Lua SnapShip
A one-click packaging pipeline for indie Lua games built on LÖVE or Defold that uses Moonstone to lock dependencies, then produces signed installers for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Steam Deck.
indie game developers shipping Lua titles on LÖVE or Defold
- Dependency-aware builds via Moonstone lockfile so 'works on my machine' finally stops
- Per-OS code-signing and notarization for Windows, macOS, and Linux (incl. Steam Deck)
- Crash-report uploader that maps stack traces back to Lua source line numbers
- Optional publish hooks for itch.io, Steamworks, and the Humble CLI
Moonstone just stabilized cross-platform Lua; indie devs still ship buggy builds because no tool pinned dependencies end-to-end across OS targets.
LÖVE wiki explicitly says 'For Linux there is not yet a simple way to distribute your game' and multiple mature OSS tools (love-release, makelove, love-build) exist, proving real pain — but the LÖVE+Defold combined user base is a small niche.Game Distribution - LOVE ↗GitHub - MisterDA/love-release ↗
Heavily crowded: love-release (480 stars, Windows/Mac/Debian packaging), makelove (fused binaries + AppImages + love.js), and love-build (zero-dep cross-platform builder) all already do most of this for free; Defold also has built-in cross-platform publishing, leaving only Moonstone-locking as a thin differentiator.GitHub - pfirsich/makelove: A build tool for löve games ↗GitHub - ellraiser/love-build ↗Defold game engine - Official Homepage ↗
All comparable tooling (love-release, makelove, love-build, Defold, Moonstone) is free/open-source; the target users are indie hobbyists using free engines with strong free-tool expectations — no observable willingness to pay for packaging.love-release — LÖVE Game Packaging Automation | Open Awesome ↗Defold game engine - Official Homepage ↗
LÖVE (v11.5) and Defold (Defold Foundation) are stable, multi-year platforms; however Moonstone is v0 brand-new (HN launch only 35 pts), making deep integration a maintenance liability.LÖVE - Free 2D Game Engine ↗Moonstone on Hacker News via botonomous.ai ↗
Proven approach — existing tools already fuse binaries, produce AppImages and .exe/.app, and Steam Deck is Linux-based where AppImages run natively; main added complexity is code-signing certs and tight coupling to a v0 Moonstone runtime.GitHub - pfirsich/makelove: A build tool for löve games ↗GitHub - moonstone-sh/moonstone ↗