT with C/C++/Java/JavaScript syntax▲77

    Lua with C/C++/Java/Javascript syntax. Contribute to mingodad/ljs development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2018 · github.com · its alternatives →

18. 18
    Tiny – A 2D Game Engine in Kotlin Working with Lua▲100

    I created a small 2D game engine named Tiny. The engine was created using Kotlin Multiplatform and can run on a JVM and JS. Funny things: Games can be created using the programming language Lua. Tiny is designed to help you create and test your ideas quickly and effectively. Not only can you run your games on your desktop computer, but you can also export them for the web, making it easy to share your creations with others. You can create games easily with the hot reload, small API and Lua, which is very easy to learn. If you want to test a game idea, to try to create your first game or just…

    2023 · minigdx.github.io · its alternatives →

19. 19
    Lua-libuv – A Lua with libuv experiments▲42

    laboratório de integração Lua com libuv para execução de scripts assíncronos e experimentação de POCs - joaoneto/lua-libuv

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

20. 20
    Glua, a Full-Featured Lua VM for Nodejs and the Browser▲70

    Maybe you should use https://github.com/fiatjaf/flua instead of this - fiatjaf/glua

    2017 · github.com · its alternatives →

21. 21AT
    A text adventure for developers▲39

    2014 · avausadventure.com · its alternatives →

22. 22
    AI Adventure▲145

    Turn your favorite stories into adventure games for free

    2023 · its alternatives →

23. 23
    A text-only blog engine using Cloudflare workers and KV store▲103

    A simple to use text only blog using CloudFlare Workers and KV - jonfraser/simpletext

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

24. 24
    NetLua – Completely managed .NET Lua▲61

    Completely managed .NET Lua. Contribute to frabert/NetLua development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2013 · github.com · its alternatives →

Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →