A modern, customizable, high-performance retained UI framework for the LÖVE game engine.
Helium is a UI framework for the LÖVE game engine that provides a structured, retained mode architecture for building custom user interfaces. It simplifies UI development by managing element state and rendering efficiently, allowing developers to create interactive UI components directly within their game's rendering loop. The framework focuses on giving developers full control over rendering while abstracting repetitive state management tasks.
LÖVE game developers who need to build custom, performant user interfaces within their games, particularly those who prefer a retained mode architecture and want fine-grained control over UI rendering.
Developers choose Helium for its seamless integration with LÖVE's native graphics functions, its efficient retained mode architecture that reduces manual draw calls, and its flexibility in creating reusable, parameterized UI components without sacrificing simplicity or performance.
Helium is a UI framework designed for the LÖVE game engine, providing a structured way to build custom user interfaces with a retained mode architecture. It focuses on simplicity and performance, allowing developers to create interactive UI elements directly within their game's rendering loop.
Retained Mode Architecture — Manages UI element state and rendering efficiently, reducing manual draw calls.
Scene Management — Organizes UI elements into scenes that can be activated, updated, and drawn collectively.
Custom Element Factories — Enables creation of reusable UI components with parameterized properties and dimensions.
Coordinate Abstraction — Simplifies positioning by automatically handling element-relative coordinates within the rendering function.
LÖVE Integration — Seamlessly works with love.graphics functions for drawing, leveraging the engine's native capabilities.
Helium emphasizes building custom and simple UI components, giving developers full control over the rendering process while abstracting repetitive state management tasks.
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Directly leverages love.graphics functions for rendering, ensuring native compatibility and eliminating abstraction layers, as shown in the example code using love.graphics.rectangle and love.graphics.print.
Enables creation of reusable UI element factories with parameterized properties, allowing developers to build tailored interfaces from scratch, evidenced by the param table and view dimensions in the README examples.
Organizes UI elements into scenes that can be collectively updated and drawn via scene:update(dt) and scene:draw(), reducing manual coordination and improving performance in complex UIs.
Simplifies positioning by handling element-relative coordinates automatically, so x:0,y:0 in the rendering function always refers to the element's onscreen position, as described in the coordinate handling section.
Requires developers to code every UI element from scratch, increasing initial development time compared to libraries with ready-made widgets, since Helium focuses on custom building rather than providing out-of-the-box elements.
Assumes familiarity with retained mode architecture and custom rendering logic, which can be challenging for those new to game UI development, as highlighted by the need to understand element factories and scene management.
Relies on example projects and guides rather than comprehensive API documentation, making it harder to troubleshoot or explore advanced features without diving into source code or community examples.