Lua

Combat Engine: Speed-Ordered Showdown

Build object-oriented fighters that trade blows in speed order until one falls. A full mini combat engine, rounds, turns, and all.

LuaIntermediateFor fun

What you'll be able to build

Build object-oriented fighters that trade blows in speed order until one falls. A full mini combat engine, rounds, turns, and all. Along the way you pick up real, transferable Lua skills, not just this one project:

  • constructor pattern with setmetatable
  • instance methods and self
  • ordering actors by an attribute (speed)
  • while loops with compound conditions
  • guarding actions on liveness (mid-round death)
  • math.max to clamp displayed values

A course like this one

Yours is built from your own placement, so module count and depth will differ. This map shows what a intermediate-level Lua learner building Combat Engine actually gets.

  1. Module 1: Values, tables, and output5 lessons

    Builds the script for your combat engine.

  2. Module 2: Tables as data: arrays, records, and lookups5 lessons

    Builds the table model workflow for your combat engine.

  3. Module 3: Control flow and truthiness5 lessons

    Builds the function that powers your combat engine.

  4. Module 4: Functions, varargs, and errors5 lessons

    Builds the reusable module for your combat engine.

  5. Module 5: Metatables, coroutines, and program design5 lessons

    Builds the metatable behaviour for your combat engine.

  6. Module 6: Packaging and release readiness3 lessons

    Builds the release package for your combat engine.

How the lessons actually work

Leans on:mathstring

Every lesson has you predict what a piece of Lua code will output before you run it, then run it for real in your browser and fix what you got wrong. Each module ends in a challenge gate with hidden tests, so you can't advance until your code actually works. The course closes with a capstone that assembles everything into Combat Engine, and a runnable proof page tied to your own code.

Common questions

How long does the Combat Engine: Speed-Ordered Showdown course take?

about 7 hours, across 6 modules and 28 lessons, at roughly 15 minutes per lesson. Your own course may run shorter or longer, since it's sized to your placement result, not a fixed template.

Do I need experience?

Some. This is an intermediate-tier Lua project, so it assumes you're comfortable with Lua basics and pushes past them.

How much does it cost?

$15 one-time, no subscription. The first module is free, so you can see exactly how the course teaches before you pay for the rest.

No subscription. Module one is free.

Build my Combat Engine