Features

• Position and scale UI elements relative to the window size
• UI elements can be parented to other UI elements to make their positioning relative to the parent
• Add instances to scenes, which can be enabled and disabled
• Theming system to easily add colors and hovering/click effects to several different UI elements.
• Tweening system to add smooth animations to UI elements and instances.
• Several UI elements, including text labels, buttons, images, lists, grids, scrollables, and text input fields

How to use

Download the yan folder and the yan.lua file and put it into the root of your Love2D project. Require yan at the top of your script. Then you can use any of Yan's features by calling the functions included in yan.lua!

require("yan")
local player = yan:PhysicsInstance(world, "dynamic", "rectangle", {X = 50, Y = 50}, 0, 1)

For UI elements, you must first create a screen, which is an instance that holds UI elements.

myScreen = yan:Screen()
    
text = yan:Label(myScreen, "Hello world!", 32, "center")
text.Position = UIVector2.new(0.5, 0, 0.5, 0)
text.Size = UIVector2.new(1, 0, 0.5, 0)
text.AnchorPoint = Vector2.new(0.5, 0.5)
text.Color = Color.new(0,1,0,1)
text.ZIndex = 1

To draw instances, call the Draw function on them in love.draw. For UI elements, call yan:Draw(), which will draw all UI elements across all screens at once. You'll also need to call some other functions for certain UI elements to function.

require("yan")

function love.draw()
    player:Draw()
    yan:Draw()
end

function love.keypressed(key, scancode, rep)
    yan:KeyPressed(key, scancode, rep)
end

function love.textinput(t)
    yan:TextInput(t)
end

function love.wheelmoved(x, y)
    yan:WheelMoved(x, y)
end

To add instances to a scene, create a new scene with yan:NewScene(), then add the instances to the scene with yan:AddToScene(), for example:

require("yan")

yan:NewScene("User interface")
yan:AddToScene("User interface", {myScreen})

Scenes can be enabled or disabled with yan:SetSceneEnabled("User interface", true) and yan:SetSceneEnabled("User interface", false)

In Practice

I have used this library myself several times for other Love2D projects to make user interfaces. Here's a list of them:

• Goose Rhythm: GitHub Page, Itch.io Page
• Image Playground: GitHub Page, Itch.io Page
• Biribiriuo Fishing: GitHub Page, Itch.io Page
• Goose Platformer Together: GitHub Page
• Space Defenders: GitHub Page